How are we all doing with social distancing and self-isolation? It’s something that cats have been doing for years.
Here are a few tips about what’s changed in daily life. Apologies if it is reiterating what you know already, but hopefully there are a couple of new pieces of information. And there’s a quiz (nothing to do with lockdown, COVID-19 or shopping) at the end [Read more…] about Life under Lockdown
I’m sure you’ve heard of the phrase “May you live in interesting times”. This has been linked to the Chinese but there is evidence to suggest it has nothing to do with them at all and it is in fact an English saying.
Hmm…so maybe it’s a case of good old Chinese whispers going on there I think. (Never a game I’ve liked. I’ve never got the point. Misinformation is misinformation and all that. It always struck me as a silly game.).
Whatever the origins of the phrase, it is a great example of irony in action. It sounds like a blessing but it is anything but. The speaker is really wishing you should live in troublesome times and I think it is safe to say we are doing exactly that right now.
First livestream service from St Boniface at 10am this morning, led by the Rev’d Ian Bird (Vicar).
“We have set up a team of volunteers who make up a Crisis Care Team. They offer practical help to those who are self-isolating. Help can involve essential shopping, posting letters and/or regularly chatting on the phone.
If you need help, please contact Suzie in the Parish Office (8026 5977) or email: office@parishcf.church
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED.
If you could help with any of the above, please email Suzie at office@parish.church (Tel: 023 8026 5977). As more people self-isolate there will be an increasing need for this scheme, so please do sign up to help if you are able.
[Read more…] about First Livestream Service from St Boniface Church; Crisis Care Team
October 4th 1964: “A quiet afternoon writing more letters”, Gran tells us, and she continues:
…this evening I went to Church, primarily to give thanks for Geoffrey’s safe arrival and Jane Elizabeth’s well-being, but it proved to be a most uplifting and inspiring service, conducted by a visiting clergyman, a Welshman, whose name I unfortunately do not know. His sermon was based on our interdependence one upon the other and our Brotherhood in God the Father, and he spoke with the utmost sincerity and forthrightness. I shall long remember this evening.
I remember as a child sometimes being allowed to mix up whatever Mum was preparing in her big brown earthenware bowl and not just for Stir Up Sunday.
But writers need to mix things up too. Why and how?
For many people, working at home has suddenly become the new working practice. This may be familiar for some, but a big change for many. Working from home is notjust working from the office without a commute. There are a number of things to be considered on both working practicalities and home life. Here are a few reflections after two and a half days of working from home. I was going to entitle this piece “Broad thoughts from a home”, in tribute to the poem of similar name by Robert Browning, but didn’t think I would get away with it. [Read more…] about Working from Home
It’s an anxious time to every one of us. Shops are closed. Events are cancelled. Schools are to shut. Church services stop. Supermarkets are stripped bare. A few weeks ago you might have asked yourself, “What should I be giving up for Lent this year?” Well it’s clear that you’ve given up a bit more than you had thought.
If any resident want more information on the virus please see the Government and the NHS websites:
Here is a brief update from Rev’d Ian Bird on Chandler’s Ford Parish’s response to the latest developments of the Coronavirus.
“Sadly we are having to stop all our church services and activities, but we are not stopped being church. We ae not stopping being a faith community. And we are not stopping loving and caring for those around us. We’re just going to be church in a different way for this season.”
The Parish Church of Chandler’s Ford announces that “Due to Church of England guidelines all public worship is currently suspended. However, please …to see how we can still support you practically, emotionally and spiritually, including information on live streams of the Sunday service.”
The Chameleon Theatre Group have been posting a series of small interviews. They and I thought it a good idea to compile these in some articles for CFT. Hope you enjoy! These will hopefully be spread out over a few weeks between each one. Many thanks as ever to The Chameleons for the photos.
Oh and don’t forget that when you go to one of their excellent productions and take part in things like the raffle, proceeds go to a nominated charity. So have a great night out and support a good cause at the same time. Now that’s the kind of multitasking I’ve always got time for!
And now over to The Chameleons for Part 1 in what we hope will be an enjoyable series.
