Avon Tyrrell 27th March 2009

Hello all,

Another week gone by and Avon Tyrrell has been as busy as ever. Last week we had Newlands School staying in the House and this week it was South Wonston Primary school. The Wonston teachers each morning have gone for an early morning run, unseen and unheard by the children and on the last morning their run was different around the grounds in their dressing gowns with the children watching cheering and shouting words of encouragement from their bedrooms and a couple were on the finish line timing them. Afterwards the teachers were spotted in the dining room enjoying a well earn’t cup of tea or two and desperately trying to recover…

Both schools were very well led by their teachers and helpers and seemed to make the most of their visit to us. When speaking to the children they have always been positive and said what a great time they were having, which to us is the most important requirement as we as a charity are here for young people.

At the weekend we had a cross section of Youth Groups staying in the House and Lodges all of whom got on together very well and again had a great time. It is good to also to know we are supporting a big cross section of groups and they are all making the most of their stay with us . You may be glad to know also that we do ask for feedback from those who stay and we do act upon comments as we need to know what people think of us and we are always willing to improve when we can.

In response to the question asked of our last blog “is Avon Tyrrell haunted” why don’t you come and stay with us and find out….

Again we have made little progress on the strawbale classroom, which we are all finding frustrating, yet with only four maintenance staff and so many projects running to try and improve our facilities, we have to accept that things do not always move as fast as we would like. The decking is slowly being built .

The Reed Bed work has pushed on and we now have the bunded walls almost complete. Next stage will be to build the inlet and outlet pipes and sampling point and to fit the liner and then start shipping in stone.

Internal work within the new Volunteer and Staff Lodge is well underway and our amazingly hardworking Estonian Builders will soon be returning home. The electrics and plumbing are almost complete and soon our staff will begin completing the final fitting of the kitchen and bedrooms. We now just need a man to spray the lodge so we can do the rest of the internal work. Maybe These lodges would be an answer to the UK Housing problem, as they are fantastic economical buildings which are environmentally friendly…..

Finally this week we thought you would like to see a picture of one of our Australian GAPS in a stylish hat…

Remember… enjoy everyday

AT Blog 18th March 2009

Hi all, hope your week is going as well as ours?

Well after some initial teething problems for a couple of days our new website finally hit the worldwide web and we are happy to say initial feedback has been good and it is working well. We must thank Mercury1 for their kind generosity to build the site and host it for us for free, without this type of support charities like ours would find it difficult to survive. Special thanks also to Tara from Mercury1 for her help and support in building the site and to Sharon who works for UK Youth and has been key to putting our pages together and redoing them whenever we have had a new bright idea. We know the new website will reach many more groups and individuals and they can now see easily what we have to offer. http://www.avontyrrell.org.uk/.

Last week we had a visit from Townhill Junior School and they had an absolutely splendid week and all the children completed successfully the Junior Achievement Award, so well done to them for doing so well. At the weekend we had the second of 3 visits in successive weeks from Greg City Academy and again it was good to see everyone having a great time. We have also seen the return of campers now our campsites are open.

It has been a fine few days working on the Reed Bed and we are beginning to see the site take shape.

As for the new Volunteer and Staff Lodge, again an amazing few days which has seen the roof fitted and the start of the first fix for plumbing and electrics.

Finally for our followers in New Zealand and Australia, do you recognise this pair and note the exclusive shopping bags……



Remember… it's good to laugh

Avon Tyrrell 10th March 2009

Well I have been rather reminisce recently in writing the blog as we have had so many balls in the air the time has just flown by. I shall now try and cover all that has happened recently to bring you back up to date with events at Avon Tyrrell.

Starting with today and the launch of our new look website, www.avontyrrell.org.uk which I hope you will all review and pass comments that will help us develop it further if needs be. The idea of this website is to make it easier for groups, families and individuals that use us to identify the areas they wish to find information about us on without having to get bogged down with information that is not required, fingers crossed it is well received.

Where next, I will start at the bottom of the Avon Tyrrell site by the small lake and the excavation of ground next to the strawbale classroom to enable volunteers, with our Environment Team, to build an Environment Garden. This garden will be situated next to a pond to allow pond dipping studies to be undertaken on a safe platform around the pond for young people to access easily. The garden itself will have full accessibility for all users and will complement the surrounding lake and marsh area perfectly and will be s super place to learn about our environment

Meanwhile at the top of our site by the lodges we have uncovered a well, which with the assistance of a Southampton University Engineer Student we are looking at the feasibility of using to supply water to the site. This is an interesting project which may end in us doing nothing and continuing to draw all our water from our local water company, as the cost of purifying water for such a large site may not be practical. We know the water company would rather we bought their water however they have never really understood the philosophy of a charity who would rather try and keep its core running costs to minimum so we can spend more money, in our case on young people.

Next; as we are talking about money, we have extended the services provided from our kitchen and now run a limited café services for customers, which we hope will be utilised more in the summer months when we have more campers.

Since our last Blog we have had the snow and rain which saw our lakes at their highest levels ever seen by even the oldest member of staff. The levels are now back to normal and our Activities staff are no longer paddling all over the lower regions of our site.

Finally I cannot go without mentioning where we are with our new volunteer and staff lodge, which has seen the foundation pillars’ completed, the lodge delivered, and now it s being built by a crew of 4 builders from Estonia where it was made. We believe the lodge will have its ridge beam on by the end of the week which is fast considering the team only arrived last Thursday night. The staff and volunteers are looking forward to the lodge completion.

Now that was a very fast update and I promise I will be a little more diligent in publishing our Blog, especially as it is now so accessible on our new web site.

Remember you are always welcome at Avon Tyrrell.