Voice Magazines - Sutton-in-Ashfield and Huthwaite Edition - March 2023

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From the Editor

Happy Spring readers!

So, it was noted by a friend, that last month I was a touch on the miserable side in my message. I did explain that this was for 2 completely valid reasons; 1. January lasts forever.

2. I wasn’t happy about my big birthday.

I mean, let’s be honest, that’s not the only reason for a bit of misery is it! I’m sure we could all write a list and the general unsettled nature that exists at the moment is making us all a little grumpy. So many businesses (irrespective of large or small) are struggling at the minute and for many, the juggling act of trying to eat and stay warm is worse than I have known in my lifetime. ‘Worry’ is a permanent state of mind for so many and inevitably this leads to people perhaps not behaving as kindly towards others as they should.

The thing is, even the phrase ‘be kind’ has turned into a verbal attack, thrown on social media by keyboard warriors. But, it’s even more important now than ever! A good example of this was visiting the Ice Hockey last month – a good time was had by all but it was crazy busy. My friend went to get a coffee at half time and to be fair, had a bit of a shambolic experience with the coffee stand – they did seem to be out of most key items such as milk, sugar, stirrers, syrups – if you wanted a plain black coffee though, you were sorted!!. Anyway, the woman in front of my friend had no hesitation in stating her views on the matter, at the top of her voice, balling out the 18yr retail assistant over the lack of milk and how she was bang out of order and it was “illegal” for her to sell her a drink without milk, etc etc (insert hyperbole aplenty!). I’m not sure how the unhappy lady was eventually ‘satisfied’ (not sure that is the correct term!) in the end but it resulted in the assistant crying her eyes out and probably reconsidering her job choices. So, question to my lovely

readers, yes the company had run out of milk but does that ever justify losing your temper publicly at someone who is probably working for minimum wage in between studying at College/Uni?

I’m not saying that this didn’t happen 15yrs+ ago and there are always people that open their mouths before their brain is engaged. I worked in retail most of my young life and I still recall an elderly gentleman going absolutely bananas at me one Christmas in a well-known supermarket because Mr Kipling had changed the packaging on his Festive Pies and him demanding what I was going to do about it!? I think I answered that I work for minimum wage on a weekend & that whilst I understood his frustration, I wasn’t sure that I could get Mr Kipling to listen to me on this matter! Maybe I’m just getting old, maybe I’m super resilient and I see people’s unkindness as their problem rather than mine and dismiss it, but maybe all the pressures we are facing currently, certainly financially, means we are losing our sense of decorum & human decency? It’s hard to say, until we stop getting squeezed from above I guess and in fairness, should the boss of British Gas or Shell be standing in front of me, assuming I could get close enough to the ivory tower, maybe I’d lose my decorum as well!!

Anyway, Spring has Sprung (ish!) & I’m back to being 21 again, so I’m going to have a little think over the coming month and see if I can write something more positive for my friend, next time.

Wear your Red Nose with Pride!

Can you believe the first Red Nose Day, aka Comic Relief, took place in 1988?

Crikey, that made me feel old when I looked it up! Of course it makes sense because Live Aid in 1984 kickstarted the whole idea of mass fundraising events in the UK, and others were bound to follow.

That first Red Nose Day raised £15 million as apparently more than 30 million people tuned in to watch the likes of Black Adder and the Young Ones.

Since inception, £1,068,416,012 has been raised for charities (this sum also includes amounts from Sport’s Relief events). The single most successful fundraising year was 2011, when £108,436,277 was collected.

That is a staggering amount of money raised by the British public, but I can’t help but wonder if this year will be (in comparison) disappointing as the cost of living crisis continues to bite. Last year’s total of £42,790,147 was the lowest since 1999 - I think this year’s total will be lower still.

So where does all this money go?

Well, according to the Comic Relief website, the money raised has helped to support 11.7 million people worldwide. In their 2021/2022 accounts, 54% of the grants made during that financial year were to UK based charities and individuals, although in previous years, it does seem to have been slightly tipped in favour of overseas operations.

So what can YOU do to help with this year’s fundraising on Friday 17 March?

The easiest (and quickest) way would be to purchase one of the “new” red noses; they are on sale, priced at £2.50, from the Comic Relief website (although when I wrote this article they were out of stock!) and on Amazon. This year’s noses are a little different to past years as they are partially made of paper - opening up from a flat crescent (easy to post) shape into a honeycomb-paper sphere.

