sp tlightOn The Dukeries
OCTOBER 2011
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Delivered Monthly to: Edwinstowe, Wellow, Rufford, Walesby, Kirton,Gorsethorpe, Old Bilsthorpe, Bothamsall,Perlethorpe, Old Ollerton and Old Boughton. Inside this issue: • A Childs First Pet • Halloween Explained • Lawn Care • Autumn Fair • Puzzles • Your Community info. • Paws for Thought
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Spotlight on The Dukeries Contents Health and Wellbeing Autumn Fair 6 Recipe 8 Happy Halloween 10 Lifestyle and Leisure A Childs First Pet 12 Paws for Thought 14 Don’t be a fuel fool 19 Puzzles 20 Home & Garden Gardening 22 Community Information 26/28 Index of advertisers 30 Published by Spotlight Local Media Ltd Company No. 6841257 Tel: 01623 249940 Suite 104 1 Hanley St. Nottingham NG1 5BL Graphic Design and Layout: Spotlight Local Media
Distribution: Spotlight on The Dukeries is delivered monthly to 6,200 homes in Edwinstowe, Wellow, Rufford, Walesby, Kirton, Perlethorpe, Old Ollerton and Old Boughton.
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W
hat wonderful weather we had last month! That should set us up nicely for the cool months ahead.
This months mag is packed with good reading. Sue Blain gives a naturopaths guide to autumn, we learn about the history of Halloween on page 10, discuss the pro’s and con’s of a childs first pet on page 12, and the doggie cookie company give us their dog training tips on page 14. Please help to support all our local business who are advertising each month. As always please feel free to comment or contribute by emailing to info@spotlightlocal.co.uk. Have a great month.
Dave
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Health and Wellbeing Autumn Fair
October is a month of change. We prepare for the winter at the same time as appreciating all this month has to offer. The startling range of colours from yellows, oranges and reds, beckon us, replacing any sunshine we may be missing. They encourage long, healthy walks in the woods, or maybe blackberry picking or tidying the garden. Even on cloudy days natural light stimulates glands that control the release of hormones, linked to our moods and emotions. So even if you feel low or tired, wrap up well and go outside, whatever the weather. The exercise and fresh air are guaranteed to cheer you up and you’ll be boosting vital Vitamin D levels too. The clocks go back at the end of the month unfortunately. Actually I’m hoping they won’t! Sign up for the “Lighter Later” campaign, set up by 10:10, a pressure group pushing for carbon reduction and backed by RoSPA, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. Assuming they do go back, go to bed earlier and rise with the sun rather than sticking to your usual bedtime hours. Early morning exercise, anyone? Surely that’s better than a walk in the dark! Prepare the house for winter. Check for draughts and hidden dust and moulds, another cause of respiratory problems and easily removed using tea tree oil. Even though it may be cold outside, open the windows for ten minutes each day to air the house. Plants such as palms, ivy, peace lily, African violets and spider plants will help improve the atmosphere. I recommend B.C. Wolverton’s book. “How to Grow Fresh Air”.
Finally, the best thing about autumn is the harvest of bright berries, local apples and pears and the huge range of fresh root vegetables, from humble turnips to the enormous pumpkins awaiting Halloween. Now is the perfect time to stock up on healthy carotenoids, the antioxidants found in orange fruit and vegetables. Try making roasted vegetable soup, using a varying mixture of carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, butternut squash, turnips and swede. Toss vegetable chunks in olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and roast for about half an hour in a medium oven, then blend with chicken or veg stock. Make a large amount, freeze portions and defrost in the morning, ready for the evening. Add different warming spices and herbs for variety. Thick soups like these are really filling and also slimming. You’ll find numerous pumpkin recipes and healthy fun snacks to help celebrate Halloween on the internet and don’t forget the nutrient-rich pumpkin seeds, delicious and chewy, whether eaten raw, sprouted or roasted. Sue Blain Naturopath
Try a gentle detox to help strengthen the immune system and then nurture yourself with baths instead of showers, candles to brighten dull rooms, extra cushions on the sofa and by adding warming spices to meals and hot drinks.
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Food and Drink Beautiful Burgers
W
hy visit the take-away when they’re tastier and healthier home made.
Makes 8 good-sized burgers Ingredients 1kg minced beef 1small onion, finely chopped 4tbsp fine bread crumbs 1 egg, lightly beaten 1red chilli, finely chopped (optional) 1tsp salt 1tsp of your favourite mustard or horse radish sauce Black pepper to season 2 cloves garlic, crushed  Method Place the beef in a large bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Mix it all together by hand until just combined.
