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Message from the Editor: This is our 100th edition of the Potton Villager and to celebrate this bumper issue, we look back at the birth of this popular local magazine with its mix of local news, special interest articles, recipes, competitions and quizzes which first came on the scene in August 2006. Since then, it has grown to have separate editions covering four areas - two in Bedfordshire and two in Cambridgeshire with circulations ranging from 6,000 to 21,000. We are particularly grateful to all our Potton area advertisers who have supported us over the past seven years. Without them, the magazine simply wouldn’t exist.

Contents

Catherine Rose

The History of the Villager...................................................................... 4 Decorative Delights................................................................................ 6 Savill’s Charity Ball............................................................................... 10 The Theatre of Widdershins.................................................................. 13 The Bird of Prey Centre......................................................................... 16 Claiming Compensation & Out of Pocket Expenses............................... 18 Are You Visually Impaired?................................................................... 21 Pretty Killers........................................................................................ 22 How to Choose a Turkey, Duck or Goose................................................ 26 A ‘Class Act’ Goes from Strength to Strength......................................... 30 Keeping It Real..................................................................................... 33 Wordsearch.......................................................................................... 34 Eyesight Correction.............................................................................. 37 Buying Her Jewellery?.......................................................................... 39 Sandy Tourist Information Centre......................................................... 40 Angela’s Charity Calendars................................................................... 45 Best Christmas Gadgets for Her............................................................ 46 Beer..................................................................................................... 48 Changing Shape................................................................................... 51 Toys For Boys........................................................................................ 55 Fun Quiz............................................................................................... 57 Missing................................................................................................ 58 Christmas Postal Dates......................................................................... 61 Where Am I?........................................................................................ 62 Woodview Farm Shop Café.................................................................. 64

I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas...................................................... 66 Rural Ramblings................................................................................... 69 RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch................................................................. 70 Woodland Wonderland........................................................................ 72 December at the Swiss Garden............................................................. 75 Animal Knowhow................................................................................ 76 Ask Alan - Potton Vets.......................................................................... 78 Children’s Page..................................................................................... 80 Get Crafty Kids!.................................................................................... 83 Preparing Your Motorcycle for Winter................................................... 84 Top Five Sports Cars.............................................................................. 86 Retro Sweets........................................................................................ 90 Seasonal Delights................................................................................. 92 Christmas Spirit.................................................................................... 94 Wordsearch Competition...................................................................... 99 The Christmas Truce........................................................................... 100 Puzzle Page........................................................................................ 104 The Gambia........................................................................................ 106 What’s On........................................................................................... 109 Party Politics...................................................................................... 113 £100 Prize Crossword......................................................................... 118 Start a Savings Pot............................................................................. 120 Here’s Looking At Yule Kid.................................................................. 124 Facial Massage For Beautiful Skin....................................................... 126 Book Review...................................................................................... 128

Editor - Catherine Rose Editorial - Catherine Rose, Jonathan Vernon-Smith, Andy Mydellton, Susan Brookes-Morris, Alison Runham, Debbie Singh-Bhatti, Louise Addison, Ted Bruning, Pippa Greenwood, Geoff Wharton, North Beds RSPCA, Nooshin Hassan, Potton Vets, Benn Adgie, Nick Clare, Solange Hando, Derek Thompson, Helen Taylor, and Bruce Edwards Advertising Sales Nigel Frost - 01767 261122 nigel@villagermag.com Photography - Bernard Ormrod, Catherine Rose and Nigel Frost Design and Artwork - Design 9 Tel 07762 969460

Publishers Villager Publications Ltd 24 Market Square, Potton, Bedfordshire SG19 2NP Tel: 01767 261122 nigel@villagermag.com www.villagermag.com

Disclaimer - All adverts and editorial are printed in good faith, however, Villager Publications Ltd can not take any responsibility for the content of the adverts, the services provided by the advertisers or any statements given in the editorial. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored without the express permission of the publisher.