If you want to get more involved and have more fun, why not organise a “bake-off” at your place of work? Or have a dress up /dress down/ fancy dress/ dress in red day at your school, work, or college.

Maybe you could organise challenges, be they physical ones like running/ jumping/ skipping/ swimming, or more cerebral such as quiz nights. There are lots of different ways to fundraise, but for Comic Relief, the funnier, the better!

Of course, you could simply head to the website at any time or call /text on the day of the TV show and pledge however much you can afford.

Whatever you do, have fun and remember any donation is better than none - and if you would rather give directly to a local charity, I am sure they would be VERY grateful.

John Eastwood Hospice supported by 2 local golf clubs

Sherwood Forest Golf Club Captain’s Phil Revill and Chez Abraham handed over a cheque for £11,000 to John Eastwood Hospice after a successful year of fundraising.

Each year, the two captains at the club choose a charity to support. John Eastwood Hospice was chosen for the service it provides to the community at the most challenging of times and also was a fitting tribute to Brenda Mudford, Daughter of John Eastwood, who was a long standing member of Sherwood Forest Golf Club but sadly passed away in 2021.

The fundraising started with the Captains’ changeover event and continued with various social events including a charity auction where lots were donated by fellow club members and local businesses, and the Captain ’s weekend. Phil added: "It was very humbling to witness the incredible generosity of businesses and members, who not only supported the fundraising activities but also made cash donations.

In addition, Springwater Golf Club of Calverton also presented a cheque for £4242 after choosing John Eastwood Hospice as their Captain ’s Charity of the Year for 2022.

John Eastwood Hospice Trust, Mansfield Road, Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, NG17 4HJ Web: www.johneastwoodhospice.org.uk email: contact@johneastwoodhospice.org.uk tel: 01623 622626

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Every Day Should be Mother's Day!

Mother’s Day - or as it’s more formally known, Mothering Sunday, is on March 19th this year.

In the UK, Ireland, and a few other countries in the world, Mother’s Day is connected to the religious observance of Easter. Easter is a “moveable feast” celebrated on the first Sunday after the vernal equinox full moon. Mothering Sunday is set as the fourth Sunday in the festival of Lent, three weeks before Easter Sunday.

Easter falls on a different date each year (depending on the moon cycles) so Mothering Sunday changes yearly.

The origins of Mothering Sunday in the UK date back to the Middle Ages when children working away from their homes, in service, for example, were allowed to go to their home – or “mother” –church.

As the children travelled home, they would pick spring flowers for their own mother or to decorate their mother church, and the day morphed into a celebration of family reunions. The strictly observed rules of Lent were also slackened, allowing people to enjoy the luxury of simnel cake.

Nowadays, a simnel cake is a fruit cake with a layer of marzipan baked in the middle and decorated with another layer of marzipan and eleven marzipan balls representing the disciples (minus Judas). In the Middle Ages, it was more likely to have been an enriched yeast-leavened bread; what made it special is that it would have been baked with the finest white flour. The word simnel comes from the Latin word for flour - simila.

Mothering Sunday continues to be celebrated In the UK on the fourth Sunday of Lent, but in 1907 the Americans got in on the act and decided that a “Mother’s Day” be marked on the second Sunday of May each year. Thus the day we had always known as Mothering Sunday gradually merged in British people’s thinking to Mother’s Day - although we did at least stick to the our time honoured calculation to fix the date.

I don’t think it matters which day we honour our mothers - just that we do. As someone who lost her own mum three years ago, I wish I could turn up at her door with a bunch of flowers, a box of her favourite chocolates, and a big smile. And as the mother of two daughters, I cherish the fact that they make the effort to mark the day for me.

Do I need or want flowers or chocolates?

No, of course not.

What I and every mother I know want is to spend quality time with our children - no matter what age they are. In fact, if you ask any mum, I bet they will say their favourite Mother’s Days were the ones when their very young children attempted breakfast in bed for her - complete with a homemade card and a wilted dandelion in an eggcup!

Treasure your mums this Mother’s Day.

Slimming World Recipe

Lemon Chicken

Method

1. Make your sauce by mixing the sweetener, lemon juice, stock and soy sauce in a jug. Toss the chicken in the cornflour.

2. Spray a wide non-stick frying pan with low-calorie cooking spray and put it over a medium-high heat. Fry the chicken for a few minutes or until it’s starting to crisp up at the edges. Add the carrots and chopped chilli and stir-fry for 1 minute.

This recipe is packed full of fresh and tasty veg and chicken. With the flavour hit of Lemon to tantalise your tastebuds!

