With the arrival of spring, our projects are flourishing!
The improvement in the weather has allowed us to resume meetings of our gardening projects and in the past few weeks we have created an orchard of 2 cherry, 2 apple and 1 pear tree, supplied by Dandara, at Staines-upon-Thames station. Trees and labour were supplied by stalwart volunteers who also helped clear and dig to plant a small area of native hedging. On March 8th (11am-1pm) the Incredible Edible crew will be planting vegetable seeds at Grassroots, Egham. Grassroots will look after the seedlings and once established, we will plant out at the four schools we are working with. The allotment has had some new wood chip replaced on the paths and is all set for planting. Regular meetings will resume from the 22nd of March.
Our Community Fridge team, says goodbye, with much love, to our leader B, to whom we wish the very best. We also welcome Cecilia who will now take the reins running this beautiful project.
Our Full Circle Fashion vintage pop-up continues its work to involve the community in the recycling of products from the fashion industry.
Led by Janet, our SEWcial sessions (every 2nd Saturday in the month) are growing in popularity with regular newcomers coming along for a friendly gathering and to learn how to repair clothing items using our bank of sewing machines. Team SEWcial, is planning a ‘ Talking Tree community quilt’ which will celebrate all of Talking Tree’s initiatives, with input from our group, our sewing specialists and involving the general public as part of the first THRIVE festival June 7th – 15th.
Our REFILL shop is stocking some new products and scents: conditioner bars (at £10.00 each), shampoo bars (at £7 each) and shampoo bar samples (at £3 each). All new products are from the Peace with the Wild brand and are a welcome addition to the refill service, which is going from strength to strength.
Our sustainable café continues to offer delicious homemade soups and pastries using seasonal ingredients, allowing us to reduce food waste.
In 2024, our volunteers at the Bike Kitchen project helped to repair and put into circulation more than 20 bicycles, and additionally helped 18 customers to repair their own bicycles. For this year we are already preparing for the season with more bicycles for sale in our window.
THANKS, as ever, to our wonderful volunteers who make all this fantastic work happen.