Winter warmer
Thank you to everybody who made the Winter Warmer such a success last weekend: those who made soup, brought (and bought and ate!) cakes, contributed to the raffle, and who made it such an enjoyable day. The wreath workshop was very popular, and you can see a couple of examples of the beautiful wreaths that were made here. Our thanks to Mary Ensor for leading the workshop and Garry Doyland for helping with making willow frames.
There was a great turnout for the main event, and we raised over £700 for allotment funds and Gary Sycamore raised £190 for Harington.
On the walls of the Barn was a fantastic display of artwork produced at the recent 'Art at the Barn' workshops. The paintings will shortly be on display on the SHA website, and are all for sale at reasonable offers, with proceeds going towards allotment funds. Do take a look.
We have light! (in the Barn)
Earlier in the autumn we put in an application to the Re-Power Communities Fund for £2,000 for solar panels to provide lighting in the Barn. We’re delighted that our application was successful – you can read more about the Fund here. We hope to fit the panels sometime in the new year.
And some bad news...
In the past week there has been two incidents of vandalism on the Queens Wood end of the site, with three greenhouses having glass panes smashed. We know from a walker in Queens Wood that on one occasion it was some young teenage boys who had trespassed onto the site. Please keep a vigilant eye out and report any incidents or damage to us at info@ We have reported the vandalism to the police, and the maintenance team continue to work on making the boundary fences as secure as possible.
Support our Haringey neighbours
On Saturday 9th December Harington are holding their Christmas fair and open day – details on their website here: https://www.harington.org.uk We have strong links with Harington, so do go along and support them if you can.
On Sunday 10th December Wolves Lane Centre is holding a Christmas Market from 10am – 4pm. Details on their website here: https://www.wolveslane.org And the Centre is open regularly on Sundays 10am – 3pm. If you haven’t visited Wolves Lane before it’s well worth a visit, with a great selection of reasonably priced plants, and cactus and palm houses to visit.
Meadow Orchard Project: just a stone’s throw from Shepherds Hill, off Park Rd, is the oasis of the Meadow Orchard Project. You can visit on Saturdays between 12 and 4pm, and they are always looking for volunteers. More details here: https://meadoworchard.org
Dates for your diaries
- Café at the Barn: Wednesday 10th January 10.30 – 12.00
- Discussion group and lunch: Sunday 21st January 12 – 2pm
- And don’t forget the trading shed is only open fortnightly until potato day on Sunday 11th February. All opening dates on the SHA website.
Artwork and video on Britain’s allotment waiting lists
A Greenpeace article reports on how a group of artists and campaigners have created an artwork to highlight the long waiting lists for allotments across the country. https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/giant-living-artwork-unfurled-at-westminster-as-waiting-lists-for-allotments-double-in-a-decade/
And you can watch a video about the artwork and campaign here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bbl0idJ5IY
Season’s Greetings to all
Annie, Garry, Ian, Jill, Jo, Julie, Juliet, Nev, Trevor
The SHA allotment committee