You will probably wonder, what the heck dogs and milkmen have in common, especially here in Woodcutts. I have mentioned before, that since Phil stopped delivering our milk, it arrives on our doorsteps at some ridiculously early hour of the morning. We now have good reason to believe, that it actually gets here some time between 1 and 2 a.m. At first this may seem crazy, think about the highwaymen and smugglers about in these dark lanes at those times: however it is not that bad, because we have dogs. Can you imagine if we hadn’t got our canine friends, wouldn’t we have to get up at this unearthly hour to bite the milkman ourselves? For those of you who don’t have dogs, but do have your milk delivered, we do know someone who breeds Border Terriers. If you leave out a note for the milkman, we can arrange to have one delivered; after all he will deliver practically anything else.
One thing he wasn’t able to deliver in April though, was of course rain. Instead, it was wall to wall sunshine, and warm temperatures, what a difference it has made to the countryside! We have had a wonderful show of bluebells, red campions and wild garlic (ransomes). Elder trees have been in flower since the last week of April, but many are well down in size, presumably because of their earliness and lack of water in the form of rain. Remember to increase the number of heads in the recipe, when producing this year’s cordial. It will mean that twice the number of heads will have to be used in the recipes. Mother Nature has a wonderful way of compensating for such events, so I hope that the elder flower harvest will not be over before sufficient heads become available.
Another very early happening in the countryside, is the sight of barley fields in ear before the end of April. Does this mean that the combines will be out harvesting half way through June? At one time, it was the Sussex downland farmers, who started the harvest ball rolling half way through June, with their early planted spring barley. Now with the winter barley coming in ear in April, will this be the first to be tackled? Or perhaps it will be the oil seed rape, which will need to be cut first; before it sheds its seeds. It certainly flowered well before expected, and in the first week of May most of the flowering had gone over. For which I for one am thankful. I believe it could have serious consequences for the people who have chest problems, and appear to be allergic to the pollen, if the acreage grown, continues to increase.
At present, it would appear to be a political choice to grow so much of this crop. The reasoning being that it is eco-friendly, and can be used as an alternative to other imported vegetable oils, such as olive oil and as a replacement in part, for fossil-fuels, particularly as a diesel supplement or to replace it completely. Unfortunately the energy to grow the crop and process the seed, to produce oil in a form suitable to use in diesel engines is greater than the produced energy. It will in future, take up land required for human, food production. Maybe at present the land is not required for this purpose, but areas will be lost to desertification, salination, (by extensive irrigation) damming of rivers, human development, (particularly the leisure industry eg. golf courses), sea level rise and to organic farming; where the yields are considerably less than conventional agricultural systems. However in the future, where population figures are expected to increase by 50% by 2050, every acre will count. It would be much more sensible, to work on other alternatives from the present, which will be in use for a considerable time in the future. ‘A stitch in time saves nine.’
Now lets get away from the trivialities of life of the future, and think of the present For instance have you heard a cuckoo yet? Is it for instance, coming at the same time of year, or has it too been affected by global warming.
The cuckoo comes in April,
Sings it’s song in May.
In the middle of June it changes its tune,
And in July it flies away.
In August go it must.
This year I have heard it twice, very clearly, once on the 28th April and again on the 10th May here at Woodcutts. These dates are well within expectation, but last autumn I am convinced I saw one in flight, at Dean in the first week of September. In flight it has the appearance of a small kestrel, very streamlined and very fast and acrobatic.
Today I have heard the cuckoo again. (Mon. 14th.May)
Before moving on I would like to make a request. If anyone out there knows any appropriate country sayings or rhymes, as above for the cuckoo, I would love to hear them, so if you have a spare minute please jot them down, and pass them on to me.
Mrs. Marion Tozer, of Woodcutts has told me she has a male greater spotted woodpecker visiting her garden. This is good news compared with mine, which is that a lesser spotted male visited our garden on Friday 28th of April, but unfortunately flew into the glass of the summer house door and broke its neck, to be found by myself. A sad story but it does mean that these species are still about.
The next paragraph concerns a rather rare flower species, but is similar to the cuckoo story, some good and some bad. Our neighbour, Penny showed me a magazine from one of the national dailies, which had a story about council workers in Malmsbury , Wiltshire, who mowed down a conservation area by mistake, which contained rare fritillaries, including the snake’s head. An environmental catastrophe in the short term, but they hopefully will return next spring. However there is an upside to the story, which shows Penny’s interest in it. She had a plant that grew up between the bricks of her path and the house wall, which she was able to identify from the picture in the article, it was without doubt a snake’s head fritillary.
When she showed it to me, I felt very jealous that she should find such a plant in her own garden. Many naturalists give their ‘eye teeth, to find something so rare in such an unexpected place.
Before going on to more official topics, I must mention a visitor we had on Sunday the 29th April. While enjoying a period of peace and quiet in our sitting room in late afternoon, we were suddenly aware of something thudding into the window on several occasions. When I investigated I found a huge hornet, laying partly stunned on the settee, obviously the best place for it to rest awhile. Although I did not measure it at the time, by measuring the pattern where it had lain, I estimate its body was in excess of 1.5ins. long. It was certainly the biggest I have ever seen. Unfortunately in my rush to return it to the wild, it did not occur to me to photograph it.
