Gaydon Parish Magazine August 2021
index of magazines
Party in the Park 11 September
Our team have reviewed the potential for a fête and, in view of the high cost and an element of Covid risk, we have decided to hold a party! There will be music, food, events to engage the children; and the opportunity to catch up with neighbours and friends in the village. We will open at 3pm on Saturday 11 September and run on into the evening. Get this date in your diary! Keep cool! DF
Gaydon Village Hall News
Gaydon Village Hall is now open. Please arrange your bookings with Eirwen Hughes at The Old House Cottage on 641889.
Coffee Morning 11am Saturday 14 August
Tables and chairs on the Village Hall lawns for a well-ventilated event. Donations of Cake welcome!
Coffee and Cake and Biscuits. Donations to Church Funds Please.
Flag
The flag was flown on 1st July to celebrate the Wedding Anniversary of Debbie and Alun and on the 16th it marked the birthday of Joyce Hammond, remembered by all who knew and loved her. The flag on the 31st was for the Wedding Day of Alyssia and Andrew: congratulations on tying the knot!
If you have something to celebrate, contact Siobhan Hannan on 07780 678582 and she will raise the Flag for you.
The cost is a donation of £5 to Church funds.
Mobile Library
Friday 20 August at the Telephone Box 2.40pm-3.10pm.
August Church Services
Covid restrictions remain - wear a mask and keep social distance
Sunday 1st
9.30am Morning Prayer Gaydon
11am Communion (BCP) Burton Dassett
11am Morning Prayer Fenny Compton
10am Holy Communion Farnborough
Sunday 8th
9.30am Communion (BCP) Gaydon
11am Holy Communion Fenny Compton
11am Morning Prayer Northend
6pm Evensong Farnborough
Sunday 15th
9.30am Morning Prayer Gaydon
10am Communion (BCP) Farnborough
11am Morning Prayer Fenny Compton
11am Holy Communion Northend
6pm Songs of Praise on ZOOM or Vicarage Garden
Sunday 22nd
9.30am Holy Communion Gaydon
10am Morning Prayer Farnborough
11am Communion (BCP) Fenny Compton
11am Morning Prayer Northend
Sunday 29th
10am Morning Prayer Farnborough
Zoom Services every Week
9.30am Monday to Friday Morning Prayer
6pm Monday to Friday Evening Prayer
11am Sunday Service; 6pm Songs of Praise 15th August
Go to www.dassettmagnagroup.com and click the link halfway down the page
Roman Catholic Church of St Francis, Kineton
Sunday Mass 11am. We welcome everyone who is able to attend and will ensure that safety protocols keep everyone safe. For further information please go to our website at www.stfrancis-kineton.co.uk
Lost Keys
The shop is looking after some keys that were found in the fields recently. Please enquire if you think they may be yours.
Gaydon Village Store
Don’t forget to use your village shop if you would like to keep it!
Fabulous local produce:
Fresh bread daily;
Variety of honeys, jams and chutneys;
Ice cream, Free Range Eggs;
New Beers from the Windmill Hill Brewery.
Open Monday-Friday 9am-1pm and 4-6pm; Saturdays 9am-1pm.
Volunteers
We have many different volunteers and some of them would prefer that customers continue to wear masks when shopping with us. Please be considerate because our Volunteers are a precious resource without whom the shop cannot open. SR
Heatwave Advice
Home
In the morning early, open all the windows to let the cool air in. Once the sun comes round, shut them and close the curtains. Open again in the evening if there is any cool air. A fan behind a bowl of iced water will also cool your home!
Body heat
When you’re feeling too hot, put your feet in tepid water (not cold) and that will cool you. Outside, wear sunglasses; sunlight causes cataracts and macular degeneration which leads to sight loss.
Children and babies
Sun cream should be applied often, re-applied after swimming. Sun glasses and hats, even if you have to keep putting them on! A tepid bath or baby stripped off in the cool shade. Never leave children or babies in hot cars. Enjoy the sunshine!
Dogs
Walk your dog early and late. Take a small bowl and water with you. Never leave your dog in a hot car, even with the window open. SN
Parish Council News
Unwelcome Visitors
Our Parish Council meeting addresses all planning issues, local issues and, with the help of Councillors Chris Mills and Chris Kettle, endeavours to keep our village in good order. Sometimes, however, things are difficult and the arrival of the travellers was a shock to everybody because they presented a serious threat to peace in the village, as several events made evident. As always, there is a process to follow (which no doubt the travellers are familiar with) involving court orders and eviction notices. Their eviction was served quickly this time and we are now debating how to prevent future visits and are cleaning up the awful mess they left behind. Lots of people moved quickly but our special thanks go to Corinne Hill who took exceptional action through each day of this illegal encampment.
