creating homes for bugs
The Men in Sheds team have had a very busy start to the year. This month has seen them focusing on the building of the F A R N H A M bug house letters.
These are being made for Green Up Britain in conjunction with Farnham Town Council and will finally be sited in Gostrey Meadow, these individual letters are 1 meter in height and will be fixed approximately 600mm above the ground to allow for a garden around the base to attract the insects. They have been made with re-cycled plastic boards which are environmentally friendly. There is a lot to do on this project as each section will be filled with canes, fir cones, straw etc. And it doesn't stop there; they have several jobs planned including building a play house for the garden, new storage racks for the Farnham Museum and fixing their Grape Vine Supports.
At the end of the newsletter we have a lovely reflection from Ken, who heads up the twice weekly groups, as well as a gallery of projects from last year.
and homes for fairies
A new project has been started by the students from Farnham Heath End School who have started to design fairy houses to be nestled in the large willow tree at the back of the acre. Its such a fun, creative idea and we can't wait to see these magical houses start to appear...
rainy days = tidy shed
It's been a very wet start to the year but progress has been made on the pruning of the trees that border the acre and the wet weather means the shed got a tidy! Huge thank you to the garden volunteers. We are also seeing some very welcome and pretty signs of spring....
resilient explorers at space2play
The damp start to the year has not put off the space2play groups and this lovely video captures a busy, busy morning ...painting ice, fishing, crafting, getting lost in the maze, hosting a dinosaur tea party and ending the morning with a hot snack on the fire.
Huge thank you to Waverley Borough Council's Thriving Communities Fund who help fund the sessions.
video credit @joannaclare28
we've signed the pledge!
We have signed up to plastic free Farnham!
Plastics Free Farnham and the Rotary Clubs of Farnham with support fromFarnham Town Council and Jeremy Hunt, MP are working towards gaining a ‘plastic free’ status for Farnham by the end of 2024.
We've signed the pledge and work hard to make sure that we re-use and re-cycle as much as we can, keeping plastics to a minimum. We use recycled & environmentally sustainable materials where we can, or items made of natural materials like wooden toys for space2play.
reflections from the acre...
This weeks reflection is from Ken who heads up the Men in Sheds sessions...we're incredibly lucky to have the industrious group on site!
'Our group is now well established at the acre and proud to be part of space2grow. We have helped many local charities, local councils and schools with various projects. Last year one of our longer projects was to refurbish the 1960’s Chime Machine from St Andrews Church which took around 6 months to complete but is now in working order and can be viewed in the church.
Through 2023 we worked on notice boards and benches for Farnham Town Council, scenery for The Maltings, erected fencing for St.James School, created a mud kitchen for space2play, helped Farnham Museum with display stands, made Fax Boards, built a tree for the Surrey Wildlife Trust the list just goes on and on!
We were honoured in early 2023 to meet HRH Price Edward Duke of Edinburgh who was very interested in our activities. We also entertained John Bishop the comedian when he visited the acre for lunch with the Eden Project.
Our members are a varied bunch and have many different skills which has allowed us to tackle so many different projects but all of them would agree it is the satisfaction and sense of achievement they get from supporting the local community, Whenever you visit our shed you will find it full of laughter and chat as all the members enjoy each other’s company and great friendships have been formed. In 2024, we have already built a large bug house display to go in Gostrey Park as part of a project for Green Up Britain, it certainly looks like 2024 will be another busy and productive year!'