As part of Stirling Libraries Off the Page festival, the library hosted an art workshop with the wonderful Author and Illustrator Kate McLelland. The sold-out workshop was aimed at children aged 6-9 with ticket sales going to the Mayfield Secret Garden. The theme of the event was Scottish Wildlife and the children contributed to a collaborative mural. Participants took home some of Kate’s artwork as well as their new drawings and a Friends of the Mayfield pin badge.
Writers in the Garden
The library is proud to host Write Club, a friendly weekly meeting for people interested in writing and sharing their work. The group meets on a Thursday between 5.30 pm-7 pm.
Recently the group were joined by author Tom Newlands who is originally from the area and took inspiration from his upbringing in St Ninians for his debut novel Only Here, Only Now. Tom spoke to the group about his experience of getting published and gave feedback on their writing.
The Write Club and Tom Newlands in the Mayfield Secret Garden
The group are working towards publishing a collection of their work. Watch this space!
Friends Get to Work
The group got together for a much needed prune and weed session. We cut back a lot of the briars to give some space to the beautiful Acer trees.
The next gardening session will take place on Tuesday 20th May during the next Friends of the Mayfield meeting.
Quickblock
Quickblock is a Scotland-based start-up dedicated to sustainability and very generously donated their blocks to help us with our project. The team from Quickblock came to the garden on 28th November 2024 and supported the Friends of the Mayfield group to build three raised beds and a bench in under half an hour.
A huge thank you to team Quickblock and Fiona Buchanan for the introduction.
Before
Panorama of the courtyard
The inner courtyard space of the Mayfield Community Centre lay empty and unused (other than storing goalposts).
With support from CILIPS Green Library Fund, the idea to turn the space into a garden that could be used by the library and community centre libraries became a possibility.
Work begins in the garden
We contacted the Criminal Justice Team who offered the free labour of cutting back the unruly bramble bushes and laying a whin dust pathway to make the garden more accessible.
A rough plan