Green Patch Bunting Gallery

You can now see all the individual bunting pieces made during our Green Patch sessions here

Birds of summer

Today was our final public workshop at the Green Patch. We were really pleased to welcome back Lily and her mum again, and 3 new families joined us too.

Lots of activity today, we had signs to finish off and the children really enjoyed painting them.

We also made birds, upcycling plastic packaging into beautiful colourful bird collages which we will perch in the trees around the Green Patch.

Quinn enjoyed exploring and playing on the mud piles!

and everybody sat on the blue mat to make their birds.

Here is the team with their finished birds!

 

Carole and Jo also did some more work on their installation for the summer house.

We are designing some new windows for the summer house, and Jo had made a prototype. It fitted perfectly! Next, we started thinking about how we might redesign the windows in the door panels too.

 

Carole had been busy making other parts out of acrylic for the installation too, and had been finishing off the bunting made in our earlier workshops, sewing down the edges and putting on the backing fabric. They're looking really stunning now!

Well, that's it for our public workshops for now, because we need some time to get all the work made in our workshops installed around the Green Patch site! And we need to make some more work of our own - so keep following the blog for more updates soon -

 - and of course for news of the final celebration when we will invite everybody back to see all the work hanging, installed and bringing colour and art to the Green Patch!

Happily Crowded Summer House

Last week Green Patch gardener Merle spent a morning with us preparing and priming wooden signs, 

today she returned with her sister Mollie to paint designs on the signs. 

Mollie told Michael, who was back to help dig in some plants in the very hard ground, about her son's adventures as an engine driver and promised to return with some photographs

The sisters are an inspiring pair, full of kindness, intriguing stories about their experiences, practical information, growing tips  and a huge love of life. 

If the morning had been relatively quiet, the afternoon was a whirl of people and activity! 

We were joined by several new family groups, 

some of our regular participants and four of our Light Walkers.

Two new Green Patch volunteers arrived with three broken wheelbarrows

which were up-cycled into planters

A gardeners' hands with beautiful Turkish rings!

There was a lovely atmosphere with small groups painting signs, making more bunting and trying out the wax resist paintings. Parents were able to relax and explore their creativity with their children out in the fresh air. The children went to visit the ducks and chickens, ran up and down taking away old cardboard boxes, washing brushes and everyone sat on chairs, floor or grass talking happily and helping each other.

Gillie and his brother made beautiful signs, one for the Bees

one for the tomatoes .

Through the wonders of Twitter the lovely Shena Cooper founder of the Secret Seed Society came to visit Lucy and the Green Patch Team. Here she is with Gillie and his completed sign. The Secret Seed Society "believe in engaging young children with the natural world, and understanding where their food comes from want all children to experience the magic of growing vegetables from seed, and making edible concoctions with what they grow." They produce lovely illustrated books featuring Rio Rocket, Carla Carrot, Chrissie Cress, Rudie Radish, and Mingo Mug that come with seeds to plant and are a wonderful introduction the the fabulous world of growing, they also have the Seed Agent Club and great growing and cooking tips of adults and children!

Jubilations

Whilst waiting for the group to arrive Jo and Carole were amazed by the amount of birdsong they could hear in such a built up area. Their meeting point was at the entrance to a narrow public footpath which cut through a housing estate and ran past a building site and a cricket pitch.

 

Once the walk began we came across this sign

small roses wound their way over rickety wooden fences

John could not resist the allure of this digger busy breaking the ground, creating space for new houses

Lilac bushes escaped the confines of suburban gardens, providing a blush of subtle colour at the side of the dark, shady pathway. Broken glass lay glittering in the mud, and the calling cards left by less than caring dog owners. We also spotted a mini windmill attached to the side of a house. 

The sky wasn't at its most photogenic, but gardens gave colour to the day.

Once at the entrance to the middle section of our bridge Jo produced her visual of the woven bunting and explained that, like the tree tent created in Finedon on the previous walk, this would be a very temporary addition to the bridge.

Jo had found some wonderful fabric with really strong colours and texture and had devised a fixing method using the ever trusty cable tie! Carole was tasked with organising the weaving on the bridge whilst Jo worked with the documentary team who would film some of the activity for the Light Walks film.

These two photos were taken by John

and the event was filmed diligently by Jo, Sam and Daniel

 

During the installation the weaving team received toots of encouragement from the passing traffic, we wondered if any of them had read Jo's Tweet earlier that morning!

Everyone worked in small groups, trying to create 

as little distraction as possible to passing vehicles.

Two Light Walks team members were extremely brave as both were incredibly nervous about heights so it took great courage and determination for them to cross the bridge. 

Everyone gave cheers and shouts of encouragement as they made it to the other side, no one wanted them to miss Carolyn's Jubilee treats! 

Whilst waiting for the intervention to be completed they made friends with this beautiful pony.

Here is the jubilant Light Walks team, glowing with pride after their weaving triumph and ready for the next part of the walk.

It seemed amazing and strange to have walked through housing, across a main road and to find ourselves back in the countryside on a narrow path enclosed by trees, hedges, wild undergrowth and cow parsley.

We tried not to disturb the sheep and lambs as we walked past, but they were full of the joys of Spring and bounced off across the field, leaving us to our picnic.

Homemade herb scones with cream cheese and smoked salmon horseradish

with lovingly created Victoria Sponge

After the picnic we returned to the bridge to remove our beautiful bunting.

Light Walks For Dark Days May Intervention

Woven Jubilee Bunting

1.00 pm - 3.00pm,  May 21st, 2012

Imagined by Miles & Dacombe

and created by the Light Walks For Dark Days Team