Join Squash, Mersey Wilders & Friends of Princes Park for a screening of the People’s Emergency Briefing; an eye-opening film bringing together nine leading UK scientists and experts with the latest evidence and why it matters for things like:
🌧️ Extreme weather 🍞 Food security 🏥 Health 💷 Cost of living
What’s happening with climate and nature, and what does it mean for everyday life in the UK?
The film is based on the National Emergency Briefing in Westminster (featured by ITV, Channel 4 and The Times) with appearances from Chris Packham, Jennifer Saunders, Deborah Meaden, and a range of voices from citizens from across the UK.
Before the screening, from 6pm, come and chat with us, Mersey Wilders & Friends of Princes Park about local environmental action. The cafe will be open for delicious vegan/veggie food (free soup if you need). After the film there will be an open discussion about what it means for our community and what we can do locally.
CO-LABOURING WITH SOIL grew out of a collaboration between artist Imayna Caceres, Squash and Liverpool Biennial. Imayna (Peru / Austria), is a transdisciplinary artist and writer interested in what we can learn from plants, animals, and other Earth beings by paying attention, caring for and living with them. After first visiting Squash in September 2024, Imayna came back in July 2025 during Liverpool Biennial for a clay workshop in the Squash garden. The sculptures made with community members were inspired by the artist’s commission Underground Flourishings (2025).
From spring equinox (Saturday 21st March) to autumn equinox (Wednesday 23rd September) we invite you to come and see the clay sculptures and relax in the Grapes Community Garden. If you look closely, you may see how the forms are also inspired by plants and flowers found on Windsor Street, as well as spontaneous conversations that took place both on the day of and leading up to the workshop. The clay sculptures will eventually erode and return to the Earth, as an offering, in keeping with the ecosystemic cycles and elemental forces that have underpinned the project and are shared interests between the artist and Squash. With special thanks to Imayna Caceres, Jackie Swanson (Squash Horticulture Lead), Clare Owens (Squash Artistic Director), Marie-Anne McQuay (Liverpool Biennial 2025 Curator), James Harper (Liverpool Biennial Programme Manager), Attila Olah (Altar Pottery), Squash gardeners and cooks, all collaborators and all the elements and teachings of Cosmos and Community.
Imayna Caceres’ 2025 project was commissioned by Liverpool Biennial and produced in collaboration with Phileas – The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art, with support from Catherine Petitgas
You can visit the garden during the weekly drop-in garden sessions 10.30-12.30 each Wednesday morning. The Grapes Community Garden is located on Windsor Street next door to Toxteth TV, L8 1XE.
Access info: The Squash building is fully accessible including level threshold entrance (shop/cafe) and ramp access to the garden. There is an accessible toilet. The Grapes Community Garden is a short walk from Squash, approx. 150 meters along Windsor Street. There is some uneven ground in the garden.
Photos by Jude McLoughlin & Clare Owens
SPRING TREASURE
SATURDAY 21ST MARCH 12 NOON – 3PM
This Spring Equinox, come and grow on Windsor Street! FREE / BY DONATION
As we all unfurl from winter into spring, come and have a magical time of becoming & belonging with us on Windsor Street. The Vernal Equinox is a potent and powerful time to sow your seeds of possibility for the rest of the year – what would you like to grow this year you incredible seed you? We’re working with our wonderful associate artist Angelica Vanasse, the brilliant youth-led Climate & Nature Advocacy group Mersey Wilders and the evergreen & marvellous Grapes Gardeners.
Come by and find your balance.
This event is especially aimed at younger folks in our community and across the Liverpool City Region aged up to 25 years and is open to all ages too!
SEED GROWING – grow herbs; fast growing green hearty, healthy tasty-ness to add to your spring cooking!
CLOTHES SWAPPING – refresh your wardrobe… bring a few colourful items to share! We’re looking for clothes with a story…share what they mean to you before you swap for something new!
NATURE DRAWING – we’re thinking about ourselves as seeds in our neighbourhoods, growing together. Let’s draw and paint what that could look like.
CO-LABOURING WITH SOIL EXHIBITION, GARDEN TOUR & WINDSOR STREET WALKAT 1PM FROM SQUASH BUILDING – let’s take a walk along Windsor Street and notice what is springing up. Come and see Co-labouring with Soil the newly installed clay sculptures in the garden inspired by and in collaboration with artist Imayna Caceres’ and her exhibition Underground Flourishings as part of Liverpool Biennial.
