Updates from local groups and activities: 

Grasmere School (Jo Goode, headteacher)

Big Green Week! June 13th: If you have any surplus veg plants or herbs, please bring them along on June 13th (or before). We are creating a vegetable garden on the field, so that the children can access it at playtimes. Lots of work has already been undertaken. The next jobs are to fill up the beds with compost and surround them with woodchip. All offers of help gratefully received.

Triathlon July 1st: We need marshals to line the route and give encouragement. If you’re able to help out, please get in touch.

Rushbearing Thursday 10th Friday 11th July: We will be making rushbearings in school. Get in touch if you would like to help us.

Matilda 16th and 17th July in the Village Hall. Please keep an eye on Facebook for more details. All welcome!

Wednesday mornings – ‘stay and play’. We’re running our sessions for under fives and their grown-ups on Wednesday mornings from 9:15 – 10:30am every Wednesday in term time, until the end of the summer term.

Wordsworth Grasmere (Hannah Catterall, events officer)

June opening: Tuesday - Saturday, 10am- 4pm.  July opening 7 days a week, 10am- 5pm. Entry to Dove Cottage, the Museum, exhibition and grounds is free to Grasmere residents and workers.

Trustees: We are recruiting for two new trustees. We are particularly interested in hearing from people with knowledge and experience of the following: Digital content creation, ecommerce and merchandising; School age education; Commerce, particularly in relation to innovation, entrepreneurship, property management, marketing & PR, especially in relation to the visitor economy; Local government or third sector.

Coming soon: The Time Lab. This June our special exhibition transforms into 'The Time Lab: Exploring a Living Prelude,' led by researcher and artist Stacey Rossouw. Inspired by Wordsworth’s powerful exploration of memory, you can expect an evolving exhibition where your own stories mingle with Wordsworth’s verses. Over several months, Rossouw will use drawing, sound, and collaborative workshops to explore how personal and poetic memories can resonate through time, asking us to rethink our relationship with history, memory, and nature.

23rd July 10.30am-12.30pm: free Summer Make and Play drop-in activities for families with children of all ages.

Every Thursday morning in the Woodland during term time: Little Wanderers, our creative play sessions for under 5s. Free for families living in Grasmere.

25th June: poetry event with Erica Hesketh. She will be reading from In the Lily Room, which explores early experiences of motherhood.

Discover Poetry with Polly Atkin and Dove Cottage Poets, our poetry reading and writing groups, continue to take place on Zoom and as a hybrid meeting respectively.

wordsworth.org.uk

Grasmere Book Group (Polly and Will – [email protected])

Book group meets online at 8pm on the second Thursday of every month. All are welcome to join… do email us and we can send you a Zoom link. All book group books are available from Sam Read’s at 10% discount off the r.r.p.

The next two novels scheduled for the group take us to Korea and Ireland.

JUNE 12th – Hwang Bo-Reum, Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop (2024) translated by Shanna Tan

JULY 10th – Anne Enright, The Wren The Wren (2023)

Great North Air Ambulance Service Clothing Collections (Angela Clark 07548251235)

Thank you to everyone who donated so many bags of preloved items for our GNAAS Clothing Collection at Grasmere Village Hall in March. Together we raised over £500 for the life saving work of the Air Ambulance. I often get asked, ‘When is the next collection?’ My answer is… ‘We collect all the time!’ So, if you are having a sort out, please just bag your items and leave them in Will’s car port or by my garage at Banerigg. When I get enough bags, I then arrange a collection. Sadly now we are just collecting shoes and clothing, there is no longer a market for towels, curtains or bedding. Thank you to everyone for your continued support

Grasmere WI (Louise Sykes President Grasmere WI )

Our June meeting is at 2pm on Thursday 12 June at the Village Hall with Dave and Angie Walsh talking about The Royal Navy including their successful naval careers.

Also in June our Garden Group is having a head gardener tour at Lowther Castle. Our Craft Group have a Blooming Fibres workshop at Allan Bank with seasonal summer flowers. Our GWI Rock Group is out in Borrowdale again, our Cumbria Way challenge continues with Stage 3 and our Art Group is meeting up for another session with our resident artists Jennifer Hardisty and Jill Morrison.

In July our meeting is on Thursday 10 July 2pm at the Village Hall with the brilliant Shed One Gin, for a talk and tasting.

Also in July our Garden Group are visiting Edinburgh Botanical Gardens and our Cumbria Way challenge continues with Stage 4.

In addition to all of this, here’s a few of our other extra regular activities: a monthly Book / Culture Group at Allan Bank with a packed attendance and lively discussion in Wordsworth’s study, very popular monthly rambles, fabulous practical Art Group meetings, weekly GWI Strong kettlebell classes with our local personal trainer Libby Dixon (we’re getting stronger every week!), weekly GWI Badminton, GWI Crochet and GWI Craft Groups and the list goes on!

