Welcome to the SRT blog No. 45
19th March 2021 – Welcome to our blog post No. 45
This week we saw St. Patrick’s Day, the celebration of the patron saint of Ireland. The holiday has evolved into a celebration of Irish culture with parades, special foods, music, dancing, drinking and a whole lot of green.
Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated in more countries than any other national festival.
Since 2010, famous landmarks have been lit up in green on the 17th March as part of the “Going Green for St Patrick’s Day”. The Sydney Opera House and the Sky Tower in Auckland were the first landmarks to participate and since then over 300 landmarks in fifty countries across the globe have gone green for Saint Patricks day.
The Saint Patrick’s Day custom of “drowning the shamrock” or “wetting the shamrock” happens at the end of the celebrations. A shamrock is put into the bottom of a cup, which is then filled with whiskey, beer, or cider. It is drunk as a toast and the shamrock would either be swallowed with the drink or taken out and tossed over the shoulder for good luck.
The first St Patrick’s Day parade in Ireland was held in Waterford in 1903 and that’s when it also became an official public holiday. 
On Saint Patrick’s Day, it is customary to wear shamrocks, green clothing or green accessories.
Even Disney celebrate with Mickey wearing green….
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On Monday, Northchurch planted their early potatoes, underneath some black sheeting to hopefully, give them a warmer, head start.
The cats were enjoying the sun, when it came out, in front of the farm shop.
Hollie is making marigold seed paper. Shredded paper has had water added to it and been pulped and then the seeds have been added at this stage. This will then be drained through a tea towel, and then using her hands and a sponge flattened so that it as thin as possible to become a new piece of paper. These will be made into gift tags and when planted out in some soil or compost and watered in the seed will germinate – it’s been tested!.
Steph is making her first decoupage chicken having been away for a while. She’s very good at it!
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This week at the Activity Centre they have been……..making lots and lots of jam and chutney for the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show in July, and our farm shops.
Had lots of fun sawing Birch wood to make the word ‘Thank You’ for the Mayor, Terry Douris and then filming a short video to express our thanks. This is part of a presentation tonight at the Mayors Civic Reception, which is taking place online. It’s a celebration of his time in office – now 2 years because of the pandemic, and ends next month when the new Mayor for Dacorum is announced.
Been tidying around the compost areas near the allotments and wood, and turning the compost over.
We compost as much as we can at all the Sunnyside sites – from prunings to the waste coffee grinds at the café. This week is National Compost week.
This week it was Tim’s Birthday – Happy Birthday Tim! – and everyone celebrated with cake and tea after a hard days work.
The team have been out and about in Berkhamsted, maintaining the council’s flower beds, and weeding around the Church, keeping the green areas looking nice and smart.
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For St. Patrick’s Day, this year on Wednesday 17th March, Hemel were celebrating with bunting, cake, a quiz and crafting.
Mothers Day was last weekend and Katie got creative and made a lovely card for her MUM. Gorgeous!
The bedding plants were arriving this week and the teams were prepared to start potting up the plug plants as soon as they turned up. The pots were filled with compost beforehand and then set up, on the tables ready to be filled.
Lots of herbs have been grown and have now been potted up into mixed trays to sell from the farm shops.
A great garden re-furb took place this week in Rickmansworth. Nice and tidy now and ready to be planted.
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