Magical Mosaics, Raging Rain!

We were thrilled that so many folk braved the deluge to come to Windmill Community Gardens and make gorgeous mosaic robins with the help of the wonderful and talented Anna Dixon. It was wonderful to see the care and attention that everyone gave to the task, and the lovely mosaic robins that they managed to create - each one to the same pattern but with its own distinctive character.

It was really chilly before folk arrived, but we proved that tea lights under clay pots will warm a polytunnel quickly, and that Tracey's pumpkin pancakes with caramel are just the thing to eat on a damp chilly day. Everyone who wanted, was supplied with hot drinks and / or hand-warmers as well, and those, together with 16 people in the polytunnel meant that we were warm and dry despite Noah's flood being re-enacted outside.

Thanks to those of you who have already posted photos of your finished robins on Facebook. We look forward to seeing more of them soon and displaying them here.

We wish you a good festive season. We'll be back at Windmill Gardens on the first Monday in January. so hope to see you then, or at our celebration of Old Twelfth Night and the Lohri festival on Sunday 17th January from 2pm, when we'll be wassailing our fruit trees and celebrating the Punjabi festival of Lohri.

Potions and Lotions Herbal Workshop

Just back from a really great workshop at Windmill with the wonderful Katherine Bellchambers - local Medical Herbalist who visited us in the Summer and was so popular, we asked her back!

Last time, she showed us all the plants with herbal possibilities that were growing on the plot, but this time, she helped us to make a variety of potions and lotions.

The polytunnel now smells amazing, and lots of happy people have now left clutching the various great balms, rubs and teas they made up. We've also had some great social media feedback - the wonders of technology!

We already have ideas for more herbal work, so watch out for updates!

Tidying Up at Windy Windmill

November has been a month of strong winds, but it hasn't held us back, and we're well on track to get the place sorted in time for the worst of Winter.

We had a nice group today, with some old friends returning, so welcome back to Emma and Ray, and some new faces back for their second visit with a view to becoming part of the team - so welcome to Matt (and Anna) and to Shanaz.

First job of the day was to give the hugelkultur bed and the strawberry bed a good tidy up. We've been a bit lax, so the brambles have tried to take over. They are like someone at a bar reaching over everyone to get their drink, but in this case, the tip of the "arm" can root when it touches the soil, so brambles can "walk" around a plot making lots of new plants. We have used this tendency to our benefit, making our cultivated blackberry hybrids do something similar by pegging down the stems into the ground where they root. We've also done it with soft fruit bushes when they have drooping lower branches - a technique called layering. If anyone would like a berry bush or raspberry canes, let us know!

Hassan plants strawberries around the hill bed

Ray weeds out the last of the flowers, which were in full
bloom before the frost last week.

Lunch was well earned with a nice pumpkin soup that went down a treat, followed by a cake brought in by Emma - a great way to get in our good books from the start!

The happy band of pumpkin soup enthusiasts.

Afternoon jobs involved some bed clearing now that our flowers have finally succumbed to frost (thanks Shanaz!), and also cleaning the polytunnel roof, which was tackled by Matt with great care (and a squeegee mop!)

Matt - king of the squeegee mop

Shanaz weilds her rake with skill.

With any luck, things will be looking amazing for our Herbal workshop on Sunday 6th December, but we've got our fingers crossed as apparently the weekend will bring some thoroughly Scottish weather with gales and blustery showers. Doesn't help that we've agreed to do a stall on the windiest day - we'll have to tie Mark to the gazebo!

Up-Coming Workshops for December

We hope you can join us for one or other or even both of our festive workshops.

Pumpkin Perfection!

Wow - what a day! Windmill Community Gardens was packed with happy folk today, carving pumpkins, tasting lovely grub made from it, playing pumpkin games, getting superb face-painting designs done by the lovely Claire Swain, listening to singing by the campfire from the talented Richard Jenkins, toasting marshmallows, exploring the spooky woods, pressing apples and just generally having a great time. And it looked amazing, with hordes of stunning pumpkins, especially when they were all lit up as the sun went down.

Lighting the lanterns in the twilight

Thanks to everyone who helped make it such a special day - especially Kathy, Rachel, Robbie, Di, Derek, Hassan, Jeremy, Ash, Rowan, Mark and co, Chrystel, Jo and Merion. Thanks also to all those who carved show stopper pumpkins for us, and to all the carvers trying something new who did such a good job.

Here are a few of the best photos from the day, to give you a flavour, in case you didn't make it down here. Maybe we'll see you next year?

Starting the fun in the morning at the
Advanced Carving Workshop.

Family fun!

 

Lanterns ready for the best decorated competition

Our junior winner got her prize on Sunday

The Pumpkins are Coming!

You may already know that we love pumpkins at Windmill! Coming up we have our Annual Pumpkin Celebration, this year actually on 31st October. If you can make it, we'd love to see you! If you'd like to come to one of the workshops we are running to carve the amazing pumpkins for the event, please let us know. There will be carving on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so come along and we'll show you how we do it, and let you use some of our amazing tools.

Summer Garden Party 2015

It's going to be a great day. A chance to taste foods from all over the world, to make ice-cream by pedalling a bike, to eat pizza fresh from the clay oven, to play games, to try some crafts, to see what our artists Crissy Perez and Sally Tyler have installed in their "Garden of Delights" and to enjoy the wonderful place that is Windmill Community Gardens!