As I walked briskly in keeping with the exercise requirements of my diet regime, listening to the intoxicating and incessant drumming in Get Ready by Rare Earth, I had an epiphany: I could be dead in a few weeks because of the pandemic.
I didn’t panic, but looked up at the sky and everything appeared so very special – the stars, the golden pancake moon darting between clouds, and even the clouds themselves for their amorphous fluffiness. [Read more…] about How I Feel about the Pandemic
I’m pleased to share a news update from local author, Richard Hardie, and to introduce new Authors Reach author, Francesca Tyer.
Richard and Francesca have celebrated World Book Day in the best way imaginable – by talking about books and stories to school children. Encourage a love of reading in the young, hopefully that love will stay with them for life. (I know it did for me!) See both links for World Book Day to find out more. . See Richard’s report below.
[Read more…] about Local Author News: Richard Hardie and Introducing Francesca Tyer
Gran does love a wedding, and on June 20th 1964 she attends that of the eldest son of her great friend, Mary Harding. She describes the event in detail, as is her wont, including the flowers decorating the church, and also the clothes worn by the bride and her attendants thus:
This afternoon I went to Timothy Harding’s Wedding to Daphne Beare. It was at Chandler’s Ford St Boniface Church, and the reception at Otterbourne Hall. The bride wore a long lace gown, full-length veil and carried a small bouquet of pink rosebuds and Stephanotis. She was attended by five charming child bridesmaids, the four older ones in two shades of blue, long dresses of spotted nylon, and the little one in white with blue piping at the waist.
Jill Harding [Timothy’s sister] sang a solo, “Guide us, Lord”, as the bride arrived. The service was choral… Mary looked delightful in a black and pink figured dress and coat, and a black hat with shaded crimson and red roses across the front. The sun shone, happily, but it really was cold.
Two days later Gran, with Peg Eagle and her recently ill son, “pay their respects” to the Wild Gladioli growing in the New Forest. She writes:
This afternoon I went out with Peg – the first time since John came out of hospital. I met her at Bassett and we took John with us, though when we arrived at Beaulieu Road, he remained in the car and did not walk with us.
They are successful with the Gladiolus, and Gran writes later, early in July after another visit there with John Guningham (now spelled without a double “n”), that:
…it really is a most flourishing colony. We saw dozens without disturbing the protective bracken, and there must have been literally hundreds under this cover in the wide area so colonised.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 118)
What are your favourite landmarks and why have you chosen them?
This month can be quite a busy month, but a lot will depend on the weather and the risk of frosts.
Perennials that are congested and overcrowded can be lifted and split this month. Overwintered dahlias can be kick started by potting them in free draining compost, when they start to produce new shoots, the first of these can be cut and potted to multiply your stock. [Read more…] about Wellie’s Gardening Tips for March 2020
Being a Grandmother is a great joy to Joan Goater. On March 13th 1964 she receives some welcome mail from overseas, and reports:
Today’s post brought my Grandmother’s bracelet from Jill Brewster in Canada, silver discs bearing the name and date of birth of my grandchildren, Julian, Rhoderick (Ricky) and Katherine. I shall, D.V., have another one to add in September and I am proud and delighted to have it. It is a Canadian idea.
“A wonderful day though it was not in the least what I expected”, she begins her entry for the 15th. “I met Peg at the top of Hiltingbury Road at ten minutes to ten and we set out for the Punchbowl at Hindhead, in Surrey.” Snow is falling. It is already two inches deep and she is not optimistic about the outing, which is with members of the Mid-Southern Branch of the British Naturalists’ Association. Nevertheless, she describes an interesting day:
The object of the expedition was mosses, and the leader, the Honourable Laura Ponsonby, whom we have not met before… we realised that hunting for mosses in such conditions was impossible so she suggested that we should try lower ground and led the way. Three cars followed her through quiet lanes… to Lynchmere, where Miss Ponsonby turned into what was obviously the drive into a private estate. When we got out, I asked her if it was all right for all our cars to park there and she said, “Oh yes. I live here!”
