Breathing Spaces

Making bird-feeders from windfall apples and sunflower seeds and elderberry syrup with the Grow Heal Thrive group this week. Feeling connected to nature, the season and each other. Caring for wildlife and ourselves.

Companiable, gentle gardening at Lovett Court last week, including making delicious apple puree from windfall apples. Lovely to catch up with everyone and the garden has never looked better. BTW It's not just for residents of Lovett Court, we welcome people who like gardens and would enjoy some company. Let us know if you want to join us. You can also get your lunch at the wonderful pay-as-you-feel The Empty Plate Cafe next door. Plot2Plate is a joint project with We Are FoodPioneers CIC funded by the Big Lottery.

Some great outdoor activities for families in local parks this summer. There is a calendar of what's on where if you look on their website or contact the organisers.

A new venture for us this week as we delivered our first continuous professional development training day for Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. We put together a bespoke day around providing social and therapeutic gardening opportunities for people living with dementia, including a practical session and a visit to the dementia-friendly garden we designed at Maybridge Keystone Centre. And today we finish the week with a celebration of 5 years of being Breathing Spaces at our other dementia-friendly garden at The Sidney Walter Centre for Doreen's annual open day with BBQ, raffle and plant sale. Maybe see you there?

Half-way through the Grow Heal Thrive summer programme. Making Seed Bombs a firm, messy, favourite as always, a very pleasing fascination in the wormery, making journals of pressed wild-flowers and leaves totally absorbing (and full of reminiscence for some of us), and beautiful photographs of seed heads by one of our talented mums. Already looking forward to our next session in two weeks time.

Snapshots of a full day in the Welcome Woodland Garden this Tuesday - just what we love. The morning Garden Club for people with dementia, which included us taking down the skylight of the yurt for cleaning. Then getting ready for the 'Grow Heal Thrive' mothers and children group in the afternoon (we're at 'full-to-overflowing' capacity now). Finished off with the Maybridge Keystone Centre AGM in the garden in the evening, with great interest in the rain garden we built during Transition Town Worthing's Eco Open Houses - especially the bees on the sunflowers there. And thank goodness for the recent rain, water butts filling again and everything refreshed.

Lovely start to our Grow Heal Thrive programme for women and their children in recovery from trauma. It was great to see the fascination of nature and nurturing new green-life take hold and draw in adults and children alike. And the Calendula biscuits and Borage ice cubes went down well too! Summer in the garden, wonderful memories in the making. Huge thanks to the Santander Foundation for their support.

Many thanks to Worthing Greenspaces Network for choosing to hold their AGM in our Welcome Woodland Garden and asking us to cater for the event. Lisa and I couldn't have done it without help from Michelle, Jenny, Jim and Mathias. We thoroughly enjoyed a lovely evening in the garden with great people and serving up freshly baked pizza from the cob oven and a variety of home-made salads, dips, drinks and yummy cakes!

Annual open garden afternoon, with BBQ, fun for kids, plant sale, raffle and more. Garden maintained by Mind & Memory Garden Club for people with support needs including dementia and Breathing Spaces Community Interest Company. Come and meet us and find out more about all the great things going on at the Sid. Free entry.

Summer harvest at Lovett Court. We pulled the last of the rhubarb, lifted some red onions, and dug for treasure - new potatoes! Garden weeded and watered, we enjoyed freshly made lemonade, each other's company, and a visit from Rhona the spaniel. Beetroot and sugar pea seeds were also sown, as well as honesty from seed we collected. The garden is looking lovely, lots of dahlias - come and see next time - August 14th 2.30pm-4.30pm. We'll probably make onion pickles and, by popular demand, more of the sleep tonic we made in March. It works! You could have a meal at the wonderful Empty Plate Cafe next door, before or after. Lovett Court Garden Club is part of a joint project, Plot to Plate, between Breathing Spaces and We Are FoodPioneers, funded by Awards for All.

For more information about Grow Heal Thrive please see our website and get in touch with us. https://www.breathingspaces.co/short-cour ses.html

Free support for carers of people with dementia, so important

Wonderful day with Santander Bank volunteers last week. They re-surfaced the path areas of our garden at Maybridge Keystone Centre and worked on repairing the cob oven. Our Garden Club members very much enjoyed their company and we were honoured to spend time again with these hard-working, kind and generous people. Very much a dementia-friendly community. Let's do it again soon!

Great picnic provided by Food Pioneers this afternoon! Totally delicious. And really interesting to hear about all their exciting projects with bees, seaweed walks and seaweed spas! Thanks you guys xxx

Gardening for women recovering from trauma and other mental health challenges. Experience how working with plants can reduce your stress and lift your spirits, and how learning gardening skills boosts your confidence. We will work in a cosy garden yurt if it's too cold/wet but also enjoy the season outside whenever we can. We will introduce a variety of garden-related activities, such as growing and using herbs, vegetables and flowers, willow weaving, making seasonal wreaths ...and posies, guided art projects using natural materials, or other ideas you suggest. The programme is free thanks to the generous support of the Santander Foundation. This is one of two 'Grow Heal Thrive' programmes this year and you can do either one or both of them. Contact us for more information or to book a place. Claire 07508 178590, Lisa 07827 924151 or info@breathingspaces.co
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Gardening for women recovering from trauma and other mental health challenges, with their children. Spend some time this summer bonding with your children in a green outdoor space (under cover if the weather is poor). Discover how learning to grow and care for vegetables, herbs and flowers can be a fun and therapeutic activity. Build the foundations for a lifetime of enjoying the healing power of nature and gardening. The sessions are free thanks to the generous support of the Santander Foundation. This is one of two 'Grow Heal Thrive' programmes this year and you can do either one or both of them. Contact us to find out more and book a place. Claire 07508 178590, Lisa 07827 924151 or info@breathingspaces.co

Breathing Spaces is entered in LocalGiving's Small Charity Week Challenge, which runs til Sunday 24th June 2018 only! If you fancy donating even a tiny amount, it would give us a chance of winning a prize because the winner of each leaderboard is based on the number of unique donations not the actual amounts raised. We are in the 'Health & Wellbeing' leaderboard. Your donations and any prize would be used to help us keep offering our therapeutic gardening opportunities to people with mental health challenges, learning difficulties and other support needs.

May Close community allotment and forest garden re-starts this Friday 2-4pm. Let us know if you are coming. The calming and healing effect of nature works through gardening too, and the easy sociability of working as a group to produce food and maintain a community space has additional positive impact on wellness.

A perfect afternoon with the Lovett Court 'Plot to Plate' gardening group yesterday. We sat down to make some fragrant elderflower champagne! Couldn't be simpler and it will be ready in a couple of weeks. Mmmm. We did do a bit of weeding and watering too, but we always have enjoyable little jobs that can be done sitting down. And we have a tea break at 3.30pm when we would be very happy for non-gardeners to join us for a cuppa and a chat and to enjoy the lovely outdoors. Why not join us this summer? Next session 10th July and then every 2nd Tuesday of the month, from 2.30pm.