Russell thanks volunteers

At the Christmas meal for volunteers held on dec 21st 2012. Russell Kirby, Chorlton Good Neighbour's Chair thanks the volunteers for their efforts throughout the year

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Gardening Club Christmas update

The Chorlton Good Neighbours garden club was closed for Christmas and New Year but we've had a busy few weeks as you will see.

To begin with things got very physical down at the garden when we decided to tackle the foundations of the old scout hut. There had been all sorts of plans to utilise the existing bricks and mortar for a path or work round it but our new volunteer John had some confidence in this area and he went to get his pick axe so we could just get rid of it! This created a real buzz and everyone worked really hard to get the foundations up in just a couple of hours. Well done everybody!



We also managed to get hold of large chest to lock up our tools on site. This will be of massive benefit because we currently use a church cupboard to store our tools - now we will be more self sufficient. The tool shed was a real bargain as it was bought on gumtree but this meant that it had to be taken down by our head volunteer Bernard from someone's garden and then put back again from memory during our gardening session. This created a few interesting "conversations" and more than a little head scratching as we worked out which bits went where. It was a nice job to do indoors though as we hit our first rained out session of the year. The only problem was once we've created this massive chest was how we were going to get it into the garden. Fortunately creativity and group work won the day and our tool chest is now fully installed

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Christmas and New Year - a time of celebration and new beginnings. In aid of this we had a little social down at the site with jacket potatoes cooked in the fire (not particularly christmassy I know but its a more preferred tradition to brussel sprouts), mulled apple juice and minced pies.

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With a nod to the new year we planted a few bulbs and some hardy plants. It is a risky business planting this late in the year but if it works out we will have some colour in spring. It also feels like a nice positive thing to do at the end of the year

Our Gardening Sessions are 10-12.30 every Friday (although we are now closed until the new year). If you would like to find out more contact us on 0161-881-2925 or come along to our office at Wilbraham St Ninian's Church, Egerton Road South and have a look for yourself.

Carolyn O'Hanlon

Older Men's Development Worker

The Good Neighbours garden project, Jan to Sep 2012

This video summarises the progress to date of the aim to transform the overgrown piece of land at the back of the Church into a garden an allotment. We now have the raised beds in place and thanks to Bramall Construction (www.bramallnw.com), we also have a patio area, which they constructed for free. We aim to get a greenhouse and shed so that we can really start planting for the coming years

Tuesday Parent & Toddler Group

This group meets on Tuesday mornings in  term time. It is run by Good Neighbours together with the Church and provides  support and friendship for parents with very young children.  Numbers are kept deliberately low (12-14 parents ) so that they can benefit from the space and free time over a coffee whilst the volunteers look after the children. 

Here are some of the volunteers who have shown such a great commitment to this Tuesday morning group  Christine and Lesley have now retired fom the group and we are looking for high calibre replacements for them as they have been such key people.

 Sarah Brewerton, Christine Parkinson,Hilda Mason, 

Chris Bentley, Lesley Gilbert and Kath Lacy

Good Neighbours at Brookburn Summer Fair

The Good Neighbours stall decorating their own cupcakes

Good Neighbours at Brookburn Summer Fair, June 16th Carolyn on the stall Arthur and Hilda telling people  about Good Neighbours Hilda on the Good Neighbours stall A decorated cupcake!

The New Chorlton Good Neighbours Leaflet

Information about our activities

A photo of some of the people involved

in Good Neighbours

At long last - finally planting some potatoes in the raised beds

Ruby, the Jubilee Queen

Good Neighbours' trip to Morecambe

Chorlton Good Neighbours' day trip to Morecambe on Wed 23 May 2012. The coach was full, the weather was great and the trip was enjoyed by all. After a walk on the prom, they visited the Art Deco Midlan Hotel (www.midlandhotel.org) for afternoon tea and cake

Here is a picture of the Midland Hotel, Morecambe in its heyday

Putting the Raised Beds in Position

Putting the raised beds in position in the Good Neighbours garden, 25 May 2012. 

On a sweltering hot morning (25-05-12) we dug trenches for our 3 raised beds at the Chorlton Good neighbours  garden and lowered them into position. Next to fill then up with poor soil at the bottom (they are very deep raised beds), better soil in the middle and good soil plus compost in the top layer. Then get planting!

The Spring Fundraising Variety Concert

Chorlton Good Neighbours 

Fundraising Variety Concert

28th April 2012

This musical event raised much needed funds for Chorlton Good Neighbours. Many thanks to all the singers and groups who gave their time and performances for free. Also thanks to all the volunteers who contributed to making this event such a great success. Here are clips from some of  the performances on the day

Loreto College Percussion Ensemble

The group was formed to showcase the talents of a number of drummers who have passed their Grade 8 examinations on the drum kit/percussion and as a vehicle to stretch and challenge them. They have performed at numerous events during this academic year, including opening the College Award Show at Manchester town Hall in December as well as entertaining the Chorlton Rotary Club at their annual Gala Evening back in October. They compose most of their material themselves and enjoy 

bringing a number of styles and influences into their music. 

