Clearing Spaces - October Hidden Pond

Autumn

The Green Patch was a hive of activity 

getting ready for the Open Day

Sue experimented with toffee apples

Carole worked with the group to create 

a welcoming banner.

This Autumn there has been an abundance

of delicious apples, we have made crumbles, 

pies, cakes and chutneys.

The nasturtiums are still blooming and 

are a great addition to salads.

Our Grow Wild planters seem to have a curious

 mix of wild flowers.

Down at the end of the patch the boat carries a 

wonderful cargo of flowers.

The ornamental squash have been harvested and the pumpkins

are ready to become both soups and Halloween lanterns!

Bessie's brood are exploring

and free ranging, getting bigger every day

and the raised beds are being turned over, 

ready for the next growing season.

You can see more images here.

Heraldry and Leaf Prints

Inspired by the rich history of the county

and all the delightful autumn leaves

feathers, cutouts and found objects,

the group made a series of prints on

Carole's portable printing press.

They then designed their own heraldic shields

adding symbols for things that interested them.

The View From Here Meets The Big Draw 2014

We thought it would be a great to generate ideas for our "View From Here" mosaics and take part in The Big Draw at the same time!

We asked the children to think of all the elements they see or associate with autumn and winter on The Green Patch.

Then we made a list of words and a list of colours to inspire our drawings before heading outside to find leaves, flowers, vegetables to make drawings of. Nigel and Lucy also found seed packets and pictures to help us.

We uploaded out drawings to the Big Draw Flickr set and you can see them all on this Back To Books Set as well. 

We love the engergy and colour of these drawings and can't wait to see what happens next!

Autumn on the Green Patch - The View From Here

The Green Patch is a wonderful community allotment run by Groundwork and local volunteers, as part of our new project we will be documenting the changing seasons as viewed from here. Lucy Darby and Nigel Bennett have been making us wonderfully welcome and have introduced us to members of the local community. September has been delicious, blackberries, apples, squash, chard, leeks, carrots. We have been making wild fruit and green tomato chutney to see us through the winter. Already the life-enhancing Green Patch effect has us captivated, we can't wait to get started in earnest!

You can see more images here