Plus taste delicious fresh made spring foods and drinks!
This event is part of Treasure; a hands-on, creative project that explores food, waste and materials through growing, cooking, preserving, repair and sharing that the Squash crew has been sharing at youth clubs & groups in Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley & St. Helens. Sessions are relaxed and practical; growing herbs, cooking together from scratch, learning how to use leftovers, sewing & upcycling clothes, and hosting shared meals or a clothes swish (swap!). The emphasis is on creativity, confidence, skill building and connection! It’s been a winter into spring delight, made possible through funding from the Zero Waste Community Fund 2026/27, managed by Merseyside Recycling & Waste Authority (MRWA) in partnership with Veolia, supporting community and voluntary groups, social enterprises and not-for-profit organisations to develop initiatives that cut household waste, increase recycling and reuse, and help reduce carbon emissions.
In this time of Ramadan, come and break your fast and enjoy delicious food with us. There will be dates and water to break fast and prayer space available. Everyone is welcome whether fasting or not. Bring sweet treats to share!
There will be a limited free/by donation tickets on the door. First come, first served!
Funds raised will be shared between Habibti Liverpool – the amazing local women who raise awareness and resources for Al Sabeen Children’s Hospital in Sanaa, Yemen and Squash’s own ‘Soup-it-Forward’ initiative . If you can’t make it along on the night, but would like to donate, please give direct to Habibti here or Squash here.
IN THE FRONT ROOM AT SQUASH, DROP IN / FREE / BY DONATION
“There’s no better way of connecting to the earth than by planting a seed.” -Jackie Swanson, Squash Horticultural Lead and local seed sovereignty advocate.
“Seed is not just the source of life. It is the very foundation of our being.“ -Vandana Shiva, environmental activist and global seed sovereignty advocate.
Our annual seed share is a really important event in the growing year and is the only one of its kind in Merseyside. At Squash, we’re passionate about seed-saving & sharing and have been building the Toxteth Seed Library since 2010 – a fundamental element of our 100 Year Vision for Windsor Street and L8 neighbourhood. Come and meet the Squash gardeners, who are the seed keepers and caretakers of this great legacy.
Every year, seasoned growers and budding beginners join us from across the city region with a shared passion and excitement for the great potential of the simple seed. Come along to pick up some free seeds to grow this spring and if you can, bring seeds you’ve saved to share. Our seed stock is abundant with many varieties of vegetables & fruit, herbs & salad with some flowers & wildflowers, nurtured organically with love on Windsor Street.
Join Maeve and Tom from Youth-led Climate and Nature Advocacy collective Mersey Wilders to help create an alternative map of our area from the perspective of the plants and the seeds they’ve come from. Let’s draw the habitats we live in and imagine a wild and connected Merseyside.
IMBOLC
SUNDAY 1ST FEBRUARY 1-3PM
AT THE GRAPES COMMUNITY FOOD GARDEN
Come by and help celebrate Imbolc, the Irish/Celtic/Gaelic marking of the promise of spring and the first festival of the 8-fold year of 2026. It marks the point between the Winter Solstice in December and the Spring Equinox in March. It’s a time to check in with each other and the land. At this gentle annual gathering, we invite you to join local gardeners, artists & cooks to;
reflect together around the fire about winter challenges and hope for the coming spring
help make Brigid crosses
plant up onions, garlic and broad beans; some of the earliest veg we can sow in the year
bless the gardens of the street and look ahead to the growing year
help make fresh butter and taste flatbreads made over the fire*
draw & write spring affirmations and share rituals at the altar
Join in this gentle crafting session to make your own Brigid crosses with locally grown reeds, in time for Imbolc. Places are free / by suggested donation of £5/10. Booking essential. Book your place here
*Traditional foods associated with Imbolc are dairy inc. milk, butter & cheese and grains/bread and will feature at this year’s Imbolc celebration.
WASSAIL!
SATURDAY 17TH JANUARY 2pm till dusk…
Every January, we celebrate the apple & other fruit trees of Windsor Street and Princes Park by singing round the fire, making a racket with pots and pans to wake up the land, sharing messages & poems of hope for a good blossom & growing season, and welcoming the new annual apple guardians, which involves eating cake & sipping hot mulled apple punch.