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Celebrating 100 editions

The History of

The Villager If it wasn’t for a traffic jam, The Villager might never have existed. In 2006, company owner Nigel Frost had just been made redundant as area sales manager for Friday Ad, publishing a range of specialist sales magazines. It was while stuck in the Dartford Tunnel on the way home that he vowed never to work for anyone else again.

The first Villager and Town Life magazine was published in August 2006, making this Christmas its 100th edition in Potton. Nigel’s original idea for a local magazine that came as he was stuck in traffic. Little did he know how successful The Villager would prove to be.

With a background in print and publishing, working for publications like Connections, the world-leading IT Telecomms journal and Ventra Business News, Nigel was well placed to set up his own advertising-led magazine. Working from home and enlisting a friend, Peter Minney to help him write the editorial, Nigel did all the selling himself and a Northampton printer put the magazine together.

It turned out that the first issue was not without a hitch after some place errors in the photo captions for the article ‘East of Sandy’. “The phone didn’t stop ringing” says Nigel. “At first, it was irritating as I had around 150 calls to point out the mistake. But then it dawned on me just how many people were reading the magazine and actually making the effort to contact us.”

It was on the back of this that Nigel was able to encourage more local advertisers to come on board. One of them, the Bricklayers Arms, had a landlady who was also an experienced graphic designer. She offered her services along with those of her colleague for the following issue.

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Today, that colleague, Sheila Connelly, is still the graphic designer for the magazine.

With help from family and friends, the magazine quickly took off with a circulation of 6,000 (today Potton alone it is double that).

“We delivered them ourselves” explains Nigel. “I personally did all of Gamlingay!” It was after that experience that Nigel advertised for distributors.

The magazine had grown from 48 pages to 80 by January 2007.

The Henlow edition came out in December 2008 after someone contacted Nigel to ask if the area could have their own Villager. Nigel was subsequently approached by Bystander Life, a magazine in Cambridgeshire who wanted him to buy them out. The Cambridgeshire editions were launched on the back of this.

Four years ago, Nigel and his accountant Carol, moved out of his conservatory and into an attic office on Potton Market Square, taking over two more offices and a kitchen as they became available.

With a staff of 14 plus 50 delivery staff and numerous freelance editorial contributors, today, the total circulation for The Villager and Town Life is nearly 50,000 over four editions. It came first in the Community Magazine Awards in 2009 and 2010, and third in 2014 – none of which Nigel Frost could probably have foreseen while stuck in the Dartford Tunnel eight years ago.

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Decorative Delights The origin of Christmas decorations

By Catherine Rose By the time you read this, many people will have already put up their Christmas decorations for the festive season. However, at one time, people would decorate their homes on Christmas Eve as it was considered unlucky to put them up any earlier.

It is still thought to be bad luck to take Christmas decorations down before or after the 12th day of Christmas or Twelfth Night (5th January). But before Victorian times, decorations would be left up until Candlemas which is on 2nd February - 40 days after Jesus’ birth.

Many of the origins of our Christmas decorations are pagan but were adopted by Christians.

The Bible does not mention the actual date of Jesus birth and it was Pope Julius I in around 300AD who decreed that Christmas Day (or Christ’s birthday) should be on 25th December.

The Midwinter Solstice on 21st December was already a celebration with feasting where homes were decorated with evergreens. The Vikings burned a Yule Log to ward off the devil on the night of the shortest day. Pope Julius therefore cleverly combined pagan feasting with Christian celebration. The word ‘yule’ is now connected with the festive season with the log represented as a cake.

Holly, which had previously been used as a decoration, became symbolic of the thorns that

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pierced Jesus’ crown and the berries of the blood he shed. Misteltoe, which the Druids regarded as sacred because it did not grow in the ground, was also adopted by Christianity with the white berries said to represent the purity of the Virgin. It came to be traditional to hang it in the doorway as a sign of peace and goodwill which is why a welcoming embrace or kiss under the mistletoe originated. By Victorian times, kissing under the mistletoe had become so popular, it came to be known as a ‘kissing bough’. Each time a gentleman stole a kiss under it, a berry would be pulled off. When there were no berries left, there could be no more kisses!

