The doors of Canolfan S4C Yr Egin in Carmarthen opened to the public for the first time in over a year last Saturday, April 24th, when a family event was held as part of the ‘Blaguro’ project activities.
The project, funded by the Arts Council of Wales, wants to establish a community garden on land at Yr Egin, with a view to combining the work of creative practitioners with community groups.
The community groups at the heart of the project are DrMz Carmarthen, Gwneud Bywyd yn Haws (Making Life Easier) families led by Hanna Hopwood Griffiths, Carmarthenshire 50+, Greenspace led by Dorothy Morris, Tŷ Hapus, and BA Applied Drama: Education, Wellbeing, Community students at the University. There will be a further opportunity for others to join through public activities such as the one held on Saturday.
One element of the project entails growing vegetables and flowers in the community garden in conjunction with the café at Yr Egin. Therefore free planting workshops were held with local children to start this exciting initiative. The children worked hard helping to plant vegetable seeds in pots for later cultivation on land at Yr Egin, as well as learning gardening skills. Yr Egin’s role is to stimulate creativity both regionally and nationally and the local community is an essential part of the development on the University of Wales Trinity Saint David campus.
The seeds for the ‘Blaguro’ project were donated by Tyfu’r Dyfodol – Growing the Future which is a National Botanic Garden of Wales project, and the compost by Merlin’s Magic.
Carys Ifan, Director of Yr Egin, said:
“The ‘Blaguro’ project was designed as a way of reconnecting with the communities of Carmarthen town and trying to be as inclusive as possible. The lockdown periods have demonstrated the importance of our green spaces for wellbeing and mental health and has revived people’s interest in nature. We at Yr Egin are keen to share our green spaces with the community especially those who do not have a garden to escape to or who want some advice on how to grow vegetables. ‘Blaguro’ will also provide an opportunity for creativity to literally take root and blossom, an opportunity to bring people together to work together, as well as creating a space that offers comfort, sanctuary and a creative experience to an outdoor audience”.
“Saturday’s event brought a smile and relief to a large number of people as we once again opened our doors and welcomed families back to the centre. I’m really looking forward to seeing all the community groups coming here in turn and to see what they create in conjunction with the creative practitioners.”
Lisa Fearn led the planting workshop for the community garden on Saturday, and she is looking forward to seeing the project develop. “’Blaguro’ is a project that brings together different groups of the community to learn new skills. It is an opportunity to grow vegetables, fruit and flowers on site which will be used in the Cegin y Sied kitchen over the next few months.”
In addition, the opportunity was taken to re-open the café at Yr Egin under a new tenancy. It is a pleasure to announce that Lisa Fearn and her crew will be in charge of ‘Y Sied @ Yr Egin’ café with Josh Fearn and Llew Charles responsible for the day-to-day running of the café.
Lisa is looking forward to the challenge: “This is a new initiative for Y Sied – from the cooking and gardening school in Whitemill, to Y Sied Goffi in town, we are expanding to Yr Egin, offering our customers the same type of food and drink, healthy light meals and salads. The café is conveniently located with plenty of parking space for those travelling and is within a stone’s throw of a number of housing estates. Everyone working from home who deserves a break will be warmly welcomed to come along for a cuppa or lunch. We are also looking forward to serving Yr Egin’s creative community, University staff and students.
The café will officially re-open on Thursday, April 29th, initially over the lunch break between 11 and 2, and will then gradually extend its hours. The intention as restrictions ease will be to expand the offer so that people can come and socialise over a cup of tea or a glass of wine and enjoy more activities at Yr Egin.
For more information about Yr Egin and the ‘Blaguro’ project, e-mail helo@yregin.cymru
For the latest information regarding the café, please visit Yr Egin’s website.
Further Information
Lowri Thomas, Principal Communications and Public Relations Officer
07449 998476
lowri.thomas@uwtsd.ac.uk
