Easter Treats

We're open on Easter Saturday

Hard to believe that Easter is with us already, it hardly seems like five minutes since we were taking down the Christmas decorations. But Easter it is, so here's a gentle reminder that although the Hayridge will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday, we will be open as usual on Easter Saturday - hoorah! And there's a special activity for children and parents on Saturday too - make a lovely Easter Egg Flower together. Lego club will be back too, so don't forget to pop by and see us this Saturday.


Talking of the Lego Club...

The inaugural meeting last Saturday was a riot, with everyone having a ball. We have a page of photographs taken on the day which you can see by clicking here. All the models built on the day are on display in the library children's area, where they will stay until Thursday, when we will dismantle them to get ready for next week. Because the club was so popular, and the space in the library got a bit crowded (to say the least), we'll host it in one of the rooms upstairs next week! We'd like to say a big thank you to all the sponsors who contributed funds which allowed the club to buy so many lovely Lego sets - so take a bow Devon County Councillor John Berry, Cullompton Town Council, and Tesco Cullompton. We'd also like to say a special thank you to William Gillings who donated several bags of Lego bits, which proved to be essential on the day!


Easter Biscuits in the Café

If you'd like to have something special for Easter, why not come in and decorate your very own biscuits? We have an Easter biscuit decoration workshop in the café this Thursday, April 2nd, between 11 and 12. There are limited places for the workshop, so we suggest you book with the café on 01392 388402. It only costs £1 per child, which is great value for the fun you'll have  - and you get to eat the biscuits afterwards!


Our Other Easter Events

All our other Easter activities can be found by clicking this link, but there's a few things to look out for: entry forms for our Easter Egg design competition are now ready at the counter, we've got a brilliant Spring trail in the library with artwork by our very own Susie Tyler, a special story time on Saturday April 11th, and on Saturday 18th you'll be able to plant a seed at the library and take it home to watch it grow.


More Tasty Goodies in the Foyer

The Tiverton and District Country Market stand is back in the Hayridge foyer, loaded with tempting tasty treats and craft ware, just the thing to put the finishing touch to your Easter weekend.  Come along and have a look - you'll be delighted with what's on offer.


World Book Night

It's World Book night on April 23rd, and as usual we have linked up with the Reading Agency to hand out special editions of top titles completely free! So if you fancy picking up something new to try, or want to spread the joy of reading to friends who don't normally visit the library, come along between 10 and 12 on the 23rd to collect your copy. It's first come, first served...


Opening Hours Survey

Our opening hours survey runs until April 18th - you'll find all the details on our previous blog post. If you've not filled in a form, or had a go at our online survey (available by clicking here), we'd be really grateful if you could do so. We want as many opinions as possible, so we can be as sure as we can be that any changes we make to our opening hours are the best choice we can make.


And Finally...

Under the new European rulings on Crocodiles in the Workplace, we are sorry to have to announce that Cedric, the library crocodile, is going to have to be rehomed. A place has been found at TARS, the Tiverton Abandoned Reptile Society. Cedric, who has been doing sterling work for several years during performances of "Row, row, row your boat" during Bounce and Rhyme sessions, will be leaving this Wednesday (1/4/2015) to meet his new friends, including a Caimen called Cyril from Crediton and twin Alligators Alice and Alistair from Axminster who are also caught up in all the red tape. We think that a few crocodile tears will be shed when Cedric leaves the library for the last time. If you'd like to come along and say goodbye in person, try and arrive before twelve - but you'd better make it snappy.

Our Opening Hours

What do you think about us opening Tuesday and Thursday afternoons?

We want to know. It's always been a bit of an oddity that the Library is closed on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, when the rest of the Hayridge is open. Lots of you have said that it would be much better if we could open those afternoons, so we've been looking to see whether we could make that work. We've worked out that if we open the Library and the Centre from 9-5 every week day, we can rework our staffing rota to make that happen. And we've also got access to some new technology that would allow the Library to stay open longer in the evenings and at weekends, so if you can't get in to the Library during our normal opening hours, you will still be able to use it even when there are no staff on duty - how good is that?

The way that the out-of-hours access will work is: anyone who wants to access the library out-of-hours comes first to the counter during normal opening times and asks for access to be set on their library account. You can then use your Library card and PIN code to open the main doors (there will be a schedule when this will be possible, so we can fit in routine cleaning and maintenance work). The Library will be unmanned, but the self-service terminals and all the PCs will be turned on, so you can use it just like you can when staff are around. Children under 17 will need to be accompanied by an adult, and we will have CCTV working through the building to make sure it's kept safe. And that's it.