Now for officialdom to assert itself, as some people will remember, here at Woodcutts we have an Official Annual Census, (OFFAC for short.), concerning all people who live in this suburb. During the period of time since the last annual census, which due to lack of government funding, the year has been stretched by several months, four households have moved out and new incomers have arrived. This of course is a major happening here, in Woodcutts. There has been a turnover of 40% of housing, involving 47.74% of our population.
What must be decided is, why is this happening?
Is it:
- Due to global warming?
- Because people believe that Tony and Cheri are moving here?
- Because people are worried about sea level rises?
- Because we don’t have a Tesco here, and therefore there is less traffic?
Providing money issues are dealt with, all the above topics will be dealt with in the next issue. Until then, May God Bless You All
Make Somebody Happy
We can all make somebody happy
We can all dry somebody’s tears,
We can all help someone through hard times and calm their desperate fears.
We can all give somebody courage
To take just one step more,
We can all help someone somehow
That’s what we’re all here for.
We can all make somebody’s troubles
A little easier to bear,
We can all hold someone’s hand
As they pass through deep waters of care.
We can all give some words of comfort
When folks are in dire distress,
We can all do something my friends
To touch living with happiness.
For we can all make somebody happy
On every day that we live,
So don’t let us think of this and that
When our hearts are prompted to give.
Just let our soul have its freedom
To live and grow and expand,
And remember our gifts to our fellow men
Will all pass through God’s own hand.
A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs. Suddenly her husband burst into the kitchen. “Careful,” he said. “CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my God! You’re cooking too many at one! TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW!” “We need more butter. Oh my God! Where are we going to get more butter? They’re going to stick! Careful. CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you’re cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you lost your mind? Don’t forget to salt them. Use the salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!” The wife stared at him, “What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don’t know how to fry a couple of eggs?” The husband calmly replied, “I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I’m driving”.
A clear conscience is a sign of a bad memory.
I am not a complete idiot. Some parts are missing.
Keepsakes
Time may turn the flowing tide
Or change the dusk to dawn,
Still the wild wind’s loud lament
Or calm the raging storm.
Time may change the seasons,
Turn blue skies into grey,
But memories are keepsakes,
Time shall never take away.
A man and his wife were arguing over who should brew up the cuppa each morning. The husband said, “Traditionally women make the breakfast and that includes the cup of tea.” The wife says, “Oh no. You should do it because it says so in the Bible”. The husband says, “Rubbish. You’re making it up.” So the wife fetched the Bible, opened the New Testament and showed him the top of several pages and indeed it stated clearly “HEBREWS”.
Did you hear about the farmer who gave his hens a single malt every day? He wanted them to lay scotch eggs.
I asked my wife what she wanted for her birthday and she said, “Something I can run around in”. So I bought her a tracksuit.
My wife said she wanted to dig a hole in the garden and fill it with water, she means well.
A couple had 3 daughters who all wanted to better themselves by marriage. Two did very well. The first married King Edward, while the second managed to get attached to a Jersey Royal, but when the third daughter married it brought shame on the family. She married John Motson, a common tater.
continued from Apr07 issue We had been looking for more adult help, a friend of mine said that a police sergeant had moved into Cobley Close at Woodyates and that they thought that he had once been a Scout. So it was that Keith Prince, who was asst. Scout Leader at the time and myself rang the doorbell of Tony Dale’s house during the Christmas Break of 1978. On hearing that we were from the local Scout Group, even though he had a house full of guests, we were invited in for a drink. During our conversation, it appeared that we already knew each other as he was a scout at Verwood at the same time as I was in the Alderholt Group. We had played football against each other during our annual Verwood Scouts versus Alderholt (which we always lost) game. Tony was persuaded to come along to our next Scout meeting and at the end of that evening agreed to be another asst Leader,
Around about that time Simon Meaden (one of the scouts) was fast approaching 16, the time when you either had to join a Venture Scout Section (16 – 24 yrs of age) or else leave the movement. Simon had a long discussion with Tony and Plod as he was to be nicknamed, tasked Simon & Kevin Prince to find enough youngsters of the right age to form a Woodcutts Venture Unit. The agreement that they made was that if the two of them could get enough together then Tony would start up a Unit and become its leader. After several weeks Simon said that he had 10 young people who wanted to join, the only problem was that about half of them were girls; not a problem in itself but Skip Hardiman our Group Scout Leader would have to be convinced that it would be a good idea to have a mixed unit. After much discussion it was agreed to proceed; what a good decision that was, our unit turned out to be about the best in Dorset, during the time that it was in being. The youngsters achieved 3 Duke of Edinburgh Gold Awards and 1 Silver and eleven Queen Scout Awards to my knowledge this was never bettered by any other Venture Unit in Dorset.
In 1986 (I think) the whole group including the Venture Scouts went to Guernsey for a joint Summer Camp, We had a wonderful time but it was during this camp that Skip Hardiman had a bad turn which we think was a mild heart attack and had to return home. The following year, after attending a fund raising function at the HQ, Skip was to receive another attack and sadly he passed away that evening; a sad loss to his family and certainly to the Woodcutts Group.
This is the last of my reminisces and brings us to the celebration of our Golden Jubilee, 50 years of Scouting in Woodcutts, which we marked on 9th June with a Parade of Scouts Cubs and Beavers up through the village and led by the Christchurch Scout Band. This was followed by a service of dedication at St Mary’s Church and in the afternoon a celebration party at the Scout HQ.