Gaydon Parish Magazine January 2020
index of magazines
A Happy New Year to all our Readers!
We are grateful to our Contributors, Advertisers and Helpers for their support of the Parish Magazine over the past year.
This Month's Diary
Parish Council Tues 7th 7.30pm Village Hall
Village Hall Meeting Mon 13th 8pm Village Hall
Burns Night Supper Sat 25th 7pm Village Hall
Library Monday 6th Telephone Box
Pilates Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs Village Hall
Tai Chi Weds 7.30pm & Suns 1.30pm Village Hall
Cake & Crafting Circle 2nd & 4th Suns 5pm The Malt Shovel
Gaydon Calendar
Table Sale Sat 13th June Village Hall
Big Lunch Sun 19th July Village Hall
Christmas Lunch Sun 6th December Village Hall
Parish Council News
Travellers
Neighbourhood Watch reports that we had a travellers' encampment suddenly appear again on the Old Warwick Road just before Christmas. The locked gates had been broken to gain access. Bearing in mind the trouble encountered and damage caused on a previous occasion, swift action was taken and the travellers left within three days. Councillor Hill managed to coordinate the various council departments and we would like to thank the Police and the Gypsy and Traveller Department at the County Council for their very quick response. Excellent cooperation all round and special thanks to our Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator and Councillor Hill.
Thank You
I would like to thank all the residents who help and support activities that take place in this parish and wish them a Happy New Year. Corinne Hill
Next Meeting of the Parish Council: Tuesday 7 January at 7.30pm.
Church Services in January
Sunday 5th
9.00 Holy Communion BCP Northend
10.30am Morning Prayer Farnborough
10.30 Holy Communion Gaydon
5.00pm Songs of Praise Fenny Compton
Sunday 12th
9.00 Holy Communion BCP Farnborough
10.30 Holy Communion Fenny Compton
10.30 Morning Prayer Gaydon
10.30 Morning Prayer Northend
6.00pm Evening Prayer Northend
Sunday 19th
9.00 Holy Communion BCP Gaydon
10.30 Morning Prayer Fenny Compton
10.30 Holy Communion Northend
6.00pm Evensong Farnborough
Sunday 26th
9.00 Holy Communion BCP Fenny Compton
10.30 Holy Communion Farnborough
10.30 Prayer & Praise Gaydon
10.30 Morning Prayer Northend
Every Sunday 11.00 Mass at St Francis of Assissi Kineton.
St Francis of Assisi, Catholic Church, Kineton.
Parish Priest: Fr David Tams Phone 01608 685259
email: father.david@stfrancis-kineton.co.uk www.stfrancis-kineton.co.uk
Burns Night Supper 25 January 2020
Burns Night falls on Saturday 25 January in 2020 and is the 261st anniversary of the great poet's birth. We are looking for a Bagpipe player to pipe in the Haggis; Song and Dance acts with a Scottish flavour; Sentimental Poetry; and Fancy Dress if you like - there will be Prizes!
Tickets £15 each are now on sale in the Shop and include a Three Course Dinner with Welcome Wee Dram and Glass of Wine. There will be a Raffle.
Please let us know if you would like to do a turn during the evening: ring Alastair on 642248 or Julie on 640349.
The Children's Society
The collection you make each year in your house box changes the lives of the thousands of children the Society helps. Otherwise, many vulnerable children would have had nowhere to turn to when they felt scared, unloved and unable to cope. I shall be collecting Gaydon's boxes during January and would like to thank you for continuing to support this charity. Julie Rickman
Village Hall News
The Village Hall Committee will meet in the New Year on Monday 13 January at 8pm. Village clubs are, as always, very welcome to send a representative to join the meeting. SM
Gaydon Over 65’s Christmas Lunch
We had a great turn out for this year’s Christmas Lunch at the Village Hall on Sunday 8th December, a wonderful team of helpers produced a lovely lunch and everyone enjoyed a festive catch up - the room was buzzing! Thanks very much to everyone who helped pull it altogether once again and without whom it would not happen. Wishing you all a very Happy New Year, Kate Sutton.
Table Top Sale and Coffee Morning
Two dates for your diaries: Saturday 13 June Table Sale in the Village Hall, in aid of the next Christmas Lunch. Watch out for more details...
Sunday 6 December, next Christmas Lunch date.
Thanks
The Paper Boy thanks all his customers and wishes them a Happy New Year.
