In the Loop – 2 April 2024
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest edition of ‘in the loop’. I hope you remembered to spring forward with your clocks this weekend and are slowly but surely bouncing back from that hour of lost sleep!
Its all quiet here at Stoke Lodge as we gear up for the exciting summer term and the array of new courses waiting to be explored.
New phone system and telephone payments
If you call us here at Stoke Lodge you may find a few changes, we have a new phone system as the council are moving from landlines to internet based calls, if you pop into the office you will see staff have headphones available to help them take calls using their laptops. Our number is still the same (0117 903 8844) so hopefully you won’t notice much difference.
We are also changing the way we take card payments over the phone. This change is something we are required to do and is to give anyone making a payment added protection and security for their credit or debit card. What this means is that when you call us, we will ask you to enter your card details directly onto your phone. It works on landlines or mobiles and staff will talk you through what to do. This means that you are not sharing any of your card details with us.
These systems are new for us as well so do bear with us if payments take a little longer to process over the phone.
Upcoming Summer Term Courses
Languages
Now the sun is out are you starting to think about holidays? Get holiday ready with our summer term language courses…
Get by in Italian – Thu 3pm to 5pm, 6 weeks from 18th April with Marika £90
La storia d’Italia – Frid 1pm to 3pm, 5 weeks from 19 April with Marika £75
Get by in Portuguese – Thu 3pm to 5pm, 6 weeks from 18 April with Margarida £90
Get by in Spanish – Fri 12.45pm to 2.45pm, 8 weeks from 19 April with Gorka £120
Brush up your holiday French – Mon 1pm to 3pm, 6 weeks from 22 April with Albane £90
Painting, Drawing and Print
Explore your creative side this term with one of fabulous Painting, Drawing and Print courses…
Acrylic & Watercolour: Space For Creativity – Sat & Sun 10am to 4pm for 1 weekend with Laurel £91
Drawing – Beginners – Tue 9.30am to 12noon, 6 weeks from 16 April with Mary £99
Oil Painting – Absolute Beginners – Thu 1.30pm to 4pm, 6 weeks from 18 April with Warren £114
Enjoying the burst of colour and spring flowers? Why not take it a step further with a gardening course to help you make the best of your outside space.
Floristry
or floristry where you can bring some of the outside in!
Seasonal Gardening: Prepare your garden for Summer – Fri 10am to 3pm 12th April with Christine £40
Garden Styles: Woodland gardens – Fri 10am to 3pm 19 April with Christine £40
Others
Take some time for you and enjoy one of our wellbeing courses. Tai Chi can help you stay flexible and active.
Plus our luxurious botanical beauty course to learn about spa ingredients, their properties and benefits and then create your own bath bombs, lip balms, face creams and body scrubs
Saturday Courses – 20 April
A one off Saturday workshop is the perfect way to try something new…
Italian cookery: Arancini – 10am to 2 pm with Marika £75
Watercolour Workshop – 10am to 4pm with Ellie £45
Crochet Hedgehog: Amigurumi-3D – 10am to 4pm with Cristina £53
How to Use Your Sewing Machine – next steps – 10am to 4pm with Ann £53
Saturday Courses – 11 May
We have some great workshops coming up in May…
…from adorable crochet foxes to how we understand ethics!
Watercolour Workshop – 10am to 4pm with Ellie £45
Philosophy to Live Well: A beginners Guide to Ethics – 10am to 4pm with Jim £45
Crochet Fox: Amigurumi-3D – 10am to 4pm with Cristina £53
The adorable hedgehog picture above from Cristina, our crochet tutor, rather reminded me of a news story from last week which you may have caught.
A very kind and well-meaning person found a baby hedgehog abandoned at the side of a road. Taking great care not to touch the tiny hoglet they gently scooped it safely into a box, provided it with some cat food and carefully transported it to a local animal rescue centre.
Only to find that the hoglet they had gently transported was actually a furry bobble from a bobble hat! Adorable!
You can see the story and the picture of the ‘hoglet’ on the BBC news pages here
We look forward to seeing you all back again after Easter as we move into the summer term.
Kindest regards
Jenny
