rowan berries

Today’s Treasures – Autumn

Today’s Treasures – Autumn

‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ that inspired Keats to write his poem ‘To Autumn’.

autumn tree

Leaves turning from green to gold to auburn, watery sunshine filtering through gnarled branches with crooked fingers, stretching towards the light; eiderdown clouds in quilted patterns sending sunbeams spotlighting acorns underfoot.

King Quercus, standing tall, golden oak leaves fluttering down, alongside the copper beech, Queen Fagus, in all her autumn glory; bright red rowan berries adorning the mountain ash eagerly sought after by the birds that remain with us when their cousins fly south for the winter.  The robin, perched at the top of the hawthorn tree, resplendent in his winter red breasted waistcoat sings songs of summers to come.
rowan berries
The red berries of arum lilies and strings of bryony beads decorate hedgerows fluffy with aptly named old man’s beard.

bryony berries

Toadstools love the damp autumn days and often appear overnight like magic, inspiring stories of fairies and elves tiptoeing at tea parties and dancing in fairy rings.

This year is a ‘mast year’ for acorns – every few years some species of trees and shrubs produce a bumper crop of seeds or nuts – guaranteeing that there will be some left over after the badgers, squirrels, mice and birds have eaten their fill – to germinate and grow into baby trees.  Smaller crops in other years give the tree chance to recover energy and also regulate the population of the animals and birds that feed on the nuts.

autumn treesPublished in the December 2022 edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

Today’s Treasures – Blackberry Fair 2022

Today’s Treasures – Blackberry Fair 2022

The magic is back – Blackberry Fair was amazing again – wonderful people, incredible music – and so many smiles – it was like we had all been saving them up for 3 years – since the last street festival here.

This living, breathing celebration of music, song, dance, poetry and street theatre, stretched from Green End to the Bull Ring, and on – up to the Black Bear and beyond – and attracted more visitors than ever – enjoying local food, real ale, mouth-watering sweets, freshly-baked cakes, and real sausages and beef burgers – all accompanied by street music wherever you went in this normally tranquil, market town.

Whitchurch’s unique street carnival inspires, fires the imagination, screams innovation, young and old are all captivated, drawn into the spirit of creativity and sustainability – all shared by bands from far and near – the Old Time Sailors, Cosmic Rays, The Odd Bods, music from every genre – including the hypnotic, mesmerising music from Zuma – with its exotic, tantalising, foot-tapping beats.

The crew, and all the volunteers were dressed up alongside the musicians and Morris dancers – there were magicians and wizards, mad hatters and giants – and plenty of pirates – Theodora the Witch and Harbinder the elephant, and all the characters that followed the raven and the unicorn as the Carnival of Hope wound its way through the town, gathering at St. Alkmund’s church at the end of the afternoon.

Thank you Steve and your army of volunteers for another amazing festival of music and mayhem, light and laughter, sunshine and smiles and all the characters, singers, dancers, artists and musicians who made the day so special.

Published in the November edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

morris dancers

train

Today’s Treasures – Cambrian Heritage Railways

Today’s Treasures – Cambrian Heritage Railways

train

In the 1860s, the Cambrian Railways Company was based at Oswestry station and ran over 300 miles of track, east, west and south.  Their building complex included a large engineering works making engines, carriages and wagons.  The building still stands but the trains have gone – the passenger services ended in 1966 and the engine sheds now have other uses.

Happily, heritage trains still run from Oswestry station which is the home of Cambrian Heritage Railways. Trains run by volunteers travel along the 1.5 miles of track to Weston Wharf (home of the Stonehouse Brewery) and back.  A short stretch of track has also been reinstated between Llynclys and Pant and a station halt has been completed at Pen y Garreg Lane.

