Can You Help Us During the Grow Your Tenner Funding Drive This October?

During the past 7 years we have developed interesting, engaging, meaningful projects that involve the community in contemporary art practice whilst striving to support Wellbeing. We have conducted walks and interventions in Corby, Kettering, Wellingborough, Finedon, Rushden and Derbyshire and have made work in woods, on allotments, by streams, in an empty shop, on station platforms and on a community allotment. 

Through a recommendation from Northamptonshire Community Foundation we have an online charitable giving page on the Local Giving website and have heard that the fabulous Grow Your Tenner scheme is about to start a new funding round. Under the banner of Beanfield Artists we are able to benefit from the Grow Your Tenners scheme.

So with this opportunity in mind we hope to rally all our supporters, plus our past, present and future participants by asking them if they can help us during Grow Your Tenner. Each donation of up to but not more than £10 will be matched from the Grow Your Tenner fund.

A donation of £10 can be worth up to £22.50:

£10 donation

+£2.50 Gift Aid

+£10 Match funding

Total = £22.50

The £500,000 will be split into two pots of £250,000. £250,000 will match £10 donations as above while the second £250,000 will be used to match new Direct Debits. The first six monthly payments of up to £10 will be matched.

We have plans for exciting, innovative future projects and a small donation could help us make these plans a reality. You can find our Local Giving page here. 

First, Build Your Summer House

After much deliberation, planning and anticipation our Summer House for the Green Patch project arrived on site and with the help of four fabulous volunteers, we spent our first day putting the structure together. From our corner of the Green Patch, beside the newly planted orchard we enjoyed the lay of the land, the heat of the sun, used power tools, cut roofing felt, made tea, hammered in tacks and painted on wood preservative.

Laying the base

Two walls and a floor

Two windows, two doors

Supporting the internal beam

Time to get the roof on and attach the felt before the predicted rain.

Walking by Water

We started our first walk of the year, and the first in a set of eight new walks for our project Light Walks for Dark Days.

We set out in Kettering on a crisp, frosty day.  The bright sunlight seemed to heighten the colours in the bare trees, vibrant red and green twigs in a sapphire blue sky.

Frost edged leaves and blades of grass like tiny diamonds.

It was hard to imagine that the patch of rough grass near the bridge had once been the site of a Mill and that the field we were walking across had once been a dumping ground for waste materials from the local Boot and Shoe factories. This green space is a well used, well loved space, children play here and throughout the day there are many meetings of groups of regular dog walkers of all ages. To the left hand side of the field there are old apple and plum trees which still produce fruit to this day.

We headed across the common towards the water's edge, and stopped on the footbridge for a while. Carole caught sight of a large trout darting in amongst the water plants and told the group that this was a popular spot for young anglers and exuberant dogs who love to career down the banks after sticks or squeaky toys!

Looking over the bridge, fast running shallow water and luminous green flowing weeds.  We started thinking about the speed of the water, where it goes.  "How are rivers made?" somebody asked.  We talked about the power of water to carve its way through earth and rock, rivulets joining with other rivulets to create torrential rivers, all down to gravity and the search for the lowest point.

Walking on down the path along the water's edge, a horse plodded across its frozen field to greet us.

A field stretching up the hill beside us, its dead stalks contouring the slopes in rhythmic lines. During the planning walk in December Carole and Jo found clusters of fungi nestled in between the ground level branches of an inviting tree.

On the day of our walk Carolyn found the same tree equally inviting and couldn't resist clambering where the fungi had clustered just a month before. This is the wonderful thing about walking, the route may stay constant but time and seasons bring a host of tiny changes which create subtle alterations.

We found a single boot, sturdy, quite new, mysteriously abandoned at the side of the path and we all wondered why it was that there were often single boots / shoes / trainers left to fend for themselves.

John was reminded of the song Jake the Peg, and created a new leg for the boot, 

 

which then temporarily became a walking stick

Willow trees growing wild by the water, loving the moisture! Their yellow whips of new growth got us thinking about weaving willows and how nature always regrows after death.

A line of frost clung to the water's edge.

Pete recognised the pip pips of Great Tits and we spotted a pair of them flitting repeatedly from one tree to another.   Jo mentioned she had spotted coots nesting on the river on a previous visit.  And so, attuned to watching for further wildlife, we continued on, ears pricked and eyes searching for any movement.

Further down, we spotted a great grey heron on the other side of the water, standing still as a statue.  It reminded John of other great birds and when he saw an Albatross at a nearby reserve.

Further down, the water's rush slowed until perfectly still, creating perfect mirror images.

As we picnicked, a cheeky red robin hopped up really close to us, checking out any crumbs on offer.  Quick, mad rush to get out the camera in time to snap him - but no!  

