Blog

Explore what we do throughout the year at Newfields

Arts and Crafts Summer Allotment Project

July - August 2021

The easing of COVID restrictions is bringing us closer together.

Everybody worked together on our mini allotment project. Here is Baljinder painting some punpkim seeds we saved from Halloween

Craig coloured in his paper avatar for his allotment and he made the fences and painted the bird box.

The Finished Allotments!

Summer at Newfields

Throughout the growing season at Newfields we do gardening jobs for people who are unable to do their own gardening due to disability or ill health. Many of our gardening customers are still shielding because of the pandemic. The photos below show how everyone at Newfields is involved in the work we do to help others.

We grow all our plants from seeds and cuttings and we look after them in the greenhouse

When they are ready we sell them in the shop. However, the shop is closed this year due to COVID.

Lots of our gardening customers are still shielding, so they haven't been able to get out to gardening centres.

We take our shop plants with us when we do gardens so our customers get a chance to buy some new plants

One of our customers wanted to update her ornamental well with a new coat of paint and some flowers.

We painted the well for her as she wasn't able to get out to do it herself

Once the paint had dried we planted Geraniums all around the well

This is what the well looked like once we had finished.

It feels really good to use our skill and strength to help other people, especially those who are still isolated in their own homes.

Spring Re-opening - April 2021

After another three months of lockdown, we have re-opened in time for spring. Now that all our staff and clients have been vaccinated, we are able to have more people back and are delighted to welcome back some who we haven't seen for a year.

We are still taking all the necessary precautions. They have become second-nature to us all now as we have spent the last year finding ways to work together whilst avoiding the health risks posed by COVID. Our clients have adapted really well and are very happy to be back working with us.

There is lots to do! The seedlings need looking after in the green house so they can get strong enough to be planted in the outdoor beds. Barry and Alison have been hard at work this afternoon pricking out the onions. We all look forward to harvesting them later in the year.

Surviving Lockdown... Again!

Despite the fact that we are in lockdown again we are keeping in contact with our Newfields Gardeners via the telephone and Zoom. Once again we would like to celebrate the efforts of our gardeners and their carers and family members to get through this difficult time. Below are some pictures our gardeners have sent us of things they have been doing to keep themselves going.

Pets have been a great comfort throughout the lockdown!

Although Nicholas hasn't been able to race his Huskies Akila and Blaze since the COVID crisis began, they are still readily available for cuddles and walks.

A good way to keep busy is to learn a new skill. Carol has been learning to knit and her practice is really paying off for she knitted herself a hat and this awesome jumper for her teddy.

Nicholas is a talented artist as well as a dedicated gardener here at Newfields. He has kept himself busy working on a comic he is creating. Here is a page of his character design work.

Baljinder has been passing the time in the kitching cooking up a range of delicious foods including egg muffins and the tasty-looking blueberry muffins you see here.

Christmas at Newfields 2020

In December our Newfield's Gardeners have been busy making Christmas decorations. We decided to have a Christmas decorate-off between the mess room bubble and the art room bubble and we showed each other and our gardeners still at home over Zoom. Everyone was able to vote for the room they like the best.

This month we collected everybody's Christmas cards and delivered them along with a Christmas gift bag for everyone. We hope that all our gardeners like their presents.
We included pictures of our festive decorations in the newsletter so those who don't use the internet can have a vote on the Christmas decorate-off as well.

To mitigate the increased risk of COVID infection over the the holiday period, we are following SCC's advice and reopening on Monday 11th January 2021 .
We look forward to seeing our gardeners again in the New Year

Winter Wonderland!

Christine and her bubble turned the art room into a winter wonderland complete with animals made from pinecones, angels made from old books and Christmas trees made our of pasta.

Craig made this amazing paper mache snowman for the winter wonderland.

Let it Snow!

Alison and the mess room bubble hung clouds of snowflakes and icicles from the rafters, drew a giant Olaf the snowman and cut down a tree from the garden to use for a Christmas tree.

Carol and Tom worked hard to make these adorable paper robins to dot around the mess hall.

Halloween 2020

Autumn in the Garden

Harvesting Potatoes

In October Tom and Alison have been busy in the garden digging up the potatoes. Harvesting potatoes is one of the best jobs in the garden. It's very exciting finding a potato hiding in the soil.

Halloween Zoom

Sock Monster Creations

It was great to get everyone together, both here at the centre and via Zoom, to make the sock monsters. Those of you who couldn't attent the Zoom sent photos of your creations. They are excellent! Can you find your sock monster here?

Autumn in the Art Room

Halloween

We would like to thank everyone who took part in October's Halloween activity. Christine and her team did a great job of making the art room look spooky this October. Daniel donated some of his prize-winning pumpkins to us for decoration. This made for a great setting for our Halloween Zoom sessions.

We are all looking forward to the coming Christmas festivities