Ingredients:

3. Pour your sauce into the pan and bring to a simmer, then add the sugar snap peas and let it all bubble for 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender. Scatter over the shredded spring onions and red chilli to serve. If you’re not on an Extra Easy SP day, this is also great with plain boiled rice.

1 level tsp sweetener granules

Juice of 1 lemon

300ml hot chicken stock

2 tbsp light soy sauce

4 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size chunks

1 level tbsp cornflour

Low-calorie cooking spray

3 medium carrots, halved lengthways and thinly sliced diagonally

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped, plus shredded chilli to serve

200g sugar snap peas

2 spring onions, shredded, to serve

5

• Break up the shredded wheat so it is down to strands.

• Break up the chocolate into pieces

• Heat a pan of water so it just begins to simmer.

• Put the bowl over the pan.

• Melt the chocolate and syrup in the bowl, stirring.

• Add the shredded wheat to the bowl and stir

• Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases

• Make a well in the mixture and add 3 mini eggs

• Chill in the fridge for at least an hour, until set

• 2 tbsp golden

• 36 mini eggs

bags)

• Cupcake cases

• Pan and bowl that fits

WITH RAFA & FLAKE

This month we have picked a walk that is aimed at the whole family. The walk is a little shorter than usual but still has beautiful countryside, amazing views and to put the cherry on the top, there is an Ancient Monument, The Nine Ladies Stone Circle! The Moor contains hundreds of archaeological features and monuments dating back to the Bronze age with the Nine Ladies being the highlight.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

2.5 mile circular walk around Stanton Moor

A short but sweet walk for the whole family which should take around 1.5 hours to complete. The walk is on paths and trails so please wear appropriate footwear, especially if it has been wet! The Moor is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and there is a flock of sheep on the moor so please keep dogs on leads around livestock. And, as always, follow the countryside code.

Last year Brits spent 1.3billion pounds on Easter!

Imagine the good it would do for our local communities if we spent just a little bit more in our local shops, instead of big shopping outlets and online!

Did you know that for every £10 you spend in local shops, nearly 40% is re-spent again in the local community. This helps preserve our local high streets and services and in turn, local jobs which, let’s not forget, are your friends, neighbours and families. This is not to mention the environmental benefits and the cost and time savings of reducing travel.

So, make sure you check out your local stores this Easter. They will be eggscited to see you

1. Park on the side of the road on Lees Road a few hundred meters out from Stanton in Peak near at the entrance to Stanton Moor. There is space for half a dozen cars, but it can become busy, so plan to arrive early, or late to give yourself the best chance of getting a spot.

2. Begin the walk at the signs to Stanton Moor. Take the public footpath to ‘nine ladies stone circle’, passing through a small wooden gate.

3. Walk ahead to pass through another small wooden gate and continue, with a wooded area on your right. Continue to pass through another gate and carry on along the main path into the wooded area.

4. Carry on along this well-trodden path to reach the information board at the Nine Ladies Stone Circle and take some time to explore.

5. From the notice board turn left on the path, which takes you in the opposite direction to the stone circle.

6. Shortly, the path splits. Take the left path to the tower ahead. Carry on past the tower.

7. At a joining of paths, go left then after some distance, at a split in the path, bear right.

8. Carry on to reach the large ‘Cork Stone’ with climbing handholds on it.

9. Just before the ‘Cork Stone’, take the path to the right. Shortly, at a split in the path, bear left.

10. Keep to the main path for a long way. Take care as there are some drop offs to the left. The path winds its way back to the Nine Ladies Stone Circle.

11. Re-join the path by the noticeboard and head left to retrace your steps back to the start.

EASTERTASTIC!

Spring Clean your home this Easter

With the seasons changing and British Summer Time imminent with lighter evenings we all feel more able to tackle a spring clean! Whether that’s a long standing garden job that has irritated you through winter or simply dealing with that pile of clothes to fix - now is the time!

An integral part of Sutton High Street for 35 years!

5 Jubilee Buildings, Outram Street, Sutton-In-Ashfield, NG17 1DE Tel: 01623 553 736

Flowers by Lesley are happy to welcome Laura Bacon as the very proud owner of Flowers by Lesley in Sutton in Ashfield. The lovely Lesley has run the shop in Sutton-in-Ashfield for almost 40 years and has a wonderful loyal customer base. With Lesley and all the flower family by her side, Laura is continuing the legacy of this trusted and reliable flower shop.

