This years Good To Grow Week had two themes, one of which was 'Growing For Nature.' So, in line with this we decided to hold a Beltane/ May Day themed event at our community garden today.

Beltane is one of the eight major festivals of nature based Celtic traditions. It represents the peak of Spring and the beginning of the natural fertility of Summer.

Beltane means 'Bright Fire' in Gaelic and traditionally it is a fire festival.

Traditionally bonfires were built for Beltane and festival goers would leap over the fire to take the flame into themselves. The flame can signify good luck and fertility. So, even today couples who wish to conceive jump their festive fires at Beltane.

Some of us had a go at leaping our fire and luckily we had no accidents! We also enjoyed cooking up some vegan food on the fire plus our favourite chocolate bananas.

In European traditions, the protector or 'god' of the forest is known as the 'Young Oak King,' 'Jack-In-The-Green' or 'The Green Man.' He symbolically appears at this point in the Wheel of the Year to join the May Goddess in a greenwood marriage.

Ruth demonstrated some nature art ideas and then some of the group members dispersed around our site to make their own Green Man sculptures.

Here are some of our finished Green Man sculptures made from clay and other natural found objects around the site. The clay will dry onto the trees and we'll will have some fantastic permanent sculptures hidden around the site to spot and to remind us of our brilliant Beltane celebration.