The Hatfield Arrow February 2023

Welcome to the February 2023 issue of the Hatfield Arrow.

This month The Hatfield Arrow is celebrating 16 years of publishing.

Initially called ‘The Hatfield Flyer’ the magazine has been distributed to homes in Hatfield, Hatfield Woodhouse and Dunsville every month for 16 years!!

This would not have been possible without the many local businesses that have given their support and have advertised in the magazine, some of whom have advertised every month for years! Thank you!

I would also like to thank all the people who send in regular articles, readers, distributors and anyone who has at any time contributed to the production of the magazine.

Best Wishes

Julie Morrell

Tel: 07854 880882 www.arrowpublications.co.uk

Julie@arrowpublications.co.uk

The Friends Of Quarry Park

The Friends had a successful start to the New Year with the first Volunteer Work Party of 2023 on Friday 6th January. It was a beautiful morning, cold but dry and sunny. There were 13 volunteers and 2 DMBC rangers who split into groups and set about the tasks for the day. Around 100 daffodil bulbs were planted along the railings at St George’s Avenue, which will hopefully give a colourful welcome in Spring to people entering the park. Other tasks included removing a number of tree roots from along some of the paths that were trip hazards, cleaning graffiti from a couple of the litter bins, and collecting five bags of rubbish from across the park. We enjoyed our hot drinks and cake at the end of the session when we had a visit from Gareth from the Doncaster Green Spaces Network. He popped along to meet our volunteers and to give an overview of the role of the DGSN and the training opportunities that will be offered throughout the year to all volunteer groups across Doncaster.

We are expecting delivery of our one hundred tree saplings shortly. These are native woodland trees of different varieties, which are being supplied by the TCV I Dig Trees Initiative. These will hopefully be planted in February at our next Work Party, the date of which will be published on Facebook in due course. The Conservation Volunteers’ I Dig Trees community tree planting scheme is a partnership programme helping to deliver OVO Energy’s Planting Promise; planting 1 million trees each year around the UK on behalf of their customers. Over 2 million trees have been planted on publicly accessible land, with a further 1 million trees now available to communities, for free. Work parties are usually held on the first Friday of each month, weather permitting. There is always plenty of work to be done, from litter picking, clearing paths and cutting back vegetation. Equipment is provided but please ensure you wear suitable clothing and footwear. We meet at the Green Flag at 10am. Full details will be published on our Facebook page ‘Friends of Quarry Park’ or you can email us at thequarrypark@gmail.com or call us on 07546 595144.

HATFIELD WOODHOUSE AMATEUR GARDENING SOCIETY

The latest meeting of the Society was held on Tuesday 10 January at Hatfield Woodhouse Club, A week later than usual because of the New Year Holiday. Our speaker at this event was Tracey Lund. Tracey is a wildlife photographer, a former hobby which she has turned into her profession. Her speciality is photographing the subject at eye level, thus getting very intimate and detailed photographs. Tracey has won numerous awards for her pictures which have featured in books, magazines and TV. We were given a world wide tour of a huge range of mainly animals and birds, all photographed at eye level, and in superb detail. Strands fur and feathers showed individually on the pictures, giving life to the subjects. There was an extremely good turn out to see this presentation and by the volume of the applause afterwards, everybody enjoyed the event.

The next time the Society meets will be Tuesday 7 February at 7-30pm, which is back to the first Tuesday of the month. Our guest speaker, will be June Horbury telling us about “Life after Adoption” and also about the Aurora Centre. The meeting will be held at our usual venue, the Hatfield Woodhouse Club. As usual, everybody is welcome, members and non members as well. Further information can be obtained from HWAGS@gmail.com and also from postings on the Friends and Residents of Hatfield Woodhouse facebook site.