Bad Behaviour
We are looking for a way forward on our anti-social behaviour issues. Children and their parents are worried about using the play area for risk of abuse. This is being addressed but we need to accelerate plans.
Unruly Greenery
The wonderful hot weather has seen plants and hedges grow out across the pavements, limiting access particularly for wheelchair users. We ask all residents to take steps to keep pathways clear.
Planning
The planning issues we are working on are:
a) How to address the Housing Needs Survey which made formal recommendations last October;
b) The broader Core Plan, now quite advanced;
c) The newer South Warwickshire Plan with Stratford and Warwick working together.
We are taking our own initiative with the Neighbourhood Development Plan: what do we really want? This presents an opportunity for us all to have a say via a village hall event and questionaires - plans
are underway.
Cemetery
The newly re-structured Council is also addressing improvements to the cemetery such as resolving grass-cutting issues and the use of weedkiller and signage.
Next Meeting
We meet again on Tuesday, 3 August, so do join us if you have any matters you would like to raise. In the meantime try and keep cool (literally) and safe!
The Vicar's Letter
Many weddings plans have had to change owing to the uncertainty of the last 18 months. I’ve officiated at so many weddings over the years but I can’t remember one bride who did not look amazing, or a single groom who didn’t, at least, look better than he’s ever looked before. The guests look fantastic too, full of excitement and the atmosphere of love and joy has been electrifying. What a wonderful day!
But then come the vows - and it strikes me that these promises dare to invade this idyllic day with warnings of more difficult times. He says, ‘I will love you if we are rich’; the vow whispers, ‘But what if you are poor?’ She promises, ‘I will love you for better…and for worse.’ He says, ‘I will love you if you are well and…in sickness too.’
Will those vows ever be called in? Yes, they will - but the couple don't know that now. And the scripture is read: ‘Love is patient, love is kind...
love is not self-seeking…love always protects, always trusts, always hopes…love is...’ Yes, love is all of those things. But the young couple often don’t know that yet, either. On this most perfect of days many cannot yet know that love is not just a feeling, but a daily commitment to love in action - to love not just with the heart but with the will.
But some discover it later. One husband I can think of had been married for 30 years, the last 6 of them being his wife's carer after a debilitating stroke. He has lifted her, washed her and taken her to the toilet; he has kissed her and held her all through those long years of sickness. It was not what he expected when he made his vows, but his life makes me understand something of the words of St Paul: ‘Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church.' The church being the people not the building! Such a husband has feelings of love for his wife, but his love is deeper than feeling: a sacrificial love that decided to love when it might seem too great a burden to go on loving. Love that in some ways laid down its life for another. This is love…
I also spoke to a man who was leaving his wife and children for someone younger who, he said, would better fulfil his needs. I asked, ‘Why are you leaving?’ and he said, ‘I don’t feel in love anymore.’
His words reminded me that in the marriage vows the bride and groom don't say ‘I do’, they say, ‘I will.’ And that’s important. Because ‘I do’ is just in the present tense; ‘I will’ is a promise for now and for the future. It also recognises that sometimes love is an act of will rather than just a feeling. Sometimes love is what we do in spite of how we feel. Loving is hard sometimes…it’s our commitment of will to keep the promises we make in our marriage vows that carries us through life together.
Loving is hard sometimes. May God help me, may God help us, and may God help all those I have had the privilege of marrying, to love in both the good times and the bad! Rev. Nicki Chatterton
Nature Notes for July
Gaydon, like much of the UK, is bathed in exceptionally hot weather this week. The night time temperatures bring little change either. There has been a rapid growth in plant life along the roadside verges and the swathes of Ox-eye daisies are now intermingled with purple Knapweed and blue field Scabious.
I have seen some spectacular moths like the day-flying Scarlet tiger and Cinnabar. The old hay meadows have broods of Marbled Whites, a local species, which is in the same genus as the Satyrae (browns). Today I have seen both large and small Skippers, bright Orange Commas(var. Hutchisonae) and Small tortoishells. The white species which are not always the vegetable-grower's friend are abundant.
'The big butterfly count' this week will no doubt help to record the species distribution and is still online.