Christmas trees became popular in Victorian times and are sometimes attributed to an introduction by Prince Albert but in fact they had come over from Germany as early as the 1790s.

The Victorians popularised them however and they were traditionally decorated with candles, sweets and handmade ornaments of paper, wax, wire and blown glass, including strings of beads.

The tree would be topped with an angel, usually made of tin with a wax face, or star to symbolise the foretelling of the birth of Jesus. However, gingerbread baked with honey, and Christmas decorations made from the beeswax that was left over had been being sold in Christmas markets across Europe for 400 years.

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The first tinsel was made from real silver, stretched into very thin strips and paper chains became popular at this time. Woolworths is said to have been the first shop to sell Christmas tree ornaments in 1880 and the earliest electric Christmas tree lights were invented by Thomas Eddison around this time. By the 1930s, the first artificial trees become available.

It is believed that an English baker, Tom Smith, invented the Christmas cracker by taking a sweet, love motto and a strip of paper impregnated with a compound that ‘cracked’ when opened and wrapping it up. In time the wrapper was lengthened small novelty gifts replaced the sweet. The first Christmas crackers went on sale in London in 1847 and the love motto developed into a witty saying or joke penned by a team of writers. Walter Smith, Tom’s son, started including paper hats.

The Christmas card was also popularised during Victorian times and it was the first time that Father Christmas was shown wearing a red suit rather than a green one which was the traditional colour for Saint Nicholas or ‘Sinterklaas’ (hence our name ‘Santa Claus’), on whom Father Christmas is based. The first known card was made by Sir Henry Cole of the British Postal

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Service in 1843.

St Nicholas is also at the heart of the custom of hanging a stocking on the hearth or bedpost on Christmas Eve in the hope that it will be filled with presents the next morning. This custom originated in Holland around 400 years ago when children would put out wooden shoes next to the hearth on 5th December, the night traditionally associated with St Nicholas. The clogs would be filled with straw for St Nicholas’s horse and food hence our custom today for leaving out a carrot and a mince pie for Santa and his reindeer. As the custom spread across Europe, stockings started to be used instead. Some children would put out their pillowcase hence the origin of Santa’s sack.

Interestingly, the traditional mince pie was actually invented during medieval times. It contained 13 ingredients to represent Christ’s apostles that included spices, dried fruit and some minced mutton to represent the shepherds which is why the filling is still referred to as ‘mincemeat’.

Burning a candle to represent the countdown to Christmas is an Christian tradition and the advent calendar, with little doors and biblical pictures, originated in Germany. Today, advent calendars are usually filled with chocolate.

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9

St John’s Hospice

Savill’s Charity Ball is a sell out for St John’s Two hundred and fifty guests attended the Savill’s charity ball in aid of Sue Ryder St John’s Hospice this autumn and raised £9,670.00. The Potton-based hair and beauty salon’s charity team members - Phil Solitro, Joe Caruso, Nicola Caruso, Veg Vagliviello, Daniella Brett and Luisa Magliaro - have organised four balls since 2010 raising a total of £41,653.12, of which £18,670.00 has been donated to the hospice.

Held at The Mansion House, Old Warden Park, Biggleswade, entertainment for the evening was provided by the Funk Soul Brothers with photographs taken on the night by Joshua Sherwood Photography.

