Author Archives: GHCG

Birthday! Bonfire! Buds! Brilliant!

January 21, 2014

Last week while still waiting for a ‘proper winter’ we’ve been beavering away in the garden. Dougie and Bob were in the pond last week (heroes!) clearing the reeds before the frogs move back in and get busy while the rest of us were busy weeding, tidying, sorting and still harvesting loads of tasty veg. There is a deep satisfaction at following a Guardian recipe but having even posher ingredients. “Really? Hugh Fearnly Wittingstall, only one type of kale? tsk tsk” I think, gazing upon our medley of colourful kales….  

winter veg jan 13

Our next Saturday opening day is the Feb 1st which is also ….. OUR SECOND BIRTHDAY!! Yes it will be two years to the day since we opened up our gates to you – the lovely volunteering public who have given your time and energy to make the garden so productive, supportive and amazing, brimful of life and ringing with laughter!  So if we’re spared howling gales and torrential rain we are going to light the big bonfire that’s been ready to go since the carols night.  Eat cake, chat and definitely make soup and maybe even…. fire up the frog! (who has lost an eyeball in the recent weather but still looks very handsome)
So it would be great to see you!  Especially if you’ve volunteered before but haven’t managed to get down in a while, or just been meaning to get down but haven’t had a chance.  We’ll be open 10-2, but busy doing garden work until 12.  So pop in, say hello, as we all pat each other on the back and marvel at how far we’ve come together!  Any and all birthday cakes welcome!!
Golden Buds poster taster days
The Golden Buds Green Toddler group is coming together! We are getting bookings on three free taster sessions and we haven’t even put the poster’s up yet! Please spread the word if you know anyone with little ones.  It’s going to be fabulous.
Also people have been in touch to ask about the Friends of Golden Hill Scheme.  If you’d like to be a Friend but aren’t keen on setting up a standing orders then by all means give a one off donation (£24… or more!) and get in touch and I’ll give you the bank details. We also accept cash, cheque, and gold ingots.
See you in the garden!
Lucy

 

Happy New Year!

December 31, 2013

Hi folks!
Hope you’ve had a lovely break and we’ll be back in the garden blowing away the cobwebs and making some 2014 garden resolutions (tidier polytnnel! more soup cooking! and more!!) on Saturday 4th January 10-2. It’s time to get off the sofa and back in the garden.
Lots more exciting newsw for 2014 coming soon!!
Lucy
 

Countdown to Christmas (carols!!)

December 12, 2013

Just a few day until our gorgeous Christmas event!! We’ll be quite literally roasting chestnuts on an open fire, singing carols to the stars, enjoying hot soup with veg from the garden, hot and spicy local cider, toasting marshmallows and MORE!!  

Next Weds 6-7:30. EVERYONE WELCOME!!

Tis the season…

December 3, 2013

Here’s three things to be to jolly about!!

This Saturday wreath making!
willow wreath making
Which is going to be really fun and if you could bring any ivy, greenery and especially things with berries along that would be really helpful!
THEN on December 18th
carols poster
Thanks to Tony Wilhelm for illustrating this lovely poster, the keen eyed will recognise some of the lovely veg from the Harvest Fair Poster!  This is going to be a lovely and laid back evening with plenty of singing and chatting and eating of tasty things and staying warm by the bonfire. They’ll be songsheets so everyone can join in and musical accompaniment to (most of) the carols.
Please invite friends and family and tell your neighbours and print this poster out and put it up in your windows, nurseries or anywhere!! AND if you’d like to help on the night handing out song sheets, or serving soup or drinks then let me know – just 30 mins or 1 hour would be lovely.  It’s help from you that makes this all possible!!  Also let me know if you can bake a cake or mince pies!
And finally we are hardy souls but even we don’t like gardening when it’s frosty, cold and dark  so we’re moving into winter opening times for December and January 11am-3am every Wednesday AND committed though we are we’ll be closed Christmas day and New Year’s Day.
Oh and we didn’t win either or the awards we were shortlisted for, but they went to lovely folks and we know we are all winners, I mean, awards are great but pizza and watermelons and having all you guys on board is much much better.
See you in the garden!
Lucy

Winter Wonderfulness

November 18, 2013

Hi everyone

Last week was our first frost in the a garden but we celebrated it by eating one of our last watermelons from the tunnel.  Lots of lovely fun winter things are afoot in the garden to get involved with!