Nature Notes for December
Winter weather
Quite a few days start with crisp frost and sunshine but invariably grey leaden skies set in with rain and very strong winds. The daylight hours are shorter and there is a noticeable drop in plant growth. My hens stop laying, too, no longer dust-bathing, in spite of being left a daily pile if ash from my woodburner. They have all moulted and now have fine thick feathers to ruffle up against the cold. I have to thaw out their water fountains with a kettle some mornings. They gather round with some haste, eager to dip their beaks after having fruitlessly tapped on the frozen surfaces.
This is without doubt an unusual year for mammals. The Otter is still around the village and I leave him fish heads and Rainbow trout kindly donated by our local Waitrose fish counter; I get a special bag marked 'for Mr.Otter’. The large neglected pond on the Banbury Road seems to be his home so I'm thinking of setting another camera near there, plus a sign on the crossing area so he can traverse to the other side.
Foxes are also around - I found a strange hen part-eaten recently. The numbers of mice and voles have been very high; Barn Owls can be heard hunting them in the fields on quiet nights.
You will often hear the rather rusty creaking calls of large flocks of migrant birds above you if you walk the fields. These very attractive thrushes seem to complement the grey skies with dark, charcoal wing tips and yellow throats, moving from hedgerows and field borders to feast on the hawthorn and sloe berries. Fieldfares are quite shy: they are hunted for food in their native Scandanavia. You can look out for the smaller Redwings that often arrive with them; and should the weather become colder, we may even have the more exotic Waxwings as we did last year.
Windfall apples and berries are crucial to these species. Feeders support other birds in back gardens and there is a huge variety of specialist foods. Small black Niger seed is great for Gold finches; Peanuts and Fat cakes are liked by Tits, Nuthatches and Sparrows; insect mixtures are more suitable for Robins, Wrens and Hedge Sparrows. Ever resilient, Pied Wagtails perch on the village hall roof.
A species of Elm immune to disease is being slowly replanted but it will take a long time to replace those lost to this area over 30 years ago. One of our garden favourites, the Great spotted Woodpecker, no longer having a food source from the Elm trees, has adapted to using peanut feeders. I often see them whilst on my allotment.
Now the year is almost at an end and ‘The circling year completes’ as Richard Jeffries wrote in 'Tarka the Otter'. Much in the natural world has changed since then but Mud, however, is still with us! BP
Housekeeping and Cleaner
Professional Housekeeper seeks work. 20 years experience in private homes. Excellent references. Maximum/minimum hours available/discussed. Call Bee on 07926 126602.
Mobile Library
The Library will visit the Telephone Box at Gaydon from 1.35-2.05pm on Monday 6 January.
Allotment News
“In the frosty season when the sun was set...”
Only intermittent frost thus far in December: wet and windy weather still dominating and consequentially claggy conditions. The local pigeons have proved to be industrious in securing a Christmas feed at the expense of our brassicas. They have diligently stripped the leaves to produce forlorn skeletonised stems on many of the kale plants, but someone has advised that they are capable of regeneration and to let them be. We shall see whether this is a hostage to fortune or nature rewards our patience.
January is a time for browsing seed catalogues and ruminating on what succeeded and what failed on our plots. Deciding how to rotate planting to offset susceptibility to disease and pests is also a vital feature of planning - particularly to be true to the organic spirit we want to maintain on our allotments.
Monday 13th January is ‘Plough Monday’ - traditionally the first Monday after Twelfth Night when the agricultural year re-started and the ‘jolly ploughboys’ (and, without doubt, countless unsung women!) recommenced work after the Christmas/New Year break. We are not under any pretence that our modest efforts could ever equal their toil, but - to paraphrase “Danny Boy” - ‘the plots, the plots will be calling’… Happy New Year!
She Finds, She Seeks… (Pandora’s Final Quest)
Finding the keys to the New Year lying
Under a weight of time
Can she find what fits? She seeks
Knowledge - but wisdom remains unlocked
One box after another
Fails to yield to the keys
Frustrated in task, but then she spies a glint in the gloom
By now nearly giving up, this last box welcomes a key
Opening with eager heart - thinking her quest to be done - but…
Russian-doll like, the box contains… another
Inside this yet more receding to box infinity
She slowly sighs… “This. Will. Take. A. Very. Long. Time…” T.H.