Breathe

I gave a mini-presentation to the Pen Y Foidr allotments tonight, only a 5 minute slot at the end of their meeting.

Newsletter

Finally, it’s up and running. I was considering using Beehiiv as the newsletter platform but they don’t have a configurable subscribe form and they also don’t have the ‘RSS (ie blog posts) to automatic newsletter’ feature. So, Buttondown it is.

Moving notes to the blog

• Reworking website to become simple blog, for now. So rather than adding updates here grwd.uk/hope/notes, I’ll add progress to the website hopegarden.uk
• Old theme I used from GetHugoThemes was Vixcon. Might be suitable in future
• New theme is simple blog theme Bookworm. Can always copy content over to new, more complex theme if need be
• Also using TinaCMS, a simple content management system for static websites. This means easier for people to add blog entries.

RHS Hampton Court deadlines

• Wave 1 deadline mid-September 2024
• Wave 2 deadline late-November 2024
• Lead time to organise assemblies November 2024 to July 2025, ie 8 months

Mailing list

Mailing list alternatives to Substack (Nazi) and MailChimp (Nasty):

• listmonk, free, self-hosted
  • PikaPods hosting $2 per month
  • Railway hosting $5 per month
• Buttondown 1,000+@$9pcm, 5,000+@$29pcm, 10,000+@$79pcm
• Beehiiv 2,500+@$42pcm, 10,000+@$84pcm

Website ideas

• Invite local schools to an assembly
• Actually, use events theme for website, keep aingle page at beginning, then when get bookongs, switch on achedule and speakers/sessions
• Use single page scroll website, for when fundraising starts. Hugo scroll is the theme, demo here
• David Hunter, woodworker I’d like to use for benches thecoppiceplot.com
• Open source the plans and process
• Bilingual, backed by Welsh govt?
• Will email Jane Davidson, one of the architects of the Future Generations Act may well be interested in the project, as she apparently supports Community Assemblies.

Movable benches in assembly area, to show 2 different modes