Gaydon with Chadshunt Parish Magazine

January 2007

This Month's Diary

 Pilates         Tues 9th    8pm      Village Hall
 Friendship Club Tues 16th   2.30pm   Cambrae
 Men's Group     Thurs 18th  7pm      Village Hall
 Mobile Library  Thurs 11th & 25th
 Toddler Group   Thursdays 10-11.30am Village Hall

Christmas Lunch

The Lunch in the village hall in December was very enjoyable event for guests and helpers alike. We were delighted to welcome Paul Raven from Barnfield for the first time and we were glad that Ron and Olive Richards, new to Kineton Road, came along to swell our numbers. Another welcome guest-cum-helper was Mish Dunne, who organised the meal for many years until her move to Radway.
The cooks excelled themselves as ever and the tireless waitresses and washers-up kept everything running smoothly.
Many thanks to all for yet another Gaydon Christmas lunch!

Christmas Lunch

A number of volunteer ladies from the village, chaired by Julie Rickman, produced a wonderful 'Over Sixties' Christmas luncheon on 10 December, complete with wine and a gift.
This year more than thirty people sat down to eat. It was so pleasant not to have to prepare a meal for a change - especially as the one provided was so excellently done! There was plenty of time for chat and to meet people I had not seen for a while.
However, I missed seeing those who, for a variety of reasons, had not been able to come. May I suggest that they make a space for it in their diaries for next year, as it really is a pleasant social occasion*.
My thanks to all those involved who put so much time and effort into making it so nice. I also suspect that Julie might be glad of a few more helpers**.
JWR
*Next year's lunch will be on Sunday 9 December.
**Would anyone like to try her, or his, hand at cooking the turkey for us?
Phone Julie on 640349.

More Thanks

As each New Year comes round I like to thank all the people who help me to get a Parish Magazine to every household month by month.
Firstly, thanks to Sue Middleditch and Liz Thomas for their stewardship and editorial prowess and guidance.
The next to thank is our sturdy team of collators and staplers who tirelessly marshall the unruly pages of print into orderly magazines.
I also thank our faithful deliverers who make sure the magazines arrive promptly each month at every home in Gaydon, Chadshunt and the outlying farms. Thanks to our Postperson, we deliver to many other places including Northern Ireland and even Australia.
Monica Hutchings was our deliverer in St Marks Close for many years and we shall sadly miss her.
Finally, I would like to thank the Parish Council for its support; and John for his technical advice.
Thank you all!
Julie Rickman

Seasonal Recipe

Burns Night

Haggis is, naturally, the main course of a Burns Night Supper to celebrate the birth of Robert Burns on 25 January 1759.
Bashed Neeps
This is a traditional Scottish dish of turnips to accompany the haggis. In England swede is often used instead. Simply boil your neeps until they are good and soft, then mash them together with lashings of salty butter and freshly ground black pepper.

Clementine Soufflé makes a delicious alternative to Cranachan

  Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
  6oz/175g caster sugar
  Juice of 2 clementines
  Grated rind of 3 clementines
  ½ level tablespoon gelatine
  7fl oz/200ml double cream whipped
  4 large eggs, separated

  Orkney oatcakes

Put the squeezed juices of the lemon and 2 clementines in a small saucepan and sprinkle the gelatine on the juice. Let it soak in, then put the pan over a low heat until the gelatine is dissolved. Remove from the heat.
Beat the egg yolks, gradually adding the caster sugar, and beat together until thick and pale. Stir the grated rind of the lemon and 3 clementines into the whipped cream.
Stir the dissolved gelatine into the yolk and sugar mixture and fold in the whipped cream. Leave until starting to set.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff, and when the cream and egg yolk mixture is set enough to thickly coat the back of a spoon, fold the whites into it, using a metal spoon. Pour the soufflé mixture into a glass or china serving dish and chill until set.
Serve with oatcakes and a glass of whisky.

Parish Plan

The Parish Plan progresses and there will be a further meeting announced in next month's magazine.
In the meantime, if anyone has any input for the questionnaire, then they should contact Jonathan Crowe on 640394.

Gaydon Village Field

Further to the meeting last month, we will shortly be distributing a request for more donations, and a short questionnaire to see what people in the village think the field should be used for. If anyone would like to contribute with ideas or donations they should contact Jonathan Crowe on 640394.

St Giles' Church Gaydon Services for January 2007 AD

Epiphany

7 11.15 Eucharist & Covenant Service for Epiphany
14 11.15 Growing Together Family Service
21 9.00 Eucharist
28 11.15 Family Eucharist

The Vicar's Letter

What will you be celebrating at the New Year?
The New Year, though devoid of any religious meaning, is still a time to pause and think about the future; to reflect on the year that has gone; to look forward in hope and plan how we want to live our life over the coming twelve months.
The secular New Year falls between the Church’s New Year on Advent Sunday and the Feast of the Epiphany. Both Advent and Epiphany mark a new beginning, a looking forward to the future in hope because of the revelation of God’s glory in the life of the child of Bethlehem.
God's glory revealed in Jesus can also be revealed in us if we follow him and come to the light of his love; as the Wise Men were led by the star to a greater brilliance and glory revealed in Jesus whom they found and worshipped. If we were all prepared to follow Jesus in the spirit of hope, love and forgiveness he taught, our world could be a better place.
If we tried to reflect his light and glory, more good would be evident in our world. Now, wouldn'’t that give us something great to celebrate at the New Year?