The many donors included: Currys & PC World, Willmott Dixon, Viellos, The Flute, Anna’s Flowers, Potton, Lewis/Wark, Lauren Clemmett, A1 Foods, Phoenix Hair Supplies, John Bull Jewellers, Rising

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Sun, Royal Oak, Coach House, The Ritzy, Stratton House Hotel, Pizza Express, Georges Hall, The Swan Hotel, Keith Matcham, Hairbitz, Cloud 9 Beauty, The Croft, Bedfordshire Growers, Elephant & Feather, Claytons Butchers, Jessops, So Lets Party, Any Occasion’s, Gigis Restaurant, Woodview Farm Shop, Savill’s Committee Donations, Anderson Printers, Joshua Sherwood Photography, Co-op Potton, Royal Horseguards Hotel, and Brocket Hall.

During the course of this year, the charity team has also raised money for the hospice through a clothes sale, lottery boxes and donations from clients at the salon.

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Local Theatre

The Theatre of Widdershins Wandering past 10 Bull Street, Potton, you may be startled by some strange characters peering out at you from the windows. Welcome to the home and workshop of Andy Lawrence and his partner Penny Earey, and the puppetry genius that is The Theatre of Widdershins.

Andy and Penny have lived with their two children and a growing family of puppets in Potton for the last 13 years. Well-known locally with regular performances at local schools and appearances at Party on Potton, The Theatre of Widdershins has been delighting children all over the country since 2005 at schools, village halls and theatres with Andy’s amazing

handcrafted puppets and stories based on traditional myths and fairytales adapted from the books Andy loved as a child like The Elves and the Shoemaker, Rumpelstiltskin and Arabian Nights.

“When we started, I was driving a hatchback and the show just about fitted in that. Then as the show grew, so did the vehicle” says Andy. He now has a van fitted with a ramp to house all the puppets and props he needs.

He has only recently come out of nine-month convalescence from a double osteotomy operation on his knees and the theatre’s latest show, The Magic Porridge Pot and Other Tasty Tales was launched in September.

In addition to building the show, while he was still on crutches, Andy had the idea of dressing as a pirate and because the puppet shows require a great deal of mobility, instead, Andy went into schools and did his own theatrical brand of storytelling. As a result the spinoff Skinnywid Tales has just been born, aimed at children’s libraries, small schools and festivals. “I’ve

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really enjoyed it so far” says Andy. “I can just turn up, change and set up in half an hour and, unlike for the theatre shows, the props are lightweight.”

The Magic Porridge Pot is Widdershin’s seventh show and will run until next summer when it visits the Edinburgh Festival. It comprises three tales based around food – The Magic Porridge Pot, Stone Soup and The Gingerbread Man. The annual Christmas show in St Mary’s Church Hall, Potton on 21st December at 2.30pm has sold out so they have now added an additional performance at 11.30am. (See the end of this article for details on how to obtain tickets.)

As a teenager, London-born Andy wanted to be an archaeologist but after a month at university, he quickly realised it wasn’t for him when he ended up spending most of his spare time making clothes. He then went to art college and did an Arts Foundation course and a Theatre Costume Making course which he loved. He quickly established the reputation of being an eccentric costume maker, ending up working freelance for the BBC on programmes like Dr Who but it was high pressured. He decided to call it a day after having to make two centaur costumes in 12 hours by which time he hadn’t slept and was covered in burns from using a glue gun.

During his spare time, he had been making puppets, hats and masks from leftover materials. He was also adept at using moulded latex. “So that’s where it began” explains Andy “from a love of stories and making things.”

Andy subsequently trained as a teacher and has taught textiles at Kimbolton School.

Consequently, all his skills came together to become a children’s puppeteer, forming Widdershins along with Penny who had done Art A Level and has a background

that includes cinema management.

The theatre was set up using a small grant from the Arts Council and as a business, is now in its 20th year. After its first appearance at the Edinburgh Festival with Rumpelstiltskin, the show had a five star rating in The List magazine (the Scottish equivalent of Time Out) and the bookings started rolling in.

It takes Andy around 120 days to build a show from planning and design to making the puppets and rehearsing which all has to be fitted in around work. Five of the seven shows were built with the aid of arts grants and charitable funding but due to cuts, the last two have had to be selffunded.

