Meitheal

[diggernotdreamer]

Thought some of you might be interested in our what our little gardening group gets up to. We formed a gardening group a couple of years ago and it kind of jogged along in no particular useful way ............. until this year. We now meet every two weeks, evenings in the summer and during the day on a Saturday in the darker evenings. We compiled a list of the dates we would meet and we go to a different persons home and have a meitheal, which is an Irish word for a working party. The person we go to thinks of a job or jobs they would like done and usually up to 14 people descend on them and 'do' the job. We usually work for an hour or sometimes two depending on weather and what needs doing and then repair to the house and have a lovely feed of cakes, breads, gallons of tea and chat (we usually bring something each to share), great craic is had by all. A few weeks ago, they came to my house and we cleared out my big polytunnel, which was great as this would normally take me days on my own. It gives you such a buzz getting something done like that and the energy the group has now is growing with each visit. Everyone in the group benefits and can get up to two visits a year. Does anyone else do this?

[Green Aura]

That sounds absolutely brilliant, dnd. I'd love to get something like that going but round here there's not much of a group mentality.

[Odsox]

Nope, doesn't happen down here either.
All the growers down here are snooty English blow ins that wouldn't be seen dead with me.
Plus, I'm a dyed in the wool antisocial independent git.

[KathyLauren]

We used to belong to a similar group. We dropped out because the organizer was an over-the-top control freak, but we did enjoy the work bees and the socializing afterwards. A great way to get a bunch of work done.

Hang onto your tools, though! At the end of the work, everyone set down their tools while we ate. Afterwards, we'd go to pick up our tools, only to find that someone who left early had traded their junk tools for our good ones.

[diggernotdreamer]

Plus, I'm a dyed in the wool antisocial independent git.[/quote]

Hmmm you sound just like the Wizard.

This group was a bit of a slow burner, but now we are focused on the jobs, it works really well, I think if people thought they were going to get so much out of it, they would join on. No-one is really in charge of the group, it kind of runs itself, we have one or two people who text or email everyone to remind a few days before the event. All our tools are shite, so no point in nicking each others

[ina]

Great idea! Nothing like that here, either. I actually suggested a work party to a neighbour who told me about his worries re clearing their grounds of the original chuckies that most properties have instead of a garden - he thought it was a good idea and said I'd be the first invited, but nothing has come of it.

[Green Aura]

OK, it's been driving me nuts - how do you pronounce it?

[diggernotdreamer]

Lol, I am not Irish but it kind of comes out meh' hall, in my funny bestest Berkshire accent.

Sometimes Ina, people need pushing along a bit, not everyone is very proactive and they take a back seat, sometimes you have to kind of prod people into action and once it gets going and people see what can be achieved, they get more motivated. We started out with just a few people and the interest has grown

[Green Aura]

I learned Welsh at university and it seems to have really buggered up my ability to get to grips with Gaelic ( I'm particularly interested in its Scottish form - not that there's any round here). Either that or I'm just getting too old to learn new languages - shame really, I used to be able to pick them up easily.

[Pumkinpie]

Great idea.
I might put it too our u3a gardening group.
It sounds like fun and productive too.

[doofaloofa]

Nope, doesn't happen down here either.
All the growers down here are snooty English blow ins that wouldn't be seen dead with me.
Plus, I'm a dyed in the wool antisocial independent git.

We were in a meitheal a few years ago Tony

I could hook you up...