Ceramics in Nature at Charleston

This blog post has been written by Lewes Community Allotment member Karine Wright. She and three other Allotment members are taking part in a two-day community involvement project at Charleston Farmhouse. Another member, Clare Rudeback, took the accompanying photographs

We are travelling through beautiful downland scenery on a sunny morning. Destination: Charleston Farmhouse, at the foot of the South Downs, famous home of infinitely creative members of the early/mid-twentieth century Bloomsbury Group. And the work of Quentin Bell, passionate Charleston potter -  among other talents - will be our inspiration for a day of nature-connected pottery.

As members of Lewes Community Allotment we are well aware of the wonderful benefits of working in nature with like-minded people. And Flourish, the umbrella project for the Allotment, has made it possible for us to extend this experience into a two-day course of Ceramics in Nature, facilitated by Lucy Bailey, Community Engagement Coordinator at Charleston Farmhouse, and led by artist and teacher Ruby Taylor (Native Hands).

Ruby, we soon discover, is a great talent in her chosen art, but also in the way she makes us feel comfortable in the group and inspires us to delve into our creativity to transform a natural material into our own work of art.

After briefly introducing ourselves and our expectations of the course, we are invited by Ruby to share a few minutes of meditation, a much-appreciated way to settle into action.

We are sitting around a table in Quentin Bell’s original pottery looking intently at a number of open kiln fired clay objects displayed before us. Our eyes and minds are making an exciting journey from fresh clay to finished shape ready for firing.  And the ball of local clay we hold in our hands is almost set to be sculpted. First it will need to be mixed with grog: pieces of fired clay, which we grind. It’s quite a noisy job and we move our working equipment through the studio doors into the garden to continue the grinding there in the open air. Next stage: grogging and wedging. Ruby guides us through this preparation of the clay, a relaxing, rhythmic movement, gradually incorporating the grog into the fresh clay until evenly mixed and air bubbles removed and the clay has the right consistency. All very important to reduce possible cracking during drying or in the open kiln.

For our finished work we decide on either pinch ball (thumb opening up the ball of clay and fingers of other hand guiding the wall into shape) or slab sculpting (we use a paper pattern on the rolled out clay to cut out components of a flower pot). All aided by a large number of tools offering the imprinting of an astonishing variety of shapes. A number of colours is on offer in the form of slip (liquid clay) for us to add paint effects to our sculpted object. And in Quentin Bell’s pottery there is inspiration of form and colour and design to add to our own creativity if we choose to.

Time to add last touches before we place our work gingerly on a board to dry in time for Day 2. Then we will be spreading further out into nature to forage materials for the group to build the kiln and prepare for the firing of our ceramic pieces. And, of course, our fervent hopes will be for our work to rise like a phoenix from the ashes.

It has been an exciting and fulfilling day. So many things to enjoy and learn. The freedom to roam in inspiring and calming surroundings when we felt like it; a delicious lunch and cups of tea and coffee or a glass of water, and much admirable support from Lucy Bailey and her colleagues. To have had the good fortune to work with an outstanding teacher and artist like Ruby Taylor is something to celebrate. Her unique input created a wonderful experience for all of us.

Fire & Feast video

Common Cause director Louise made a wonderful video of our recent Fire & Feast event at Lewes Community Allotment

Susannah's story

This is a short video made by Louise Hill-Hottinger about Susannah, one of Flourish's service users at Lewes Community Allotment. Susannah is going to Plumpton College in September 2016 to begin their supported internship programme.

Summer Fire & Feast with Sophie Orloff

We combined two events in one on Wednesday 27 July at Lewes Community Allotment. Local chef Sophie Orloff came to show the group how to cook vegetables from the allotment in an outdoor setting. But since this was also the last session before the summer break, we combined this with an end of year 'fire and feast' celebration with all of those who have been coming throughout this first year that our project Flourish has been running.

We'd been having lot of lovely sunny weather, but on this morning, the sun hid from us and it was a bit breezy, with an occasional shower. But Allotment Co-ordinator Sarah had set up the tarpaulin to enable partial shelter, and we got the fire going in the firepit no problem.

The group from St Nicholas Day Centre arrived with their support worker, plus some members came. We were pleased to meet a new person, Mary, who wanted to see what we do.

