The Grapevine MagazineDecember 2006 Issue No 212 |
Barn Dance |
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After a sluggish start to ticket sales, there was a great turn-out for the Parish Barn Dance on Saturday November 25th.
It was lovely to see so many families present with their children of all ages.
There was nothing sluggish, however, about the dancing – and after sorting out ‘lefts’ from ‘rights’, the dances were a breeze (with some help from the band and caller!).
After a much needed refreshment stop, there was more dancing, before finally heading home with some very weary children – and adults!
Many thanks to all who helped to set up the hall, prepare food, serve the bar, clear up etc. Thank you too, to those who came and really entered into the spirit of the evening – and hopefully you all enjoyed yourselves!
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– continues until June 2007 – leaving time to develop alternatives Oxfordshire County Council has granted a four-month contract extension for a bus service that links Watlington in South Oxfordshire with the M40 Lewknor Interchange (Junction 6) and the Oxford Tube London bus service.
The section of route to Stokenchurch, funded by Buckinghamshire County Council, will cease at the end of January, but the Oxfordshire part of the service will now continue to run until June 2007.
The service, known as the Lewknor Taxibus, will now link Watlington - Lewknor Interchange - Kingston Blount and Chinnor from Monday, January 29 to Friday, June 1st.
The service was set up as a government-funded Rural Bus Challenge project with the aim of reducing the volume of cars parking on the roadside on the B4009 and in Lewknor village, reducing the amount of car movements and opening up a link to London for people without immediate access to a car.
It had shown some success in doing so, but at the cost of an unacceptably high subsidy per passenger journey that could not be sustained by the County Council.
The additional four months buys time for the County Council to consider alternative ideas, as part of its Area Review of bus services in the Watlington, Wheatley and Thame area.
Cllr David Robertson, the county council’s cabinet member for transport, said: “The county council sees little prospect of the Taxibus service continuing in its present form beyond our June 2007 review of services.
“We are strongly recommending that local parish councils and local groups put every effort into establishing a community transport based longer term solution to the provision of public transport links between Watlington and the Oxford Tube coach interchange at Lewknor”.
For more information contact Cllr David Robertson on 07721 787771.
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Celebration of Elizabeth Orr-Ewing’s Life on 27th June 2006
“I would like to thank the large number of villagers, who attended the Celebration of Elizabeth’s Life. I am delighted and completely overwhelmed to be able to announce that the retirement collection and subsequent donations for the fabric of St. Margaret’s Church have now reached a sum of £1421.11! May I express my thanks to everyone in the village and our friends for their magnificent support?
It has been decided by the Parochial Church Council that this sum should be spent on one single project, rather than just being swallowed up by the General Fabric Fund. This project will be an aspect of the church, which Elizabeth particularly appreciated, and we have such a project in mind. We are currently obtaining estimates and hope shortly to be able to announce the project on which the sum given will be spent.
I will let you all know once we have been given the cost. In grateful thanks”
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The summer coffee morning was held on 22nd November 2006 in St Margaret’s Church.
The event raised £256.57 and this will be put towards the repairs to the fabric of our church, which is a Grade 1 Listed Building.
We are extremely grateful to all the helpers, particularly the Senior Citizens, who requested and organised this event. It was a pleasant opportunity to meet old friends and made a very useful contribution to the funds for the restoration of the church.
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Our last meeting of the year was a tour de force as we discussed two books in the same evening. The first was “We Must Talk about Kevin” by Lionel Shriver which won the overall Whitbread Prize for Fiction in 2005. This was a very disturbing book which built up to a horrifying climax in exploring the relationship between a mother and son which had been difficult from his birth. We admired the writing and the research which the author had undertaken in writing the book but it was with relief we turned to our second book.
