The Sentinel magazine

Sentinel

Local Matters

Sandgate

a dce2.0 company

August 2021

This magazine is compiled and edited by David Cowell who is totally responsible for content.

If you do not wish to receive these magazines please email UNSUBSCRIBE to him at david@thesentinel.org.uk

The Sandgate Market provides three types of produce offerings: 1. Local produce: veg, cakes, honey etc 2. Local made: jewellery, soft toys and furnishings etc

3. Local enterprise: local residents running a a local business but selling products not necessarily produced locally but that you might just like to buy for yourself or as gifts

Local made

Local produce

Catherine Jordan Cakes

Anji's Interiors

Usher's fruit and veg

It's a Florrie Thing

Pauline's hand Gill Thompson made toys Jewellery There will not be a CAFE at the Market although the Dog House are offering Market attendees coffee or tea at £1.

Local enterprise

Marsh soap

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Our thanks to the Sandgate Parish Council and the Community Gardeners for allowing us to reproduce this diary page. We hope to make this a monthly feature in the magazine but you can read all the diary entries by clicking on this box.

Tales from friends and relations of torrential rain and terrific thunderstorms in other parts led us all to think that our hand watering days would be over and we would be able to spend that time doing something else that needed tackling. However so far, despite looking promising, it was not to be, and the usual Sandgate rain dodge happened all over again. There is still the hope that by the time you are reading this newsletter, our prayers will have been answered, however it seems we should be careful what we wish for as some of the rain has been of epic proportions!

This year we are trying harder to have more in the way of leafy vegetables, lettuces, chard, kale, and spinach, we are getting there but it is always a juggle to make sure we have finished a crop in time to plant the next thing which will already be a few weeks old and desperate to get out of the modules they have been sown and grown in. The second sowings of lettuce and chard are being picked every week, along with courgettes, spring onions, and more recently, plenty of sweet peas. The dwarf beans are now in flower, as are the autumn raspberries which will soon be fruiting hopefully well into late autumn. The second tray of beetroot got planted as did a first of new chard plants. The dill, chervil and two varieties of coriander got sown.

The cabbage white butterflies have started to arrive in force, attracted by the smell of the brassica plants covered in a fine mesh netting, they constantly dance with frustration, and unable to find a way in to lay their eggs, have to go elsewhere, unless of course they manage to find an opening. All the brassica seedlings waiting to be planted and yet tiny in their growing modules have already been visited, and any hatching caterpillar will make short work of them so we need to be vigilant. This year we have a All in season now master plan to use organic bacteria against the caterpillars, a highly selective biological insecticide, gives them a 4

stomach ache and they drop off the plants after just a day or two of happy munching.

Totally ineffective against people, pets, birds, and pollinators, this bacteria known as Bacillus thuringiensis is easy to use when made into a spray. We always ensure we have plants and flowers to encourage as much wildlife as possible, and we do have alternatives for the caterpillars to go to, but the misery of caterpillar infested brassicas is something that all veg growers know about. The horror of finding boiled or steamed victims in the Wild flower display outside saucepan in spite of diligent searching is very St Paul’s unpleasant indeed. The alternative is to use a spray that affects all insects which to us is unacceptable, and try as you might to keep the plants clean of eggs and constantly covered in fine netting is still never good enough. We are keen to see for ourselves if this will be the answer we have been waiting for, and will let you know.

Morrisons the supermarket, are still happy to be supporting us, and have recently provided some herbs shared with the Incredible Edibles, and for us, a pack of most unusual seed packets of wild flowers. It never quite ceases to amaze the ways and means thought of to entice us humans into growing things when perhaps we may have tired of more conventional means provided by a mere packet of wild flower seeds. Pictured below, you simply poke the card tabs, pointed end down into the soil up to the marker, and apparently ‘hey presto’ the collection of seeds stuck there are good to grow. Unbelievable, and what more can be said about the time and energy that went into producing those – however if it floats your boat then crack on and try it! With time and any luck the final effect might look as good as the fine display currently in flower outside St. Paul’s Church near the path of the front entrance, and pictured below. Absolutely delightful and a real picture to see so have a look if you are going that way, or even if you are not, give your eyes and brain a treat.

