www.storeygardens.org
THE FRIENDS NEWSLETTER
Issue No 21
November 2014
November in The Gardens
The November work session was devoted to clearing the land along the Meeting House
Lane wall, as there was mention of new palings being installed by the City Council to
keep people away from the long drop from the top of the wall. There were logs and
trunks of trees to be moved, the remains of the old palings,
and plenty of greenery from the all-enveloping ivy. The yews
have been cut back from the long steps leading into the
copper beech garden, revealing the newly refurbished urn
and giving a wonderful view of this
impressive approach to The
Gardens from Dallas Road – thank
you David Redmore and helpers for
opening up this aspect of The
Gardens. There were more signs of autumn in amongst the
dead leaves and undergrowth – shaggy parasol mushrooms,
which we were all given to understand were edible, but noone seemed keen to follow this up. Google, however,
endorses this view and gives several recipes – perhaps next
time. Late autumn raspberries were in evidence along with alpine strawberries, much to
the pleasure of young helpers. The newly
installed water-tanks were beginning to fill up,
and by the end of the month, both tanks were full
to the brim, allowing some of the accumulated
water to be used to flush out the tanks of
whatever noxious substance might have been
stored there earlier. The downpours affecting
the Light Up Lancaster event must have
contributed sizeably to filling of the tanks, so no
matter that the stewards ended up drenched (but more of that below). Sackfuls of
leaves were raked up from the grass and will no doubt make good mulch/compost. We
were doing our best to make sure that The Gardens looked their best for Light Up
Lancaster.
What’s on in the Hollygon
The poppies have now died away, but you could have had a fresh poppy in your
buttonhole on Remembrance Sunday if you’d wanted. Some tulips will be planted to
join with those which come up from last spring, and so far the bindweed has not been
too recurrent. Weeds are of course springing up, but they will not make much headway
at this time of year. Many thanks Fiona for keeping this small but prominent patch
under control.
Light Up Lancaster
Sue and Pete Flowers of Green Close put a tremendous
amount of work into making The Storey Gardens a magical
place to visit on the Friday evening of Light Up Lancaster –
flood-lit trees, clusters of tiny red lights to mark trip hazards
turning them into mysterious fires, glowing light balls
highlighting routes through The Gardens, and voices from the
past relating their memories of The Gardens echoing from key
points, including sound effects – the sound of a game of tennis
to accompany the anecdote about mowing the tennis court,
wailing of an air-raid siren near the area where air-raid shelters
had once been built. The lit-up copper beech had been
turned into a wishing tree, hosting all the wishes which Sue
and Pete have gathered together in their activities with
visitors to The Gardens. The Arboriculturalist’s Shed
became a mini-cinema for the evening, showing slides
which the schools involved in the project had put together to
illustrate the history of The Gardens. It was all wonderful.
The only un-wonderful feature of the evening was the
weather, which was unsettled all day, but looked as though it might remain dry for the
event, with a wavering moon gleaming through clouds. A little drizzle made us urn up
our collars but – “What’s a bit of drizzle?” – until it turned into a steady downpour, and
the ground underfoot became muddy and treacherous. We did remain open throughout
the advertised period, despite increasingly slippery terrain and continuing rain, and were
rewarded half-way through by a perfect view of Ripley School’s firework display – can
we co-ordinate this next year? Other Light Up Lancaster events closed because of the
weather, but not The Storey Gardens – at one time it seemed as though we were the
only game in town. Over 1100 visitors came through our gates that evening and all
were captivated. Many actually said that they liked it in the rain, and indeed the water
slanting through floodlit branches glittered and sparkled in and out of the light in quite a
mystical way.
We finally closed the event, dried out where possible and went off down to The Dukes
for a debrief in the company of warming drinks and pizza slices. I hope a similar event
can be built around The Gardens next year – and not just because of the mulled cider
and pizza.
The Green Christmas Fair
This was the other major event this month, with an opportunity for FoSG to raise
awareness about The Gardens (and some money). As it was our first entry into this
particular arena, we had only a small stall, but with more preparation we could probably
cope with a large stall on another occasion. We sold jams, jellies and mincemeat,
cakes and breads, jewellery, books and crafts and raised another £134 or thereabouts
for our funds. People took leaflets and chatted to us about the development of The
Gardens, joined the mailing list, offered activities (willow-weaving anyone? In the
kitchen garden at Sizergh Castle there is a large circular willow-woven carrot bed – how
cool is that? I don’t know if the carrots were any good, but the growing willow holding
them together was striking).
There is a great atmosphere at this fair and a chance to buy some interesting presents
for friends and family – far away from the usual High Street offering.
Next Meetings
The next work sessions will be on Sundays 7 December 2014 and 4 January 2015 in
The Gardens from 2.00-4.00pm and the next Group meeting will be held at 6.00pm on
Tuesday 9 December in the NICE cafe. Note the change of date – the Group meeting
of 9 December takes the place of the meetings of both 25 November and 23 December.
Our first Group meeting of the New Year will be on Tuesday 27 January 2015.
The next Newsletter will be out the weekend of 27 December and copy should be sent
to Sue on sue.widden@outlook.com by20 December (if you have nothing else to do on
that date).