The Grapevine Magazine


October 2008 Issue No 235

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TABLE TOP SALE

 Come along and make some money from your unwanted items, nearly new clothes, children's toys, homemade cakes etc.  A good opportunity to have a clear out before Christmas!

 SATURDAY 15TH NOVEMBER

JUBILEE HALL, LEWKNOR

9.30 -12.30 £10.00 per table- to book please phone Gill 01491 612663

Police Surgery – All invited!

The local Thame Police Neighbourhood team are doing a Police Surgery at the Jubilee Hall on 5th November 2008 between 4pm – 7pm all are welcome to come (open door no appointments) and speak with PC Ian Kent the Local Police Officer and pass on any concerns you may have or if you wish just pop in to say hello. If you are unable to attend or wish to contact the neighbourhood team before or after the event please do by calling 0845 8 505 505 and ask to speak with us   

Diane Greenwood C9840

PCSO  Watlington Neighbourhood

The Friends of Lewknor School invite you to participate in our

QUIZ NIGHT

FRIDAY 7TH NOVEMBER at 7.30 pm

TICKETS £10 (includes a hot supper)

The bar will open at 7pm

Venue: Lewknor Jubilee Hall

A fun evening is promised - Start getting your teams together!

(max. 8 per team)

Contact BRIDIE on 01844 354857 or 07786858631 when you have a team or if you would like to join a team.

New Arrivals at Aston Rowant National Nature Reserve

There have been some strange goings on at Natural England’s Aston Rowant site recently; tall fences and a wooden hut have gone up on the south side of the reserve, all in time for some new visitors. A small family group of 11 goats arrived in early August and just two weeks later a new kid was born.

We are running a competition as the baby goat now needs a name. Please help us choose a name for the little one by sending your suggestion along with your name, address and telephone number to the reserve office before October 17th. The winner will receive a goat themed prize which will include some award winning goat’s cheese from Rowant Tree Farm in Chesham. You will also have the opportunity to visit out feral goats on the reserve and have a guided tour of their home with the reserve managers.

The feral (wild) goats are all part of the conservation plans for Aston Rowant. They have been brought to the reserve from Castor Hanglands NNR in Cambridgeshire, and are being used to control scrub. The goats will help to hold back the invasion of brambles, hawthorn and dogwood and create some open areas to enable the rich diversity of wildflowers, for which the site it well known, to flourish. The habitat which the goats will create is also beneficial for insects and small mammals, which in turn will benefit the reserve’s most distinctive resident, the Red Kite.

Reserves manager Mick Venters said “The reserve is organic so we have to be more creative when managing invasive plants like brambles, therefore in addition to our large herd of sheep; the goats are a valuable asset in controlling the scrub on the site.” At present the goat pen is closed to the public so that the goats become “hefted” to the site, this means that they recognise it as their home and wont try to run away, however you can come along and watch the goats settling in by looking through the fence.

Please send goat names to Natural England, Aston Rowant NNR, Aston Hill, Lewknor, Watlington, OX49 5SG. The sex of the goat is as yet unknown as we cannot handle the baby without feeling the wrath of the mother’s horns, so please send unisex names! The winning name will be chosen by the end of October. Any enquiries please call Jenny Crook on 01844 351833

HORTICULTURAL SHOW

The annual show was held on Sunday 14th September. As usual it was in the lovely setting of the barn and garden at Knapp Farm by the kind permission of Mrs Susan Watt. Given the miserable weather we have been having we were so lucky to have such a warm and sunny day for the show and lots of people came along to enjoy it. There are always so many people to thank for their help in making the show a success but the great thing about the show is that it involves so many people and is such a good community event. It is one of the few occasions during the year when we all have a chance to get together. The barn was full of entries in the show classes and looked really lovely. The effort that people make to get their entries ready is tremendous and it is lovely to see new comers as well as ‘old’ regulars. The only disappointment was the new class especially for the gentlemen to enter an offering in the domestic section - we had only one entry. Come on guys – make a better effort next year. The judges found it difficult to decide on winners in some classes because the entries were so good – especially in the children’s class for a vegetable sculpture. We had some marvellous ones this year. The stalls and games all did good business and at the end of the day we had raised about £1,500 to be divided between Lewknor School, Krakatoa Pre-School and the Jubilee Hall.

See you all again next year! The winners of trophies were:

Congratulations to everyone.

BEST KEPT GARDENS.

Eppy Hodgson judged the gardens again for us this year. She says she had a great time walking around Lewknor, South Weston and Postcombe, seeing how gardens were looking in spite of the awful weather. Everyone’s garden is judged from what can be seen from the front and some gardens are looked at from the back as well but only if the judge is invited to look and only if the garden owners are at home at the time of the judge’s visit. There certainly were some lovely things to see and Eppy says: ‘Despite the very mixed weather plants and vegetables were doing very well and gardens most colourful. It was very encouraging to have some new entrants to the competition this year and, hopefully, there will be even more in 2009’.

It’s wonderful that so many people are now growing their own vegetables – they just taste so good!

G.B.

IN-CAR CHILD SAFETY SEATS

Four out of five child car seats are not fitted properly. For advice on the use of a child seat and a free fitting check to ensure that it is offering the best protection, contact Road Safety Officer Julie Jones on 01865 312682 or 07769 915856

Child seat warning after family's lucky escape: Oxfordshire County Council's Fire and Rescue Service is reminding parents to ensure their child car seats are correctly fitted after a mother and her two young children had a lucky escape. All three received non life-threatening injuries when the car they were travelling in was involved in a collision with a stationary vehicle and a tree in Kidlington on Thursday (September 18). One of the children, a baby, was secured in the front passenger seat in a rearward facing child seat. It was found however, that the airbag had not been deactivated and had gone off when the car collided with the stationary vehicle.