In September Cambrian Heritage Railways hosted a special day out.  We boarded the train at Oswestry station and rattled along the tracks to Weston Wharf.  Sitting in one of the old carriages, visions of Victorian children boarding the train to Barmouth with buckets and spades came to mind.  And I could almost imagine Poirot sitting opposite me looking out of the old sliding down windows as trees and hedges, and old walls slide past – past the church, the overgrown headstones leaning against ancient railings, then slowing down into the Weston Wharf yard with the relics of goods trains and the engine shed.

There we met the volunteer stationmaster (reminiscent of the Fat Controller of Thomas the Tank Engine days) who told us about the days of the goods trains – the railway used to transport coal from a local colliery at Morda – then an entrepreneur discovered there was clay under the coal and set up Sweeney Brickworks so the trains then carried bricks.  And quarry trains ran from Blodwel Quarry in the Tanat Valley until 1988.

A heritage bus arrived to take us to Llynclys South station where we enjoyed an excellent cup of tea in the buffet in a restored carriage.

Then we climbed aboard a brake van to travel to Pen y Garreg Lane and back.  The track was overgrown, adorned with autumn’s bounty – elderberries, blackberries, rosehips and rowanberries, and brambles and traveller’s joy climbing with gay abandon over fences and trees and hedges.

Then we travelled back to Lynclys and clambered aboard the old bus back to Weston Wharf, enjoyed lunch and delicious cakes in the station buffet, then caught the train back to Oswestry.

A fabulous day out!

Thanks to all the members and volunteers – if you would like to join them – find out more www.cambrianrailways.com

Published in the October edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

 

 

 

old oswestry hill fort

Today’s Treasures – Old Oswestry Hill Fort

Today’s Treasures – Old Oswestry  Hill Fort

old oswestry hill fort

Old Oswestry is one of Britain’s most impressive Iron Age hillforts, a unique ancient monument of national importance and a valuable ecological habitat.

From around 800 BC until the Roman invasion in 43 AD it was an important stronghold where people lived, worked and traded.  In the early 9th century, it became part of the route of Wat’s Dyke, a 60 km bank and ditch, similar to Offa’s Dyke which divided the Anglo Saxon kingdom of Mercia from the Welsh kingdoms to the west. Wat’s Dyke stretches approximately 40 miles from Basingwerk Abbey to Maesbury incorporating the hillfort in its length.

It is traditionally believed that the Battle of Maserfield was fought near here in AD 642 when the Pagan Kings – Penda, Eowa and Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon along with Prince Cynddylan ap Cyndrwyn beat the invading Christians under King Oswald of Northumbria.  Oswald was killed in the battle and later became venerated as a saint. His body was dismembered, and legend tells of a raven carrying an arm to an ash tree – Oswald’s Tree – attributed with miracles – and a spring called Oswald’s well where the arm fell from the tree – the springwater is believed to have healing properties.

The Normans built Oswestry Castle and founded the town on the lowlands to the south of the hillfort.  The Welsh name Croesoswallt means ‘Oswald’s Cross’ but the Middle English name Oswaldestroe translates as ‘Oswald’s Tree’.

It is a mythical place, known in Welsh as Caer Ogyrfan, meaning ‘City of Gogyrfan’, referring to the father of Guinevere in Arthurian legend – it is said to have been the birthplace of Queen Guinevere – Gwenhwyfar in Welsh Literature – and Prince Cynddylan is said to be the last descendant of King Arthur to reign in the Welsh Marches.

The imposing ancient hill fort dominates the skyline on the fringe of the market town of Oswestry and the summit gives panoramic views across North and Mid Wales, Cheshire and Shropshire.

old oswestry hill fort path

Published in the September edition of the Whitchurch Gossip


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Golder

Today’s Treasures – John Golder’s 90th Birthday Skydive

Today’s Treasures – John Golder’s 90th Birthday Skydive – a lovely story

John Golder

John had been caring for his partner, Iris, who was suffering from dementia, and one afternoon she fell whilst trying to get out of bed. He phoned for help but, after waiting two hours for an ambulance that didn’t arrive, he picked her up himself and put her back in bed.  About two hours later, he developed chest pains so he phoned for a carer to look after Iris and then another ambulance, which turned up in about ten minutes.

