What: Food, Entertainment, Friendship, Fun

Where: Letsbe Avenue (between Humberstone and Hunmanby)

How to help: email taffboy72 AT gmail.com if you can:

• make food (vegetarian/vegan) – expenses available
• perform music, poetry, etc
• organise a display eg about a community project here or nearby.

We would like this event to

• be inclusive as can be – diverse as the range of people living here
• build relations and friendships in times that are hard for some.

(organised by Bentley House Tenants & Residents Association)

Please keep things tidy as the weekend progresses.

NB: This weekend we also have clothes swap and bring & mend or upcycle clothes or household textiles from 2-6pm on both Saturday & Sunday in the tenants’ office at 26a Humberstone, brought to you by the lovely Stitched Up collective.

They’re bringing one or two sewing machines, so now’s your chance to repair or upcycle and sort out all those clothes you’ve been meaning to sort out for ages. Bring old clothes, buttons etc.

http://stitchedupuk.blogspot.co.uk/

Please spread the word to anyone you know who may be interested as someone seems to have removed the Stitched Up flyers from bin sheds.

Anyone knowing anyone wishing to tender for work, please pop along to the event and tell Chloe, so that Jenny Sweet (our project manager at BCA) can be in touch.

Hope to see you all there!

The Bike Club aims to refurbish and roll out previously unloved bikes for the benefit of people on the estate and in the local community. If you have any unwanted bikes or bits of bikes then we will gladly take them off your hands and put them to good use!

The BBC has the assistance of a professional bike mechanic and several knowledgeable volunteers, so if you want to learn how to fix your bike then please stop by.

If you would like access to the tools at any other time, or would like to donate a bike, please call Aidan on 0757 6688393.

BCA-Artwork-precedents-Mar_2012-1

BCA-Artwork-precedents-Mar_2012-2

Hi all!

After many months of general too & fro’ing the bike storage issue for the whole of the Bentley estate is now properly underway. My name is Matthew Hague and I live on Hunmanby. Myself and Adam are trying our best to keep this issue on the agenda with City South and we have now secured regular official meeting time with them and we are now being listened to regarding view points, practicalities and all other points in-between.

The last meeting took place on Thursday 15th March. Present were Chris Parkinson, Alan Leicester, Samantha Lennard & Sue France. Many points were discussed and many solutions mooted. Basically it boils down to the fact that the bikes have to come off the landing railings. After that its a matter of finding the best (& obviously most cost effective!) solution to each block on the estate. We have discussed the use of the storage rooms, placing Sheffield stands in the hallways which have the room and converting certain bin sheds to “securely’ & “safely” house bikes.

So, so, so………….. the next meeting is scheduled for 10th May & I would like to take some estate wide feedback with me. Please add any thoughts, feelings, insights etc to this post and i’ll bring it all together and put it forward. The more the merrier please.

Some of the blocks on Rockdove trialled the wall mounted systems that City South installed. I have tested these and found them wanting in a few areas. But feedback on these and the ‘shed’ on Humberstone would also be very welcome. We really need & want to find the best solution for each block.

I await your responses, experiences as a bike user on the estate and thoughts for the future of using said bikes easily and effectively within the Bentley House area. Also feel free to ask any questions that you need. Email :

bike-storage AT redbricks.org

We also need a few more volunteers to get involved with this project too. Give me a shout if you are interested.

Cheers, Matthew

People’s Kitchen courtesy of Chloe, Steve and Dave this coming Tuesday.

The domain will expire in July if a new keeper is not found.

and also Thursdays generally – though dont let that stop us on other
days!
and in particular thurs 19th april when Katherine from Garden centre
will be along to help with any questions and queries and advice …

see yous all soon,

the blossoms coming

There’s two gardening workshops coming up that are free for CSM residents:

sowing and planting for beginners on 3rd April, and container growing on 5th April. See the attached flier for details of how to book via City South.

There’s also more of interest at Hulme Community Garden Centre:

an ‘Edible Windowsill’ workshop on 15th April – for a fiver, you get to take home a container with salads, mini-veg and herbs; and starting on 4th April for 5 weeks is a free introductory organic gardening course. See their website at http://www.hulmegardencentre.org.uk/ for details of how to book.

If you’re interested in gardening on Leaf Street, get in touch with the Leaf Street gardeners; and if you’re interested in using other spaces and containers around the estate, get in touch with the relevant people via Greening the Redbricks. Leaf Street workdays get advertised as and when they get organised, meetings are listed in the notice-board by the residents’ office on Humberstone; contact details for all groups are at the redbricks.org projects page

Thanks to those of you who made it down to Leaf st for the big work day in Feb. And especially big thanks to Cath for wheelbarrowing in some v tasty soup! The garden’s looking lovely, and the trees all well pruned.

We’re having another session this coming weekend for anyone who wants to join in – general clearing up , and getting things ready for spring. SUNDAY 11th March 12 till 4

Spread the word, Spread the Muck

The training will be followed by a ‘THANKS CATH’ PEOPLE’S KITCHEN SPECIAL from 6.30pm til 8.30pm, again at the OK Cafe. The OK is then hosting a Social Centre Benefit from 8.30pm onwards.