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Divide the mixture into eight and roll each portion into a ball, then flatten to make the burger shape. You want to leave it about 2.5cm / 1 inch thick so it stays moist when cooked. The burgers can now be cooked either on a griddle pan or non-stick frying pan with a drop of oil, or even a barbeque. Pre-heat the frying pan, griddle pan or barbeque to a medium heat, so that the burgers seal and don’t stick. Cook the burgers for about 5 minutes on each side, turning them once. They should be cooked through with no pink bits. Serve in a good quality bun with loads of salad and relish and maybe a slice of cheese (Stilton takes them to a whole new level). Image by Martin Ugod
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Tel. 0115 9663 711
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Home & Garden
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Happy Halloween
ou might be mistaken for thinking that the Americans invented Halloween. They certainly make more of it than we do. Yet Halloween actually started in England over 2,000 years ago with the Celts, who celebrated New Year’s Day on November 1st. Known as Samhain and pronounced ‘sow’-en’, it literally means ‘the end of summer’. This was a time to celebrate the harvest and honour the dead. In addition, the Druids believed that at the end of the year the barrier between the living and the dead faded, so on October 31st spirits could return from the dead and roam freely amongst the living. Unsurprisingly, this was a frightening prospect for most people who worried that these spirits were looking for a living body to inhabit. To discourage and frighten them away, entire villages would dress in ghoulish costumes and masks in the hope that their unwelcome visitors would not recognize them. Thus began the modern day custom of dressing up as ghosts, witches and werewolves! The practice of trick or treating is thought to have originated with early Christians. There is a centuries old European custom called “souling”, where on or around All Hallows Day, Christians would walk from village to village asking for soul cakes (small square pieces of bread with currants). In exchange for these cakes, the recipient would offer a prayer on behalf of the donor’s dead relatives. It was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time
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after death and that a prayer, even from a stranger, could help the soul pass into heaven. Halloween was taken to America by early Irish and Scottish immigrants. The practice of carving pumpkins may have its origins in a delightful folk tale. Jack was a farmer. One day he encountered the Devil, who wanted his soul. Jack tricked the Devil into climbing a tree to pick some fruit. He then placed a cross on the lower bark, preventing the Devil from climbing back down. Jack eventually removed the cross, after making the Devil promise never to take his soul to Hell. Years later when Jack died, Heaven turned him away for making a pact with the Devil, so Jack had nowhere to go but to Hell. Yet when the Devil answered the gate, he wouldn’t permit Jack to enter, because he wouldn’t break his deal. The Devil did take pity on Jack though and tossed out a burning ember. Jack happened to have a turnip in his pocket and he placed the coal inside the big root to make the first Jack-O-Lantern. On the night when the dead are meant to walk among the living, Jack’s way is lit with lanterns as he wanders the world. Lanterns were originally carved from turnips or even potatoes, but eventually became associated with the beautiful big orange pumpkins that we see today. Happy Halloween! Debbie Singh-Bhatti
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Lifestyle & Leisure
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A Childs First Pet - Guinea Pigs
leeease can I have a pet? I promise I’ll look after it properly and keep it clean!”
I’m sure we’ve all heard this appeal. You realise you will be the one who ends up looking after it, don’t you? Give a lot of thought about your child’s first pet. While older children may be responsible enough to provide the right care for an animal, younger kids need constant supervision. Owning a pet is a fabulous experience for a child. It will form a happy and memorable part of their childhood. Also, a pet can help your child learn about responsibility and caring. However, most children’s first experience of death is that of their beloved pet. Be prepared to deal with this heartrending but vital lesson. Guinea pigs are a great first pet. These chatty, intelligent rodents are easily tamed and very friendly. They rarely bite, love being handled and become extremely affectionate. Guinea pigs usually live for five years, sometimes longer. Guinea pigs can live outside or indoors. They can be nervous, so house them somewhere quiet. Their home should be safe, warm and easy to clean. A separate ‘bedroom’ is also required. Choose a large cage with a plastic base for indoors or a good sized hutch for outside. As guinea pigs are sensitive to temperature changes ensure the hutch is protected from the elements. Put in plenty of warm, hay bedding. Allow the guinea pig to exercise regularly under observation.
