Past Events

We've also had visits from Authors Jasper Cooper and Bryan Clark this year.
Jasper Cooper is the author of The Kingdom of The Gems Trilogy (fiction for 8 and upwards) and Bryan Clark is a local author, who wrote A History of Murston.
Both events involved cake and lemonade!

Birthday Party: Saturday 8th November

Thank you to everyone that came along to our birthday party on the 7th November.
We had a fantastic day: so much fun that we forgot to take photos! At the day, I remembered and took a couple of shots of us in costume.
The photographers from the local papers were a bit more organised than us, so hopefully you'll see yourselves in the paper this week!

As is the form for these parties, we weren't left with much food by the end of the day. we enjoyed Frobscottle, Fizzy Lifting Drink, Pishlets, Delicious sweets, Glumptious Globgobblers, Nishnobblers (which were the best because they were chocolate!).
We read a few Roald Dahl favourites; stories from Revolting Rhymes and the Enormous Crocodile went down a treat. We completed wordsearches and coloured in some pictures from the books.

We raised about £40 for the RNIB, including money collected in the tin.

A pirate with The Enormous Crocodile (we didn't have a parrot!)

3% of all sales on the day went to the campaign.

Some background information on the Talk Books Campaign:

* The goal is to raise £50million over the next five years.

*Currently less than five percent of books are available in a format the blind and partially sighted can read.

*As well as talking books (audio), the RNIB aims to provide books in braille, large print and giant print. They want to provide fiction and non-fiction, online reference, braille sheet music and more, to cater for everyone.

*£125 allows the RNIB to sponsor a child to learn braille.
*£500 pays to record a children's book in unabridged form.
*£1500 pays for the RNIB to transcribe a book into braille.

My favourite part of this weekend was this event at Oare Gunpowder Works on Sunday 12th July.
We were invited by the amazing Karen, who works at the museum.
Lots of artists joined together in the woods to perform - there was a beautiful cellist, other musicians and singers, bark rubbings, poets etc. I was invited along to sit on a blanket and read stories to passing children.
It was a gorgeous day, with sun shining (not too much!), and quite a few children sat around to listen: I took along a few cuddly toys so we could all get comfortable (including Bert, who is the famous bear on the top of the website!)

The stories we read included Winnie the Witch, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Frog Princess (and Roald Dahl Extracts).

After reading for a couple of hours, we went for a wander round the site: it's incredible reading about and seeing all the history of the Gunpowder Works, most of which were demolished and left to return to woodland.

Artists in the Woods

There was a best-dressed window competition for the shops

And the winner was.....

Nickel Books!!!

Our window was a summer garden theme, complete with fresh veg, chickens and eggs, dragonflies and laundry!

Sittingbourne Spectacular

Sittingbourne High Street celebrated the summer in style on Saturday 11th July, when the Council held their annual Spectacular.

Attractions included live music, art, dance, street theatre and market stalls.

St George's Day

We helped Sittingbourne to celebrate St George's Day on Saturday 25th April 2009.

It was an amazing day: there was so much going on in the High Street, including a live band, classic cars, competitions, a tea-cup ride etc.

A History of St George

St George's Day is celebrated on 23rd April every year.

George was born in Turkey in the late 3rd Century AD. He joined the army and was admired by his peers "for his virtuous behaviour and physical strength; his military bearing, valour and handsome good looks."

George became a martyr for refusing to give up his Christian faith, and was tortured and beheaded at the age of 23.
From then, he was seen as a symbol of virtue and Christian belief. He was made a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

It was Richard the Lionheart who first adopted St George as a Patron Saint, as an apparition of St George was seen above the walls of Jerusalem during the Crusades, egging the English on to a moral victory against the City. The symbol of the red cross against the white (or silver) background was used by the English Crusaders to stand for chilvalry and virtue.

It wasn't until Henry V won the Battle of Agincourt that St George was adopted as the official Patron Saint of England.

The story of St George and the Dragon originates from Libya, where a dragon lived outside a village and terrorised the villagers. They would feed animals to it in order to keep it calm, but when all the animals had gone, they had to feed it villagers. The king’s daughter was chosen to be sacrificed, but St George charged up on his horse and fought the Dragon, finally dragging it into the village and killing it in front of the people. The King offered gold to St George as a reward, but he refused it and asked that it be given to the poor instead.