Let’s read about nature for Mental Health Awareness Week 2021!

This year's Mental Health Awareness Week theme is 'Nature'. Nature is a central part of our physical and psychological health, and a greater connection to the world around us can really help to improve our overall wellbeing. Nature is a great resource for a mentally healthy future, and it turns out that how we open…

Mental Health Awareness Week: Bird Watching

"What you looking at?" Life has been hard in the pandemic. Everything became harder. Anxiety made everyday tasks such as getting the bus to work, meeting friends or going to shops, that much harder to do. Depression didn't help. It's hard to find pleasure in life when so many of the things you find pleasure…

Mental Health Awareness Week: Connect with Nature through Local Walks

This year's Mental Health Awareness Week is all about connecting with nature. One great way to connect with nature and improve your wellbeing is by walking. Here are some of the great walks in our borough that will help you discover, explore and enjoy some our beautiful parks and green spaces and historic sites. Celandine…

Mental Health Awareness Week Things that give me hope

Inspired by our talk with Jonny Benjamin and Britt Pflüger about The Book of Hope, Mark looks at things that give him hope. There's a wonderful line in a Josh Ritter song, Thin Blue Flame, that says "you need faith for the same reasons that it's so hard to find." Later in the same song…

Interview with Local Harefield Historian Lin King

Interview with Local Harefield Historian Lin King What is your connection to Harefield? We moved our family to Harefield in 1987 and very quickly became involved in village life, our children loved the freedom of the countryside and we loved the fact that we could visit London easily and come home to a rural setting,…

Hedgehog Awareness week is here and Debbie has created a craft activity to celebrate.

There is a host of information about Hedgehogs on the British Hedgehog Preservation Societies website just click here to have a look https://bit.ly/3nKud6E For the Hedgehog craft you will need... Kitchen roll centre  Blue card  Green card (two different greens if you have them)  White card  Small amount of yellow and red paper  Black pen  Brown…

Greek Orthodox Easter Craft

Eastern Christianity recognises a different date for Easter because they follow the Julian calendar, as opposed to the Gregorian calendar which is widely used by most countries today. Great Britain changed to the Gregorian calendar in 1752. The Julian Calendar was proposed by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, in which the year consisted of 365…

Two craft activities from Debbie for Easter.

Easter Card  You will need:  Green card  White card  Yellow card  Paints, felt pens or colouring pencils (non-toxic options)  Scissors - round end, or ask you adult to cut the shapes out for you and you can have all the fun putting it together. Glue (non-toxic)  1.  Cut about 1cm from one long edge and one short edge of…

Three Brunel University Creative Writing Students Share How They’re Keeping Their Creativity Flowing in Challenging Times

By Max Hallam, Eleni Aristeidou and Faizan Ahmed from Brunel University. Motivational Lists by Max Hallam, Creative Writing MA student  Coming off the back of my second creative writing degree, you'd think I’d be fueled by pure passion and love of craft, wouldn’t you? But as much as I love telling stories, writing is work,…

The Reason I Jump: One Boy’s Voice from the Silence of Autism by Naoki Higashida

Book Review by Morwenna from Harlington Library to mark Autism awareness Week 2021. Naoki Higashida wrote his best-selling book, The Reason I Jump, when he was just thirteen years old. Being unable to speak aloud, Higashida writes using an alphabet grid – a table of letters which he would point at, to then be transcribed by a helper. This method of communication gave Higashida a way to express himself and communicate with…