Wassail & Lohri Celebration 2020

Now that we've left 2019 behind, and darkest part of the Winter is past, we hope you'll help us to celebrate the returning life and light. As always, we’ll be mixing in elements of the Punjabi Lohri Festival with medieval traditions taken from Old Twelfth Night and other older ceremonies. On Saturday 18th January, from 1pm, there’ll be fires, drumming, fun and gorgeous food and we’ll make decorations to hang in the fruit trees as we wassail them (Wassailing is an old tradition to celebrate fruit trees to ensure a good crop in the coming year). 

We hope you can join us – please try to bring something to make noise with to help us wake up the trees! Also - if you could bring your own mug / bowl for drink / food and a spoon, that would help us no end as we don't have running water on site this time of year.
Free event but we always appreciate donations!

Happy New Year from Windmill Community Gardens!

Happy New Year from all of us at Windmill Community Gardens, and we hope that 2020 is a good one for you!

2020 sessions will start at Windmill on Monday 6th January, and we'll then be doing 10am - 1pm sessions on Mondays & Thursdays until Easter, when we'll re-start lunches and the afternoon session on Thursdays. We've got lots of fun activities planned, including our first event of the year - our celebration of Wassailing and the Lohri festival on Saturday 18th January - see next post for details!

And here is a new poem to mark the start of 2020 from our Allotment Poet Laureate, Stuart Vanner

New Year

Welcome in this fine new year,

For it has only just arrived.

In spite of worries you faced before

You came through it and survived.

So make it one of joy and pleasure

And find new ideas and new ambitions.

And know that you shall always cope,

And make successes be your mission.

Let it not be one of despair 

But one of joy for everyone.

And should you find a bore at times.

Turn it into one of thrills and fun.

So now look forward to the future

With many a resolution

And if at times life goes awry

Know you'll find the right solution.

Season's Greetings from Windmill Community Gardens

It's getting close to Christmas and Windmill Community Gardens are about to go into our final week before our Winter break. We will be celebrating the season with our annual Festive Fuddle on Thursday. All welcome - please bring some food to share and join us any time between 12noon and 2pm. We'll also be holding a Wreath-making workshop on Saturday from 10.30am until 12.30pm, with materials and tools provided, as well as a festive snack.

After that, we'll be closed until Monday 6th January, with our first event, our Wassailing and Lohri celebration on Saturday 18th January from 1pm until 3pm.

We hope that you have a wonderful Christmas / Solstice or any other festival you celebrate at this time of year, and we look forward to seeing you soon! Here's a poem by our resident bard Stewart to celebrate the season.

Christmas Time

Christmas is a time which we love and adore. 

When we are happy, excited and so much more. 

It is time when certain magic can all be believed, 

When special gifts are both sent and received.

It is a time for families to all get together, 

And be merry and joyful - whatever the weather. 

It is time to put all quarrels aside, 

To have fun and laughter with no need to hide.

It is a time for us all to be cheerful and jolly, 

And maybe quite silly and full of folly. 

It is time to understand and a time to be kind. 

It is a time to relax and a time to unwind.

It is a time to hear all the carollers sing, 

And everywhere goodwill to all people bring. 

Is it time to hope for the soft thick snow? 

Will it fall this year? Who can know?

It is a time to tuck into a fabulous feast, 

Then as we indulge, all talk may be ceased. 

It is a time to excuse one for having a drink. 

Then have another as there's no need to think.

And as this festive time comes to an end, 

Another year is coming, to which we must attend. 

Then to the future we must all now look. 

To begin a new chapter of our new book.

Pumpkin Excitement Coming to Windmill Soon!

Not long now until we start to eat, sleep and breathe all things pumpkin!! We'll be making spooky decorations on Thursday 24th October between 11am and 3pm with Toni from Tiger Textiles - just drop in to take part (children welcome) as the lovely people from Nature in Mind carve their pumpkins. On Friday a group of Cubs and Scouts will be carving pumpkins by candlelight. On Saturday, a bunch of crack pumpkin carvers will gather at a secret location to carve show-stopper pumpkins, then on Sunday morning 27th, we'll hold a pumpkin carving class for adults and older children before we have our main event in the afternoon.

Hope we'll see you there!

Summertime is in full swing!

Realised we haven't put up a blog post for a while, so here's the latest seasonal offering from our resident poet, Stuart Vanner

 

Summertime

The summer season must be the best, 

For it is when with the world I am most impressed. 

It is time to be out and to have constant fun, 

To be under blue skies and the endless Sun.

Time for scorching hot days and muggy nights, 

To see smiling faces all filled with delight. 

It is time to relax and time to unwind, 

While all about you there is joy to find.

Time to visit the beach and be by sea, 

For colds drinks, ice cream and for feeling free. 

Once again we'll mention the sweltering heat, 

Since all the seasons it must always beat.

And it is time to look round and appreciate 

These summer moments and celebrate, 

For this lovely season shall in time be past, 

So remember - enjoy it while it lasts.

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Our resident poet Stuart has written us a new poem to welcome Spring.

Spring

We adore the spring, such lovely weather. When blue sky and sun come out together. The blossom blooms, as do the flowers, And we may expect some April showers.

See chirping birds and buzzing bees. Feel the temperate air and gentle breeze. View the plants and trees, we see them greening And this is time for us all to start spring cleaning 

What a perfect time to be outside.To roam this our wonderful countryside.
Yes we have so many a reason 
To love this beautiful special season.

The Water Tank has arrived!

If your experience of last year was like ours, you'll have found that the rain water you saved in butts ran out surprisingly early in the season. In our case, we can store about 1200 litres of water on site, but we still ran out, so when we were offered a huge IBC tank from the Water Works project, we jumped at the chance.

It's a great addition and will add 640 extra litres to our capacity, and hopefully make us far more self-sufficient in water. If you do have a water but yourself, we'd urge you to add one or two more at least. The way the weather is changing means that it rains less often but in larger amounts at one time, so you need that extra capacity if you're going to make the most of the rain that does fall!

Thanks so much to the Water Works project and its sponsors, The Postcode Lottery.