Whilst John was in hospital, Iris couldn’t understand where he had gone and spent the next three days searching the house for him night and day, and the poor lady who had been given the job of caring for her had no sleep at all. So, it was decided to take Iris into care and, after several days recovering in hospital, John arrived home to an empty house.

John realised he could no longer care for iris but was very upset, so when Julie, his PA, arrived she was very concerned about him and thought that going out for lunch might cheer him up – she suggested the Sky Dive Café on Prees Airfield.

John had been thinking about raising some money for the RAFA who had taken great care of his son who is an ex RAF Halton apprentice and it occurred to him that a ninety-year-old doing a tandem sky dive should raise a bit of cash.

John and Julie duly arrived at the Sky Dive Café. Julie ordered the food – and John signed up for a sky dive! He then discovered that, because of his age, he had to have a doctor’s certificate. So, he took the certificate to his doctor – who would not sign it. As it turned out, he was quite right as within another couple of days John had another heart attack. This one was serious and involved a dash to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital through red lights with a lot of siren wailing and blue flashing lights.  John was then taken to the Cardiac Hospital in Stoke, where, after several x-rays and various scans, the Surgeon said: “You have a serious heart problem, we can treat you with medication or we can operate.  If we operate, there’s a 50:50 chance you will not survive.”

John’s reply was: “Operate – I will survive because you will see I do.” The surgeon’s response was: “I wish I was as confident as you.”  As the surgeon left, one of the nurses came up to John and asked if he was OK and John said:  “I’m just a bit fed up because I had planned to do a tandem sky dive and that will not now be possible.”  When John explained what it was for and why, the nurse said: “That’s OK, I will do it for you”.  Her name is Julie Symms.  As they chatted, two more nurses joined them and, on learning what Julie had said, they both volunteered to jump as well. They are nurses Victoria Williams and Katie Newbon.

John says:  “Obviously someone thought I was not going to survive the operation as they sent a Padre to talk to me. This gentleman was The Rev Nimilote Rokotoro (Roko). He had served ten years in the Royal Engineers, having served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He did nothing to save my soul, but we did have a good laugh – and, when I told him about the nurses and what they had proposed, his immediate reaction was: ‘I will jump for you as well’. So now, I have three nurses and a reverend, all prepared to jump out of a perfectly good aircraft for the RAFA and RAF Benevolent Fund.”

John’s target is to raise £100,000, to be split between the two charities.  Anything over that will go to dementia research.  https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/john-golders-skydive

Published in the August edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

bee on comfrey

Today’s Treasures – Bees

Today’s Treasures – Bees

bee on comfrey

Some interesting facts about bees:

  • There are over 25,000 species of bees.
  • Honeybees live in a colony, but many bees are solitary and nest alone – but often near to other bees.
  • Most bees live for about 6 weeks, but some bees live for years.
  • In one day, a foraging honeybee can visit up to 2000 flowers.
  • It takes around 12,000 bee hours to make a 1.5 kg jar of honey.

beehive

Male bees do not sting, and their job is to mate with the queen.  The worker honeybees are female and do sting – but only when it’s really necessary as they are damaged in the process and die afterwards.

Turning nectar into honey is a two-stage process involving chemically changing the sugars in the nectar from complex to simple sugars and reducing the water content. When complete, the honeybees seal the honeycomb with a white wax cap. This keeps the honey fresh in a natural airtight container for the winter.

If natural, raw, unfiltered honey is stored properly in sealed containers it can last virtually forever – the bees’ honey-making process combined with the high sugar content and low pH prevent organisms from damaging it.

beekeeper

Bees love my herb garden, sage and thyme, lavender and chives – and, later in the year, hyssop, rosemary and marjoram – and they love the wild flowers – especially comfrey and foxgloves.  I’ve spent many relaxing hours watching them popping into foxglove bells and cleaning the pollen off the fairy shoes – as Enid Blyton so elegantly described the stamens.