Laura is a third generation florist with 20 years’ experience. Flowers by Lesley has always been Laura’s “happy place” and she is so grateful to be surrounded by the same dedicated and passionate team who work tirelessly to provide the best service and products they can.

We look forward to seeing you in the shop, or speaking to you on the phone (website to follow in the near future).

5 Jubilee Buildings Outram Street Sutton-in-Ashfield, NG17 1DE

Laura R (front left), Laura B (centre) Lesley (back, centre) Katie (front right), Allison (back right)

Laura Bacon

Turn all your coathangers around and as you wear the items, replace the opposite way. Any items facing the original way in 3 months time can be upclycled or sent to a charity shop

Rather than looking at the house as a whole, tackle 1 room and break it down into tasks.

The tidying process will be much more satisfying as you can see you progress

reusing bags is brilliant for the environement but with all the extra use they can get a little grimy!

If they aren’t machine washable fill the sink with soapy water, swish them about and, dry them and bobs your uncle!

COMPETITION

TRENTHAM MONKEY FOREST

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE KIDS?

SOMETHING OUTDOORSY WITH A BIT OF ADVENTURE?

At Staffordshires Monkey Forest there are 140 free-roaming monkeys that live in total freedom, and you can walk amongst them !

The woodland is the monkey’s tranquil home in Trentham. The primates can go wherever they like as they aren’t restricted by any bars or cages, allowing visitors to observe the species in a way that can’t be done anywhere else in the UK. The fascinating natural behaviours of the primate happen right before your very eyes, making it one of the most unique but affordable days out in the UK.

COMPETITION

To win a family ticket (2 adults & 2 Children) answer this question

How many Monkeys roam free at Trentham Monkey Forest?

To enter simply email the answer to the question to community@voicemagazines. co.uk with the title ‘ Monkey Forest’ including your name, telephone number and address. Closing date 14th April 23 • T&C’s apply • valid until 6th Nov 23.

EAsTER EGG HUNT TOp TIP

Easter Adventure Quest at Bolsover Castle

1st - 6th & 11th - 16th April 10am - 5pm

Explore the castle and grounds, hunting for clues. Track down the Easter Eggs and play traditional Easter games such as egg rolling and egg & spoon races.

For more information on costs and for booking, visit: www. english-heritage.org.uk/ visit/what’s-on/bolsover-castle-easter-quest

Easter egg hunts are great fun and a fantastic way to get families together for the holidays. However, sometimes drama can follow over egg quantities when different ages groups are mixed together!

A great way to circumnavigate this is to allocate a colour per child and only that child can collect that colour. This could work just as well with name badges on the eggs or symbols. This avoids any fall outs and you can make the hiding places age appropriate.

You could even hide a bonus ‘Golden’ egg which carries a spot prize or a special treat for the whole egg hunting team

PUZZLE TIME

Book Review

It’s always a delight when you discover a writer by chance, read one book, think how good it is and then find that there’s a whole catalogue of their books to race through.

Mick Herron has been described as Britain’s finest living spy thriller writer. But his spies are far from the glossy Bond heroes we’ve come to associate with the genre. The chaps in the Slough House series are the misfits of MI5, exiled from the mainstream for various offences, put out to grass where they will do least harm, tying up other people’s loose ends.

Slough House is the run-down old building where these disgraced spies, known as “slow horses” get sent to see out the rest of their derailed careers.

Needless to say, none of them wants to be there and in this first book in the series - Slow Horses –they get accidentally drawn in when a boy is kidnapped and held hostage then scheduled to be beheaded live on the net. And who are the baddies in this scenario?

Mick Herron’s writing is stylish and funny. The plot is complex. You need to stay awake with this writer. The whole scene is sharp, sardonic and seedy and somehow absolutely gripping.

And if you get hooked, as your reviewer has, there’s a whole series to go through.

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SUTTON HERITAGE SOCIETY TWO OAKS OF NEWSTEAD

I hope the readers will enjoy the story about two oaks of Newstead. They still exist for anyone to seek out although Byron’s Oak is now just a stump.