“Here” was the old and beautiful Shulbrede Priory, which was built in 1190, and we were taken round the grounds on our moss hunt.
At the back of a class of 5-year-olds, I watched a teacher telling a story. Thirty children sat silent and still with mouths agape and eyes fixed on the storyteller. The story, like most children’s stories, held a moral. It was Big Bell and Little Bell. Here was the power of storytelling.
Most of us can remember being told stories. I remember a story about a man pulling a sword from a rock. Grandfather told stories of engineering feats that went wrong. There was a railway engine whose boiler burst as it tried to climb Lickey Incline near Birmingham and how bank engines were provided afterwards to help the climb. [Read more…] about Tell Me a Story
Paula Readman and I have publishers in common. We’ve both been published by Bridge House Publishing and Cafelit. We’ve shared the great joy recently of both of us having two stories in The Best of Cafelit 8 and also a story each in Nativity, the most recent books published by Bridge House. Naturally we are both keen on the independent small presses!
Paula is going from strength to strength and is starting 2020 off in great style with a recently released novella and a short story collection to come later in the year but more on that in a moment.
I learned a long time ago if someone makes something look easy, that same someone will have worked very hard for years to get to that point. This is true for Paula and she’ll share more about this too.
[Read more…] about Introducing Paula Readman: What Books Mean to Her
Gran has a good day’s botanising on June 8th 1963, with other members of Southampton Natural History Society, on Browndown Ranges, near Lee-on-Solent. The group is led, she says, by Mr Westrup, who is compiling the new Flora of Hampshire. Nottingham Catchfly is a particular goal, a new plant for Gran, and they find plenty of this as well as several attractive grass species, also new for her list, including Purple Small-reed and Bush Grass [now called Wood Small-reed]. She paints the Catchfly next day – the five-hundred and first in her collection.
Here are some great events in the coming weeks in Chandler’s Ford.
On 20th March Chandler’s Ford Men’s Shed is opening its new social space. Paid for by donations from local businesses and being opened by the Mayor of Eastleigh, the shed is set up for the wellbeing of men in the local community.
Address: Hexagon Centre, Suffolk Close, Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh, Hampshire, SO53 3GZ.
Meet every Friday from 1.30pm.
[Read more…] about Upcoming Events in Chandler’s Ford February – March 2020
The major joys of reading are:-
1. There is at least one form to suit everyone – short fiction, long, or anything in between, and non-fiction with its infinite variety of forms from the essay to the book.
2. There is at least one genre to suit everyone – fantasy, non-fiction (think of the wealth of topics in this alone!), historical, crime etc.
3. Reading is one of the forms of escapism I love most; the other is music. Even when reading non-fiction, you are escaping the cares of the world temporarily to find out what you need to know or to improve your knowledge of the topic you’re reading.
The bitter weather of the now infamous 1962/63 winter is still making itself felt at the end of January 1963, and on February 1st, Gran says:
The snow is still with us and January’s final records are in! It was the coldest January for one hundred and twenty-five years, but, paradoxically, it was also the sunniest and the driest this century. It is certainly one that I shall remember.
And a few days later, she records the figures in more detail, comparing them with those from the equally memorable winter of 1947. The lengths of the cold spells were similar: fifty days in 1947 and forty-six in 1963, but most telling are the days of frost and snow-lie, with fifteen days the longest run of frost in 1947 compared with thirty-seven in 1963; and the days with snow lying in 1947, a mere twelve compared with forty-two in 1963.
There are several newspaper cuttings pressed between the journal’s pages concerned with the plight of birds and other wildlife during the winter, including that of the Dartford Warbler, almost, and potentially completely, wiped out in its British stronghold – the New Forest.
Natural History outings continue, including a return to Hayling Island, with friend, Doreen Peters and brother Norris, the latter very keen to see his first Collared Doves, which they do, as well as finding a new goose species for Gran, who writes:
I spotted a small party of geese in a field close to the lane and we stopped to investigate. We remained in the car to avoid disturbing them and had a wonderful view. There was no doubt about it – they were actually Pink-footed Geese, nine of them and we could see every detail. This was a new species for me.
