May 2022 Issue 2
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4,000 HAND DELIVERED TO HOMES IN ASHTON IN MAKERFIELD
Welcome to the May Issue of Local Living Our cover stars this month are our friends over at Pets Boutique Ltd. who can deliver a range of raw food and treats, as well as other pet accessories, to every home receiving this magazine! But even with great value delivery, it’s well worth the trip out to their premises to see the great products and friendly service they have on offer. Also this month, we’re celebrating our local green spaces! Check out our Wonderful Walks for some inspiration to get out of the house, and our tips on bee-friendly gardening to make some mini green spaces of your own. As we’re getting closer to summer, we’d love to hear from local community groups so we can promote even more great activities for local families. If you’re hosting a summer fair or craft fair, get in touch! If you know about a local youth group, a kids club, or even just some great family days out, then we want to hear from you!
Love, The Joneses x
BIG About Kids CIC run children's sessions and community events in Ashton In Makerfield. Based in Ashton library, we run low cost fun children's sessions from birth onwards aimed at learning through play, active fun and children's and adults socialisation. All of our sessions are bookable online or please message us via face book if you need help with booking. Session costs range from £2 - £2.50 for one adult and one child, additional children are charged at £1-£1.50. We run: Toys and Toast - a relaxed free play session, rhymes, snacks, brews and all the toys you could ever want to see! Tuesday mornings, Ashton Library 10am - 11.30am Babytime - aimed at pre walkers, baby time mixes songs and sensory play to give you and your little one a chilled introduction to baby groups and sensory activities. Bookable in a 4 week block. Wednesday morning, Ashton Library, 10am - 10.30am Active Tots - come and join us for some active fun! Energetic songs, a story and sports activities designed to get you and your toddler - pre schooler active and enjoying a bit of exercise with extra added fun! Wednesday morning, Ashton library, 11am - 11.45am. Munchkins Meet Up - Run on the first Monday of the month, 9.30am - 11am, at Ashtons Childcare and Community Centre on Hilton Street. A relaxed and informal meet up for all parents and carers, toys a plenty for the children and brews and cake available and a chance to have a chat, get out and about and have some fun .This session is currently free to attend, everyone is welcome! For more information or to book please visit: www.bigaboutkids.org.uk
Whilst every care is taken to ensure the accuracy of our advertisements, Local Living and our publishers accept no responsibility for the contents of the advertisements in our publication, including loss, damage or omission to an advert caused by error in printing. All artwork is accepted on the strict condition that it is the property of the advertiser, and is used on the understanding that permission has been given for use in this publication. Adverts are accepted on the understanding that they include fair and accurate descriptions of goods and/or services offered by the advertiser. Deadline for June - 16th May
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Garden
HOME If you’re jumping headfirst into spring cleaning, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by everything you have to do! Here’s some top tips to conquer the clutter… • It’s easy to get lost in the cleaning aisle when looking for the right products! But regardless of what the stores may be pushing, experts recommend investing in one all-purpose cleaner and a selection of microfibre cloths.
How to Welcome Wild Bees After the harsh winter, everyone’s favourite pollinators need a little extra help getting back on their wings. Here’s a few small things you can do to help out! •
• Look for multipacks or colour-coded packs of microfibre cloths to help keep your cleaning kit organised! • In every room, there are only 5 things: Rubbish, Clothes, Dishes, Things with a place and Things without a place.
• Grout and tile can be the most stubborn part of cleaning your bathrooms, and finding the right tool for the job can be expensive. A cheap toothbrush can do the job just as well.
WARDROBE
Top Tip: If a full bug hotel is a bit much, making mini bug homes in milk bottles or plant pots can be a great alternative to save space
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Plant Bee-Friendly Flowers: For the green fingered among us, one of the best things you can do is make sure the flowers you’re planting provide a big foraging boost to pollinators! Flowers like crocuses, lilies, snapdragons and asters are packed with pollen and great food for bees!
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Minimise Garden Chemicals: Green is the way to go to help your garden’s natural wildlife! As a bonus, natural pesticides and insect predators will help your plants grow better and stronger in the long run.
• Just take it one room at a time: gather all the rubbish into a bin bag, put all the clothes in a wash basket, take all the dishes to the kitchen, put away anything that has a place, and then find a place (even just a temporary one!) for anything that doesn’t belong. • When focusing on the kitchen, remember to take shelves and drawers out of the fridge for a wipe down! This can help cut down on unwanted odours and keep your produce fresh.
Make a Bug Hotel: This can be a super fun activity to do with kids this spring, and can turn into a great long-term learning tool as well.
This month, on May 20th, we’re celebrating World Bee Day! Now is the perfect time to get out in the garden and support our pollinators, so get out and get those hands dirty and fingers green!
When trying to clean out clothes, it can be hard to know what you want to keep and what you need to get rid of. • A great way to see what you do and don’t wear is to use the Hanger Method! Place all your hangers into the wardrobe the same way around, and then when you wear something the hanger gets swapped the other way. After a few weeks, you’ll be able to see exactly what gets worn and what can get thrown! • Another method that’s a little quicker is to take a tip from a true cleaning master, Marie Kondo, and find what ‘sparks joy’ in your closet. Hold each item one by one. Do you love it, or loathe it? Does the thought of wearing it make you feel confident, or self conscious? Most importantly, does it make you happy?
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Wonderful Walks Now that the weather is finally warming up it’s a perfect time to get out and about, so we’ve put together a list of some beautiful nature walks right on our doorstep. With a large open field and surrounding trees, Ashton Heath is the perfect local green space for a quick walk with the dogs! Skitters Wood is great for walking, and Millingford Brook running through means there’s a whole host of critters just waiting to be discovered! Great for a walk with the kids and future explorers. Boasting one of the 15 Jubilee Legacy Walks, Viridor Woods was reclaimed from the mining industry in the 1960s and is now a thriving nature reserve. Make sure to check out the artwork of Richard Caink while you walk, and maybe drop into the nearby Three Sisters Nature Reserve! The Three Sisters has its own beautiful nature walks, including another Jubilee Legacy Walk and a Heart of Wigan walk! Additionally, the bird feeding station offers the perfect opportunity to enjoy closer views of local wildlife. Keepers is a great walk for all the family. They often have themed walks, most recently the Easter Walk, ran from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. The path crosses over Haydock Race Course, with the chance to see the horse racing if you’re lucky. Byrom Hall Wood is suitable for walking, cycling and also horseback riding. There are footpaths and conveniently located benches to admire the views and take in the wildlife that the wood offers. Newly sown wildflower meadows full of ragged robin, vetches and oxeye daisy provide food and shelter for the resident wildlife. Byrom Hall Wood is close to Pennington Flash Country Park. Just a short walk up Plank Lane you’ll find the Leigh Branch of the Leeds Liverpool Canal at Pennington Wharf. Head west and you’ll find yourselves heading towards Wigan and Scotsman Flash. If wildlife is what you’re after, head east and make your way over to Pennington Flash Country Park and Nature Reserve. Photographer Thomas Gradwell captured all the stunning images on this page around the park! Spot the singing bird, also known as the Whitethroat, literally just back from Africa.
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