Airbag must be deactivated: Station Manager Paul Bremble of Oxfordshire County Council's Fire and Rescue Service said: "It is safer for very young children to have a rear facing child seat however if it is in the front passenger seat the passenger airbag must be deactivated. "If it is not the explosive force of the deploying airbag could cause serious injury to the child in the seat. I urge all parents who use their child seats in this way, to check that their passenger air bag is deactivated as per your car manual's instructions”. He added: “When checking child seats with our county council Road Safety Team I have found that about 50 per cent of them are fitted incorrectly in some way."

Family checked over at scene: Oxfordshire County Council's Fire and Rescue Service were called to the incident shortly before 4.30pm. A fire engine and the specialist rescue vehicle from Kidlington were quickly on the scene and were backed up by a fire engine from Oxford. Crews liaised with ambulance personnel who checked over the family at the scene, before taking them to the John Radcliffe Hospital for further checks. The road was closed for several hours whilst the Police carried out their investigations and the cause of the collision is still unknown. Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue are working to reduce accidents and injuries on our roads as part of our 365 Alive 10 year Vision for More information log onto www.365alive.co.uk

Sounds like a busy summer at Aston Rowant National Nature Reserve.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has funded a 2 year Community Involvement project at Aston Rowant National Nature Reserve in Oxfordshire which has resulted in over 2500 brand new visitors to the reserve. The project in now in its final months and this summer alone, Natural England staff has led over 1100 new visitors around the reserve through events, school trips and play scheme visits.

Jenny Crook, Community Liaison Officer at the reserve said “We are pleased to welcome new visitors to come and benefit from all the site has to offer, be it a as learning resource, a place to exercise or a place to relax. We hope to continue this work and show that the countryside really is a place for everyone to enjoy and strive to protect.” The highlight of the summer was their ‘Sounds Like Summer’ event which saw over 400 people from across the county joining in, as the reserve celebrated it’s 50th Anniversary with music inspired by nature. Musicians from across the county performed an eclectic mix of music, alongside craft workshops, Green Man guided tours, drumming workshops and wildflower walks. Natural England held the event in partnership with the Chilterns Conservation Board and drew in families from local village and also estates in Banbury and Oxford many of whom were new visitors to the countryside. The event also had good support from Starlight Enterprises, who run a mixed heritage group and adult learning courses in Oxford.

Around 700 children visited the reserve this summer with schools and play schemes and enjoyed a wide range of activities chosen from the Environmental Education Pack produced as part of the project. The site is used regularly by the ARocha Chiltern Gateway Project Nature Club at Lewknor School. Watlington Primary School brought all of their pupils at once for a full day of fun and learning, where each class had their own tailor made itinerary including adventure trails, mini-beast safaris and sensory games.

Natural England hope to share good practise from this project across the organisation and continue the strong links with community groups and schools already made at Aston Rowant. Upcoming events include ‘Fungitastic’, on Saturday 18th October and their annual Lantern Walk on Sunday 7th December. For further information about the project or reserve events please call Jenny Crook on 01844 351833.

The Book club at Lewknor

‘The Undomestic Goddess’ by Sophie Kinsella was our light-hearted summer reading- we needed something to cheer us up in the rain-sodden month of August. As straight forward chick-lit, it was undemanding entertainment and one has only to admire its author who has carved a niche out for herself with a series of similar novels. She obviously draws on her own life experience because the undomestic goddess of the title has a high IQ, a brilliant career in the city but absolutely no common sense when it comes to more mundane matters. Nigella Lawson has nothing to fear from Samantha Sweeting.

Surprisingly, I found that whilst I had to restrain myself from hurling the book across the room in utter frustration, the rest of the group were more

than mildly entertained by ‘the goddess’s’ antics. As all the loose ends were satisfactorily tied up at the end and everyone lived happily ever after, apart from the villain of course, I grudgingly admitted no harm had been done to my brain.

I suspect our next book may prove to be a higher class of the same genre but I hope to be disproved. It is “ The Other Boleyn Girl” by Philippa Gregory which is already a film starring Scarlett Johannson, After this we are reading ‘Redemption Falls’ by Joseph O’Connor, author of the best seller ‘Star of the Sea’.

Elan Preston-Whyte.

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SCHOOL NEWS

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News From Krakatoa

As the term begins we welcome Emily, Adam, Libbi, Joseph, Wilfred and Mia to the Pre-school and are pleased to say that settling in is going very well. All the children look very smart in their new Krakatoa t-shirts. We also welcome Cathy Hawkes to the Krakatoa staff team.

The term has started off well and we are now following the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum which allows more structure to the day. This half term our main themes are COLOURS where we will be concentrating on rainbows and autumn colours and we will be learning about harvest festival and Rosh Hashanah and FARM ANIMALS where the children will learn about baby animals and their homes.

Pre-school parents helped organise some of the events at the Village Fete/Horticultural show and would like to thank everyone for their participation in what was a lovely day and fun event for all. All of the tombola donations were greatly appreciated!

Krakatoa was also represented at The Henley Fair through entering a competition to make a wooden spoon flower or an animal mask. Thank you to Donna from FABRIC FIELDS for inviting us to enter the competition.

Lewknor Chiltern Gateway

ECO SCHOOLS: We have been getting back into the school rhythms and the children have been very keen to restart the gardening and energy monitoring.