STABLES CHRISTIAN CENTRE

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News Article

The Centre and the work featured in a Bedordshire Life magazine article.  Click here to read 

 

Sales

Our shop is open during Centre opening hours (most Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9.30 and 3.30) or at other times if you phone beforehand to arrange.  Please browse (and purchase!) our range of preserves,herbs and craft items.  Some details have changed, so please ensure that you refresh the page you are viewing to get the most up-to-date information. If you are coming from a distance, just ring us to make sure.

 

 

Activities News

 

2024 June-July

      

The craft department were busy outside picking lavender to be processed and eventually packaged ready for sale.

             

       

It was also the time for gathering and pressing flowers.  New templates were made for a recently acquired larger flower press.

         

Eyesight problems were overcome for one gentleman by the purchase of a clamp-on magnifier;  he was then able to complete the tacking ready for another wheat bag.

 

         

The kitchen department harvested strawberries and raspberries as they ripened and chopped them up for jams.  Ongoing regular tasks are preparing the fruit for the always popular seville orange marmalade – and washing up!

         

Anglian Water released a few of their staff to volunteer their labour for a day.  We worked them hard clearing the ditches and laying paving slabs. 

 

 

 

2024 April-June

Despite it being slow to warm up, this was the beginning of our busy season in the garden and plant departments. 

          

Hoses were repaired or replaced ready for when it stops raining!

Cuttings were taken from established plants as quite a few cannot be easily grown from seed.  These are anxiously checked week by week for signs of root growth.

     

Another batch of sunflowers were sown by the Tuesday team.

Logs were cleared from the fallen trees and brought back to base on the trailer.

 

Coffee shops in May and June were extremely busy – the car park was full to overflowing – and we were delighted to welcome so many customers old and new.

 

 

      

Meanwhile indoors team members were proud of their achievements in cat toy making, flower pressing

       – and cooking muffins!

 

 

2024 February-March

 

The winter storms brought down several trees, and the post for our hanging sign – the latter was reconstructed by some friendly volunteers. 

       

 

 

Aconite and snowdrop sales continued and the teams dug these out from the woods for potting up.

The wet weather was an excuse for catching up with health and safety retraining.

     

Following a donation from a local business teams were able to do some creative cookery – here proudly displaying their own pizzas.

      

And of course pancakes were made, tossed (with varied success!) – and eaten!

      

 

 

 

2023 December - 2024 January

 

Our Christmas sale was held on a day of freezing fog so we were very grateful to our many customers who ventured out to support us and spend their money.  Thanks too to the volunteers who help to run it – and especially to longstanding volunteer John who so faithfully carries out welcome and car parking duty whatever the weather!

         

 

The Tuesday team had some fun designing their own photo frames to take home for Christmas – just the right size to hold the photos of the sunflowers they had each grown in the summer.

 

  

In January it was time to dig up aconites and snowdrops – here are some of the team potting up a batch for sale. 

 

 

Back in the warm a kitchen group were busy packaging and labelling up another batch of preserves to restock the shelves. 

  

 

And a craft group enjoyed trying out a new gadget kindly donated to the charity – and proudly displaying the result!

        

  

 

2023 October - November

Autumn brought with it many outdoor jobs of clearing and raking.  Trees in the apple orchard were all pruned hard and th resulting branches chopped and cleared for bonfires. 

 

  

 

 

After our final coffee shop of the season in October the kitchen and craft departments got busy making gifts for our own and other Christmas sales, stocking up on cat toys, lavender goods, felted scarves as well as preserves selections.

       

 

 

In November we said farewell to Peter who has moved to Rutland.  We gave him a memento of the many activities he has been involved in over his time at the Stables, and wished him well in his new endeavours.

   

 

 

2023 August - September

 

A very exciting day was spent in August when Dudley, one of our trustees and also a scientist, brought in some laboratory equipment, and each group had the opportunity to discover the world of tiny creatures hiding in our woodpiles and gardens.

 

First they went bug hunting and collected their samples. 

     

Then they came indoors and learned how to process these, examining them with magnifying glasses and through the microscopes. 

     

It was a whole lot of fun and we were very grateful to Dudley for giving up a whole day to join us.  (We think he enjoyed it too!)

   

 

There was also time to process an urgent order for five bags which were taken out to South Africa as gifts by one of our staff.  Here are the team  proudly displaying their work in making these.