Did you know that today is Garden Meditation Day?

As Lao Tzu, the ancient Chinese philosopher wrote many centuries ago: “If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.”

Meditation is all about living in the present moment. It shows us that we are connected with every living creature and Mother Earth herself. We are all part of the same. When you breathe in, you breathe in the breath of the plants and trees around you, and as you exhale, you allow them to breathe in return. We couldn’t be more connected than that. So, what better place to experience that sense of connection with nature than in the fresh air, beauty, peace and tranquil calm of a garden today, Wednesday, May 3, National Garden Meditation Day. Enjoy!

Piracy and Smuggling

On Thursday, May 4 at 7pm, Tenby Museum is holding a talk by Simon Hancock on ‘Piracy and Smuggling’. This will start at 7pm and everyone is welcome. There is an entrance charge, with a reduction for Friends of the Museum.

May the Fourth be with you!

May 4 is also Star Wars Day (May the force be with you!), so it is an excellent chance to relook at all things Star Wars. Watch a movie, get your Lego or game out, practice your light sabre technique – having made yourself one first of course (a torch and a tube of paper, cardboard or stiff plastic works well) - or have Star Wars themed food (cucumber slices make great Yoda faces with little bits of cucumber for the ears).

Buddha Day

Friday May 5 is Buddha Day, also called Vesak, which is the most important Buddhist festival. It celebrates the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha. Buddhism spread from India and was assimilated into many foreign cultures, and consequently Vesak is celebrated in many ways all over the world. People celebrate by trying to bring happiness to those more unfortunate than themselves, by donating, volunteering, decorating temples and taking food to give to everyone who comes. Today is a good day to find out about Buddhism and think of a way to bring happiness to someone – spread a smile, it can be contagious!

Dawn Chorus Day

Set your alarm for the wildest free music festival of the year! International Dawn Chorus Day takes place on Sunday, May 7, 2023 so wrap your ears around the most amazing sounds on the planet. Set your alarm for early in the morning. For the best dawn chorus, it’s best to open your window or head to a park to tune in between 5 and 5.30am. But don’t worry if that’s not for you - you can hear nature’s finest singers throughout the whole morning. Try a birdsong app such as BirdNet, if birdsong identification isn’t your strong point. But the main thing is to enjoy it!

Coronation Civic Service

This will be held in St Mary’s Church at 10.30 am on Sunday, May 7. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Coronation Big Lunch Bring Your Own Picnic

This will be held in the Community Edible Garden on Sunday, May 7 from 12 noon. Come along with food to share, or bring food for your own picnic, whatever suits you better. Tea, coffee and squash will be available and hopefully, if anyone can come along with a guitar or other instrument, there will be some musical entertainment. Everyone is welcome. There are several benches, but you are welcome to bring picnic chairs. Garden games such as petanque will also be available.

Coronation Afternoon Tea

St Johns is holding an afternoon tea to celebrate the Coronation afternoon at 3pm on Monday, May 8 in St Johns Church Hall, Warren Street, and everyone is welcome.

Lost Sock Memorial Day

Tuesday, May 9 is the day to celebrate and honour all the socks you have lost over the years. Uniting long lost pairs would be the ultimate celebration. – If searching for them fails, then perhaps it’s about time you found something else to do with the odd ones. Did you know they make great ties for in the garden? Make some odd sock puppets. Odd socks also make great cleaning cloths and dusters. At the end of the day, take a few moments and give your lost socks a minute’s silence in their honour. After all, they made the ultimate sacrifice.

Coronation Concert

Next Thursday, May 11, there will be a Coronation concert in St Mary’s Church, with local schools, the Tenby Community Choir, Tenby Male Choir and special guests. It starts at 7pm, and there is an entrance fee. All proceeds are going to Save the Children.

Zig Zag Project

Some brave Greenhill students came up to work on the zig zag where the arcade was last Thursday and made a start on the blackboard paint area down towards the end of the wall. The weather was terrible, so it wasn’t possible to do much, and they are planning to come back to continue in May. The next step will be to paint some waves of colour along the back wall, yellow, green and blue to catch the colours of the coast. Everyone is invited to send in a drawing or painting or photograph of something on a coastal theme that will be made into a board and fixed along the top half of the back wall as a mural.