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Navratri Festival

We attended the Navratri festival at the temple last night. Raman invited us along and we turned up at 9.30pm. There was an amazing rhythm coming from the drummers and singers on the stage and the room was a swirl of men and woman dancing in concentric circles around the deity in the centre of the room. Occasionally the beats would speed up and chants of 'WUP WUP!' would echo around the hall.

After a while Raman invited us to dance and we did




As we were left we were presented with a gift of fruit and sweets

View more photographs

More about Navarati

Swan Village Action Group

We were invited by ROY to make a presentation about our project to the Swan Village Action Group which he chairs. The members of the group were very vocal about their opinions of THEpUBLIC and other redevelopment projects that are going on in Greets Green. Some very interesting points were raised and we are hoping to return so that we can record some of these opinions for the project.

Tour of new Shri Krishna Temple

Raman gave us a guided tour of the new Shri Krishna Temple, which is currently being constructed. It is already an absolutely magnificent building. Each stone has been hand carved by master craftsmen in India and it is only the second temple of it's kind to be built outside of India.





Many thanks to Raman and view more pics of the fine details

Walk with Anne (Neighbourhood Warden)

We were given an amazing tour of the boundaries of the Greets Green area by Anne, who's one of the Greets Green Partnership Neighbourhood Wardens. Highlights included the chemical factory where the local kids were convinced that the people inside were aliens & had produced some amazing graffiti to demonstrate this. There was also the Gnome garden, the Christmas Tree House, and the mysterious (government??) factory that doesn't exist on any official maps and which the wardens have been unable to identify who owns it or what goes on there!?!?






View the rather huge set of images

There was also one big low point which was the fact that the canal had been turned orange because some unscrupulous company had dumped a load of chemicals into the water. Bert and Gert, Anne's favourite local swans were looking a bit worse for ware with their feathers died muddy brown/orange :-(

Here's another set of photographs


Big shout out to Anne, many thanks :-)

Shri Krishna

We went to the Shri Krishna Temple. We met up with RAMAN. He told us about the BCTV Green Gym project where senior citizens help with green projects whilst keeping fit. They are going to convert their green space into a small allotment/garden with a pond.

RAMAN encouraged us to get in touch with JAMES from the BCTV. In a very synergistic manner James then turned up at Shri Krishna & we had a good chat with him and made arrangements to join him on some of the Green Gym sessions that he runs for BCTV.

James also mentioned that we should contact Joe Miskin about a healthy walk that he co-ordinates on Friday's at Sandwell Valley.

Public

Met with Trev and Caitlin at the Public

Shri Krishna + KATH HEWITT

We went to Greets Green Partnership. KATH HEWITT suggested we speak to the neighbourhood wardens. After that we went to the Shri Krishna temple for the first time. Kath had told us about a gardening group from the temple who are transforming some derelict ground at the side of their meeting hall into an allotment pitch for the community.

The Reverend + Barry + Sid

We went to St Andrews Church and interviewed Rev MIKE CLARIDGE.



Later in the afternoon we went to the Oak House. We met BARRY the security guard. He took us over the road where we met SID HAYNES, a fantastic old gent who has in depth historical knowledge about Greets Green and Sandwell. We interviewed him and took photos







Check out more photos of the Xchanges with Sid here

Harvest Festival Redistribution Service

People attended and bought some of the produce from the previous days festival. We met SHEILA and FRANCIS. We interviewed them about local food and green space initiatives. FRANCIS mentioned we should go to the YMCA and speak to VERA BARNES and ROY JACKSON. We took some photos, they may end up in the church magazine

Click here for all the pics

Harvest Festival - St Andrews Church

We attended the Harvest Festival. Lots of people attended and brought vegetables, fruits and other foods to donate

Check the glorious images!

Allotments on Saturday

Went to the allotments, spoke with ARTHUR about the harvest festival

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Allotments - New Contacts

Went downt the alotments. We spoke to Earl about pumpkins in Jamaica. Apparently they can grow 30-40 ft long vines, often ending up with a pumpkin growing on a vine thats climbing up a tree.We met ARTHUR. He was being given many different vegetables. He said it was for the HARVEST FESTIVAL. He told us where it was. We were also given cabbages, courgettes, potatoes, and celery

Click here for a big version

Click here to view the photogallery