Tag Archives: wellbeing

Volunteer Stories – Katie

Katie used to volunteer at Southmead Hospital, helping with the teas and coffees and befriending service. Unfortunately all that stopped with Covid 19. So in November Katie came and volunteered at the farm. She absolutely loves it!

Volunteering at the farm helps with her mental health – she’s made new friends and she loves being outdoors. She loves doing everything from mucking out to grooming goats. There is nothing she dislikes, even the rain. She loves the relaxing pace of working on the farm, and how friendly and welcoming everyone is.

Since starting at the farm, Katie has also joined the Walking Group on Wednesday afternoons, and the Knit and Natter group on Tuesday mornings. She is up for trying anything!

Katie and her first go at crochet

Volunteer Story – Amy

Amy started volunteering with us in 2017. She was studying Level 1 Animal Care at City of Bristol College and as part of that course she needed 150 hours work experience. After she’d completed them all she decided to continue volunteering at the farm as she enjoyed coming so much. She also went on to get a job with Bristol Pet Stop and was really inspired by her manager there to begin her own business.

This summer she started up her own animal care business – Peachy Dog Walking & Pet Services. She not only does dog walking and cat and dog sitting, but care for more exotic pets too, such as reptiles. Business has been great with enquiries all the time, and she now has a waiting list! She says currently her most unusal job is taking care of a parrot.

Eventually Amy would like to own her own kennels.

Volunteer Story Ellie

Ellie

Ellie volunteered with us for many years as a young teenager, and when she was taking her Animal Care course. She went on to volunteer and eventually work at Bristol Zoo. She then went for a job at Puxton Park in Somerset. When she was asked at her interview about her animal handling experience, Ellie described her work at Lawrence Weston Community Farm and the zoo. They gave her a practical assessment – handling a type of lizard called an Agama – and she got the job as Animal Keeper!

Ellie absolutely loves her role as Animal Keeper!

Recently Ellie collected some of our eggs to hatch at Puxton Park. When they started hatching out of their shells they looked very cute!

They grew very quickly and are already nearly big enough to join our main flock. This means that in the Spring, we will have lots of eggs for sale.

Volunteer Stories

Clive

Clive first came to the farm about 5 years ago for a Woodland Wellbeing course. He had been stuck in his flat for 4 years due to ill health, and was feeling pretty despairing. The doctor’s surgery recommended the farm to him, so he came along to Woodland Wellbeing. He absolutely loved it! Clive was very happy to be social with other people again, and he loved being outdoors and enjoyed learning new things.

Clive in the woodland

When Talking Tables began, Clive signed up for the first one.  He loved every aspect of Talking Tables – the social side, the cooking, trying out new foods and experimenting.  It was a lot of fun. Clive became a lead volunteer for this project and assisted Kerry in the kitchen, helping to serve up some delicious creations.

Clive whipping up an amazing culinary creation

When the Walking Group started up, Clive also joined this.  Again, he loved being outdoors and socialising with a great group of people. He also takes part in Herbs for Health as he loves growing plants.  He really believes in using fresh produce and how beneficial it is to grow food yourself if possible. 

Coming to the farm has massively improved Clive’s life. He says he doesn’t feel shut off anymore.  It has also given him the confidence to try other things, for example he has been studying with an on line herbal course. Clive has an allotment, where he grows lots of vegetables. He says that coming to the farm led to a huge improvement in his self esteem and self confidence which helped him take on the role of Site Rep for his allotment site.  

The only bit that Clive is not too keen on is when it rains on the walking group – but even then he doesn’t mind too much.

Clive says that the farm is a great place to escape your woes – come down and have a walk around, it can really help you feel better.

Walking group in the sun
The Walking Group with Clive

Volunteer Stories

Rowan has been volunteering at the farm for 2 years. She had some free time and wanted to volunteer, but it was important to her to do something physical, healthy and outside. She used to visit with her children when they were younger, and so thought that the farm would be ideal.

Rowan thinks the best part about volunteering here is is meeting new people and being outside in the fresh air.

The worst bit was during a cold spell in the winter and her trousers froze!

Rowan volunteering with her boys.

Volunteering has improved Rowan’s physical and mental wellbeing a lot. She says that it is really nice to have a connection to a place and the people in it. She also values the opportunity to have learnt not to be frightened of animals and learn where food comes from. Rowan and her family also really enjoyed looking after the cockerel on the right of the picture. He was the only chick that hatched from a batch of eggs the farm was hatching. So Rowan took him home and reared him with her boys. When he was older he was introduced to our general flock of hens. Now he is a handsom strapping cockerel.

Rowan’s boys are members of the 26th Bristol Scouts and Beavers who have taken part in lots of fundraising for the farm by doing activities such as cake sales. They raised the money to buy one of our current breeding sows and got to name her – Spotty.

Rowan’s boys love coming down in the holidays, and they say the best bit is helping out, mucking out and of course, the chickens!

What’s been happening this Spring?

Lots of fun, creativity and learning on the Farm!

We’ve run several very successful workshops and courses on the farm this spring, as well as some lovely free family activites during the Easter Holidays.

The Woodland Skills course took place on Mondays earlier in the year. This has been great fun and the participants have been learning lots of interesting and traditional skills, including basket making, firelighting and shelter building. They also carried out important work maintaining and improving the woodland.