Hatfield Woodhouse Methodist Chapel

Monday Coffee Afternoons 2-3.30pm (we do not meet on Bank Holidays)

Monday 20 February in aid of the Blue Bell Wood Children’s Hospice

Monday 20 March in aid of Action for Children

Monday 24 April in aid of Missions

Monday 15 May in aid of Hatfield Woodhouse Gardening Society

We still have Saturday Coffee Mornings 10-12 with the Bacon Butties and we do take a ways.

Last year we Donated to the following Charities

Haiti Appeal £30.00

British Legion £242.00

NHS Big Tea £100.00

Ukraine Appeal £640.00

Pakistan Floods App £41.59

Action for Children £41.50

British Heart Foundation £105.00

McMillan Nurses £175.00

Firefly £140.00 Any one welcome

Hatfield Woodhouse Phoenix Pantomime Report

The Woodhouse Phoenix Amateur Dramatic Group presented their annual festive season pantomime this weekend. “Treasure Island” was a roistering, roaring success [ Oh Yes It Was!], with every performance sold out. Whilst not in the traditional pantheon of panto scripts the show contained all the well-loved panto elements, goodies, baddies, love interest and sheer stupidity.

The song and dance numbers were truly professional and the costumes, scenery and settings were stunning and colourful. All the cast members both young and old have thoroughly enjoyed rehearsals and have excelled themselves once again. Particular mention needs to be made of the hard work of the producer /director Tina Bradbury, the choreography producer and singing coach Becky Bluck and the costume mistress Anne Littlefield.

The lighting and sound team have pulled off another technically flawless and professional production. Their task made easier by the newly installed, upgraded lighting desk and spotlights generously funded by a grant from future Biogas. The group are particularly proud of their amazingly talented younger members who have added so much to the production. The response and comments by villagers have been most heart-warming and complimentary and the cast and production teams thank them for their support and praise. The hard work starts now for a potential summer show and of course next years panto!

Hatfield Community Library

I hope the New Year has started off well for everyone and your New Year resolutions are still in tact. I forgot to make any this year which I think was my mind telling me not to bother as I don't keep them anyway.

The Christmas tree has been taken down but luckily I had taken a photo of it from outside as it looked really lovely as people went by. The last Friday sing-a-long came as a bit of a surprise as it had been cancelled so we could nor contact everyone in time to say it was back on. A small but enthusiastic group sang beautifully (except for one carol which was so high and warbly we ended up laughing) The mixture of Christmas songs and carols prepared us for the coming of the festive season. If anyone wants to come to join the merry band please do. We have fun but do try to take it seriously as well.

New Activities

Rhyme Time - Mondays at 10:30am (Free) This session is for pre-school children.

It is a mixture of songs, stories and activities.

Coffee Morning, Friends of Jubilee Field on Sat. February 25th. This is to raise money to improve Jubilee by planting and encouraging wildlife. There will also be a Chocolate Tombola to raise money for the DN7 Food Bank.

Warm Spot

At this point I would like to remind you that the library is a designated warm spot where people can come to sit and keep warm whilst saving on their heating bills. You can just chat, browse the books, do the jigsaw which is usually out, have a coffee/tea, use the computers when available (Thursday and Friday are when the Family History groups need them) or bring your own devices and use our WIFI. Some games may be available. We have quite a few toys to keep young children occupied.

Bike Hire.

We are still waiting for more information about this.

Weekly Classes

If your new year's resolution is to get out and about more and you are looking for some activities for leisure or learning and would like to meet new people, come to the library and join some of our groups Or just borrow a book and have a coffee and a chat or just come to keep warm, Monday. Needles and Pins 10am. Bring your own work and chat with like-minded people or ask for advice about a project you might want to start. (free activity)

Bridge 1pm for beginners and improvers. (free activity) Tuesday. Games café 10:00-12:30 Join us in the library to play a variety of games including Mahjong. Refreshments are provided for the small charge of £1. We have used some recent funding to replenish the games. (Free activity)

Readers’ groups. One is on the last Tuesday of the month 2-3:30 and the other on the last Friday of the month at 10:30 We read a variety of books and most of us have read and enjoyed books which we might otherwise have passed over on the shelf. Books are provided by the library service. (Free activity )

