Monday 23 November 2015

Jerusalem - Without the Jam.

Fish and chips was the order of the day (and you can't get more British than that)  on the occasion of the Epperstone Womens Institute birthday party celebrating 95 years in existence.  Entertainment was provided by The Stormy Weather Boys, who had everyone joining in lustily with the choruses of their sea shanties.  The evening raised a welcome £300 for the charity, Maggies, the cancer support unit at Nottingham City Hospital and also, hopefully, attracted a few new members.





The social whirl continues with the Epperstone Ladies Luncheon to be held at the Cross Keys next month; but more of that later.

Rain and strong winds have been the feature of the weather during the past two weeks.  Amazingly, little damage occurred on the farm though some of the willow trees round the pond are looking a bit the worse for wear.  Not for nothing are they called Crack Willow.  They are in desperate need of pollarding; this is something I shall have to look into with some urgency.  The same wind has fetched the last remaining leaves off the trees, conveniently blowing them into heaps and thus making them much easier to collect.  Nevertheless, I shall have to take care that some of the longer lying heaps are not hiding any hibernating mammals such as hedgehogs, of which, I am pleased to say, we have had many sightings during the summer.  There has been a catastrophic decline in the hedgehog population, estimated at 1.5 million in 1995 and now reduced to probably under a million.  If you want to know more about these creatures the website www.hedgehogstreet.org is full of interesting information and well worth a read.

Writing as a tourist, I found myself in Plymouth recently and was delighted to find that there is an excellently presented exhibition centred on the Pilgrim Fathers  Their origens, of course, are centred on the village of Scrooby, in North Nottinghamshire so the exhibition made a good follow-up to what we already have in the county. If you want to brush up on the history of these brave people you can find much detail on www.pilgrimfathersorigens.org then make it the object of a day out.





  


  

Monday 9 November 2015

A Warning.


 It has been an amazing year for fruit, both  cultivated and hedgerow.  Those of you who enjoy a glass of sloe gin will find the fruits in plenty and can use the long, dark evenings to make a warming winter tipple.  It is not necessary, as some would have it, to wait until the first frost before picking your sloes, nor is it beneficial to put them in the deep freezer unless you want to store them to be dealt with at a more convenient time. It should be remembered, however, that blackthorn, which produces the sloe, has very sharp thorns and a prick or a scratch from these can rapidly turn septic, so take care when picking the fruit.
   
Epperstone social life gathers momentum as the evenings get longer.  A Wine Tasting event, organised by the Sports and Leisure Club, was sold to capacity and raised welcome funds for the Club. A large crowd enjoyed Bonfire Night and fireworks at the Cross Keys.
Members of the Womens Institute are looking forward to a party celebrating ninety-five years since the formation of the Branch; not a bad achievement.

Things have slowed down a bit on the farm now that we are well into November.  The weather remains incredibly mild (I am tempting fate again) so it is no hardship to start on the list of outdoor jobs waiting to be done.  With daylight hours being shorter most of these jobs will be started in the morning and that, at the moment, means leaf sweeping.  I probably say the same thing every year but I don't think I have ever seen so many leaves on the ground.  That may be because there has also been very little wind so the leaves have remained where they have fallen instead of being blown into drifts.  It has also been quite wet so a good time to plant out the wallflowers, which will have a lovely scent when they flower in the spring.  Once again the orchard has yielded more fruit than we can possibly eat but the birds will be happy to feed on the surplus.