THE PILGRIM OAK

stands at the gates which lead into Newstead Abbey Park. The story goes that it was an ancient preaching place connected with the priory of Newstead, also a gathering place for pilgrims before they walked on to the priory. The Archbishop of York, arriving at Newstead for one of his periodic visits used to be met under the Pilgrim Oak by the Prior and brethren, from there he was escorted to the priory. It is said that locals used to assemble there to celebrate certain festivals. This fine old tree nearly came to a sad end as the fifth Lord Byron [The wicked Lord Byron] was going to destroy it. He appears to have gone somewhat mad after killing his cousin William Charworth in a duel in London. He returned home to Newstead but his conscience troubled him and he began to take delight in destroying the abbey and neglecting the gardens. He turned his attention to the Pilgrim Oak and decided to chop it down. Luckily, some Mansfield residents clubbed together and purchased the tree. They later presented it to Lord Byron the poet so it was saved for future generations. There is now a preservation order on the tree. It looks

in the best of health and thriving after hundreds of years. It was certainly there before the dissolution of the monasteries.

BYRON’S OAK

If we progress from the Pilgrim Oak to Newstead Abbey itself, we find, on the lawn facing the abbey, the remains –just a stump – of an oak tree planted by Lord Byron. He hoped it would flourish for years and years after he was dead. Its remains have only been preserved because he planted it. As you can see from the photograph, it is in a sorry state but still an interesting survivor. In fact Byron wrote a poem about the tree.

“Young oak, when I planted thee deep in the ground, I hoped that thy days would be longer than mine;

That thy dark waving branches would nourish around And ivy thy trunk with its mantle entwine”

Although most of us cannot equal Byron’s poetry, we can all look at trees!

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Fill in all the numbers!

Guess the words and Fill in the crossword ! Pitcherwits®

Pitcherwits® are crossword puzzles where some of the clues are in pictures. Sound easy? It’s not called “Pit-your-wits” for nothing! The mixture of cryptic and picture clues, combined with Professor Rebus’ unique sense of humour, will keep you entertained for hours.

Across

6 Inform, in a less than intelligent way (4)

7 Be sick of the bailiffs! (3)

8 Rant about high water (4)

14 Magma causing a bit of an upheaval, right? (4)

15 Melody, the stuff of life, basically (3)

16 Writer made out of club iron (4)

Down

3 Re-license the very first antiquity (5)

4 From back end to a bit of church he comes: such a card! (5)

12 Hero’s mythical steed (5)

13 Remove objections to the launching? (5)

2 Net coin values get unpleasant (3,4)

5 Cancels him out, with not much hope (4,6)

10 Say it straight, but stagger away? (4,3)

This puzzles has been devised by the brilliant Professor Rebus. For more of his puzzles visit www.pitcherwits.co.uk

MILL

Cannon Mill, Furnace Hill in Chesterfield formed part of the Griffin Foundry of John and Ebenezer Smith and Co., 1775-1833. It was the casting shop and a plaque on the wall dates it to 1816, though this is possibly not accurate.

It was last restored in 1951. The building is a 2-storeyed red-brick square with a coped gable end with ornamental cresting and a pantiled roof. There are 3 sham Gothic arches. The date plaque has a portrait of a cannon and cannon-balls but isn’t the year of the buildings construction. Originally a cannon foundry, the building was water-powered with a Head Goyt carrying water from the Hipper into a tank above a large cast-iron overshot water wheel, returning to the Hipper via a tail race close by. Cannon Mill was probably erected between 1788 and 1791 as an additional casting house for an existing furnace and foundry complex (the Griffin Foundry) leased in 1775 by Ebenezer Smith & Co. from James Shemwell. The firm manufactured engine cylinders and cannon until 1833, and a plaque with a cannon and the date 1816 probably commemorates the Battle of Waterloo. The mill was eventually bought by Robinson & Sons in 1886 and redeveloped for cotton manufacture. What survives today is a brick shed with pointed arched openings on two sides and remnants of a water wheel. The firm is likely to have been manufacturing cannons and cannon balls for the American Independence battles of 1778-83, and would have supplied munitions for the wars against France, Spain and Holland and later still for the Napoleonic Wars

from 1793-1815. Over a similar period there was a strong demand for Newcomen steam engines for pumping out lead mines and later for collieries and textile mills. They were designed by Francis Thompson and some of them were manufactured at this site. The decline of Griffin Foundry has been blamed on a number of reasons: the supplies of ironstone began to fail locally; the foundry was too far away from the Chesterfield Canal with its cheaper transport costs; and the third generation of Smiths were less able businessmen than their predecessors. There was also a major slump in the iron foundry business following the Napoleonic Wars and very low prices prevailed for some years, which would have certainly weakened the Griffin Foundry. It closed in 1833, and the various components sold on for several uses. What of its future? A Cannon Mill Trust CIO was formed in 2020 with a view of restoring the building to enable it’s use to be become a new local asset.