Feel free to contact me for more info or to book a training place; 07957-716653.

3/4th March 2012 1-5pm

The Bentley Exchange takes place in the (nearer to Clarendon end) walk-through between Humberstone Avenue and Letsby Avenue (the wooded area)

BOYD_Bicycles_Flyer

Contact Elaine Hutchings at WEA to book your place on 0161 2775409 or ehutchings@wea.org.uk

Computer/IT problem drop-in in the tenants’  office this Sunday, 1pm till 6pm. All welcome!

•  Laptop broken or just the power supply? Find out with our universal adapter!
• Broken laptop, working screen? Broken screen, working laptop? Hey, you guys should get together. We can help fix your machine.
•  Does your computer just seem to get slower and slower? There are ways to clean it and make it faster. Before you chuck it, find out if there is an easy, cheap upgrade (perhaps from parts salvaged from neighbours’ broken PCs).
• Give your old machine a new lease of life or pick up someones donated machine. We can help you build up machines and take you through an install of an easy to use linux system (yes such a thing does exist, honest!).
• We do have a couple of working machines and various parts to donate, but are looking for more. Do you have something under the bed that might help? If you’re keeping something as it might be useful one day, this Sunday is that day! Free yourself from your tat! Anything left over will be saved for a future workshop, stuff that’s old or broken will be picked up by a recycler for re-use.
• If you’ve got something special to donate, that you don’t want to leave at the tat table and you can’t bring to the Tenants office early on Sunday afternoon, text 07912 569521 and we’ll try and arrange a pickup.

What is the hell is ‘Bring out your Dead’?

The idea is to make the Bentley Exchange (tat table) more useful, by theming the months. Expert advice will be on-hand to help people learn how to make better (re)use of the things left on the table and we hope it will encourage people to get rid of their more ‘premium’ tat, knowing it will be put to good use. Future planned themes are bikes (along with a cycle repair skill share) and clothes (with an upcycling, refashioning workshop).
The idea came from a group of residents who all have stuff clogging up their flats on the basis that ‘they’ll be useful one day’ – we want to make those days happen now! ‘Bring out your dead’ is just an addition to the Exchange, so do still bring out non-techy things you think others might want, as you normally would.

Where: 26a Humberstone, office behind bike shed

When: 4th February

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The amazing Bentley Exchange

bring and take tat table

This weekend

(and every full first weekend of the month)

noon Saturday – 5pm Sunday

between Humberstone and Letsbe Avenue

Bring things you don’t want, take things that you need

Bring things on Saturday, not last thing on Sunday!  and don’t bring rubbish!!

Volunteers needed for tidy-up – subscribe to ‘shout’ on redbricks.org or just turn up at 6pm on Sunday

The major changes on this proposal compared to the outcome of the consultation process are the result of two different ‘pressures’: one is the outcome of a pre-planning meeting with the Highways Agency and the Council’s Planners; the other is the very tight timetable for the Community Spaces funding which needs planning permission to be granted before we can submit our Stage 2 application. This made it necessary to re-draft the design as two distinct phases with the Community Spaces elements (edible planting & biodiversity, fitness and art work) moved off the road onto CSM land.

In need of work experience, or looking to improve your CV?

Check out the voluntary opportunities below.

WANTED:
• Bentley House Tenants’ and Residents’ Association (TARA) Committee SECRETARY -
Duties include: minute taking at monthly meetings and answering website enquiries.  No previous experience necessary but we are looking for someone reliable.
• BENTLEY EXCHANGE JOINT CO-ORDINATOR – Duties include: advertising exchange days and recruiting and organising volunteers to help set-up Saturdays and pack away Sundays on exchange weekends (first full weekend of every month).  No previous experience necessary but we are looking for someone responsible and reliable.
• BENTLEY BIKE WORKSHOP JOINT CO-ORDINATOR – This is a new position, as the workshop room has only just become available, some equipment has already been purchased.  Duties to include setting and running the workshop in partnership with Pedal Manchester and Greening the Redbricks (sustainability sub-group of TARA).  Applicants will need to be responsible and reliable, with some relevant experience.
How to Apply:
By phone – see poster in your stairwells and in the notice-boards for the number.
By email to tara @ redbricks.org
In writing – post your application through the door of 26a Humberstone Avenue, addressed to TARA.

Title:

Then this month’s Exchange Table is a Gardening Special. But to start us off, this month will be gardening – so root around and fetch your unwanted and unloved gardening bits and pieces, and it’ll be collected up by Callum at the end and re-distributed.

Another 9 tree grafts were planted in at an appropriately jaunty angle

More prep work has happened along Clarendon Street – if you can spot the nicely spaced canes along any fences they represent where more apple trees will go.

So anyone who wants to join in, meet 1pm till 4pm Sunday 11th December and we’ll see how many more we can get stuck in with! We’ll be around planting after we’ve got all the stuff we need from Leaf Street, so come
find us.

Spread the word/muck.

Get in touch if you can’t make then but want to help out another time, with lucy AT teddytronix.com