Harvest and Art Festival

Traditionally the first weekend in October is our Harvest Festival. This year we added to this by having an art exhibition. Hallam Art Group were invited to bring along pictures painted or drawn in the Mayfield Valley.

Earlier in the year they had met and held sketching days based at the chapel, and the results were on show over the weekend.

The exhibition was open over the whole weekend and light refreshments were available. We were very pleased with the number of people who visited us over the weekend.

Harvest celebration services were held on Sunday, in the morning our pastor Susannah led our worship, and in the evening we were pleased to welcome Mrs Muriel Stonehewer, national president ot "Women on Action". The contributions to the Harvest celebration were taken to St Wilfrid's centre to support their work.

The Art festival meant that the back room was not able to be used for the traditional Harvest Supper on the Saturday of the weekend, so it was postponed until the following Saturday. Home made pie and peas was followed by musical entertainment.

Drains; an update.

Regular readers will remember that holes were being dug to ascertain where the drains were leading to. This was in an attempt to intercept the run-off from the field above us to reduce flooding.

David has been working away over the last year digging a trench and installing a pipe which links into the culvert which was discovered from the above excavations. The culmination of all this activity was in the last week of September when a digger was hired to excavate a trench along the top of our field. This was completed and we are now ready for the worst of the weather.

The first water enters the new underground culvert.

The excavated spoil has been used to build a walkway across the boggy bottom of the field with a view to creating a nature observation feature later.

September 2009

September was a bit hectic! We started with a church meeting, which was very productive, and the week after we hosted the circuit meeting of the Sheffield circuit. The Ladies' meeting restarted with our pastor Susannah leading. On September 19th we held a coffee morning in aid of Macmillan and raised over £70-00, but the total is not yet finalised. Jonathan had been making jam and chutney from the bumper plum harvest and this was on sale. It all went!.
The final supper club of the season was held on the 24th, with an ambitious menu: carrot and orange soup, Beef "Leaky Wellington" and vegetables, plum crumble and cream. Mrs Muriel Stonehewer from our Coal Aston church spoke to us about Fair Trade Goods.
On Saturday 26th, we had our church outing to Temple Newsam where a good day was had by all.

August 2009

Our church family camp weekend was a great success with several families meeting and enjoying the overnight stop (despite the midges!) A good mixture of ages and abilities meant that there was never a dull moment. We intend doing this again next year when it will probably be a two night event.

This was the same weekend as the Family Songs of Praise service which was held on the Sunday afternoon outside.

The supper club later in the month was well attended and Mr & Mrs Briddon gave us an interesting presentation on the holy land.

July

July was another busy month. The flower festival (see previous post) was a great success and over £200-00 was given in donations towards the work of Sheffield Domestic Abuse Forum.
Sue Over came to us on June 19th and led our morning worship and then led our discussion service in the afternoon.
On the 23rd June we had our monthly supper club where we ate a starter of summer fruits, Bourgignon style beef and a dessert of sticky toffee pudding. One of our guests was celebrating his birthday and his daughter had prepared a cake for hi, we sang "Happy Birthday" and shared the cake before we heard details of relief work in Romania.
On the 24th June we hosted the Sheffield Circuit youth barbecue where adults were only welcome if accompanied by a child or young person. Our youth worker, Will Partridge-Underwood came and an enjoyable evening was had by all.
Saturday 25th July was our coffee morning which was well attended.
Apologies for the delay in updating the blog and website as we have had computer problems; these have now been solved with a new computer-ma-bob.

Flower Festival 2009

Our annual flower festival was held on 4th and 5th July. The church was open to view the exhibits all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Light refreshments were available, and strawberry teas were served both afternoons.
The theme of the event was "Women of the bible" and displays were inspired by:

Eve:

Ruth;

The widow's oil;

Mary and Martha;

Lydia;

Dorcas;

The widow's offering;

The woman at the well;

June 2009

Oue midweek group continued to study women from the bible and the Ladies group met to hold an event in aid of Martin House hospice. At this event, the 50th birthday of our pastor Susannah was celebrated.
On June 21st we held a family service to celebrate Fathers' Day. Jonathan led the service and everyone went home with a "Book of Fathers" which contained pictures of fathers as diverse as Homer Simpson, Father Ted and Tony Blair.
The Supper club was held on June 25th and was very successful. The menu was; melon medley, home boiled ham salad followed by table cream with poached pears. The speaker was Louise Yaull, a church army captain.