Common Cause director Topsy fired-up the recently repaired bread oven. As she did this, Sophie sent the group to pick and pod peas, so we could make pea bread (literally, bread dough she had brought mixed with fresh peas! The idea had come  from something Sophie had seen about ancient bread recipes using peas). Allotment member (and bread maker) Susan helped make the rolls.

Some people picked edible flowers with Sarah for the salad, plus some herbs for some potato salad. In the meantime, Sophie showed the group how to make two kinds of fritters  - one from grated courgette, and one from grated carrot and parsnip. In both cases she asked the group to help her mix the veg with flour, eggs and salt and pepper to season.

Topsy put the bread rolls into the oven and Sophie started frying the fritters in oil over the open fire. She also made a chard omelette. Emma worked with some of the group to mix fresh herbs and dressing into the potato salad, carrot and parsnip salad and green salad. We added the flowers to that and they looked beautiful.

More visitors arrived. We were delighted to welcome friends and family of the St Nicholas clients, as well as other Allotment Members.

Lots of people brought food to share including a pizza pastry, a tray of wonderful cupcakes and a moist beetroot and chocolate cake.We all enjoyed our delicious shared lunch and the weather even perked up!

There were about twenty of us in the end. It was a lovely event, and wonderful to see everyone enjoying themselves.Thanks to Sophie for an excellent job under challenging circumstances and for some delicious food. Thanks to Topsy for excellent fire-tending, and to Sarah for organising everything. And thanks everyone who came.

Emma Chaplin, Project Manager

Read more about Flourish here

Watercolour workshop with Ruth Baker

Nine regular Lewes Community Allotment clients attended a special plant and wildlife-themed art session that Flourish organised to take place on Wednesday 20 July. This was run by Ruth Baker, a local watercolour artist. The art class was held at the St Nicholas Day Centre instead of our allotment, because of the extremely hot weather. This was useful in terms of spreading out and being able to change water frequently.

Things we learnt

Some people had tried watercolours before, but not with a trained artist.

Ruth started by explaining about the three primary colours - red, blue and yellow. Participants painted a shape of their choice in each colour, using water to add tone.

We then put dots of two primary colours next to each other and merged them to make secondary colours. All results were different depending on how much water was used, but the lovely thing was that there was no wrong results!

We used a water dropper, and people developed skills and confidence using watercolour paints and brushes.

When people felt a bit more confident about mixing the colours, we went on to paint colour was boxes and flicked red dots onto one, then drew green lines down from the dots to make simple but effective flower pictures. On the other box we painted a darker wash in a hill shape - again, all were different, but all were right, which felt good for all.

This was a very good exercise in building people’s confidence of choice (shapes, amount of colour/water, sizes) and those who were hesitant to start were much happier to put the brush to paper by the end.

People helped each other with changing water, cleaning plates, squeezing paint etc.

We went outside at break and had a look at things that could be painted another time.

Ruth spoke about her painting, how long it takes, how she sells work, showed examples and postcards, to give an insight into life as a painter.

People showed a lot of interest and asked lots of questions. Everyone enjoyed the session.

Words and photos by Sarah Rideout, Lewes Community Allotment Coordinator

Bug hunting with Michael Blencowe

Wed 29 June 2016

We had a special event for our Wednesday allotment morning group (which includes clients from the St Nicholas Day Centre in Lewes, as well as other allotment members). There were fifteen of us in total.

Community Wildlife Officer for Sussex Wildlife  Michael Blencowe came along with a bag of tricks to help us hunt for and identify bugs on the allotment. He also did a walking tour looking for signs of summer, and told us a bit about his job.

Michael's Talk

First, Michael told the group about the history of the landscape around us, how the South Downs came to be as we know them now, with the variety of wildlife that we now have. Grazing sheep have played a part in it - but millions of years ago, Lewes was under the sea. The chalk under our feet is made up of the crushed bones of long-dead animals - including dinosaurs. He showed us pictures to help us understand.

Bug Hunting

Because this was a summer visit to our allotment, Michael said he had hoped to show us butterflies and hoverflies - but the cold, breezy weather meant there weren't many to be seen.