and weeds such as dandelion each day. They also need a daily supply of vitamin C. Proprietary guinea pig pellets offer this as do leafy green vegetables like broccoli. Never feed citrus fruits though, as they cause diarrhoea. Root vegetables and fruit are not naturally part of a guinea pig’s diet so only feed a little each day. They adore cucumber, so use this to aid taming and as a treat. Guinea pig nails and teeth grow continuously (- carefully clip nails every couple of weeks as required. Keep an eye on their teeth. The right diet should be enough and you can provide untreated wood to gnaw on, such as fruit tree twigs to help. Long-haired breeds need to be brushed daily to keep their coats neat. You want more than one guinea pig? That’s fine, as long as they are both female. Two males, if not brought up together, will fight. And a male and female together will very soon become more than two… You’ll discover that a guinea pig will quickly endear itself into in the family’s heart with their adorable purring and chirruping sounds, and gentle and inquisitive personality. Suki North
As natural grazers, guinea pigs need access to food and water at all times. Provide fresh grass, hay
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Lifestyle & Leisure
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Paws for Thought
ach month we will be sharing tips and advice from both ourselves and our customers, hopefully over the coming months we will be tackling every day problems that people can experience; however if you have a problem that we do not cover or hints you’d like to share, please feel free to email us at training@thedoggycookiecompany.com The thing we get asked most when we are out and about is tips for dog training. Most people at some stage have taken their dogs to a training class but a mixed class doesn’t always suit everyone and if you have a rescue dog then the old adage about not being able to teach an old dog new tricks can put people off. I am not a professional dog trainer so if people have serious behavioural problems I would recommend seeking the one-to-one advice of a specialist dog behaviourist; however for general dog training we recommend
working with your dog on a regular basis at home and while out walking. Dogs respond much better to the carrot than the stick, meaning you should always try to ignore the bad behaviour and reward the good. The key to successful training is repetition and consistency, while you need first to understand what motivates your dog: with some dogs it is food and with others it is toys or play; this motivator is what you should use to reward good behaviour. A common problem is dogs chewing and being naughty when left alone. Each breed requires different levels of exercise; however all dogs will benefit from going out twice a day. Having slept all night if you then go out and leave your dog during the day, he will become bored and look for things to entertain himself. As much as you may not feel like it (especially in bad weather!) a half-hour walk in the morning will set you both up for a good day. Helping you create the perfect home...
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Home & Garden
A
Don’t be a Fuel Fool?
s the price of petrol soars to astronomical levels it makes financial sense to conserve as much of it as possible. Try our five fuel-saving tips. Don’t floor it! Hard acceleration dramatically increases fuel consumption. Accelerate gently and even larger cars will use much less petrol or diesel. Don’t speed Fuel consumption increases substantially once you drive at speeds above 60mph. Set the pressure. Correct tyre pressure provides optimum road traction and more economical fuel use. Under-inflated tyres ratchet up fuel costs (and are also very dangerous) so know your pressures and check them regularly. Services make sense Skipping a service is false economy. A serviced engine will run more efficiently, saving more fuel (and avoiding major mechanical problems) in the long run.
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Lose Weight! Well not you exactly, though saving money might be a good incentive to start that diet if you’re a little on the hefty side. Remove all extra weight from your car. Don’t leave golf clubs or large tool kits in the boot if they’re not being used. Remove roof racks and top boxes too, as they cause drag and increase fuel consumption. Try driving normally for a month, keeping a note of how much fuel you use. Then follow our tips for a month and compare the difference.
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Garden View Lawns
I
n the interests of full disclosure I need to be honest with you here. I don’t actually have a lawn. I have grass. Sometimes it’s a bit mossy and sometimes there are sprinklings of daisies. As I also have two small boys and dog it often looks a bit threadbare. I used to have a lawn, sometime in the dim distant past, before children, pets and environmental ethics got in the way. The problem is that velvety green lawns require a lot of hard work. They are also particularly tricky to achieve if like me, you now garden organically as much as possible. A weed-free lawn is nigh-on impossible to achieve without the use of selective weed killers. It’s also tricky to achieve if you are trying to conserve water, as many of us are now. I do admit that there are occasions when I mourn the death of my beautiful swathe of green, but on the whole I’ve learned to love and work with what I have. Even workaday lawns need some care and attention, especially at this tail-end of the gardening year. A little TLC now will ensure that it has a head-start in spring. First spend a bit of time raking your grass with a wire-toothed spring rake. This drags out all the dead grass and moss. It’s called scarifying and I’ve always suspected that this is because the lawn looks scarifyingly bad after you’ve done it! Don’t panic though, it has to look worse before it looks better. The next task is to stab it all over with a garden fork. Push the fork in about 4-6 inches / 10-15cm and wiggle it about to relieve compaction. If your soil is clay-like, which mine isn’t, it’s good to sweep sharp sand into the holes to improve long term drainage.
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Now I know it looks a bit bald and sad at this point, but it’s worth giving it a cut so that it’s about 1 inch / 2.5cm high. Don’t mow it too short. One week later apply a water-on lawn food. If you’re not organic you can buy combined food and moss killers. If some of the patches look very bare, prick them lightly with a garden fork and reseed them with a hard-wearing grass mix. Finally when April comes around, apply a lawn fertiliser (which can contain a weed killer if you’re not organic) and start to mow regularly. Apply another top-up feed in June. By mowing once a week the grass will thicken, and although you might still get a few daisies here and there, your grass will be looking more lawn-like. And if it wouldn’t pass muster at Wimbledon who cares...daisies are really very pretty flowers.
