It’s National Allotments Week from 7^th to 13^th August 2023.

The National Allotments Society (NAS), which organises the week, is a charity which works to support the needs of all allotment holders in the UK.   The membership scheme it runs is vital because it raises funds to make sure that allotment gardening has a future.

The NAS has used this period over the last 20 years to get people involved in the world of allotments! 

The week is also a great opportunity to grow the seeds and spread the words about the benefits of allotment gardening for everyone – individual people, communities and the planet!

Some benefits of allotment gardening for people include:

• Mental health – there’s a report on the website about how allotment gardening can help mental health
• The chance to connect with nature
• The opportunity to meet people with a like-minded interest
• The benefits of sharing – your knowledge, left over produce and more!
• The ability to grow your own produce
• It’s a good healthy activity outside in the fresh air!
• A sense of achievement

There's a short film on the joys of allotment gardening called Plotting for the Future, and you can watch it here.

In 2023, the theme of National Allotments Week is Soil Health.   Good soil health improves the yield when you’re growing your goodies, but actually is also contributes to the environment and biodiversity.   So this coming week, the NAS wants to educate us all about the benefits of caring for our soil – and the animals living in it.

What does the NAS do?

Well, it does a number of things:

• it campaigns against government legislation which threatens allotments
• it works with local authorities to make sure that they reach their statutory obligations
• it educates plot holders with growing advice
• it supports schools into growing allotments
• it’s the voice of allotmenteers, as they are called, around the UK

Needless to say, to do all this they need support – and this is where their membership programme comes in.

Give a National Allotment Society Gift Card here.

Why not give a NAS Gift Membership Card?

Membership fees are listed here and there is also an NAS Gift Membership Card which gives lucky recipients a number of benefits you can find here – click on these links to gift a membership.  You’ll see when you go through to these links that you can also gift a magazine subscription, if you prefer.

More information about allotments

The  NAS website has lots of helpful information on allotments including hens on allotments, wildlife on allotments and bee-keeping and there’s also information on how to get an allotment in the first place.

There’s also tips and advice on growing including monthly jobs, water used on allotments, designing an allotment for children, and how to plan an allotment.

Visit the National Allotment Society’s website here.

The 23^rd April (St George’s Day) is Shakespeare Day, traditionally the birthday of William Shakespeare.  He was baptised in Stratford-upon-Avon three days later.

William Shakespeare wrote a great many plays, including Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Tale of Two Cities, and A Merchant of Venice.   Today, most young people will still study one or more work of Shakespeare in schools.

The 23^rd April is a good opportunity to give you an idea of the possible gift memberships you could give someone who loves culture, Shakespeare, plays, the theatre and reading.

The Royal Shakespeare Company perform plays by Shakespeare and also his contemporaries, whilst also commissioning a wide range of work from contemporary writers.  Its purpose is to make sure that Shakespeare is for everyone across the world.  It nurtures future talent, trains theatre makers, and reaches over half a million people every year through learning programmes.  It also creates projects for communities which have not previously engaged with its work.  It has a number of ways you can support its work, including giving a membership.  You can find out about visiting its Stratford upon Avon venue here.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is in Stratford-upon-Avon.  It cares for the world’s greatest Shakespeare heritage sites there, and also promotes the understanding and enjoyment of Shakespeare’s works, life and times.  You can visit William Shakespeare’s childhood home in Stratford-upon-Avon, where it all began, and visit Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, the family home of Shakespeare’s wife-to-be, where Shakespeare would have visited her during the early times of their relationship.  And you can walk in Shakespeare’s footsteps at Shakespeare’s New Place, the site that was William Shakespeare's family home for 19 years. You can Become a Friend of the Trust to help support its work and enjoy exclusive benefits.

Shakespeare’s Globe is a world famous performing arts venue.  It’s also an education centre and cultural attraction and it sits on the bank of the River Thames.  Its programme of work seeks to harness “the power of performance, cultivates intellectual curiosity and excites learning to make Shakespeare accessible for all.”  It has two theatres, one indoors and one outside, and you can take a virtual tour of the Globe here.  The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse opened back in 2014 and it has plays, concerts, events and education workshops.

