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.