This year, together with the Friends of Princes Park* and Hope Street Harmonies Choir, we invite you to join our Wassail Trail, from the Grapes Community Garden, journeying up Windsor Street ending up at the mini orchard in Princes Park, wassailing fruit trees along the way. We’ll sing and dance for the Windsor St community fruit trees, the crab apples of Windsor St School, the mighty Devonshire Rd quince tree and the apples & pear trees in the park! If you have a fruit tree you’d like us to wassail nearby, let us know!
ROUGH TIMINGS – WALKING & WASSAILING AS WE GO:
2PM MEET AT GRAPES COMMUNITY FOOD GARDEN FOR FIRE, SONG, PAN-BASHING & MORE
3PM WASSAILING AT SQUASH + APPLE CAKE NEW GUARDIAN WELCOME
3.30PM WASSAILING WINDSOR STREET
4-5PM PRINCES PARK ORCHARD WASSAIL
Everyone is welcome! By donation/solidarity fundraiser for Soup-it-Forward.
BRING AN OLD POT AND A STICK/WOODEN OR METAL UTENSIL TO BASH!
BRING YOUR BELLS AND WHISTLES. BRING APPLES TO SHARE.
DRESS FOR THE WEATHER AND TO GLADDEN YOUR HEART!
At Squash our apple trees are our ‘more than human’ partners in our 100-year vision – which began with the planting of apples trees in The Grapes Community Food Garden in 2010. If nurtured, an apple tree can live for up to 100 years. Our love of wassailing comes from a shared passion for ritual, being close to nature & community and feeling embodied in the seasons.
*The Friends of Princes Park are a group of local people who want to Princes Park thrive for people and nature. They are a volunteer led and run charitable organisation which works in partnership with the Liverpool City Council, organised by an elected FoPP Executive Committee. They do tree work including planting and coppicing, bulbs, shrub and wildflower planting and have planted over 4000 trees over the last 17 years, increasing the biodiversity and wildlife of the park. They organise other activities such as tree walks, wildlife walks and picnics. Volunteer sessions run in the park every other Sunday between 10:30 and 14:30 all year round.
Wassailing, from the Anglo-Saxon phrase ‘waes hael’, which means ‘good health’, is a traditional, rousing ritual of fire, food, song and togetherness in nature in the winter depths, to celebrate the apple trees and to warm them up for the coming spring and to encourage a bountiful harvest. ‘Historic UK’ say There are two distinct variations of wassailing. One involves groups of merrymakers going from one house to another, wassail bowl in hand, singing traditional songs and generally spreading fun and good wishes. The other form of wassailing is generally practiced in the countryside, particularly in fruit growing regions, where it is the trees that are blessed.Wassailing (historic-uk.com)This year we’ll attempt a bit of both. We’ll be collecting for our ‘Soup-it-Forward’ initiative along the way.
Apple wassailing was traditionally celebrated by orchard & cider-making communities in the West Country, and in the Welsh border counties. It happened on ‘Old twelfy night’ before the Gregorian calendar – which falls on 17th January. Modern wassails happen all over the country throughout January.
FOOD IS A HUMAN RIGHT
FOOD IS A HUMAN RIGHT poster project is a SQUASH collaboration with artist Corbin LaMont that has come out of conversations on the state of current & historic enforced starvations in many places across the world.
The A3 posters are available to purchase for £15 in the Squash shop or can be ordered in for collection. Profits from sales will go to Khartoum Aid Kitchen in Sudan and our own Soup it Forward campaign. See all the posters below.
We put a call out for translations of the statement from our Squash community and have made posters in 13 languages so far:
In Jude’s own words; “This series of photographic images documents scenes from celebrational gatherings led by Squash Liverpool CIC throughout the Eightfold Celtic Calendar year. During these events, we are openly invited to come together onto the street, into the community garden and the local park to celebrate the seasonal turning and bridging points of the year, We are encouraged to explore themes of inclusivity, creativity, community, connection and joy as well as developing an awareness about the value of each season. In this modern society, often driven by quantitative results, these events are an invaluable and rare opportunity to be able to enter a space of reflection and deep time. Where stories are told, steps are danced, songs are sung and food is shared around the fire. Where strangers become friends and kindness is the currency of exchange. Where we may stop for a moment to open our hearts and minds.”