Michael gave out plastic tubs and spoons to everyone to pick up insects. He also showed us about his new toy, a glass tube or 'pooter' he had brought along for sucking up bugs for us to examine. We all felt a bit horrified at the idea of sucking up a bug and swallowing it, but he said that didn't happen :).

He talked about different habitats for insects - there are lot of insects in long grass, and in the nettles. He had a net he wafted in the long grass to collect insects.

These he tipped into a white tray on the table in the shelter, and everyone picked the bugs he'd caught with their spoons and put them in their tubs. Michael then sucked them up in his pooter so we could identify them. We saw a hopper (Michael explained how amazingly far they hop - if we could do the same, we could hop from the allotment to Lewes!), wood lice, flies and a brown-lipped snail.

Rather to our surprise, Michael leapt onto the compost heap and wafted his net in the nettle bush behind. The bugs he caught, he then tipped into a tray in the shelter. Everyone scooped them into their tubs and he sucked them up again in the pooter. We saw an ant, flies, and more snails.

Michael showed us what he explained was another new toy - a fold-out 'beating net' - which looked like a big, square umbrella.We pretended it WAS an umbrella for this photo:

The beating net is for finding insects who live on leaves in the trees. He held it up under a tree, banged the branches, and various insects fell into the net.

He then tipped these into the tray for identification as before. We spotted a young harlequin ladybird and a pupating ladybird, some beetles, plus some flies.

Michael answered questions anyone in the group had.

We then released all the bugs we'd caught.

Signs of Summer

Then we did a walk around the allotment to look for signs of summer. Michael admired our new lovely new shed.

The signs of summer that we all spotted and recorded on our walk were:

• Lots of flowers blooming, including marigolds, poppies, lavender, fox gloves and ox-eye daisies. Allotment members Felicity Ann and Susannah helped us identify some of those
• We saw some bees buzzing around the flowers, and Michael told us that bees waggle their bums to keep warm when it's cold
• We saw and identified different fruit that is not yet ripe - including apples, gooseberries, redcurrants, raspberries and strawberries
• We saw and identified shallots, peas and broad beans
• We saw and heard some birds and Michael talked about how some birds come from below the equator in the summer in search of a warmer climate with insects to eat. They fly thousands of miles.
• We saw an ants nest - yellow meadow ants - and Michael told us that ants move their eggs into the sun to keep them warm - when there IS sun

Being a Community Wildlife Officer

Then we went back to the covered shelter for a drink.

Michael talked a little about his job and what he likes about it. He said:

"To do my job I need to be able to engage with different sorts of people, children and adults. As a little boy, I spent lots of time in the wild. You have to like working outdoors - there is a lot of walking - which keeps you fit - but you have to like that."

Michael said he doesn't work alone, he sometimes works with Park Rangers and National Park Rangers, which he enjoys.

What We Learnt

At the end of the morning, we asked people what they had learnt:

We learnt about daisies Michael told us about bugs Micheal told us about wildlife We saw that you can bang on trees to get bugs

We thanked Michael for coming and for a lovely morning, even if it hadn't really been a very summery day!

Emma Chaplin

Allotment safety & manual handling training with James

27 April 2016, Lewes Community Allotment

James Aldcroft from Square Lemon Training came to talk to nine of us about how to lift things safely in our work at the allotment and how to take care of ourselves..

What we learnt

If something you’re doing hurts, stop what you’re doing. Talk to your key worker or a member of staff - ask for help and tell someone what happened.

Your lower back is the most vulnerable part of your back – it acts like a lever on a see-saw when you lift something - James showed us this with this rather fine moveable model

It's best to wear sensible shoes or boots to protect toes (from digging your fork in, for example, or dropping something heavy on your foot). Be careful of your fingers. Pay attention to the back of neck, knees and shoulders. What can cause damage is accumulative stress – repetitive movements.

James told us about T.I.L.E.

TASK-INDIVIDUAL-LOAD- ENVIRONMENT

 T - Task

eg weeding

We discussed that this could involve a lot of repetitive bending – so the best thing to do is to get yourself in a comfy position on the ground. Use a kneeling mat to protect your knees.

Think about what you need to do your task and get all of it ready and near to you - like chefs do. For example, get your fork handy, and if you’ve got a wheelbarrow or bucket for weeds, put it where you are before you kneel.