Please get in touch if you have anything you would like to share about Cannon Mill. Contact Richard Godley on 07854 646 742

As The Crow Flies

One of our more familiar groups of birds is the corvid or crow family, and which locally includes magpies, jays, carrion crows, rooks, jackdaws and ravens. The latter is a recent recolonist which was driven to extinction in the Peak and surrounding areas by persecution (mostly from gamekeepers) and by pollution from pesticides especially DDT and Dieldrin. All these birds are potentially very long lived and are also particularly intelligent. Their behaviour, from holding and defending territories, to communal nesting (rooks especially and jackdaws to an extent), and winter-time roosts sometimes numbering thousands of birds, makes the crows particularly interesting.

All these above factors have helped embed the various crows deep into our corporate culture, literature, and art. An obvious folk phrase is ‘as the crow flies’, meaning the shortest distance between two points as opposed the route taken by perhaps following an old, winding, medieval lane for example. Although this was known since at least the early 1800s, it may not be specific to crows but to any bird moving a longish distance. Clearly, in its daily wanderings a crow won’t necessarily flight straight, but going to their afternoon roost or pre-roost site they generally do. Furthermore, it is obvious sometimes that they navigate through the landscape guided by topographic features and by human structures line roads. I used to watch long loose lines of carrion crows heading to a massive winter roost at Owler Bar and apparently following the route of the road over the moor.

More mysterious perhaps is the origin of the phrase ‘stone the crows’, which is taken as a mild oath or exclamation of annoyance. It is even suggested that this was noted in the early 1900s, or even the 1930s as an Australian colloquialism of ‘stone the crows’, ‘stiffen the crows’, ‘starve the crows’, or even ‘stone the crows and stiffens the lizards’. Another version was ‘stiffen the crows, spare the crow’, all being Australian in origin. A further suggestion was ‘stow the croze’, perhaps euphemistically meaning ‘stone the cross’, (and hence slightly blasphemous), or from breaking open a wooden barrel for which a ‘croze’ is the groove at the end of the barrel holding in place the end plate. However, maybe the obvious explanation is simply from ‘stoning the crows’ i.e. the practice of throwing stones at crows because they were unwelcome visitors to for example, sheep farms. Crows and ravens will scavenge offal and things like sheep after-birth, and gained reputations, maybe justified sometimes, for attacking new-born lambs. So, stoning crows was a commonplace activity in farming areas and was probably associated with annoyance. Bearing in mind that well into the 1900s, small boys were employed in the English countryside to control house sparrows and to scare away other birds like crows and woodpigeons, and then stoning crows would not be unusual. Even in my own younger years, local parkkeepers in the suburbs and gamekeepers in the countryside ‘shot out’ the nests of crows and magpies, and killed jays with relentless efficiency.

Professor Ian D. Rotherham, researcher, writer, broadcaster on wildlife and environmental issues in the Peak District and elsewhere, is contactable on info@hallamec.plus.com.

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Gardener’s Calendar

It’s that time again. We can start sowing now!

Though of course only hardy annual seeds such as nasturtiums and Californian poppies and summer bulbs if you’re sowing outside. But the likes of cosmos, sweet pea, cornflower and aquilegia can be grown from seed under cover ready to go out when the worst of the cold is over.

Alpines are coming back to life so remove dead foliage and mulch carefully with grit to avoid foliage making contact with wet soil.

If you haven’t already pruned your roses, do so now. Most will tolerate hard pruning, except for climbers and shrub roses. Cut back quarter of an inch above a bud, with the cut sloping downwards so water does not collect on the bud. To get a cup-like open shape to the bush, cut to an outward facing bud. If there is old wood which is not producing buds, take it off to a point where there is healthy pith when you cut.

Top Tip:

Spring also means lovely little shoots, beloved of slugs. Some damage is inevitable and part of gardening but slug pellets are not good ecologically. Nematodes, bought from your local nursery can be watered into the soil and they will kill slugs. They are not chemical and so not harmful to the soil and other wildlife and pets. If you rake over soil and fallen leaves now it means friendly birds can eat slug eggs. Or try the scooped orange skins method, placing them like a dish in the soil and add small amount of beer - jars would do as well as citrus hulks. Empty every morning and good luck.

Put any bulbs forced for an indoor Xmas display – i.e. narcissi or hyacinth - out into the garden soil where they will flower naturally if a little more slowly next year.

FLAMECARE

Also

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