Wild flowers are generally much better for bees – cultivated forms are often hybrids propagated by cuttings and they have evolved without need for pollinators so most produce little nectar or pollen.  So, plant old-fashioned varieties of hellebore, salvia, rudbeckia, cosmos, sedum and verbena – and snowdrop and crocus for early spring when there are very few flowers – they provide a much-needed source of pollen for our bees.

Some businesses have planted wild flowers around their car parks and installed beehives – like Midcounties Co-operative – who now have a head beekeeper, Lee Franklin, at their head office in Warwick.

www.midcounties.coop

Published in the July edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

2 canal boats

Today’s Treasures – Canals – accessible green spaces for everyone

Today’s Treasures – Canals – accessible green spaces for everyone2 canal boats

In North Shropshire we are very fortunate to have the Llangollen branch of the Shropshire Union canal providing a wildlife corridor connecting our quaint market towns and our beautiful meres and mosses.

From Whitchurch, the canal vaguely follows the Welsh border, travels through Whixall Moss, borders the lake at Colemere, then meanders along past Whitemere and Blake Mere to Ellesmere.  At Lower Frankton, the Llangollen branch goes west to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and the Montgomery canal heads south to Freestone Lock near Newtown.  Initially named the Montgomeryshire Canal – and now fondly known as ‘the Monty’ it does not – and never did – go to the town of Montgomery.

The Montgomery Canal was built in the early 19th century, primarily to transport lime for agricultural purposes and it was the landowners that were granted permission by Parliament in 1794:  “An act for making a navigable Canal from or near Porthywain Lime Rocks in the parish of Llanyblodwell, in the county of Salop, to or near Newtown, in the county of Montgomery”.

Over the last 40 years more than half of the 34 mile long canal has been restored to navigation.  The Canal and River Trust are currently working with Friends of the Montgomery Canal to restore ‘The Monty’ and all its locks and bridges, connecting, along its route, market towns, heritage railways, ancient footpaths, earthworks and castles. www.restorethemontgomerycanal.org.uk

The Canal and River Trust looks after 2,000 miles of waterways making a significant contribution to improving the wellbeing of millions of people, providing accessible green and blue spaces everywhere – even in cities.  It works with communities and volunteers across England and Wales to transform canals and rivers into spaces that support wildlife and make people feel better. www.canalrivertrust.org.uk

canal barge

Published in the June edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

Today’s Treasures – Poetry

Today’s Treasures – Poetry

Poetry can be sad, beautiful, meaningful, moving, romantic, inspirational, thought-provoking or funny – and sometimes all of these.  Springtime has inspired many beautiful poems:

Wordsworth wrote about the daffodils:

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

daffodils

Cicely Mary Barker painted the Apple Blossom Fairy in words and pictures:

Up in the tree we see you, blossom-babies,
All pink and white;
We think there must be fairies to protect you
From frost and blight,
Until, some windy day, in drifts of petals,
You take your flight.

apple blossom

And Robert Browning, living in Italy in 1845 and homesick for England wrote ‘Home thoughts from Abroad’:

Oh, to be in England,
Now that April’s there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough In England – now!
And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows –
Hark! where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops – at the bent spray’s edge –
That’s the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children’s dower,
– Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

buttercups

Which reminds us what a lovely part of the world we live in – especially during Springtime. Children pick buttercups and daisies; celandines carpet woodlands, followed by a purple haze of bluebells that fill the air with their delicate fragrance; pink campion and stitchwort decorate shady pathways; early purple orchids, stand tall, like soldiers surveying their realm; springtime heralds a rainbow of colours that paint woodland glades in a myriad of hues.

Apple blossom shakes confetti petals on newly mown lawns, catkins tremble on hazel branches, and primroses and cowslips sheltering in the hedgerows, open their petals to the warm spring sunshine.