So proud of this action packed programme and this amazing group! A huge thanks to all our members for making Grasmere WI such a vibrant, friendly and fun group. Come and join in the fun, you’ll be made very welcome.

https://grasmerewi.wordpress.com

Grasmere Village Society (Nick McCraith Chairman)

Talks are ongoing between the GVS and the Village Hall Trustees to finalise details concerning the proposed generator for the hall. Hopefully we can move on to installation soon. Amidst all the wonderful Spring blossom now is also the time of year when invasive species start to reappear. If you spot any, and recognise Japanese Knotweed, Himalayan Balsam or Skunk Cabbage then please notify Sharon

Savasi or any committee member. GVS membership is still available and can be obtained for the princely sum of £1 although additional voluntary donations are welcome. Membership isopen to anybody whether you are a Grasmere resident or visitor. Please contact our membership secretary Simon Hey at [email protected] We have enjoyed some wonderful Spring weather and I hope that the Summer continues in a similar way. Look after our village, but more importantly, each other.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/grasmerevillagesociety/

Grasmere Village Hall (Sam Dixon [email protected])

The weekly Warm Spot Coffee & Chat sessions have now finished for the Summer. We’d like to thank everyone who supported the Hall over the Winter by coming to drink coffee, eat biscuits and chat, and made it such a warm, friendly event. We’ll see you again in the Autumn.

The Hall has been busy this Spring hosting some excellent shows from Highlights Rural Touring Scheme. Everyone enjoyed “Third Class – A Titan- ic Story”, a one-man show by Russell Lucas. Stand-up comedian Patrick Monahan had the audience in stitches with his hilarious new show “The Talkinator”.

The village commemorated the 80th anniversary of VE Day on 8th May with a coffee & cake morning. Big thanks to everyone who came along and especially all those who provided the delicious cakes! The new projector and screen also made their first public appearance!

Thursday 19 June, 7.30 pm: Grasmere Players would like to invite anyone interested to an evening of discussion, play reading and wine & cheese at the Hall. They will be planning their future programme of productions, including a play in October this year, their next pantomime – Cinderella – taking place 29 – 31 January next year, and another possible play next Summer. Anyone who would like to be involved is welcome to come along for a chat. Enthusiasm is valued far higher than experience!

Friday 27 June, 10.00 am: Let’s Enjoy Watercolour! – Join artist Joan Aitchison on a liberating and colourful learning curve, experimenting with colours, shapes and the additions of different media to create unique pieces of art. Tickets are now on sale at £35 from www.highlightsnorth.co.uk or [email protected]

19 July to 13 September: The Lake Artists Society will be holding their annual exhibition at the Hall.

Some Autumn events are already in the pipeline: Voulez Vous ABBA tribute band are returning for another fun evening of music and dance on 20 September. Tickets are already on sale at ticketsource.co.uk. Musical duo Fool’s Gold will be appearing on 3 October and Steve Watts MBE will be giving a talk and slideshow on 24 October.

We are busy fundraising for our next projects: internal redecoration of the Hall, repairing guttering, windows and part of the roof. We’re therefore hugely grateful for all your support and donations in our efforts to keep the building in order and make it a place everyone wants to use!

Don’t forget to sign up and support us by using Easyfundraising - a fantastic online platform that enables you to raise free donations with every purchase you make. There are over 8,000 participating retailers, ranging from your food shop at Tesco, booking a holiday with Booking.com to taking out insurance on Compare the Market. Sign up here: http://efraising.org/rWHiZTgHZI A big thank you to our existing supporters!

Grasmere Red Squirrels

As the warm days of summer unfold, one of our woodland’s most energetic residents comes to life with tireless enthusiasm—the red squirrel! These small, bushy-tailed little mammals are a delight to spot, darting among the treetops or pausing to snack on a pine cone in the sunshine. During the summer months, red squirrels are especially active. With longer daylight hours and an abundance of food, they're busy foraging, feasting, and preparing for the seasons ahead. Their diet shifts from spring buds to a smorgasbord of seeds, berries, flowers, and fungi. If you're lucky, you might even catch one munching on hazelnuts well before they’re ripe!

Raising Young: Summer is also the time when red squirrels raise their second litter of the year. Their leafy nests, called dreys, are often tucked into tree hollows or high branches. The young kits—tiny, blind, and furless at birth—begin to venture out after just six to eight weeks, playfully chasing each other and learning vital survival skills.

Conservation: Red squirrels remain under threat in many parts of the UK and Ireland due to habitat loss and competition from the invasive grey squirrel.

Grasmere Red Squirrel Group continues to monitor populations, protect woodland habitats, and control grey squirrel numbers. Your sightings and reports help these efforts, so please let us know if you’ve spotted a red!

IF YOU SEE A GREY or a sickly looking red anywhere around Grasmere PLEASE Text: Stuart Dickson 07980 893459, David Birkett 07775, StewartSutcliffe 07817 326524, Trevor Cooper 07884 404794 or Kelly Taylor 07950 232056; or email [email protected]