Image

 Firstly we are having a Christmas wreath making workshop day on Saturday 7th December 10-2. It’s just £10 including materials and you get to take home a lovely and eco-friendly wreath made out of natural materials for your door.  Everyone is welcome along to this as participants or helpers and if any of you have armfuls of ivy, holly, pines comes or lovely evergreen shrubs it’s be amazing if you drop them off at the garden or let me know where to come and get them from.  We are running it on a drop in basis, we’ll be under cover but wrap up warm and please come before 1pm.

 Image

 Secondly we’ll be celebrating the nearly darkest night on Wednesday December 18th 6-7:30  with fire and light at our Christmas celebration.  After the joy of the fireworks night we’ll have another bonfire to keep you warm as well as more toasting marshmallows, roasting chestnuts, loads more hot and tasty soup and hot and spicy apple juice and cider.  There’ll be a veg raffle and MOST importantly they’ll be songs – we’ll be lifting our voices and filling our hearts with cheer as we sing Christmas carols under the stars.  EVERYONE is welcome along to this free event, please bring friends and family and torches and lanterns so you can see the words, and a mug for the soup so we don’t have to use too many disposable cups.  And please let me know if you know anyone who’d like to perform some songs.  I will of course be blowing my own trumpet with my friends and we’ll be providing a brass band backing to the carols but welcome any and all other musicians to join in or do a few numbers.

 AND Diane has come up the FAB idea of a Golden Hill Community Garden Calender!  They’ll cost £4.50 and include lots of the gorgeous pictures of the garden throughout the year.  Please get in touch ASAP if you’d to support your local community garden and buy a copy so we know how many to order or if you’ve got any lovely lovely pictures that we can’t possible leave out then send them to me by Weds if possible.  Great Christmas gift idea!

 Please note we’ll be moving into our winter opening hours for December and January 11am-3pm

 And finally we’ve been shortlisted for in the Bristol Green Volunteers Awards forBest Food Project and *blushes* Best Green Volunteer Coordinator (!).  The ceremony is next Thursday 28th 7:30pm-9:00pm.  Last year we absolutely stormed it and were by far the biggest and loudest rabble there, it’d be great if we could do that again and tickets are free you can get more info and book them here: 

http://www.bnhc.org.uk/home/jobsvolunteering/green-volunteers-awards.html.  

It’d be BRILLIANT to add some more awards to our shelf but winning isn’t everything and also it’s great to go along and meet other people doing similar ace work, all pat other other on the back, clap lots and eat crisps!

See you in the garden or at the awards night!

 Lucy

 Lucy Mitchell

Community Project Worker
The Golden Hill Community Garden: Horfield’s Accessible Allotment and Edible Forest
07506 905 394

FABULOUS FIREWORKS!

November 4, 2013

Image

Hi everyone

Thank you to everyone who came along on Saturday out to watch (other people’s) fabulous fireworks!! It was a lovely night full of delicious soup and smiling people and yes it was a bit blowy but we were so lucky with the weather AND we took £252.82!!  Especially thank you to all the people who helped make the night so fab especially those who made the soup, did the the pizzas, provided lights, made music, took pictures, built and tended the fire and served the hot drinks in ‘challenging conditions’.  (AND thank you to everyone for not bringing sparklers, falling into the bonfire, or breaking ankles on the slippy decking…

)Image

Out of respect to the local displays we were watching (and not paying for) we didn’t publicly advertise this lovely event but like our page on facebook or drop me a quick email to go on the mailing list if you don’t want to miss out…

Image

Soooo being in the garden in the dark was so much fun we’ve got another evening event in the pipeline.  We’d love to do an evening of Christmas carols, with another bonfire, soup and pizza etc.  But WHEN?  I’d really appreciate people’s opinion on which night of the week you think it should be. How close to Christmas does everyone start to get too busy? and how early in December is too early to want to sing carols?  Also does anyone know of other things going on in the area that we should avoid clashes with.  I was thinking hot spicy apple juice and more cake and more toasting of marshmallows – anyone got any other ideas we things we could do to make the night special??  AND would anyone like to help to organise it???   I know it feels early to think about it but deadlines to get in the local press are already looming.
 
And in other news Diane and her group did sterling work getting a green roof put on Mr Fruggles the pizza oven, pictures will follow!
 
See you in the garden!
 
Lucy
 
Lucy Mitchell

Community Project Worker
07506 905 394
ghcgarden@gmail.com