Programme for 2025/26
Theme for 2025/26
Our Story Our Song
Our 2025/26 theme will be Our Story Our Song, and you you can find more information with dates for the year ahead in this leaflet.
MitG 27th July
Music in the Gardens: London Metropolitan Brass and Black Dog Hat
What an occasion! What a team! What a win! There might have been something else going on in Basel on Sunday afternoon as well, but we’re referring to the final Music in the Gardens event of 2025 at Muswell Hill Methodist Church!
We had a wonderful afternoon in the grounds with musical contributions from London Metropolitan Brass and Black Dog Hat, who generously gave their time and talents to entertain the large crowd of visitors that filled the garden. The selection of pictures below give a real sense of the great atmosphere!
And the refreshments team served us an amazing array of home-made cakes, alongside supplies of choc-ices, ice-lollies, hot & cold drinks, which was made possible by the generosity of our cake-bakers!
So our sincere thanks to:
- members of London Metropolitan Brass and Black Dog Hat for their glorious musical entertainment;
- our cake-bakers who gave us our delicious refreshments;
- all the volunteers and visitors who helped to setup and put everything away afterwards!
Here you can read the ‘In Perspective’ flyer that was given out, and below you will find a few of the pictures taken on the day – enjoy!
MitG 20th July
Music in the Gardens: Rock in the Gardens
The unrealised threat of showers meant that we were indoors once more for our Rock in the Gardens session. Unfortunately, Robert Brady was unable to play and sing with Megan as planned, so Joel and friends generously gave their time and talents to give us powerful renditions of old favourites.
And during the interval, members of the newly formed Collaboration Choir – who meet in church on Tuesday evenings – were joined by other Collaboration Choir members from Cambridgeshire to enthusiastically sing a few songs!
We also had our usual wonderful array of home-made cakes for visitors to enjoy, alongside supplies of choc-ices, ice-lollies, hot & cold drinks.
Our thanks to:
- Megan, Joel, Ruth and friends who entertained us with their rock-track set;
- members of the Collaboration Choir – especially those who travelled a distance to be part of the choir;
- our cake-bakers who gave us our delicious refreshments;
- all the volunteers and visitors who helped to setup and put everything away afterwards!
Here you can read the ‘In Perspective’ flyer that was given out, and below you will find a few of the pictures taken on the day – enjoy!
MitG 13th July
Music in the Gardens: Life and Mission Choir
We were back in the gardens this week, when friends from the Life and Mission Choir entertained us with an exploration of the Christian Faith through song. The choir, which includes various members from Muswell Hill Methodist Church, meets in East Barnet on Fridays, and would love for you to come along – see the website for more details.
During the interval, a few youngsters from the Act Out performing arts group that meet on the premises on Thursdays, sang a few songs for us.
And our refreshments were kindly provided and served by our Brownies unit, who meet on the premises on Tuesdays alongside Rainbows and Rangers units. See the Girl Guiding website for more details.
Our thanks to:
- the Life and Mission Choir members for generously giving their time to entertain us;
- the youngsters from Act Out who sang so wonderfully;
- the Rainbows (and their parents!) who baked and served an amazing array of cakes to have with our tea and coffee;
- all the volunteers and visitors who helped to setup and put everything away afterwards!
Here you can read the ‘In Perspective’ flyer that was given out, and below you will find a few of the pictures taken on the day – enjoy!
Refugee Tales
If you went past the church late on the evening of 10th July, you would have seen lights on throughout the building, torches glinting in the garden and 60 or so people deciding where to sleep, from the chapel in church to the swing-seat in the Community Garden, and everywhere in-between! Our visitors were taking part in the Refugee Tales Walk of 2025 in solidarity with refugees, asylum-seekers and people who have experienced immigration detention. This year, the 5-day walk was around the Capital Ring from Southwark to Wimbledon, with overnight stops at various churches. Each evening, there’s an event where people with experience of detention share their tales, alongside live music and reflections, and the church was packed for a very special occasion that Thursday evening. There’s a few pictures from the event below, and please do visit refugeetales.org to sign-up for updates on their work and future events.
Here at MHMC, we have a long history of supporting refugees and asylum-seekers, and currently have a group of Christian Iranians as an active and engaged part of our community. We have been blessed by their presence and their enthusiasm to explore the Christian faith. As the Gospel of Luke tells us in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), we are called to “love your neighbour as yourself”, offering care and support for the strangers and foreigners in our midst. Our prayer is that we may all find the capacity to help those in need around us.
MitG 6th July
Music in the Gardens: English National Jazz Orchestra
The weather was more inclement, so the ENJO had to be in the church for our second MitG event of 2025, making a joyful sound within the wonderful accoustics of the sanctuary.