What’s next?

• Finish clipping the perimeter hedge plants • Plant chard tray number two • Plant Chinese cabbages and Kaibroc if ready • Keep watering new and speedily growing plants including celery • Continue to side shoot the tomatoes • Maybe start on that bed inside the top gate 5

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The Chichester Hall was delighted to sponsor local fledgling company Rude Raven Production's preview fundraising performance of A Simple Tale of Love written by the very talented Sasha Ravencroft. The Hall was transformed for the evening into a veritable theatre with an impressive array of lights suspended from the steel ceiling structure, a sound and a light engineer and a sprinkling of dryice adding atmosphere to the two characters Molly and JD wonderfully performed by Helen Walling-Richards and Daniel Pabla (pictured below). I commented to the actors afterwards that I didn't hear a single prompt to which I was informed that the director, Nicole Roberts Ryder, would not allow a prompter near the stage - that's really tightrope walking without a safety net - but it worked marvellously; lengthy Credit: David Shackle monolgues delivered fautlessly by both actors. Well done them and all the production team for this memorable evening.

The play goes to the Camden Fringe Festival before touring. It will also be available digitally.

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All now available in paperback and on Kindle Set in Folkestone in the heady days of the late 60s.

They say if you can remember it, you weren't there!

Two plays. One an imaginary meeting between Dylan Thomas and Brendan Behan in a Fitzrovia pub. The other is Caitlin Thomas reminiscing after the untimely death of her husband.

This is the tale of Hana, a young girl who moves from where she was born in London, to the Kent coast. They discover a wonderful area called Prince's Parade which is full of amazing animals, has a beautiful canal and is right next to the sea too! By buying this book you will be helping to protect it. All profits from it will be donated to the Save Prince's Parade campaign which aims to halt plans to develop the area into a housing estate.

Very funny, and surreal story about a man and a woman on their first date: Bolton Brady and Veda, set in London, November 2001. Bolton is forty, not into assets, has never lived with a woman and looked into the future and seen loneliness. So he decides to do something about it. He advertises in a lonely-hearts column, and receives six replies, but after experiencing one disaster after another only Veda remains between him and his sanity. As the day unfolds the line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred, building to a surreal, yet poignant, conclusion.

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This walk through the history of Sandgate to the present day was first performed at the Chichester Hall a decade ago on Wednesday, 9th June. It is now available on Kindle or in paperback.

Now available on Amazon. Great evocative yarns of worldly travels.

A Loose Cannon tales of a lapsed activist

Ted Parker

The title of the book hints at how, as a ‘loose cannon’, Folkestone born Ted’s risk-taking got him into trouble on a number of occasions whilst being a considerable advantage in his working life.

As a young journalist, Reg Turnill met most of the prewar political personalities and later became the BBC's space correspondent being the only one in the press room when the historic Houston we have a problem message came from Apollo 11.

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Us he rs no fru w it a on nd -l i n v e eg

You can now order on-line at: https://www.usherswholesale.com/box

or by telephone on: 07515 529425

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We deliver to Folkestone, Cheriton, Hawkinge, Capel, Alkham Valley, Saltwood, Sandgate, Seabrook, Hythe

SU SP EN

To advertise in three The Sentinels with circa 2300 targetted readers and growing please email me at:

The editor of The Sentinel is also responsible for sending Hythe, Newington and Sandgate related event information to the Folkestone Herald. If you have an event you wish to publicise it is needed by Tuesday at 17:00. The information should appear in the edition two weeks later although it is not gauranteed.

david@thesentinel.org.uk

for a rate card.

Thank you.

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F O L C A Folca is the old name for Folkestone We celebrate all activities in the Folkestone and Hythe district also known as Shepway See our comprehensive Directory and Blog pages

folca.co.uk

Great gift only £11.00 including P&P (UK mainland) www.the-find-online.com

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If you would like to submit an article or letter please email it to me.

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Mobile: 07771 796 446; email: david@thesentinel.org.uk