Back in 1623, a book with 36 of Shakespeare’s plays was finished.  It was compiled by two of his acting colleagues, and printed over the river from the Globe.  It’s the 400^th anniversary of this book – which was first known as the First Folio – and Shakespeare’s Globe is a custodian of one of the copies that has survived, thanks to a private owner.  The book is displayed in the main foyer.

Give a gift membership to Shakespeare’s Globe Members can enjoy priority booking, a Digital Member’ Room and exclusive member discounts, and the knowledge that their membership is supporting the Globe in all its work.

You can also give someone a gift experience related to Shakespeare, such as a visit to Shakespeare’s Globe and Shakespeare’s School Room. 

There’s amazing beaver news from the National Trust!   And it’s a great example of how membership supports conservation.

At the Holnicote Estate in Somerset, the Eurasian beavers Yogi and Grills were released in the enclosure back in January 2020.  The aim was to improve flood management and also support the health of rivers and streams.  And these beavers are really busy – restoring biodiversity loss, showing the flow of water AND managing the effects of climate change!

They've also been busy producing their first kit in 2021 and twins in the spring of 2022.  The three kits – Rashford, Russo and Toone – were named after England football stars, with the help of the public!

And now, the National Trust has given us all the chance to join an interactive 360 degree video tour of the beaver enclosure they now have! 

You can watch the beavers as they beaver away and go about their daily lives and it’s also a great opportunity to find out how the beavers are changing the landscape there. 

You can explore the lodge, dams and pools that these eco-engineers have created, and watch footage of the beavers and their kits!

The National Trust is going to add more footage to the tour in the future – it’s a very exciting project!

Whilst the beavers are beavering away, the Holnicote team are beavering away as well.  They are looking to see how the beavers are changing the environment around them.   They are creating dams and deep pools of water which in turn has created homes for wildlife such as amphibians, bats, otters, kingfisher, dipper and waterfowl.

Image © National Trust/Nick Upton

Go beavers!  Do have a look at the beaver cam – it really is exciting, but I also found it very peaceful and restful simply watching the beautiful scenes of nature!   And if you don’t see them the first time, take another look another time of day – you never know what you’ll spot!

More dam news from those Beavers!

The National Trust has a guide on beavers and you can find out lots more about there and what the Trust is doing to beaver away for beavers.

Memberships supports the conservation work the National Trust is doing

• Members help the National Trust protect over 780 miles of coastline;
• Members help the Trust to protect and promote the outdoors in its care so that everyone can connect to nature, and members inspired the Trust to launch its well-known “50 things to do before you’re 11 and three quarters” campaign to get children outdoors.
• Members help the Trust look after woodlands, both old ones and new ones
• And members have helped support conservation efforts such as the beaver release in Somerset

So what do members get?

There are lots of benefits, including free access to over 500 places in the Trust’s care.  There’s free parking at most National Trust car parks for members, and you get the National Trust Handbook, which is packed full of useful information about the places you can visit.  You also get the National Trust Magazine three times a year – it’s full of inspiration, interviews and news, and there’s access to the Trust’s online Members’ Area, with lots of behind the scenes features and first-look previews!  Find out more and give a gift membership today!

Those lovely people at gift experience company Into the Blue have a range of experiences for all sorts of interests and they often have special offers.

You could try your hand at cheese making
in Essex, London or Buckinghamshire

These gift experiences include a cheese making experience, flight simulators, archery, chocolate making, wine tasting, even a blacksmith course, beer experiences, gin experiences - so lots to choose from.  If you fancied your hand at writing, then you could look at the online writing courses. 

There are a number of flight simulator experiences on offer
- Airbus 320, Messerschmitt vs Spitfire Combat,
Boeing 737, and a fighter pilot simulator

How about a two night break away?

There are also a couple of escape breaks, if you feel like getting away from it all. 

There's a Kids Superstar Singer Experience
with opportunities around the country. 
It's now £59.00 instead of £99.00! 

Don't forget that Into the Blue also have a number of gourmet gifts and subscriptions to choose from, covering goodies such as coffee, gin, rum, sweets, brownies, wine and eating out.  These can be found here.

Fly off to Into the Blue and go browsing!