Don't do lots of repetitive twists because they aren't good for your back.

When you turn when standing, try to turn your whole body with your feet rather than twisting at the waist and stretching your back.

Another Task at the allotment might be planting – and similarly to weeding - gather what you need close to you - fork or trowel, watering can, and the plants themselves.

I  - INDIVIDUAL

The height & size of person & their strength, whether they've got an injury or disability, a hernia for example.

If you’re doing a two-person lift, try to pair similar-sized people

L - LOAD

Look at your load, ie the thing you’re going to lift before you lift it – assess it. How full it is and what's in it?

Assess the weight before you lift. Get a good grip from the bottom of the object, if there’s no handle. You don't want it to slip.

Lifting safely - bend from your knees not your back, using your thigh muscles.

When you’re lifting - get up close to the object and hold it against your body. Wear old clothes so you don’t mind.

Keep your head straight. Chin down, relax.

A full watering can and a full bucket can be heavy – use a wheelbarrow to move them where you can.

A good wheelbarrow has good hand grips and inflatable tyres

Halve the size of a heavier load.

E - Environment

You’re more likely to hurt yourself when it's cold, icy wet and raining and you hold yourself more tightly.

It's a good idea to do little stretches when you get to allotment. It adds to wellbeing - warming up- awareness of how you feel.

Be aware that things are heavier when wet.

Lighting effects people and how safe they are – when it’s dark or gloomy, you’re more likely to trip and slip.

Key lesson of the session: think in advance what you're about to do – plan it, don’t rush and assess what you’re doing and you’re less likely to hurt yourself

Thank you James!

Emma Chaplin 

New shed at Lewes Community Allotment

Much as we've loved our old shed, it's very old and getting past its prime, so the great news is that we've been putting up a new shed at our allotment, which is going to be brilliant. We've grateful to Lewes Town Council for their support with this. Here it is going up last week

Open Events - come & meet us!

If you're interested in finding out more about what we do, we will be running a number of open events over the next few months.

Drop-in sessions at Baulcombes Barn

Farmer and therapist Owena Lewis will be offering taster sessions on her smallholding at Hamsey.

If you might be interested, drop Emma an email flourishlewes@gmail.com

Lewes Community Allotment Open Drop-in Sessions

Our regular open sessions at the Lewes Community Allotment take place on the last Saturday of every month from 2-4pm, from March-November. We're based up the Nevill.

Meet co-ordinator Sarah Rideout, have a tour of the allotment, see if you might be interested in coming along regularly to spend some time outside, learning about gardening and growing food in good company.

Contact Sarah on flourishloap@gmail.com

LOAP allotment planning meeting 2016

Around 20 LOAP members came along to the Sanctuary at the St Nicholas Day Centre for an allotment planning meeting on 3 February 2016 to discuss what to plant this year. LOAP co-ordinator Sarah Rideout facilitated the session, and also present were St Nick's support worker Bisi Alaba and Flourish project manager Emma Chaplin.

Sarah began by explaining that the purpose of the meeting was to look at what to grow and do at the allotment during 2016.

She said the best way to do that would be to discuss what had grown well in the last year at the allotment, think about what didn't do so well and why, which would help everyone to think about what they'd like to be grown on the allotment this year.

She had brought along a large box of seeds and seed catalogues for people to look at, as well as planning plans to be completed.

Sarah also had some big sheets pinned up with pictures showing possible special session ideas (willow weaving, bird box making, bee-keeping, storytelling, mosaics, outdoor cooking, manual handling and food hygiene) so everyone could let her know what they found most interesting. 

Emma spoke to the group briefly as a reminder of what Flourish is, and how the different parts of Flourish (Baulcombes Barn and Ringmer Community Orchard) all fit together. She had brought along some leaflets and photos. She mentioned the Project User Group, mentioned that met for the first time before Christmas, and told everyone the next meeting will be held at LOAP in March. She hopes lots of LOAP members will come along to it to meet other project users.

What grew well this year

Pumpkin - although best not orange, they can get stolen before Halloween.

Big red beetroot and leeks. Garlic. Chard. Perpetual spinach. Carrots.

Mizuna. Corn salad. Achocha. Tomatoes (before blight arrived).

Herbs around bed edges. Soil improvement - compost and manure.