The Loreto College String Ensemble 

The Loreto College String Ensemble is a chamber group that forms part of Loreto College's 

"Music Programme". They meet on a weekly basis and their repertoire mainly consists of 

arrangements of Baroque or early Classical material.

The Sweet Cordials 

The Sweet Cordials are Carolyn and Jo. In this clip of them at Chorlton Good Neighbours' fundraising concert on April 28th 2012, Carolyn sings "I will Survive and "Nine to Five"  

and Jo sings and accompanies on the ukelele

The Beech Band

Members of the famous Beech Band, led by Les Jones, played at Chorlton Good Neighbours Spring Concert. They finished with a rousing version of  Ewan MacColl's "The Manchester Rambler" sung by Ken. This was very appropriate as this week saw the 80th anniversary of 

the mass trespass on Kinder (www.kindertrespass.com)

Elaine Evans

Elaine Evans combines her solo career with membership of the Halle choir and bringing up her 2 young daughters with her husband David. Studying for a diploma in choral singing, 

Elaine kindly came long to share her lovely voice with us all at Chorlton Good Neighbours. 

In this clip she sings "I Could have Danced All Night" from West Side Story

Amanda Latham & Tony

Chorlton Good Neighbour's very own Amanda Latham (Wheelchair Support Worker)

 and her guitarist, Tony, perform at the Spring Concert. This clip is of "Breakfast at Tiffany's"

The Melodics

Formed a couple of years ago, and led by Lea Cavanagh, the Melodics are Chorlton Good Neighbours very own singing group, practising a variety of songs each Thursday at 11:30 am in the big hall. In this clip they finish with their own version of the "Neighbours" theme tune, dedicated to coordinator, Helen Hibberd. 

The familiar song now becomes - "Chorlton (Good) Neighbours"

Catherine Tarpey

15 year old Catherine Tarpey, grand daughter of one of our members and a student at Loreto High 

plays the Cornet. Here is a clip of her playing "Maria" from West Side Story

 The Part Timers Choir

The finale to end the Chorlton Good Neighbours concert was a performance of classical and other songs by a group of singers who rehearse in their free time at the Bridgewater Hall and who call themselves, the Part Timers. Their songs range from traditional motets to popular songs of the thirties. Their terrific final number was their version of "Goodnight Sweetheart", originally recorded by the 

Ray Noble orchestra with singer Al Bowlley in 1931

Gardening project - digging on a very wet April day

We are no trying to clear one end of the allotment to get rid of all the rubble including the remains of an old scout hut base. We've ordered the raised beds made from old scaffold boards for us by TRIM timber recycling in Manchester. Once we have cleared the rubble they are our next priority

Gardening project - learning about soil testing

The Chorlton Good Neighbours gardening project continues. Several of us are taking a course at Hulme Community Garden. This week was about soil, testing it and composting. We also did some work on the plots, crunching up branches to make compost

Day 2 of the Garden/Allotment project

 Day 2 of working on the Chorlton Good Neighbours plot in Mancheter UK. Digging over the ground and cutting some branches off a tree that is overhanging the plot. Plenty of stops for cups of tea and some of Keith's banana cake

The Gardening Project gets started

On a lovely, sunny but very cold January morning, we got the Chorlton Good Neighbours gardening project under way. The idea is to reclaim a piece of land next to our offices and make it into a garden, sitting place and vegetable growing area. It will be great for all our users and volunteers, but it is especially targeted at getting more older men involved in the project. 

We have done some initial planning, but felt it was time to get out there and actually start clearing the ground. The video and photos are a record of our first go at clearing the plot

There were two views on the brambles - one was to blitz them and get rid of them altogether. The other was to tidy them up and  keep a patch of the brambles in a shady part of the garden to encourage wild life. Keeping some brambles won the day, for the time being, but made it clear that we needed to develop a clear plan on what we wanted to avoid confusion

The brambles, before and after tidying up

 

Clearing the weeds

There was also a discussion about the privet hedge with some thinking that it should be replaced by a fence as it is sometimes decribed as a 'noxious weed'. Others though were keen on keeping a trimmed hedge as providing cover for a number of beneficial insects and birds, so this argument won the day and the hedge stays.

Despite the cold weather, a lot of people turned up and it turned out to be a great day with plenty of breaks for cups of tea and lunch of Yvonne's leek & potato soup, plus bread

Joan, Christine, Marion & Enid

Joan, Christine, Marion & Enid having a discussion about their memories of Chorlton, before and after World War 2,  and their current roles as volunteers in Chorlton Good Neighbours