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

Curling at Chorlton Good Neighbours

Indoor game of curling in the Church Hall at Chorlton Good Neighbours, Jan 2012

Thank you letter from Brookburn pupil

In November 2012, members of Chorlton Good Neighbours visited Brookburn Primary School, Chorlton to talk to the year 6 students about what it was like being in Chorlton during and after World War 2. We received a lot of thank you letters from the children which were terrific. Here is one of them:

Volunteers Christmas Meal 2011

Chorlton Good Neighbours, Manchester. Volunteers Christmas meal, 20th Dec 2011. Only some of the 70+ volunteers for Good neighbours could make it to the meal, but a big thanks to all of our volunteers for their contributions throughout the year

Helen Hibberd, coordinator of Chorlton Good Neighbours Care Group, Manchester was on Woman's Hour, Radio 4 on 9th Dec 2011 to talk about neighbourliness. This is her part of the talk plus some photos of Good Neighbours users and volunteers

Chorlton Good Neighbours, 2007 video

This is part of a video shot in 2007 which describes the work of Chorlton Good Neighbours Care Group, Manchester. It focuses on the range of activities and services it offers to older people in the local community, and how how valued it is both by its users and its volunteers. It now caters to over 270 users and has over 70 volunteers

Christmas Party, Dec 2011

The Chorlton Good neighbours Chriustmas party was held on 4th Dec 2011. 

It featured the singing group the Sparklers