02/05/2025
This May is a big month here at The Green Yard. We have two anniversaries coming up. The first is The Green Yard’s third birthday. Or at least, third birthday owned by me. It’s a pretty big deal for me, because they’ve not been the easiest three years. I originally took on the shop to give my late husband, the lovely Steve, something to focus on and to distract him from his horrible illness. It worked. He was absolutely thrilled to be a shop owner. It had been a bit of a pipe dream for him to own a shop, having been brought up over his parent’s shop. I’m so glad The Green Yard helped him achieve that ambition. The second anniversary is not so great, it’s the first anniversary of Steve’s death. If I’m honest I’m struggling a bit, possibly more now than I have done for the past year. It’s a funny thing grief isn’t it. It’s certainly not straightforward.
But we do have cause to celebrate. The HEART Centre, where Steve was facilities manager for years, then volunteer and then Green Yard owner and where he is much missed, has set up a brand new art gallery space in his honour. The gallery is in the Shire Oak room (otherwise known as ‘the hall’) and is called The Steve Trattles Gallery - obvs! . And…. the first exhibition, in celebration of our three years, will be a collection of work by some of the artists and designers featured in our shop. The grand opening of the new gallery will be on Sunday 11th May – yes that’s a Sunday – when HEART is open to welcome marathon watchers and runners into the building, as well as everyone else of course. Do come and see us if you can.