Nature Notes

The rather bleak, albeit mild, winter characterised by leaden skies and muddy paths might not, at first, seem attractive to migratory birds but some arrive here in large numbers from the colder climes of northern Europe.
The hawthorn berries on our local field boundaries attract huge flocks of Redwings and Fieldfares each year. These birds, being large thrushes, are quite high profile and noisy. Around Gaydon they seem to occupy large trees by day and are not easy to approach but if you are lucky enough you will see that when perched, they all face in the same direction! Tails never in the wind and towards the sun. They are hunted in France for "Petits Oiseaux" gourmet bottled delicacies and so are shy of any approching human!
Our local thrushes include the seasonal Robin and the large Mistle thrush who wipes Mistletoe berry seeds into tree crevices. Our local Song Thrush has the habit of breaking snails on a special rock or "anvil". You may find one of these stones in your garden, surrounded by broken shells. Some even use seldom-used railway tracking for the same purpose.
You may also see the Black Redstart which likes old ruins and castles and is very impressive in russett and slate blue. Some very rare thrushes sometimes fly with the large flocks so it is worth observing these.
A few years ago I saw a Bluethroat with a flock of Redwings: this is a beautiful bird of the Russian pineforests. Another species, the Siberian Thrush, has been known to do this too. It has a white eye-stripe and a breast with few spots and is a thrush shape otherwise, with a very dark upper plumage.
You have to admire these brave migrants who form huge flocks which include some Redpolls, Blackbirds and Robins, too, in the Boreal Forests of the far North and who travel south in winter. Adaptability is a feature of such species as Robins and Blackbirds. Neither of these birds lived near man two hundred years ago.
Gilbert White observed this in his classic work "The Natural History of Selbourne", noting that they were shy and lived in dense thickets; boys hunted them and made them into pies (AKA "four and twenty blackbirds"). He imagined that swallows buried themselves in the mud of ponds during the winter but most of his observations were very accurate.
Native species like the Kestrel are often seen hunting on the Kineton Road. Large flocks of Seagulls and Green Plover take advantage of any ploughed farmland.
One of the most delightful arrivals in the village are a family of Long-tailed tits who seem to "do the rounds" of local birdtables in the Church Road area. They seem to be two adult parents and three young from a summer hatching. Their playful antics on peanut holders and the constant communication between them is worth taking time to observe.
Tracks of Roe deer all over the local fields and much evidence of badgers, though the set near the graveyard seems to have been abandoned of late.
We still await a really cold spell for 2007.
I wish all readers a happy new year!
Bernard Price

Parish Council

Next Meeting Tuesday 2 January 8pm Village Hall
County and District Councillors also attend these public meetings and villagers might well be interested to hear what they have to say.
Come along on Tuesday night and put your own questions to the assembled councillors!

Village Hall News

Our new year's resolution is to make further progress with the refurbishment of the Hall so that it becomes a very attractive venue for meetings and family celebrations, at a very reasonable price.
The next meeting of the committee will be on Monday 8 January at 8pm in the hall.
Please note the new day and date.

Pilates

The Gaydon Pilates group is proving to be very popular.
The Tuesday evening class will re-start after Christmas on 9th January, at 8.00pm in the Village Hall as before. There is a waiting list for that session at the moment.
But there is the possibility of running another class at 4.30 on a Thursday afternoon if enough people come forward.
The classes are £35.00 for five sessions and it runs like a course for five weeks.
If you are interested please contact Madeleine Hill on 640636 and hopefully we can fit you in!

Welcome

We welcome Gez and Sue Cox to their new home in Banbury Road and hope that they will enjoy living in Gaydon.

Neighbourhood Watch

Gaydon Report

A bus driver was threatened with a knife as two youths demanded that he hand over cash. The incident happened as the 77 bus travelled through Gaydon at about 9.50 hrs on Monday December 18. The offenders left the bus in St Marks Close, Gaydon, with a quantity of cash and discarded the knife as they made off.
Police in Stratford would like to hear from anyone who witnessed the incident or who knows the identity of the two offenders. Please contact Stratford police station on 01926 415000.
Some of the property stolen from a house in Church Road last month was found by a member of the public in a field in Bourneville.
On Sunday 10 December three youths in a dark car were interrupted and made off after trying to remove the registration plates from a car in Church Road. (Incident number 380/10.12.06)
The Neighbourhood Policing Teams (Police and Neighbourhood Watch partnership in South Warwickshire) are starting to enjoy some success. We find that the Police are now devoting extra resource to detection and prevention of local crime especially burglaries. For example, the victim of the Church Road burglary has expressed a high level of satisfaction with the resource and effort put in by the Police.
Your Street Co-ordinators wish everyone a happy and safe Christmas.