The GIY (Grow It Yourself) movement has really taken off here in Northern Ireland, and it was great to visit Sally Taylor’s place in Saintfield – the venue for a meeting of the South Down GIY group. Sally has combined a formal garden, retreat, allotments and an excellent venue in the form of her yurt, to create an amazingly peaceful and inspirational place. It was lovely to meet so many new people and share food and ideas.
Only a few days later and we were meeting more GIY people at an evening to create a new GIY Newcastle group. Once again we met more like minded folk, and after exchanging details we made arrangements to meet up.
It was then great to see Eugene appear in his landrover this afternoon, and proceed to help Bettina and I dig what is to become our new horizontal reedbed system. A job that I thought might take days is almost complete, and we had some good chat along the way.
This evening it is good to reflect on just how our adventures have brought us into contact with so many excellent folk. Watching the bonfire burn under a starry sky, with the ethereal sound of Bettina’s bagpipes coming from the truck, I am reminded just how very fortunate we are.
What a fantastic and encouraging post Steve. When I got my first allotment nearly 20 years ago. You would see loads of overgrown allotments and most of the tenants seemed to be over sixty and male. Now in 2012. There’s one hundred thousand people on the allotment waiting list in the UK. It’s great to read such an encouraging story.