This was “ Stardust” by Neil Gaiman written as a fairy story for adults which has recently been made into a film by Paramount starring Robert de Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Everett. Dan Konrad Cooper from Postcombe came along to the group to give us the inside story of the making of the film. Dan as assistant to the director, Matthew Vaughan, had been involved from the initial production of the script to the final cut. He described how the original book had been produced in instalments with illustrations by Gaiman’s collaborator the latter being used to enhance the fantasy element of the film which it was hoped would be as successful as other films of the genre, such as The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter ones, using the same techniques of computer generated imaging. He warned us however that the final edit may bear little resemblance to the original script which had highlighted the darker elements of the story as the studio’s influence may have pandered to a more traditional American taste.
For something completely different we are reading in January a book set in South Africa by Rachel Zadok “ Gem Squash Tokolosh” and in February, Zadie Smith’s second novel “On Beauty”.
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Meet a garden celebrity of the green and growing kind! Members of the Elaeagnus family are real eye-catchers.
For year round colour and interest in your garden look out for the evergreen members of the clan. Elaeagnus x ebbingei cultivars are dense rounded, evergreen shrubs with elegant oval leaves. These plants have suitably glitzy names - 'Gilt Edge' reaches a height and spread of 4m and produces attractive dark green leaves edged with gorgeous golden yellow margins. 'Limelight', with a height and spread of 3m, is a little smaller but no less striking. Its leaves are silvery when young and then become marked with yellow and green in the centres.
For star quality try Elaeagnus pungens 'Maculata'. Put this plant center stage in your garden. With its spreading upward growth, 'Maculata' is ideal as a specimen shrub. The glossy dark green leaves have rich yellow centers making this plant really stand out from the crowd.
When it comes to where they can live, Elaeagnus are much less picky than your average celeb! They will grow well in any fertile, well drained soil. They do best in a sunny position although the evergreen varieties can cope with some shade.
Along with stellar quality, elegance and style these plants are a practical choice too. Evergreen Elaeagnus bring year-round appeal and structure. They are suitable in a number of garden situations including as a specimen plant, in a shrub border. Some of the evergreen varieties are even suitable to grow as a hedge.
Plus there's more to Elaeagnus than stunning foliage. Many produce exquisite little star-shaped flowers which can be fragrant, (depending on variety). 'Maculata' produces pendent silvery white flowers in autumn. 'Quicksilver', a deciduous variety, puts on a pretty show of yellow flowers produced from silver buds which look great against its lance-shaped silvery leaves. Sounds gorgeous! It's easier than you might think to have a celebrity in your garden!
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Many thanks to all those who give their time and energy fundraising for Pre-School.
A big thank you to :
Competition – ‘Design a Logo’
Feeling Creative? We are having a competition to ‘Design a Logo’ for Pre-School. Please see village notice board for more information. Good Luck!Nativity Play – the pre-School children will be performing ‘The Little Fir Tree’ on 14th December. They have been rehearsing and are eagerly awaiting the big day!
For any information regarding Pre-School please contact Chris Selby on – 07919 081 088.
Stephanie London
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Thames Valley Police and the Wiltshire Constabulary have recently been running a joint campaign with the aim of enforcing the driving restrictions that were imposed on the Ridgeway in 2006. This covers a forty-mile stretch of the National Trail, including the section that runs through Lewknor, on which the use of motorcycles and off-road 4x4 vehicles is banned. Three organised patrols were mounted during October and these resulted in two dozen vehicles actually being intercepted and a further twenty-five identified by their licence plates. The drivers are being pursued and the actions taken are expected to range from the issue of warnings via fixed penalty notices to seizure of the vehicle. Clearly, this campaign is having some success, and patrols will continue, but, that said, the local National Trails Officer is on record as saying that ‘we are still measuring vehicle use in excess of 400 vehicles per month.’ This is unsustainable and is causing extensive damage to the remedial works undertaken by the various local highways authorities earlier in the year. For more information on the Ridgeway, including details of the stretches that may still be driven on, go to: www.nationaltrail.co.uk/ridgeway
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| Normal Collection Day | Holiday | Revised Day |
| Tuesday 26 Dec | Christmas | Tuesday 2 Jan |
| Tuesday2 Jan | New Year | Tuesday 2 Jan |
A HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR TO ALL
Next issue in February