Each time the camera was lined up and ready to click, he would flit away again!  Teasing us, he reappeared several times, just flying off again as we were about the capture him ... until ... finally!  Jo got this -

and Carole got this - we were quite sure he was starting to pose for us!

 After lunch Jo showed everyone how to make paper boats

we had wondered about using seed paper but thought it wouldn't be very watertight

we chose a simple orange paper which would break apart in due course.

The paper folding was great fun, luckily the sun was just warm enough to keep our fingers supple and it wasn't long until we had created a whole flotilla.

We left our secluded picnic spot and walked further along the path, heading towards Warkton, as Carole knew where there was an ideal spot to launch the boats from.  She assured us that it was just a short stretch away, with a shingly outcrop and quite fast flowing water. The first attempts caught a reverse current and came back to us, so we made sure the boats were thrown out to the furthest bank where the current carried them swiftly forwards. The boats were a Light Thoughts intervention, carrying our hopes and wishes with them.

The return walk covered a variety of paces, some were watching the time, having meetings to get to by 3pm, others were still caught up in the spirit of exploration, finding new things to see on the way back, but we finally got back to our starting point, rosy cheeked and with fairly muddy feet. It was a very good way to start the week.

A rich day of colours, sounds, birds and water, many memories stored away of a good day.

Blowing Away the Cobwebs - Wellbeing Walk 2 - North

Turning North. Armed with our seed bombs, seeking a neglected placewhere we could throw our seeds and hope for the best! We were encouraged as one of the bombs had already developed tiny shoots...

We met at the station as usual, great to have two new people join us!

Cutting around The White Hart, we crossed the stream over the footbridge and walked across an open green space with many benches and sheltered seating, all looking rather unused.  A predictable shopping trolley in the stream.

Along up Rockingham Road, but then turning off the main road and down some steps which could so easily be missed, leading from the main road down beside the railway track.  Here our adventure really began...

Walking with the rail track to our left and an industrial estate to our right, but then there is a gap in the fence... we followed the desire-line worn by the feet of others.

The path took us into a wild space, grasses growing all around us, a burnt tree, wild flowers.  Ferns unfurling.



Following this path it began to get more and more overgrown until we were enclosed in a wooded area.  Everywhere new trees beginning to grow, tiny oak trees below our knees, willows that had self seeded.  We talked about how nature moves in and makes its own any spaces that humans leave.

Further on it became apparent that this path had been created with walkers in mind, there was a distinct line surfaced with gravel, now overgrown. Here and there we came across picnic benches in the undergrowth. There was evidence of human use here, somebody had made a fire and drink cans were strewn about. Further on a picnic bench actually had a tree growing through the middle of it!





Deeper and deeper in we went.  It was a windy day, and the silver birch trees swayed above us, their leaves sparkling silver as the wind flipped them over.  Somebody said the sound of the trees swaying were like the sound of the seashore, gently shooshing.

Across the rail tracks someone’s makeshift kite had crash landed.


Up a hill, we suddenly burst back out into an open ground, high up with an amazing view taking in a wide area of the north end of Corby - the Weetabix factory, a footbridge that led to the lakes where we had picnicked for our last walk, and the cream coloured towers of the Flour Mills gleaming in the sunlight like a castle on the horizon.
Below us, down the steep bank, and beyond high wire fences, was the neglected area we sought!  Broken up hard core, bricks, and cracked concrete lay about across a huge wide area, but creating its own pattern across the cracks were wild flowers and grasses.  We spotted aquilegia and budleia growing.  Somebody said "they seek out the cracks and there they grow."  A motto for life.



Carole had a short video on her phone of our friend Maureen, who knew this place from her childhood.  She talked about how it was once where the rail carriages were left and that there is a tunnel somewhere.
We decided this was a good place to launch our seed bombs.  The round ones made high arcs and exploded on the concrete below.  The flat ones flew like frisbies, one of us even managed to curve a bend in the trajectory of his throw!
We picnicked here, admiring our gardening work and shouting to each other to be heard above the wind, before walking back to base.
Continuing our theme of the wind, we made windmills and put words and drawings in them inspired by the day.

"Let The Wind Blow"

 "The wind in my face helps me breathe"

"blow wind blow and we shall have snow"

"Blowing away the cobwebs"

...and drawings of the sun, flowers, the weather:

We will seek a place to plant our windmills, like flags claiming our land, in our next walk, which will take place in mid June.

On my way home, it began to rain... a perfect end to the day, I imagined our little scattered seeds seeking out the cracks, lapping up the rain and beginning to release their energy into new life....

Growing from a gutter - the persistence of nature