CHEQUE MATE.............YES,PLEASE

Last week was greatly brightened by a visit from an old friend. Charlotte Padfield, who I have known for years and who formerly worked at Hartpury College, dropped in to see us with a cheque. The donation to the garden will make a big difference and we extend a huge thank you to her and to her family for their kindness.

Everybody dance................oooooo ?

Last night the faithful gathered for a disco. The event, was organised at the Aviator public house at Staverton and was a huge success. It wasn't ever meant to be a big fund raiser, more a celebration though we did run a raffle, which netted £245.00. We also made some very good connections with our community.The pub didn't charge us, the D.J offered his services for free and the dancing carried on late into the night. Without doubt the best bit was the students attendance. Once they started dancing,there was no stopping them and the at the end they were clamouring for details of the next bash.
I extend sincere thanks to our hosts Pat and Richard at The Aviator, who were fantastic, they run a great pub too and also to Mike Wickers our brilliant mobile D.J. He is a real professional,had an incredible range of music and without waivering once fed the insatiable demands from his audience. I can't thank Mike enough,but I can tell you,that if you need a good disco for any occasion,you'll work hard to find better. His contact is 01684-292651 or 07765572428 (Disco Masters).

With the spade work done,we can continue with the..........spadework.

 After much paper shuffling, the Land Registry have confirmed The Butterfly Gardens ownership of the new land. This was something of a relief as we had already planted a couple of hundred trees. This week we will really make our mark though. On tuesday we will be joining with a group of volunteers from Sainsburys at Barnwood to set about planting 250 more. We are intending too establish a small wood in one corner of the plot and expect to wrap the exercise up by the close of day. We are all greatly enjoying the new space and are delighted to see so many from the community sharing the land with us.
Spring is just around the corner and I can hardly wait.

One potato,two potato,three potato

Last weekend saw our volunteers in action at the local Potato festival, where we were given space to promote and sell in support of the project. A huge thanks must go out to Ron, Sally and Judy for their wonderful devotion. They manned the stall for two full days, encouraged new support, they pushed out leaflets,spoke with interested enquirers and somehow took a staggering £1,300. They were also responsible for lining up some work for our woodwork team. This week, we have received a firm order from Tetbury in Bloom for 20 of our bird boxes. Committee representatives from Tetbury called in at the site to confirm the requirement. The boxes will be passed out to Tetbury schools. We thank them for their support. They were a very enthusiastic team and I think that Tetbury is set to look stunning in 2011.
Check out http://www.tetburyinbloom.org.uk/

You took the words right out of my head ?

           Whatever happened to that year ? It is really nearly twelve months since we were nominated for The Pride of Gloucestershire Awards ? It is and last week saw the launch of the 2011 scheme. I was invited to talk to those gathered for the launch about what the award had meant to us (and apparently kept nodding across the beam of an overhead projector).
So,what did our award mean ? Well,broadly it brought recognition to the project, it put us on the map and delivered more students, attracted new volunteers, together with some very generous donations and it created a buzz around the place that lasted for weeks.
This year the scheme has been renamed and is now called 'The Heart of Gloucestershire Awards'. There are 7 award categories and the nomination forms are out.
Do join in with the process, we have much to be proud of in Gloucestershire.

My special thanks to The Gloucestershire Media Group for allowing me to use this picture.

Welcome to Eden

I am increasingly of the opinion that, given the choice most people want to help one another and this week we have witnessed a massive outpouring of support and kindness.
Over the last few days, we have had a team on site from Eden Greenhouses (who are based in Cheltenham). The company,hearing of our work have donated and erected a brand new 20 foot x 10 foot aluminium greenhouse. The students have given the crew no peace, being both interested and excited by the activity. The girls from Eden in particular attracted great attention. It was a delightful encounter socially and will be of enormous benefit to us. It didn't finish there either,our next visitor,Colin Prottey from Cleeve Vale Rotary came in with a donation to cover the cost of fitting the new greenhouse with staging,benching and a floor.
By tea time the fabricators were in measuring the bench spaces.

An enormous thank you to Eden, to Cleeve Vale Rotary and to all who have helped make the week so special.

Many happy returns !

Drizzle or no drizzle,it was back to business today and all of the regulars turned up. There were students from the colleges and schools, as well as from the community at large. Sean made it in from Lydbrook and Ben from Cirencester,Chris from Winchcombe,from near and far they came and by break time there were forty. It was a joy, friends reuniting after two weeks apart, with a million stories to exchange, jokes to be told and the biggest pile of festive leftovers to be devoured. A big thank you to the customers and visitors who brought in treats.
In the chaos of that coffee break came a reflection, at my good fortune at being connected with this group and at how much their company had been missed over the break.
The future is out there and through the grey looks very bright.