What didn't grow so well this year (and why)

Tomatoes  - too close to each other?

Structures a bit rickety, could be better

Beans - not many

Radish and strawberries - problems with lots of woodlice

Need more pest protection and successional sowing (peas, salads)

What people want to grow this year

Veg

Easier:

Garlic, carrots, purple ones (heritage seed). Shallots and or red onions, spring onions, salad potatoes, spring and other cabbage, non orange pumpkins, squashes, pattypans, peas, tomatoes (plum, cherry), courgettes, cucumber, spring greens, parsnips, perpetual spinach, chard, celeriac, mizuna, purple frilly brussels sprouts, kales, salad leaves, land cress, pak choi, rocket.

Harder:

Sweet potato, asparagus, aubergine, kohl rabi, chilli peppers.

Fruit

Grapes, plums, strawberries, cherries.

Flowers

More edible flowers - nasturtiums, marigolds, borage, violas etc. Water iris, sweet peas, poppies, sunflowers (multi-head and red), bee and butterfly flowers, cottage garden flowers.

Herbs

Plants to make tea eg chamomile, lemon balm, peppermint etc.

Chives, parsley, thyme, more herb bed edges.

Companion planting, dandelions, milk thistle, calendula.

In general - fewer potatoes and onions as these don't cost much in the shops.

Extra activities feedback:

Topic and Number of votes 

Story telling 6

Outdoor cooking (bread oven) 9

Hazel weaving 6

Making bird boxes 7

Making mosaics 7

Bee-keeping 3

Safe lifting/manual handling and food hygiene, with certificates 12

Extra suggestions (that incur costs):

Making a book that we could all design - recipes (some gluten free), photos and drawings of allotment, done by St Nicks group (or all)Extra suggestions (that would need money):

• Invest in plant protection/structures/cloches etc.
• Making bunting for the allotment
• Buy plastic trug buckets colour coded for different things
• New benches to be made by St Nicks craft group
• Crop rotation plans colour coded plus coloured ribbons on beds to match
• Planning calendar
• Blackboard for task list
• Extra shelter for cold/wet weather plus seating
• Kettle, pans and trivet for the fire
• New boards/deck for pond area

Extra suggestions (that don’t need money):

• More birdwatching
• Make cold drinks at allotment with fruit and veg
• Sharing recipe ideas
• Foraging edible weeds/wild plants and fruits eg rosehips
• Learning more about composting, green manures, making natural plant feeds, generally improving soil
• More adventurous cooking - courgette flowers in batter
• Fluorescent strips on tool handles to make them easier to see

Maggie's video - Flight XVII Zero

We'd like to share this beautiful 15 minute  video called Flight XVII Zero made by LOAP volunteer and artist Maggie Lambert. She describes it as being "A future scenario of a possible world where people can immerse themselves in the landscape and colours and make their own journey".  

Fire and Christmas Feast at LOAP

Wednesday 16 December

It was a blustery day. Various tasks were done, such as planting corn salad (above), and weeding.

Then we stopped for a fire and a Christmas feast. The weather felt a bit mild for just before Christmas, but that didn't stop us having a wonderful time and enjoying the cracking fire. People had come along with food to share. There were delicious sausage rolls, a beautiful pumpkin from the allotment, some wonderful pumpkin scones, vibrant red cabbage slaw and mince pies galore! Bisi had made some blinis with rosemary from the allotment and smeared them with cream cheese.

Sarah, sporting an excellent penguin hat, toasted pumpkin seeds over the fire and added tamari, which is a kind of soy sauce. They were very tasty. We also had marshmallows that we toasted on hazel twigs.

We finished the morning and the feast  by singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas and we do indeed wish EVERYONE a merry and peaceful Christmas and a very Happy New Year from Flourish.

Sarah's regular Wednesday morning LOAP allotment drop-in will be back in January 2016.

EC

Hibernation with Michael Blencowe

It's always a pleasure to welcome Michael Blencowe from the Sussex Wildlife Trust. Recently, he visited our Wednesday morning group at LOAP, the allotment, to talk about what creatures do in winter - such as hibernate. He showed us how to create tightly-packed tubes that insects can use in the winter. We also moved our lovely new hedgehog house to a quieter spot in the allotment.