The photos below include some in the exhibition and others chosen by Jude and Squash social artist Clare Owens that show some of the breadth & depth of Squash ritual practice and Jude’s tender capture.
SUMMER SOLSTICE 2025BEALTAINE 2024IMBOLC, 2025HEALING GARDEN FIRE, 2021BRIGID CROSS MAKING, IMBOLC 2025SUMMER SOLSTICE, 2024SAMHAIN, 2025DUSKING, 2025BEALTAINE/MAYDAY, 2025IMBOLC, 2025SPRING EQUINOX, 2024JON B DRAWING IN THE GARDEN, 2021IMBOLC, 2025SUMMER SOLSTICE, 2025SAMHAIN, 2025SUMMER SOLSTICE, 2025SUMMER SOLSTICE, 2025IMBOLC, 2025WINTER SOLSTICE, 2021SUMMER SOLSTICE, 2025L8-FOLD YEAR WINDOW DRAWING BY ANGELICA VANASSE, 2025
WINTER SOLSTICE WEEKENDER
Come and find some light on these shortest days. Let’s walk out together, nestle in around the fire, and make time for gentle chats, rituals and reflections. All welcome for calm times. Access information below.
SOLSTICE EVE, SATURDAY 20TH DECEMBER 12 NOON – 4PM
FIRE CHATS & REFLECTIONS. 12 NOON – 4PM
Stare into the fire, catch up with yourself, have a chat… a gentle hearth for Solstice Eve.
FESTIVE TUNES FROM HOPE STREET HARMONIES CHOIR. 1PM
Come hear festive tunes round the fire from Liverpool’s acapella songstresses! Solstice and Christmas tunes plus fun favourites!
An invitation to gently prepare for solstice with song, movement, art, craft & fire cider in the gentle front room, with artists Angelica, Clare & Becky. We ask that you remove your shoes at the door for optimum comfort, so maybe bring warm socks!
SUNDAY 21ST DECEMBER 8AM – 4PM
SOLSTICE SUNRISE WALK. 8AM – 10AM
This Winter Solstice sunrise, come welcome in the returning light at the big oak in Princes Park, with communal songs led by Rachel from Holistic Harmonies. We’ll then journey together on a ritual walk up Windsor Street with the Squash crew & artist Andrea to the spring at St. James / cathedral gardens. See below for more info.
QUEER KIN COLLECTIVE 10 – 12 NOON
A beautiful wellbeing offering from Liverpool’s queer kin for all the community.
SEW THE SOLSTICE. 10.30AM – 1PM
Stop by for some seasonal embroidery in the calm front room with artist Tabitha
STREET RITUALS. 11-2PM
Join in solstice street drawing and ritual garlic & onion plantings with Jackie, Becky & Clare
FIRE CHATS & REFLECTIONS. 11AM – 4PM
Stare into the fire, catch up with yourself, have a chat… a gentle hearth for the shortest day.
The Squash cafe & shop will be open on the Winter Solstice Weekender from 10am – 4pm on the Saturday & Sunday for tasty festive food and great produce & gifts.
ACCESS INFO
Solstice Sunrise Walk. Sunday 21st December – Meet at the big oak by Woodhenge in Princes Park from 8am. Sunrise is 8.25am, so it will be gently light at 8am in civil twilight time.
The nearest entrance to the gathering in Princes Park is the gate on the corner of Devonshire Road West & Belvidere Road (approx postcode L8 3TZ). There is parking available on both these roads. From the gate there are 2 ways to arrive at the oak tree near Woodhenge, both are on uneven surfaces. One is via an uneven, stony & asphalt path to the right, followed by a short (20 metre) walk on a grass path. The other is over a grassed field, approx 100 metres. Any issues on the day call 07791155998. There is no toilet on site.
From approx 8.30am we’ll walk up Windsor Street to the spring in St.James /Cathedral gardens. This space is reached by a long downhill path and there are some uneven surfaces.
We will then walk to Squash for approx 10am. Squash, 112-114 Windsor Street, L8 8EQ
The Squash building is fully accessible including level threshold entrance (shop/cafe) and ramp access to the garden. Accessible toilet.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANGELICA VANASSE. GRAPHICS BY JON BARRACLOUGH
