After a few dodgy days of typical bank holiday weather, the committee’s sun dances have paid off and it’s an absolutely brilliant day for a meeting outside!

For anyone who has missed all the pre-amble (!) about our walk, the original blog post about our August meeting are here.  Please bring appropriate footwear, meet us at the Hawthorns Centre (SO15 7NN) at 7.30 and enjoy a picnic with our members before setting off for a guided walk around Southampton Common.  If you have a torch, bring it along too as it’ll be dark once we’ve finished! If you can bring a picnic dish to share too, that’d be lovely – we’re supplying some picnic stuff but we’d love to have a varied and tasty spread!

Time to make sandwiches for the picnic now, but we’re all looking forward to seeing you tonight.  Any questions, get in touch!

Hopefully everyone is looking forward to our next meeting – only a week away now!  For anyone who’s missed our monthly newsletter with the details, we’re venturing away from the usual venue of the Slug and Lettuce for one month only to explore Southampton Common.

The important details:

When: 7.30pm, Tuesday 27th August

Where: Hawthorns Wildlife Centre – map here or search for SO15 7NN.

Things to bring: Appropriate footwear for a walk (who knows what the weather will be like), something warm to wear later in the evening.  We will be providing some picnic food but we’d love it if you could bring along a picnic dish to share (bought or made!) and maybe a picnic rug or a seat!

We’ll have a chance to see (and hear) some of the natural wonders that inhabit the common with a guided walk thanks to the volunteers at the Hawthorn Centre. They’ll even be bringing bat detectors to help us find rather more hidden residents of the Common!

If you’ve never been to a Sotonettes meeting before, check out our FAQs here – we’d love to meet you if you’re thinking of coming along.  We’re on Facebook and Twitter too if you’d like to get to know us or ask us anything before next week.

We’re starting to post up some pictures we’ve taken at the Common on our Facebook page too – if you’ve got any you’d like to contribute to inspire other members, please get in touch.

July’s meeting was all about ‘Growing Your Own’ (it all seems so long ago now) and we had a wonderful and informative evening discussing ways to get involved with growing fruit, veg and herbs, especially if you have limited outside space yourself.

Thank you to Lorraine from Allotinabox for coming along to talk about their clever (and stylish) ‘Grown Your Own’ mail-order boxes. More information about Allotinabox can be found on their website, blog, Facebook page and Twitter @allotinabox.

Thank you also to Adrian from Highbridge Community Farm in Eastleigh, for his informative and amusing talk about their project. If you want to find out more or get in touch you can find their details on their website: http://highbridgefarmcommunity.co.uk/ or email info@highbridgefarmcommunity.co.uk

If you’ve been inspired to grow your own or have already had a go before our meeting, we’d love to see some pictures of the fruits of your labours! Just email them to us at sotonettes@gmail.com and we’ll show them off on here!

Would anyone be interested in visiting Highbridge Community Farm with us? Let us know.