So what do you think? Let us know if you'd like the Library to be open Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and whether you'd like to use the Library outside of normal opening hours. You can fill in a form at the Library counter, or fill in our online survey by clicking here.

If a majority of people think it's a good idea, we could get the new opening times in place by the summer.


Our Lego Club is on the Launchpad...

Stand by - the Lego Club is ready to launch. Starting Saturday 29th March at 9:30, we'll be putting out a load of Lego bricks and seeing what creative things you can do with them. We'd like children to be accompanied at all times while using the Lego Club, so if you're thinking of coming along please do take that into account. We've got a massive load of brand new bricks and play sets for you to try out, so it should be fantastic fun. All we have to do now is to get the Hayridge staff to stop playing with the Lego so you can have a go!


The April event list is almost ready!

You can get a sneak preview of what we've got in mind by checking our event listings here. Expect lots of eggs, bunnies, and something a bit different besides!








Calling All Silver Screen Lovers

Our Silver Screen film club - open to all senior members of our community - is starting to take shape. Once a month, on a Friday evening, we will be showing a film chosen by club members. The film will be completely free. After the showing, you will be able to talk about the film you've seen, and (if you like) write a short review which we can keep here on our blog. There will also be the chance to have supper in the upstairs dining area. So if you like to watch and talk about a movie, in the company of other people who love films, this is the place to be!

'Gutenberg'

Taking to the Hair

The Hayridge goes Hair-Brained…

Well, we promised that March would be a bit bonkers - this month’s activities are all as Mad as March Hair! There’s a display of a hundred years of hair styles in the lobby, with some decidedly dubious looks that you might find all too familiar. We’ve also put out a display of hair-themed books in the lobby, so do check it out. Then we’ve got a hair-themed quiz, with a hair-related prize for the most correct answers, and for our younger visitors we’ve hidden in the library a number of film characters you need to identify just from their hair styles. The Children’s Storytime this month features - naturally – Hairy Maclary, and we’ve got a cracking craft event to go with that; check out our full events list for the date and time.

 

Crafts in the Lobby – Alison Whateley

For the next two weeks, we’ll be hosting the beautiful crafts of Alison Whateley, who has brought along some samples of her work – including a generous helping of Mothers’ Day gifts, ideal for that certain someone. You can buy any of the items on display, or if you’re looking for something just a little different, contact her directly at alison.whateley@btinternet.com .

 

Gadget Day Revisited

Our January gadget day was a big success, so we’re repeating it on Monday March 16^th at 11:00. If you want to know how to connect to our e-book service, or would like some informal help with your smartphone or tablet, just bring it along and we’ll do what we can to help! We can’t promise to sort out every problem, but we’ll have a go at whatever you throw at us...

 

 

 

 

Calling all Programmers

We’re still looking for a volunteer to look after our coding club, our out-of-school computer programming club. The club would most likely meet on a Saturday morning in our computer training room, and we’ve got some lovely programmable Lego lined up to make it a bit more fun. If you’re a programmer with some time on your hands, or if you know someone who fits that bill, do get in touch with us, we’d love to get this up and running to support the next generation of Web billionaires!

 

 

Fancy a Game of Scrabble?

 

A couple of weeks ago, we featured an article about Connected Communities, a charity that is helping lonely or vulnerable people to meet up or get help. They have helped two of the people in Cullompton to get together at the Hayridge to play Scrabble. Fancy joining them? If so, drop by on a Tuesday afternoon (around 2pm) and we'll sort something out. And we'll gladly buy any extra Scrabble sets needed to get you going, so there's no excuse!

 

Your Comments Appreciated!

Thanks to everyone who responded to our call for comments on the last blog post. We found out that we hadn’t correctly set up the Comments facility, and had to change the settings on Blogger to make it work properly. It’s still work in process, mind you, because the comment box doesn’t show unless you click on the link that says “2 comments” (or however many there happen to be) at the bottom of each post; we’d like to get it set up so the Comments box shows all the time. So if you know how to set up Blogger to do that, why not leave us a Comment…

Latest news from The Hayridge

Get Yourself Connected

In today’s busy, bustling times, it’s easy to get the feeling that you are being left behind by a world that no longer cares.  The Devon Connected Communities programme exists to make sure that that doesn’t happen. Connected Communities brings together volunteer agencies across the county and can connect you to people who can help with all kinds of issues, such as loneliness or depression, social care, disability relief, and much more. So if you are worried about being left behind, or know someone who might benefit from a chat with one of our experts, why not stop by? Connected Communities will be at the Hayridge
every Monday afternoon until the end of March.

