St Ninian's & St Clement's, Catholic Churches Together
The Garden Gang have been working away every Thursday in rain, hail and sunshine, ensuring the Mary Garden is kept in good shape, the garden produce is fed and harvested and flowers picked for CC’s and the altar. They also have a rota for watering the gardens to ensure our lovely flowers and plants don’t dehydrate :). Thank you Garden Gang!
Last week we had a bumper crop of strawberries, thanks to the dedication of our fabulous Garden Gang and of course, Mother Nature who provided the sun and rain (a lot). Brian was our official taster and with the help of his trusty ‘sidekick’ Jim, picked 3kg of strawberries which have now been made into jam. This will be served very soon as an accompaniment to scones as part of the Afternoon Tea menu.
On Monday evening 19th June, the group who had attended Jim Ashwood’s very interesting and entertaining talks about the American Civil Rights, met for a fun evening of chat, quiz and refreshments. Jim had encouraged them to dress up or bring along something with an American theme, and as you can see from the photos, they certainly all rose to the occasion.
Winter is over, we hope, so ‘stovies, no more!’ Thursday past, saw the return of our very popular monthly afternoon tea which is always fully subscribed. We are very fortunate that we have a wonderful group of volunteers, willing to give up their time, to prepare and serve our lovely customers.
Every little blue token certainly helped us! Our parish was one of the local causes chosen by Tesco for their community award scheme and after a huge effort by all connected to St Ninian’s in amassing those little blue tokens, we came second after Shelter.
We are very grateful to Allison, the Community Champion and her team at Riverside. They are hugely supportive of us. The money will be used to buy furniture for CC’s, our community cafe in the church hall, which we run every Thursday.
The cafe is proving very popular with people making it a regular lunchtime date in their diary every week.
Throughout Lent all the money we are raising is being sent to the Turkish/Syrian Earthquake Appeal.
Huge thanks to Tesco and to our CC’s regulars. Every little donation they are making is helping us serve our local community.
There was a lot going on at St Ninian’s today. While the Garden Gang were causing chaos- oops, sorry I mean they were dismantling the Crib, CC’s was also a hive of activity. On the menu today was a choice of not 1, not 2 but 3 delicious soups! The customers were spoilt for choice with lentil, spicy parsnip or minted pea and spinach to warm them up on a cold January day.
We are very fortunate to have such a great team of volunteers from St Ninian’s and St Clement’s.
Our monthly soup and stovies deal is proving to be popular with our customers. All the vegetables we used were the produce of our church garden, tenderly nurtured by our Garden Gang.
The little we had left over, we offered as a takeaway- ideal for people living on their own.
We are very fortunate to have a great team of volunteers willing to help with the prep, serving and clearing up. Thank you!
It’s been some time since we’ve shared news about what’s happening at CC’s and in the garden. There’s always something going on every Thursday! Here’s a flavour……
The Garden
This Thursday was a beautiful Autumn day which was ideal for bulb and wild seed planting. Once again, Allison, the Community Champion from Tesco Riverside came up trumps with bulbs for us! She is a real champion! Liz and Louise didn’t waste any time in getting them in the ground.
Meanwhile, Jim and the 2 Brians worked at tidying the area at the side of the house where Storm Arwin had reeked havoc and felled a tree. This area next Spring will hopefully be full of wild flowers and a haven for bees, butterflies and other pollinators as a result of their hard work.
CC’s (our Community Cafe)
Our lunchtime customers were offered the choice of Leek and Potato or Courgette and Minted Pea soup. For ‘seconds’, a toastie or a cheese scone? Decisions, decisions….
After the food and a chat, there was an unexpected bonus when John, a new visitor to the cafe demonstrated an enjoyable gentle form of exercise.