Some other unfamiliar species have been encouraged by the high temperatures. I have had at least four reports of large Grass snakes, which usually keep a low profile but have turned up in gardens around the village. They are quite large snakes that vary in colour and look quite intimidating but are perfectly harmless. I once kept one as a pet for years and it was quite happy in my pocket. They like compost heaps and wild patches. I alway leave a piece of rusty corrugated tin for them to hide under.
You may also encounter Slow worms and great crested Newts in these habitats. There is a good photo of one of the Grass Snakes that appeared in the Banbury Road yesterday on the Gaydon Community faceook site. It is very dark green while others can be much lighter.
Today, I was woken up at 4.30am by the alarm calls of birds in my Walnut tree. What appeared to be an owl was in the upper branches and glided off (birds often 'mob' larger birds); but much to my surprise it was a large Cuckoo. If I had been in any doubt, a wing feather came floating down to my feet, grey and barred like a hawk's, leaving me in no doubt of the owner!
Owls have been around the village, Tawny Owls often calling in my garden and Barn owls around the fields. Both are encouraged by the ‘plague’ of Short-tailed Voles that are even turning up in our gardens.
Swifts and swallows are still around teaching young to fly now in preparation for the long migration back to Africa next month. Horse flies rather too numerous this year too! Bernard Price
Helen's Walk - the Barnfield Fundraiser
With all the maps, other people's walking blogs and research in the world, nothing quite prepares you for walking the Hadrian's Wall Path. For everyone who completes the walk, their walk is unique to them; and is moments and (seven) days, captured in time - and lots of photographs! The other walkers you meet (friendly and generous - nearly £43 collected along the walk) and the weather: plenty of sun, wind, cloud and rain.
The variety of terrain that you're walking across on a particular day; the differing flora: lots of field walking, farmland, woodland and rocky ascents and descents. The animals you encounter: face to face with lots of sheep, cows and calves; listening to birdsong; a nerve-wracking bee swarm - it all adds up to an amazing and unique experience.
A big thank you for all the generous donations from the residents' family members and friends of Barnfield. A big thank you to Paul and Jo at The Malt Shovel and the villagers of Gaydon for all their support and donations. Just over £1000 has been raised so far at https://gofund.me/af0246bf
Things are already looking a little different in the garden, and we hope over the coming weeks, the dedicated and hard-working staff team can make a difference to the residents of Barnfield, thanks to the generosity of you all. Helen
P.S. We are currently understaffed at Barnfield, so if anyone in the local area is looking for part-time/full-time work - we're a friendly bunch!
Barnfield are recruiting support workers!
If you, or someone you know, are looking for a rewarding job rôle then please get in touch by Telephone on 02476 643 776 or by email on recruitment@people-in-action.co.uk or online at www.people-in-action.com/apply-online
Mobile Library Service
The regular Mobile Library Vehicle is back on the road! Customers can visit it at the Telephone Box in Church Road on Fridays at 2.40pm for 30 minutes (3.10pm). It will be stopping on 20 August, 10 September, 1st and 22 October, 12 November, 3 and 24 December.
August Allotment News
At long last, Wimbledon 2021 went ahead and even featured a few spectators! As Covid-19 continues to impact our lives, the famous tennis tournament marks the calendar weeks, in which the Gaydon-produced Strawberries are at their best, having been ripened with the recent sunny days. The smell of strawberries on the plant is totally mouth-watering and is a great motivator to growing your own, providing that the local blackbirds leave you a healthy picking! Another seasonal favourite of mine is freshly dug new potatoes, lightly boiled and tossed in butter and homegrown Mint. Delicious...
The allotments have blossomed into a wide spectrum of beauty with numerous flowers and plants looking in tiptop condition. A surprising highlight that has filled the majority of plots this year, is the spectacular array of potato flowers. As the sun sets on a warm summer evening, the allotments, field and park are a tranquil and precious space to switch-off and relax in, whilst admiring the surroundings and spying on the elegant barn owls which navigate the village during their hunting missions.
Autumn Jobs:
Watch out for flea beetle on brassicas and related plants such as swiss chard etc.
Inspect for blossom end rot on tomatoes, usually caused by irregular watering.
Harvest carrots, runner beans, beetroot, artichokes, cucumbers, courgettes and second early potatoes etc. Onions and shallots if harvested need to dry in a sunny spot before storing.
August sowings may involve: lettuce, rocket, spring onion and radish plus winter salads.
Prune certain fruit trees to avoid the development of silver-leaf disease. Andrew Smith