The most popular show to date has been The Three Billy Goats Gruff and Other Furry Tales with 500 performances. December is usually their busiest time. “We do shows at schools almost every day in December. Some of the bookings have been going for up to 15 years.”

So why Widdershins? “I first heard the word in the 1990s” says Andy. “I liked it so I looked it up. It is a Celtic adverb that literally translates as ‘against the sun’ but its common meaning is ‘anti-clockwise’. I thought it sounded like a little imp and I like the element of going back in time and keeping old stories alive.”

To book tickets for the Christmas show tel: 01767 262767 or 07973 187189 where you can also obtain details of other shows and puppetry workshops.

The Theatre of Widdershins widdershinstheatre@gmail.com www.widdershins.co.uk

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15

Local News

The Bird of Prey Centre - Wilstead Formally based at Shuttleworth

The English School of Falconry Bird of Prey & Conservation centre is a family run business, owned by Phil, Maggie and Emma Gooden. The centre is home to over 200 birds of prey, varying in many different species of owls, hawks, eagles, falcons, vultures and even storks and pelicans!

The centre was based at Shuttleworth for 14 years, in September 2013 the family made the difficult decision to leave Shuttleworth and relocate to Herrings Green Farm, Wilstead Bedfordshire. In late September we started the massive task of building our new centre, by no means was moving 200 birds, numerous aviaries and weatherings going to be an easy job. Like the whole of the UK we were hit by one of the wettest winters, we all knew the move was going to be a difficult one but we did not anticipate what was about to come. Over the winter months we received storms, torrential rain, high winds and we were even hit by lightning twice.

July 2014 – The centre finally opened! I can’t begin the explain the relief it was to finally open our gates, seeing visitors in the centre was a strange feeling, the first flying display I could hardly contain my excitement that I forgot to talk about the owls and just went on and on about how happy we were to be standing here.

Looking Forward – The Bird of prey Centre is open 7 days a week during the Winter months from 10.00am to 4.00pm. Displays are at 11.30am and 1.30pm, both displays are different and include many species of owls, hawks, eagles and falcons. We offer our visitors the chance to handle the birds after the 11.30am display and the opportunity to fly an owl after the 1.30pm display.

We return to our Summer programme of events at February half term – see website for more details.

Christmas Gifts – More than a gift,

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An Experience!

This Christmas we are offering many different types of experiences and encounters; spend a morning flying and handling many different species of owls on our Owl Experience, go out hunting with our team of hawks for the day and enjoy a home cooked three course lunch on our Ultimate Hawking Day, a taster into birds of prey on our 2 hour experiences or treat the family to a half day encounter with the birds. With so many to choose from this Christmas visit www. birdsofpreycentre.co.uk for more experiences.

All come with an attractive gift voucher which is valid for 12 months, you fly the birds, you choose the date!

Visit our website www.birdsofpreycentre.co.uk for more information, call 01234 742362 or 01234 742766

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THE BIRD OF PREY CENTRE, WILSTEAD, FORMALLY AT SHUTTLEWORTH More than a gift, An Experience!

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Three Counties Radio

Claiming Compensation & Out of Pocket Expenses

By Jonathan Vernon-Smith

I HATE compensation! There, I said it! I hate it! In fact, I have made it my mission during the last 13 years that I’ve been presenting a consumer show on the radio, to put people off making such claims. If this shocks you then please read this article through to the end and you may understand my thinking.

To me, compensation in its real sense is when people look for a financial payment even though they have not suffered financially. For example: you buy a sandwich from the supermarket, get home and find a plaster in it.

Most of us would simply take the sandwich back and expect not only a heartfelt apology for the mistake, but also a replacement sandwich. There are however, an increasing number of people who would also want the supermarket to PAY them an amount of money for ‘emotional stress’. What a load of old greedy codswallop!