 

Testing… Testing…

We’d really like to know what you think of our blog, so we have a special request for all our readers: use the contact button at the top left of the post to tell us how we’re doing. If you’ve got an idea for improving what we’re doing – or even if you haven’t! – drop us a line. And then we’ll know that the technology behind the button actually works (for a change…)

 Stop Press... It's just become clear that we hadn't enabled the 'comments' feature on the blog properly, so you weren't seeing the input box which allowed you to leave comments. Doh! Anyway, we've had another go and you should find that the comments box is working a lot better now. You'll find it at the end of each post. Just type your comment into the box, you can either submit your comment as "anonymous" or if you've got an account with Google you can log in to your account and submit your comment with your logon name visible. Press the "publish" button when you've finished typing your comment. We're just learning the ropes here in the blogosphere, but fingers crossed it's now all system go!  ...Stop Press End

The Books You Love

Our “Books You Love” wall is filling nicely. Do remember that if you’d like to try any of the titles recommended on the wall, we’ll reserve a copy for you, completely free. And there’s still time for you to recommend a book that’s inspired you, or made you laugh, or you just plain love, then do drop by and add to the wall!

 

Your Wish Granted… Chocolate Making

Well, our chocolate making session went smoothly, so half-a-dozen teen sweethearts got a personalised present for their Valentine’s day surprise (assuming the chocs made it out the door, which, frankly, we doubt…) We ran our chocolatey treat at the specific request of our teen group, whom we were happy to oblige. Do you have an idea for an event or activity? Just drop us a line, and we’ll do our best to grant your wish.

 

Mother’s Day Sorted Yet?

If not, don’t forget that we’ll be running a craft workshop for dads and kids this Saturday 21 February at 10:30 where you can knock together a little something for the mum who makes it all happen for you. It’s much more memorable when you make it yourself!

 

Sophie’s Choice

This month, Centre Assistant Sophie Ross talks about her love of Jane Austen’s timeless romances. Click here to see if Sophie’s sense and sensibility about Austen’s billets-doux are sufficient persuasion to make them emma-nently suited  for you to read (or watch) this month (Any more Austen puns and you’re fired – Editor). There's a great display of Jane Austen books in the lobby for you to choose from too!

 

 

 

Every Little Helps

If you are still undecided about starting any of Learn Devon’s adult education classes starting before the end of March, perhaps an extra 10% discount might help? Yes, 10% off if you enrol before the end of February on any course starting at the Hayridge between February 23 and March 31. Every little helps, as they say.

 

 

And Finally…

March will soon be with us and as March is the month of… hmm, we’ll let you think about that. Anyway we’ve got something a bit bonkers lined up for March, so do watch this space to see what good things will be happening here at the Hayridge!

 

‘Gutenberg’

Don't miss out on the excitement of this week's events.


The Skype's the Limit

This Wednesday morning, at 10.30, we'll be linking up with children's picture book creator Jonathan Emmett, via Skype. Bookstart has offered us this wonderful opportunity to welcome local pre-schoolers along for a fun morning getting to know the story Pigs May Fly, Jonathan's sequel to the tale of The Three Little Pigs. It's a free event but we'd love to know if you're coming as tickets are limited, so let us know if you'd like a place.


Watch this Space, and help to fill it!

Recommend a book you love, either a recent read or an all-time favourite. Write the book's name and author on a heart and pin it to our board for everyone to see. If you feel like explaining why it's such a special book, you're very welcome. We've got a selection of books in the foyer too, chosen by Sophie, so have a look and see if a Jane Austen or P.D. James title might capture your heart.


While You're in the Mood for Recommendations..

..this is your last chance to book on to our Speed Dating Event this Friday evening at 7pm! It's such a fun and lively way to share your love of books with others and discover great reads. Check out the events page on this blog for more details.

How many ways are there to say "I love you?"

Well, we're aiming for 101. We've hung up a washing line in the teen area, and we're eagerly awaiting your suggestions to fill it up. Come and get your peg and a heart from the front desk and share your ideas.