Gaydon Parish Magazine July 2023

Gaydon Gazette for July

   Parish Council         Tues 4th at 7.30pm     Village Hall     
   Coffee Morning         Sat 8th at 11am        Village Hall
   Village Hall C'ttee    Mon 10th at 8pm      Village Hall 
   Mobile Library         Fri 7th & 28th at 2.40pm  Phone Box
    Tai Chi               Wednesdays at 7pm   Village Hall
   Craft Circle           2nd & 4th Sundays 5pm       Church

July Church Services

2nd      9.30am    Prayer & Praise  Gaydon
        10am       Holy Communion BCP   Burton Dassett
9th      9.30am    Holy Communion       Gaydon
        10am       Morning  Prayer      Northend
16th     9.30am    Agape Service        Gaydon
        10am       Morning Prayer       Northend
23rd     9.30am    Songs of Praise      Gaydon
        10am       Agape Meal           Northend

Roman Catholic Church of St Francis, Kineton, Sunday Mass 11am.

July Memorial Book

         1985      12th      Osmond Hill
         2020      12th      Lesley James Welch
         2008      18th      Betty Davies
         2016      21st      Ronald Richards
         1958      29th      Mark Lush

If there is a special entry that you would like to see, let me know and I will try to make sure that the Book is open on that day. Julie Rickman

Coffee Morning

Saturday 8 July at 11am in the Village Hall: Bring & Buy, Books, Puzzles, Raffle, Tea & Coffee and Biscuits. In aid of church funds.

Village Hall News

The next Village Hall Committee meeting will be held on Monday, 10 July at 8pm.

Mobile Library

The Mobile Library will call at the Telephone Box at 2.40pm for half an hour on Fridays 7th and 28th.

Neighbourhood Watch Alert

Some of the cars parked on Church Road along the church wall have had their number plates stolen. You are advised to make sure that your number plates are fixed securely to your car by screws, rather than just stuck on. Please ring 999 if you see any suspicious activity. Chris Pickering, Neighbourhood Watch

Gaydon Village Store AGM Report

Nearly twenty people attended the Shop's Annual General Meeting on 5 June. Sue Roberts thanked the Ellis family for their chocolate gifts for the volunteers. She thanked the committee and the volunteers for their contribution to the success of the shop. The new committee would be Michele and Adrian as before, plus Siobhan, Maria, Yvonne and Sue Middleditch. A vote of thanks to the old committee was proposed by Jane Faulconbridge and heartily endorsed by all present.

Flag

The flag was raised for the Official Birthday of HM The King on Saturday 17 June. It flew on the 21st for the Birthday of HRH The Prince of Wales. If you have something to celebrate or commemorate, contact Siobhan Hannan on 07780 689582, and she will raise the Flag for you in return for a £5 contribution to Church funds.

British Motor Museum Events

   Wythall BusFest            -    Saturday 1st July
   BMC and Layland Show       -    Sunday 9 July
   Old Ford Rally and Rootes Heritage Day      
   (2 events in one ticket)   -    Sunday 23 July
             Book tickets online at britishmotormuseum.co.uk

Nature Notes for June

As I write this in the second week of June there has been an unbroken spell of dry weather, clear blue skies and high daytime temperatures. The local Swifts are flying low now in the evenings, seeking their traditional nesting places. The pair of swallows are hatching, leaving one sentinel on the telegraph wires to assist in incubation and nest repair. Yesterday, at nearby Compton Verney, my granddaughter spotted several pairs of House Martins nesting high up in the decorative ledges. I had not seen any this year close up, as they're becoming increasingly scarce, but such a smart looking bird with immaculate white and dark blue feathers. Sadly, once we had many pairs nesting in Gaydon; I hear there are some at Charlecote Park.
The river through the park was full of magical blue Male damsel flies seeking the much scarcer reddish females.
The constant twittering of Goldfinch fledglings - they have not yet acquired the red face-feathers - along with melodious blackbirds and gently-purring Woodpigeons is relaxing on quiet days. It is great to see that Upper Lighthorne now has an active wildlife group on facebook.
Jays, Magpies and Great Spotted woodpeckers attack nests and kill fledglings. Yes, Nature Red in Tooth and Claw but you can intervene! Magpies and squirrels give my garden a wide margin: waving a stick or banging a pan works wonders. A metal plate over your nest boxes will stop woodpeckers from enlarging them; and local Jackdaws have another trick now: not content with dropping sticks down our chimneys, they have taken to pecking holes in bread left out by the shop - caught red-handed today!
The verges still uncut look wonderful now: Blue Scabious and Knap-weed amongst the Ox-Eye Daisies with even a few orchids.
In my garden a short time before dusk - described as crepuscular with regard to such species as nightjars and nocturnal moth flights - I saw scores of exotic Scarlet Tiger moths flying wildly around the top of my large Walnut tree. These almost tropical-looking moths have red and yellow wings spotted in black and feed on Comfrey and annual weeds. You may well find them in the day, acting dead as their bright warning colouration warns birds that they are highly toxic. The cuckoo? Heard in Oxhill this week. If you are up early, listen to the dawn chorus - one of the best times to detect one. Magpies are again numerous. I've seen large groups of up to six! They are notorious egg thieves - could they be the reason for serious decline in the numbers of smaller birds? I am hoping to check on the emergence of Purple Emperors, White Admirals and Hairstreaks in the next few weeks. Strangely, the White butterflies usually attacking our cabbages have not appeared as yet. Climate change is becoming more obvious each year... BP

Allotment News July

Well, June what a hot one! I hope everyone is keeping suitably hydrated? The crops definitely need watering and despite a couple of terrific thunderstorms watering is a lengthy task. The containers holding water are half-empty now but we persevere. Gardening and growing food requires such a fine balance of sun, rain and nutrient-dense soil. We always hope for the perfect amount of each … the soil we can help along with but the rest is up to the
weather gods. This month as we potter around our plots weeding and watering we are seeing great growth in peas, beans, red cabbages, sprouts, calabrese and asparagus.
We have started to harvest our summer crops of salad leaves and radishes. The strawberries are nearly ready …now looking forward to Wimbledon. We have planted some edible flowers, too. The usual suspects of nasturtium, marigold, cornflower, dill and borage and some edibles I haven’t grown before: an edible cosmos, a wild malve (which is from the mallow family) and a blue perennial flax; so we will see if we are adding any to our summer drinks and jellies this year?
Hopefully, all the flowering plants we have will continue to encourage as much wildlife into the area of our plots. We have in the past spotted great-crested newts and grass snakes along with birds,
bees and butterflies. It’s so lovely at this time when the plots are buzzing with life.

Jobs for July
Keep watering and weeding.
Sow:
Overwintering crops: Kales, Spring Cabbage, Spinach, Beet, Main-crop carrots to avoid root fly attack.
Successional Sow:
Beetroot, lettuce, radish.
Plant Out:
Pumpkins Squashes over wintering Cabbages and Leeks. 
Harvest:
Beetroot ,Broad beans, Summer Cabbages, Lettuce, Peas, Radish Salad Leaves Herbs Strawberries and Edible Flowers.

Next month we may be complaining that our wonderful wildlife has eaten too many of our crops. Watch this space! Catherine