Our thanks to:
- all the orchestra members for generously giving their time to entertain us;
- all the cake-bakers who gave us tasty treats to have with our tea and coffee;
- all the volunteers and visitors who helped to setup and put everything away afterwards!
Here you can read the ‘In Perspective’ flyer that was given out, and below you will find a few of the pictures taken on the day – enjoy!
MitG 29th June
Music in the Gardens: Ceilidh with the Red River Band
We kicked-off our Music in the Gardens 2025 season with a wonderful afternoon of dancing led by the Red River Band, striving to keep in the shade on a hot and sunny day! And during the interval for the band, church members Ruth & Joel with pianist Alan entertained us with a selection of favourite songs.
Our thanks to:
- the band and musicians for generously giving their time to entertain us;
- all the cake-bakers who gave us tasty treats to have with our tea and coffee;
- all the volunteers and visitors who helped to setup and put everything away afterwards!
Here you can read the ‘In Perspective’ flyer that was given out, and below you will find a few of the pictures taken on the day – enjoy!
Community Garden Blog 13-Jun
Community Garden: A creative Experiment
by Augene Nanning, 13-Jun-25
Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers is a creative experiment for me, and always a learning curve.
Take the slug and snail potion: one teaspoon sugar and plain flour, and a generous teaspoon of yeast, to one cup of water. Mix and pour into container around the garden.
I have used this potion for years on my allotment with good success. I’ve used it in the Community Garden, and caught some snails and slugs. But more commonly, the containers appear grass, no longer where it has been carefully placed in a plant bed – or disappear altogether! Frequently, in place of the slug potion container in the veg bed, there is a deeper, larger hole than the container ever required!
Foxes! We guessed that foxes were enjoying the fermented drink. It wasn’t beer but it was enticing enough to encourage them to destroy areas of the beds!
So we stopped using the slug & snail potion. Fortunately, so far we haven’t had an infiltration of these hungry pests. There have been nibbles that might indicate their presence, but the style of the bites look more like bird pecking. But the lettuce is growing, a great favourite for slugs and snails – so we might experience an attack yet!
I’ve been told garlic crushed and added to water, or likewise with hot chillis would work. I’ve yet to try this but if I do, I’ll let you know how it successful it is.
I always welcome suggestions and recipes with natural ingredients.
Meanwhile, beans, peas, lettuce and more grow inspite of what we do in the community garden! As the weather warms, and rain falls, so do the weeds!
Your support and assistance is always welcome! Please drop by Thursday mornings,10am – 12 noon, to offer a helping hand. You are always welcome!
If you have questions, comments or natural ingredient potions or other suggestions for a healthy garden, please send them to communitygarden@mhmc.org.uk
Music in the Gardens 2025
Join us for this summer’s season of Music in the Gardens events on Sunday afternoons on 29th June and all Sundays in July!
Community Garden Blog
Community Garden Update
by Augene Nanning, 22-May-25
Wish list:
- Old CD/DVD discs (to scare away birds) – please bring along on a Thursday morning or give them to Augene after morning worship on Sundays.
- People to join the watering rota!
- Not all jobs are with soil: we need help in repairing some of the netting on the frames protecting the beds. It’s easy work, just tying string across the holes.
Last week, Saman joined Janet and I. You’ll know him for the bird houses he’s built that are on the trees, and for the work he did to clean up the swing chair that is now in the community garden. He’s a busy worker! He planted lettuce and herb seeds, watered, weeded and sorted out the raspberry bed. The foxes have had a fun time digging and creating big holes in the soil. Saman lugged the bags of soil and filled in the holes. Some bushes didn’t survive but we’ll replace those. Meanwhile, Janet and I continue with the many jobs a garden demands.
If you’ve visited the garden lately, you’ll see some plants are doing well! The potatoes, onions and garlic are growing in jumps and bounds it appears, and some beans (broad beans and dwarf beans) and peas, too! There may still be some courgettes – as I write this, I haven’t been to the garden for a week – but the plants weren’t watered as usual so some may have died. Usually the garden is watered Thursday, Sunday and Tuesday. But Paul, who waters on Tuesdays, and I weren’t available. If you have any interest in helping in any way in the community garden, do get in touch.
Even before last week, you may have notice that some plants died off. We lost a lot of cucumbers by planting them too early, likewise with some courgette plants. Our pumpkins didn’t do well at all. But there is time for us to plant and grow more. Thank you to those who have and are “fostering” the seedlings, taking them home and caring for them, helping make them strong and more resilient for when we move them into the garden. Like the plants in the garden already, some seeds won’t sprout, some plants won’t thrive. It’s the way of gardens, so don’t be discouraged! Meanwhile, there are still tomato plants that need fostering.
Contact Augene Nanning at communitygarden@mhmc.org.uk if you can help or have questions! Thanks!
