Manor House Gardens  
Tel: 07766221825

email:pistachiosinthepark@yahoo.co.uk

 

1st September  2008, Boy am I in pain, did the Richmond to Windsor Bike ride yesterday with my son Josh. Having not ridden  a bike for three years, it was tough, the weather conditions were awful, but with the support and encouragement from Josh we did it 3hrs 45 min.

Now its up to you, those who have sponsored cough up and those who haven,t, their is still time. The total monies will be handed over to Angela on the 6th September 2008 at the Party in the Park, Manor house Gardens.

    

     Josh and I at the start                       The Journey                      The Start                     Half way feeling good

   

Finish, What a relief as you                                                                                                                                               can see we wernt last             

 

Summer holidays are nearly over.

What a bummer  the weather in August has been.

Need cheering up, want something to look forward to... !!

Here it is !!

Still rolling in the wake of our last party in the Park, We are having another picnic in the park... Fun day!!

Saturday 6th September 2008: 11 am til Fin

There will be:

Under 12's Fun fair

Donkey Rides

Dog Show

Music featuring NOIZ, Felix School of Rock, Plus...

Farmers Market

DebRA Stall; Tombolas, Raffles etc

In aid of DebRA; "working for life free of pain" http://www.debra.org.uk/

We are raising money for this Charity, I will be doing a charity bike ride Ricmond To Windsor on the 31st August, any one wishing to sponsor me can do so, Either pledge you donation via email,or just pop into the Cafe.

See you all there.

Aysin


News Update:

Ref: Agm 15th July 2008 

Chair’s Report

 

It’s been an eventful year and, although dominated by Northbrook school’s development plans, there has been plenty to celebrate.

All things being equal, we’re soon to be awarded our seventh Green Flag, reflecting the maintenance of a splendid parkland, breadth of facilities and high level of community involvement. We’ve sustained the legacy of the group’s founders who worked so hard for the refurbishment of Manor House Gardens through the winning of Heritage Lottery funds.

Most recently, we another hosted Party in the Park (28 June), building on the big success of last year’s event. This time much the organising was down to Aysin Djemil, whose support - both individually and as manager of Pistachios in the Park Café - has continued to play a significant part in the success of the Gardens.

Glendale under the leadership of Adrian Wickham has provided strong support in making sure the Gardens are well-kept and that the range of activities - including children’s flower-planting and tennis classes - are kept up. In particular, we have at last got the pond properly aerated. Cllr Paul Bentley continues to campaign and work for a composting site.

We look forward to another picnic bench and table, thanks to local councillors’ decision through the Locality Fund. This year, we look forward to another bid to the Fund, this time being awarded by the newly-created Lee Green Assembly.

Much of our energies have been devoted to Northbrook’s planned expansion and use of the Gardens’ hard-court facilities. Sadly, the school’s headteacher, John Ratcliffe, left, and we honoured him for the work he had done in improving the school’s links with the park.

Discussions with the Council and school over the proposed increase in use of the Gardens proved fraught. While we welcomed the commitment to raise the level of supervision of pupils, we have been unhappy about the proposal that the school have exclusive use of the facilities for most of the school day, five days a week, including the use of the connecting gate, and we lodged our objections with the Council’s Planning Department at the start of the planning process.

We have just held a public meeting in the park (8 July), at which park users had a chance to voice their concerns with Council officers and school governors. We had a commitment from Mayor Sir Steve Bullock that talks would continue without anything having been decided.

Finally, my thanks to fellow officers Angela Joy and Elizabeth Bentley for their commitment and hard work. Elizabeth doubled-up by doing minutes in addition to her Treasurer duties. We hope that more will volunteer to help as officers this year.

Jim Mallory,

 

Chair, Manor House Gardens Users’ Group

July 2008

 

There have been numerous meetings about the plans to demolish Northbrook School and to rebuild a new school, thus reducing the size of the present playground by 50%, more space for recreational use is needed and the LA proposes the school has exclusivity, 5 hours a day 5 days a week during term time to encroach on Manor House  Gardens' hard court area,south of the Quaggy, for this purpose.

There has been huge response from users and residence alike opposing and a meeting at the Cafe (Pistachios in the Park) was held on the 8th July 2008:

For more information and blogs visit:

www.nag-lewisham.org.uk

 

Fame at last ... We got a write up in this weeks  (9th July 2008) Newsshopper:

 Picnic in the Park 28th June 2008

 

An estimated 4-5000 people through out  the day .... In our little park "  WOW" 

It was a blast a brilliant time had by all.

I thought I would write more but instead I copied an email i recieved from a fellow customer/ performer and co orgainzer of the band with Felix :

Thanks for the kind words, Aysin. You, too, were a great host, and Manor House Gardens is a great setting for fun, family, outdoor events such as Party In The Park. The performers all appreciated the drinks backstage, too. Many thanks on behalf of all of us. 


I know that all of us involved in Live Earth Day at Manor House Gardens 07-07-07 were really looking forward to this year's Party In The Park. And I'm sure that those 'newbies' from this year's event would love to come back again next year if and when we do it all again.

We couldn't have done it without the stellar services of Ben Tweedy - can you forward his email/phone number, please. We'd like to thank him for an outstanding performance by a sound engineer and stage hand.

Besides all the fun, noise, craziness, and long hair that rock and roll inspires, Felix's School of Rock helps give kids a certain amount of discipline, focus, and teamwork required to make good music - and good people, no matter what the style and at whatever age. And the confidence and sense of accomplishment that comes from a little bit of hard work and a lot of fun pays dividends in the way the kids conduct themselves. We were very proud of all the performers, all ages, too. 

If you haven't seen it yet, Felix's website has a link to Flickr where almost 700 photos from the day are online. Please share this with the non-FSOR performers, Teenage Men, Little Devils, SMArt, LCN, Mother, etc. The website is:

http://www.fsor.co.uk/

Just click on the FLICKr link in the upper lefthand corner of any page. For the next 2 weeks, Party In The Park will be the top entry. There are some great shots of all the performers and a fair few of the fair and the crowd, too. Felix is quite the shutterbug in between EVERYTHING else he was up to on the day.

I'll see you in the Park,

All the best,

Baz

View more pics in the Gallery

 

 

 

The new look CaféWho we are!!

Well, let us take some time to explain everything, including; who we work with (partnerships), why we do it, why we are so successful and how we have got to our concept.

We have successfully managed to set up and run a permanent and well-established coffee shop at Manor House Gardens. The venture, known as ‘Pistachios in the Park’, provides non-greasy food that is "Jamie Oliver friendly" - chips, burgers and other similar unhealthy food are not served.

The café experiences continual support from the local community and the user groups. It is run in partnership with Glendale and Lewisham Local Authority. In addition to normal day-to-day running of the café, we liaise with the local community to support activities taking place in the park throughout the year which enable the business to be involved in providing food and snacks for those using the park. Examples of activities that we successfully organise include Farmers’ Food markets, annual organised picnics and theme parties for events such as Halloween.

We are currently engaged in a project with Lewisham council and Glendale Management to enhance the use of Parks and Open Green Spaces within the borough through the provisions of catering services. Pistachios in the Park’s aim is to revive community interest and use of parks and open green spaces within a safe, family-oriented environment.