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.

Some thoughts on thoughts

Our resident poet Stuart wrote these thoughts about a big issue for many people. He finds coming to the garden really helps him.

Obsession 

O yes, they can drive us really mad - our peculiar obsessions. 

Perhaps you are cleaning all the time or buying too many possessions.

Or are you being miserly and keeping all your savings? 

Or you need to do or see something to satisfy your cravings?

Perhaps your obsession is so odd so no-one can understand. 

May be it is has taken such a hold that it's getting out of hand.

What happens when you go cold turkey and you try to resist? 

Do you find the awful yearnings still seem to persist?

Does stopping it induce your mind to keep forever niggling? 

Or will you pace all about or endlessly be wriggling?

You could try to distract yourself, the obsession may diminish. 

And talking should help as well, then it might completely finish.

Wassailing and the Lohri Festival

Lovely to see so many people willing to come out on an overcast and chilly day to help us celebrate the Lohri Festival and Wassail our fruit trees! Thanks as always to the wonderful Prakash for providing the gorgeous food, and to Mark for bringing his drums to provide the heartbeat.

It was a good day for learning too. Tracey began the day being interviewed about what we were planning on Radio Nottingham, so at least 1 listener learned about the session and came to see what we were doing. And Tracey learned she's been saying "Lohri" wrong for quite a while - apparently it should be pronounced "Loiyi" - so hopefully she'll get it right next year! 

Making tickling sticks to use to wake up the trees.

Tracey leads the Wassailing

Adding the heartbeat.