A Wild but Wonderful Easter Fun Day at Glenfinart Walled Garden

Easter Fun Day 2026

What a day we had at Glenfinart Walled Garden this Easter Sunday! If you stepped outside at any point, you’ll know the weather couldn’t quite make up its mind—one minute sunshine, the next rain, then sleet… and yes, even a bit of snow. But honestly, it just added to the fun.

Families came out in great spirits, ready to enjoy everything on offer. The Easter egg hunt was a clear favourite, with kids dashing around the garden in search of hidden treats—each one rewarded with a well-earned chocolate egg.

There was plenty happening on the grass too. From egg-and-spoon races and sack races to a lively tug-of-war, there were laughs all round (and a few tumbles along the way!).

Away from the games, visitors tried their luck at the coconut shy, planted sunflowers to take home, and tucked into a great selection of burgers, hot dogs and delicious home baking.

Best of all, the whole event was free—making it an easy, relaxed day out for everyone.

Rain or shine (or snow!), it turned out to be a fantastic community get-together.

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Harvest Fair 2025 at Glenfinart Walled Garden

Glenfinart Walled Garden

Now in its eleventh year, Ardentinny Community Trust’s Harvest Fair at Glenfinart Walled Garden continues to draw the crowds for an afternoon of excellent entertainment and a great selection of activities. The 2025 event, held last Sunday, was well attended and, for once, bathed in autumn sunshine. 

With its  beautiful garden backdrop, the event had a lot to offer. Visitors were welcomed with a refreshing glass of fresh apple juice from the garden’s orchard and, as usual, food was in plentiful supply with scrumptious curries and soups created from the garden’s vegetables; burgers; and Ardentinny’s, now famous, mouth watering home baking.  

The busy market stalls offered handmade crafts; jams; honey; books; Tombola; and the ever popular coconut shy.  

Live musical entertainment was provided by the ageless Elderly Brothers, with special guest singers entertaining the crowd throughout the afternoon. 

Huge thanks go to everyone who helped make the day a great success. The visitors dug deep in their pockets, with some £2,600+ being raised!

Run totally by volunteers, Glenfinart Walled Garden continues to provide both Ardentinny and the wider Cowal area with a beautiful, peaceful community space. This year, new trustees step up to Ardentinny Community Trust, continuing the excellent work of the previous trustees, and with ambitious plans for additional village projects , under the Community Trust umbrella. At the recent AGM, new trustee Bill Tierney, thanked the previous trustees for the many hundreds of hours they had put in over the past years in maintaining and developing the walled garden. 

Glenfinart Walled Garden volunteer days continue on a Wednesday and Thursday from 11am – 2.30pm. The Trust is always looking for new volunteers, so if you have a few hours to spare, why not come along and have an enjoyable day in the garden. You can also contact the Trust via the Glenfinart Walled Garden Facebook page or by email at info@glenfinartgarden.org.

Easter Fun Day 2025 @ Glenfinart Walled Garden

Easter Fun Day

Last weekend, Ardentinny’s Easter Fun Day at Glenfinart Walled Garden pulled in a big crowd. The annual event featured the usual Easter egg hunt (with eggcellent prizes!), egg and spoon races, sack races and the Easter Bonnet contest, all set against the backdrop of blooming spring flowers in the community garden.

With the sun shining, there were plenty of activities for the whole family, including the coconut shy; handicraft, preserves and toy stalls; and the busy burger bar and tea cabin.

The event also marked the beginning of the garden’s seasonal public opening times, i.e., Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10.30 to 14.30, plus other times by appointment.

For more information or to schedule a visit to the garden, send an email to sec@glenfinartgarden.org. You can also follow Ardentinny Community Trust on Facebook, or visit www.glenfinartgarden.org.

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Ardentinny celebrates Autumn’s arrival at Harvest Fair

Despite the promise of ‘sunny intervals’ last Sunday, the sun unfortunately failed to materialise at Glenfinart Walled Garden’s Harvest Fair. However, the dry weather still brought out the crowds to Ardentinny’s community garden.

Visitors were welcomed with a refreshing glass of fresh apple juice from the garden’s orchard, which was still heaving from this years abundant crop. The stalls were as usual very busy, with the tombola, preserves and bottle stalls being particularly popular!

To tempt the palate, the garden’s volunteers always make a great effort to satisfy the hungry hoards, this year offering a particularly tasty (and garden-grown) vegetable curry, veggie soup, burgers and hot dogs as well as a wide assortment of home-baked cakes served in the tea cabin.

As usual, the ever youthful Elderly Brothers, along with their guest performers provided the excellent entertainment with an eclectic selection of music from their rendition of The Black Velvet Band to Bob Dylan favourites.

The Ardentinny Community Trust garden relies 100% on volunteers, and is always on the lookout for more people who can devote a few hours each week to caring for this delightful community garden. If you’re interested, get in touch with the secretary at sec@glenfinartgarden.org.

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Ardentinny Renewables Trust – Mid 2024 Newsletter

Glenfinart Walled Garden

Ardentinny Renewables Trust (ART) has recently published its Mid 2024 newsletter, highlighting the past six months of funding activities.

With a substantial increase this year in income from the local hydro projects, contributions from the four hydro installations have been able to fund or part-fund picnic tables for Glenfinart Walled Garden, bowling green repairs, sound equipment for the music group and an internet and phone service for the village hall. Since the inception of the first hydro project in 2017, our community has benefited to the amount of over £69,000.

The Trust’s Annual General Meeting takes place in the Village Hall on Tuesday, 23rd July at 7.30pm. Alongside discussing the past year’s activities, financial situation and outlining its future objectives, the Renewables Trust will also be electing Trustees for the forthcoming year. Everyone is welcome.

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Sue Garton, Flute Lessons, Flute Teacher Champaign-Urbana

Sue Garton, Flute Teacher

I’m Sue Garton, a flute teacher who loves teaching flute lessons and sharing the joys of making music, right here in Champaign-Urbana, in person and/or online. FluteKeys welcomes flutists and aspiring flute players from ages 7 through adult.

Whether you want to elevate your flute skills to the next level or you’ve never played flute before, I invite you to join me on your flute lessons journey. 

Private flute lessons and ensembles at FluteKeys Studio are just the beginning of a series of motivating and enriching musical experiences. I’d love to meet you and discover your flute interests.

 

Welcome to FluteKeys Studio, where private flute lessons are just the beginning of a series of motivating and enriching musical experiences.

FluteKeys Studio is located at 1202 Devonshire Drive in Champaign, just a few minutes from the University of Illinois, Urbana and Savoy. Private flute lessons are offered to individuals by flute teacher Sue Garton. Students range from second grade through adult. A free trial flute lesson is encouraged, and parents are always welcome. Click here to read more about FluteKeys policies.

 

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National Flute Conventions

As an active member of the National Flute Association (www.nfaonline.org) I attend their national conventions each August. Over the years I have met and heard several great flute musicians that I have mentioned during private and group sessions.
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FluteKeys Resources

There are so many resources available, it is hard to keep track of them all. Here are a few categories that you may find helpful. If you know of a good resource that should be listed, please get in touch.
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Upcoming Releases

Resident composer & arranger Roland Garton occasionnaly provides pre-publication samples of upcoming new releases.

Flight of the Wood Sprites. a spirited journey for flute quartet (four C flutes with two doubling on piccolo) and lightweight, affordable percussion (minimum two semi-skilled performers).”

Click here to play MP3 file, or right-click and select “Save Link As” to download

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What do area band directors want?

What do band directors in the Champaign vicinity like to see in their flute students? Click here to find out what many area directors find most important in their flute students.

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