Published in the May edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

musicians

Today’s Treasures – Live Music

Today’s Treasures – Live Folk Music

North Shropshire Folk are back – with live music at Whitchurch Leisure Centre.  It was so lovely to meet people again, enjoy listening to the music – and watching the musicians play.

musicians

Live music is always magical to me – I love music but I don’t play any instruments myself and it constantly amazes me how musicians can weave intricate patterns with their fingers and create tunes that harmonise, watching and listening sends me into another world, totally enraptured with the music.

The Jeremiahs opened a new season of folk nights – an Irish folk band of four musicians who clearly really enjoy performing the folk tunes they have composed.

‘The Wild Barrow Road’ was written in the back seat of a car on a summer journey through Cumbria – and completed for a gig they were playing that night:  “Ireland is the only nation in the world where procrastination takes on a sense of urgency”.

Singer Joe Gibney is from County Dublin.  On fiddle, viola and vocals is County Cork’s Niamh Varian-Barry; French born Julien Bruneteau plays the flute and on Guitar is Dublin born James Ryan.

musicians

Ireland has inspired many artists – poets and writers as well as musicians – the Emerald Isle with its castles and rugged coastlines, folklore and fairy tales, has inspired many haunting melodies, passionate love songs, and poignant lyrics about leprechauns and love and loss.

Irish folk music is so diverse, from rousing sea shanties to traditional songs about villains and villages, poets and prisons, castles, courtship, sea life and sailors.  The Jeremiahs brought back memories of watching an Irish folk band playing in a bar in Ireland, a traditional Irish pub with a few pints of beer, clapping along to an Irish jig …

The next North Shropshire Folk night is on Saturday, 14th May at  8.00 pm featuring ‘The Outside Track’ – a band of 5 musicians hailing from Scotland, Ireland, and Cape Breton, who blend fiddle, accordion, harp, guitar, flute, whistle, step-dance and vocals with amazing dexterity.

For more information, future events and to book tickets visit www.northshropshirefolk.com

@northshropshirefolk @northshropfolk

@thejeremiahsmusic @thejeremiahsie

@outsidetrack

Published in the April edition of the Whitchurch Gossip

waves

Today’s Treasures – Meditation

Today’s Treasures – Meditation

waves

It’s two years since a new virus reared its ugly head and the world, as we knew it, changed.  We had to adapt and learn to survive in a different way, in a very different world.

We couldn’t do some of the things we took for granted but we learned to appreciate the ones that were still available – like enjoying making and eating meals – and many of us learned new skills to help us adapt – like meditation.

Many more people found that meditation helps with lots of stress related conditions like headaches, insomnia, IBS, indigestion and phobias.  Sleeping and eating are a vital part of every day and our bodies need a regular balance of both or they start to complain.  A regular routine for sleeping and eating helps balance the rhythms of our body and meditation can help establish this routine and will enhance the beneficial effects.

You don’t need anything special in order to meditate and you can start with just a few minutes a day – as you reap the benefits you will most likely want to meditate more but just a few moments enjoying watching a butterfly on a flower will be beneficial.

butterfly

You can sit on the floor or in a chair – or lie down – it really doesn’t matter.  The best meditation I have ever experienced was sitting on a deserted beach feeling the sand touching my feet and hands – being a part of the ground beneath me, watching the waves cascading onto the beach – nothing else existed, just me and the sand and the waves.  A magical experience but you can recreate a taste of that by just standing still and really listening to the birds singing, closing your eyes and enjoying the fragile scent of a primrose, or concentrating on the brilliantly coloured patterns on the wings of a butterfly.  With meditation you just focus on something totally and shut everything else out.

Meditation music can really help, try some of the tracks on

https://www.youtube.com/c/MeditationalState/featured

This whispering music enhances the senses, creating metaphysical sensations of silvery sparkes which release negative energy and the vibrations emanate a tranquil feeling of wellbeing.

meditation

Published in the March edition of the Whitchurch Gossip