Kerry ran a peg loom weaving workshop where people learnt to weave a simple wool rug using raw fleece from our own Jacob sheep. These little rugs can be very useful, providing a warm, waterproof seat anywhere – so ideal to take on walks and camping.

The Spring Tonics and Superfoods workshop was blessed with fantastic sunny weather. Participants were taken on a short walk around the farm, looking at everyday plants that are full of nutrients and healing, learning about their history and modern uses. Many of these plants were then tried as teas. They then made a herbal vinegar to take home.

In the Easter Holidays we had our Family Fun Day, with Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. There were lots of great activities in the Water Vole Woodland, including mud prints, nest building and clay bird making.

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The Get Growing afternoon was extremely popular, with lots of people planting seeds and decorating pots. The legendary Easter Egg Hunt on Easter Saturday was as busy as ever with people hunting for clues all around the farm.

All in all a very busy spring! In the coming months we can look forward to Spoon Making, Fire Lighting, Leaf Printing, Herbal First Aid, and new sessions of Talking Tables, Introduction to Volunteering and Herbs for Health. Our Gardening Club, Walking Group and Farm Tots run all year round. Please see our website or Facebook page for more details.

Volunteer Stories

Lee has been volunteering with us since May of this year.  He first came to the farm to take part in the Introduction to Volunteering Course, that we run a couple of times a year. Lee was referred by Headway, an organisation based in Frenchay that supports people with brain injuries.

Lee also started coming along to our Walking Group on Wednesdays, he then started volunteering three days a week.  Lee is always here bright and early no matter what the weather is like, as he really enjoys getting the animals out in the morning. Lee loves to keep busy and meeting people so volunteering on the farm is very beneficial for him.  Working outdoors, with the animals and nature, and being part of a team has greatly improved his wellbeing.  Lee says that he ‘loves helping people enjoy their free time.’  Volunteering at the farm has given his life some structure and focus, and the opportunity to meet lots of different people,  including those with different needs than him. 

Lee’s plans for the future include getting a part time job. 

What’s been happening this summer on the Farm

There has been a great deal of focus in the media recently, on the widespread problem of isolation and loneliness and how this can also effect our health. It has also been widely reported that being outside in nature can dramatically improve our mood and wellbeing.  The Farm always aims to address both these pressing issues within our community.  Simply coming down and having a walk around, or volunteering for a morning a week,can really help with these issues.

Over the last few months we have been running several exciting activities at the farm – Talking Tables, a Walking Group and Woodland Skills. These are all focused on the tremendous health and wellbeing benefits of doing things together with other people, and being outside in nature.

Talking Tables is funded by Bristol Aging Better and organised by LinkAge Network. It is a city wide project taking place with 3 of the city farms, St Werburghs, Windmill Hill and us. It takes place in the café and is an opportunity for people over 50 to get together and share cooking ideas, techniques and recipies.  This project is aimed at people who perhaps would like to boost their confidence around cooking, or who enjoy the sociability of cooking and eating together.  Cooking and eating with people is one of the fundamental pleasures of life, and there is always a great deal of laughter and fun at a Talking Tables session. 

The Walking Group has been running on Wednesday afternoons since the beginning of the summer.  Anyone can come along and enjoy a social walk around the farm and surrounding land.  This area is a surprisingly rich wildlife habitat with lots of interesting plants and birds.  It has been really brilliant to watch the changing of the seasons as they have unfolded, every walk has new delights.

Woodland Skills is a successful course that has been run several times in the tranquil Watervole Woodland. Funded by Learning Communities Team, this course provides a safe space for people to learn hands on skills in a supportive and relaxed environment. Working together in a group outdoors greatly improves people’s wellbeing and mood.  Tactile skills such as weaving and using tools are a great counterbalance to the screen based lives many of us have today. It has been shown that creating something with our hands is very good for our mental health and reduces stress and anxiety.

    

 

Memories Cafe

Our Memories Cafe has been running for a few weeks now, and lots of fun has been had!  Each week features a different activity, a walk round the farm and tea and cake – yum.

People arrive on the LW Community Bus – this is available to anyone over 55 who lives in Lawrence Weston. Then there is the opportunity to walk around the farm, getting some fresh air, seeing the seasons change and interacting with the animals.  Feeding the goats is lots of fun!

The visitors have then been getting creative and learning about new things. One week the afternoon was spent listening to birdsong and seeing if they could recognise any. They learnt different bird names and talked about their favourites.

Another week everyone tried their hand at flower arranging with the special drying flowers grown on the farm.  There were some stunning results as you can see below.  Visitors have also painted using leaves and fruit.

 

Volunteer Stories

Paul has been volunteering with us for 5 months. He helps with farm maintenance such as fencing, cutting the grass, cutting weeds back and painting.  He’s recently done a great job painting our vegetable stall, guinea pig run and the front gate.

Paul says volunteering on the farm has really helped his peace of mind.  He much prefers to be out in the fresh air and he likes to have a job that he can see makes a difference. For example he loves it when he can see people enjoying Community Orchard after he’s cut the grass. It’s important to him to be able to a job that he can work of from start to finish.

Paul loves volunteering at the farm as it’s a nice place to come and visit and he can see life carryng on all around him.

paul painting