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Continental Tiles Ltd
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Community Information
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Feel Good Foods
eel Good Foods (FGF) is a community food project run by Ollerton and District Economic Forum (ODEF). Our aim is to promote and raise awareness of the benefits of growing and eating healthy, fresh and affordable food. The project is based over a three year period. Feel Good Foods has a community garden based at the Dukeries College for use by its members and regular work parties are held here over the growing season by our Ranger who is on hand to give advice and support. We also offer support to local schools and organisations, offer volunteering, training and educational opportunities and horticultural workshops and have a resource library which all members can access. We hold regular social events and members can reap the rewards of their labour from the community garden when the fruit and veg are ready to be picked.
The project will aim to work with the following over the next three years: · Local schools (9 – 3 per year) · Local organisations (27 in total) · Local families and individuals (90 in total) · Volunteers (90) We have recently been successful in a Local Foods bid and as a result have received funding from the Lottery for a 3 year project. This funding has allowed us to employ two workers to help develop this project and offer support and advice from our newly in post Community Horticultural Ranger, Tracey Goodwin. If anyone would like any information to call either myself Rebecca Hill or our Community Horticultural Ranger Tracey Goodwin on 01623 863887 or email me on rebeccah@odef.org.uk Website www.feelgoodfoods.org.uk
The project will work with local schools and organisations to help them to establish or develop productive school / community gardens and offer practical advice and support in things such as design, planting, educational sessions, etc. It will also work with local families and individuals to promote and raise awareness of growing and eating healthy food and encourage the community to adopt a greener and healthier lifestyle. All members will have access to the FGF community garden, support from the Horticultural Ranger, access to a resource library and help if needed to set up a vegetable plot in their own gardens. There will also be horticultural workshops and training available to all members to help them to develop new skills and confidence in ‘growing their own’. It is also envisaged that a local LETS (Local Exchange Trading System) will be set up and developed as part of this project. The project will also be developing a website to promote and engage with the local community, schools and organisations.
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Community Information COULD YOU BE AN ELF? The elfinstowe and dukeries lions club are now interviewing for elves to help santa in his annual sleigh run in the following areas, bilsthorpe, clipstone, ollerton, elfinstowe ( sorry edwinstowe ) wellow and the surrounding villages. Hopefully most of you know of the excellent work your local lions do in our community, all year we raise money in various events, like race nights ,easter egg raffles , fetes etc etc. But by far our most busy time is helping santa to visit you throughout all of december, we are out most nights and santa collects your loose change to distribute to lots of worthy causes, and nearly all in our local region, every penny raised is given away. As most of you might remember last year the weather was pretty bad and santa really struggled to get around, but lets hope that this year we have better luck. We need your help the local lions work really really hard and especially in december, so if you fancy giving us a hand please call us and arrange an interview, interviews are are held twice monthly at the ollerton house hotel ( every second and fourth thursday evening ) it just so happens that the lions group hold their meetings at the same time, so it might be nice to sit in and see what we do.. You never know you might one day grow up from a little elf to a fully grown lion. The lions always have fun throughout the year, golfers are extremely welcome but really anyone who has a little spare time and a sense of humour should consider a visit, if you are interested whether you are on your own or a couple please call lion/elf jon yarwood on 07581 265531, it may be the best call you have made............. Jons on email to jon.c.yarwood@gmail.com 28
DUKERIES U3A OLLERTON Joining a new group is never easy. You may have to walk into a room of strangers entirely on your own – particularly difficult after a time of loneliness in your personal life. At the Dukeries U3A, however, we make every effort to make you feel completely at ease right from the start. Members are there to greet you at the door, sit with you during the meeting, get your refreshments and answer any questions you may have concerns about. We make visitors feel really welcome! You will discover during one of our General Meetings all the ‘goodies’ we have on offer, for example, trips, holidays, lunches out, bowling, line dancing, walking and hand bell ringing. You can get involved with the History or Art Appreciation group; embroider / sew, play Bridge or make cards and scrapbooks. The opportunities are endless! Most importantly, you meet new people and make friends. Come to our next meeting. They are held on the third Monday of every month at the Jubilee Hall, Wellow Road, Ollerton at 1.30pm. You can visit twice at the cost of £1 and, should you decide to become a member, the fee is £17 for the year. Cheap at half the price! We look forward to seeing you. Please ring (01623) 824789 if you need more information. Puzzle Solutions
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