Yoga 6:00-7:30pm, Gentle Hatha Yoga. This is a lovely way to relax, strengthen muscles and keep supple. Everyone can work at their own ability level The cost is £6 a session Wednesday. Art Class10:00-12:30. Tuition from an artist is available to help beginners and experienced artists. New members are welcome. You do not have be good at art to enjoy this class. A recent member had no art experience but is turning out some great pictures. If you don’t have any equipment, there is some which you can use to have a go. If you are not sure, come along to see what the group are doing.(£7.50 per session) Yoga (gentle/chair yoga) 3:30-5pm £6. This is a lovely session for people who have trouble getting up and down off the floor or have some health problems. A few new members have joined recently and are really enjoying it. I have been recruiting in the school yard when I do the school run. Yoga is a really good way to help you to keep supple, strengthen muscles and improve your movement ability.

Other services

Lots of people are coming to the library to use our printing and photocopying services from their devices for a reasonable charge. I'm getting quite good at printing out parcel labels and sizing them. If you are a library member, you can use our computers to print items. Or you can email your printing job to us to print off for you Photocopying per sheet: A4 B&W 15p, A4 Colour 50p, A3 B&W 50p. Printing per sheet, A4 B&W 20p, A4 Colour 50p, A3 B&W 50p . We also have a fax facility if you need to send documents in this way. If you wish to contact the library Tel. 01302 842064, Email. hatfieldcommunitylibrary@gmail.com Facebook @hatfieldcommunitylibrary

Travis

Travis

Ash Hill Academy 01302 562541

THORNE CAMERA CLUB

The club starts the year with renewed enthusiasm with the prospect of a new Webpage for the club and an exciting new programme to May that includes competitions both print and digital with distinguished judges, award winning photographers speaking on their genre of photography, practical photography sessions throughout the year and summertime outings to interesting places for photo-shoots.

Highlights in the programme for January and February :-

January 16th Where do we go from here Speakers David and Lynda Ulyett January 23rd How to Judge Images DVD's and discussion

January 30th DPI Open Competition Judge, The Members

February 6th Know Your Camera Speaker Malcolm Hayes

The cameras we use are constantly evolving and that includes the cameras in smart phones of today and they will improve greatly with future development. With the majority of people owning these phones, taking excellent images, it is up to the club to encourage smart phone users to join our camera club. So all you smart phone photographers together everybody interested in photography, take the plunge and join our club on Monday evenings at 7.30 pm at the Methodist Church Hall, King Street, Thorne. The membership for the club is £15.00 per annum with a weekly subscription of £2.00 for meetings attended., the first two meetings are free and on the third meeting you will be expected to join the club. For further details please contact :Chair thornecc2022@gmail.com Secretary horburyjune@gmail.com Membership Sec. jackiew512@live.co.uk

Monty's Monthly Tip

Macro photography can be very rewarding but it has its challenges. Many cameras have a 'Macro Mode' that works well, however for those who prefer to take control of the camera settings, the use of aperture, shutter and manual modes can produce some outstanding results. When shooting close-up or 'macro', the depth of field is extremely small. In order maximise the depth of field a setting of f16 to f22 for the aperture would be appropriate, however if using the 'Aperture Mode' remember this will give a slow shutter speed, which is not an issue if using a tripod for photographing still life. In the case of insect 'macro' photography a fast shutter speed is required to freeze the action and therefore in order maintain the required amount of light onto the sensor the ISO will need to be increased with possible loss of detail and increase of image noise. Alternatively the use of a flashgun to provide the additional light and effectively freeze the action with the very short duration of the flash is an option. The shooting of close-ups of insects can be difficult even in good light and the acceptance rate can be improved by selecting AIServo (continuous autofocus) together with high speed continuous drive mode and keeping the shutter button pressed to capture a rapid burst of images.