Gardening and Walk

Yesterday our volunteers managed a visit to TARAGGAN Educational Gardens & Nursery, until the rain came down so heavily that it was too wet to work on the plots, so everyone worked together transferring pots from the polytunnel over to the greenhouse. We volunteer at the gardens every Tuesday from 10:30am until 12:00pm. If you would like to join us, please let us know.

As there was no crafts session yesterday, the group decided to go for a walk around Gilfach, as you can see in the second photo below.

University of South Wales Roleplay

Last week, our volunteers/TRAC members, Ffion Poole, Gethin Chamberlain, and Natalie King, worked at the University of South Wales. They role-played patients who had been admitted to the hospital with various health conditions in order to help the third-year student nurses with their training. Well done to all the students; you will all make fantastic nurses. It was great to see the knowledge you have about learning disabilities and the adjustments that need to be made when someone is admitted to hospital.

Reconnect through Cookery

Volunteers and members did a great job on Friday making tuna pasta salad. For those who don’t like tuna, there was a sausage or ham option. Everyone prepared tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, cabbage, and carrots for the homemade coleslaw to serve on the side. Well done everyone, lunch looked amazing!

Thank you to our volunteer Rees Powell and our lovely member Connor for working so hard on washing up, to Alex for hosting the quiz, and to our amazing volunteers Cheryl Smith and Zoe Dummett for running the group and serving up forty-six beautiful meals.

Reconnect through Music

Why is singing together important? One benefit is that it improves mental health and well-being. Whatever your skill or style of music, singing in a group can help you make new friends and bring you closer to people in a fun and joyful way. It promotes a sense of well-being which can help us all deal with our busy, complicated lives.

Yesterday our group was at Libanus Lifestyle – Wales CIC to sing some favourite songs by artists including S Club 7, Journey, Taylor Swift, the Spice Girls, Gloria Gaynor, and of course the obligatory Sweet Caroline. It’s great to see everyone enjoying themselves and supporting each other to perform in front of a big group, which can be a scary prospect.


We will be back at Libanus Lifestyle – Wales CIC next Wednesday from 10:30am if you’d like to join us.

Relationship Course in Aberystwyth

Last week Ffion, supported by Christy, travelled to Aberystwyth to deliver her relationship course to Mencap Ceredigion and Our Voice Our Choice. We kicked off by playing the Skittles game, which we use to get to know each other and make everyone feel comfortable. During the course, which Ffion provided for the two groups over two days, she covered friendships, how to make friends, how to deal with arguments, what makes a good boyfriend and girlfriend, online safety, then finished off with a game of relationship Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Thank you to Anita and Carl for the lovely flowers and thank you card, and also for making friendship bracelets for the group.

The Our Voice Our Choice group said this about the training:

Excellent turn out and very informative about safety online when making friends, online dating, what is a good friend, what is a bad friend, how to make friends and so much more. A massive thank you to Ffion and Christy.

Gardening Group

Head Gardener Morgan Jones:

Yesterday me, Christy, Gethin, Rees, and the twins Chris & Anthony went up to TARAGGAN allotments and started by taking all the plant pots up to the top of the allotments, so they could be planted into the soil later on. When it was about 11:00ish, me… Gethin, Rees & Kyle were in the middle of hoeing the patch we were working on and I asked Samantha what we were going to plant, and she said “onions, my lovely.” By the time all the onions had been planted into the ground, it was time for me and the others to clean any tools we were using and then we headed back down to the YMCA for us all to have our lunch.

Crafts

At yesterday’s crafts session our members made braided fabric keychains and bracelets. They plaited their favourite colours and attached them to keychains. Some members also made name bracelets out of beads and elastic. Everyone enjoyed the activities and catching up with friends, sharing their bank holiday memories over a cuppa. Thank you to Cheryl & Zoe for volunteering to facilitate the session.


We don’t have craft next Tuesday afternoon, but we will be going out for a local walk. If you would like to join us, we will be leaving Bargoed YMCA at 12:30pm.

Gardening

Well done to our volunteers who worked on our plots at TARAGGAN Educational Gardens yesterday. It was a cold and windy one, but we were finally able to work on the plots with the helping hands of Kyle Richards, Samantha, Sian Price, and Dillon, who showed us how to hoe the land and plant onions.

CPF is at TARAGGAN Educational Gardens & Nursery every Tuesday from 10:30 a.m. until 12 p.m. Please feel free to join us!