Why am I so against compensation? Well, it’s really very easy, it ends up costing everyone else money. Every time someone receives a compensation pay-out, somebody else has to pay for it - normally other customers.

It’s not free money! If a company has to pay £2 million pounds a year in compensation claims, then it will charge its other customers £2 million pounds to recoup the costs.

Sadly, loads of people are after it now. I get lots of calls every week from people saying ‘can JVS help me get compensation out of such and such’? Thankfully my team know my feelings and these callers rarely get on air.

You only have to observe the increase in the ‘no win no fee’ solicitors and those ghastly adverts that start with ‘Have YOU had an accident?’, to see what a thriving business claiming compensation is. Sadly, I think it will only get worse and before you know it, everyone will be suing everyone else for each simple mistake made in life. Incidentally, many of the ‘no win no fee’ solicitors charge an absolute fortune for the service they have provided you with in the event of a successful claim. You should always read the small print and understand exactly what you’re getting involved in before you sign a contract with them. A successful pay-out of £1000 doesn’t seem so good when the solicitor takes £800 and you find you’re liable for other charges.

So what SHOULD you claim for? Out of pocket expenses are, in my opinion, totally justifiable. But what’s the difference between out of pocket expenses and compensation?

It’s very simple - when a company makes a mistake which has a detrimental effect on you financially, I think it’s reasonable for them to pay for this. For example if you have to pay £20 for phone calls to a company to deal with a problem they have caused you, it is in my opinion totally reasonable to ask the company to reimburse you the cost.

If I was having a new boiler installed and the plumber dropped a spanner on my tiled kitchen floor, then I would expect him to pay for the cost of replacing the tiles. To me this is obvious and utterly understandable. Most importantly a judge would probably feel the same if it went as far as court.

Why is it important that we understand the difference between compensation and out of pocket expenses though? I’ll tell you why, because using the word ‘compensation’ very often antagonises companies. They have a keen radar waiting to sniff out greedy little consumers desperate to make a quick buck and are often quick to dismiss such claims even though there may be a justifiable complaint. My advice is to always ensure that you are only claiming for reimbursement of costs rather than looking to make a profit out of a problem and ALWAYS use the phrase ‘out of pocket expenses’ rather than the dreaded C word!

Jonathan Vernon-Smith not only offers you his consumer advice here but you can listen to The JVS Show tackling your consumer problems every weekday morning from 9am.

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vities! i t c a s and t n e v mas e t s i r h C

It’s a Cracker

Saturday 6 December Morning: 10.00-12.00, Afternoon: 13.30-15.30

Try making a Tudor pomander, Victorian style Christmas cracker or a cornucopia.

www.shuttleworth.org/events/its-a-cracker

Christmas Carols in the Swiss Garden Friday 12 December, 19.00

Sing along, with the Biggleswade St. Andrews Church Choir, in the Swiss Garden.

www.shuttleworth.org/events/christmas-carols

Christmas Wreath Making Workshop Saturday 13 December, 10.00-12.30

Make a Christmas wreath at this seasonal workshop, led by our florist.

www.shuttleworth.org/events/christmas-wreaths

Father Christmas Fly In Saturday 20 December 11.00-14.00

Enjoy the chance to see Father Christmas arrive by aircraft*, then visit him in his Grotto and receive a special gift.

www.shuttleworth.org/events/father-christmas-fly-in *Aircraft will fly subject to weather conditions – alternative non-flying ‘arrival’ may be substituted.

The Shuttleworth Collection, Old Warden Aerodrome, Bedfordshire SG18 9EP

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Local News

Are you

Visually Impaired?

Are you visually impaired and would you like to use a computer or other IT devices?

Maybe we can help!

Sight Concern Bedfordshire runs weekly IT sessions for visually impaired people in Biggleswade.

IT sessions Tuesday mornings at Biggleswade Library.

We cover all aspects of IT including PCs, tablets (iPads) and other mobile devices.

Please contact Joanna Clark on 01234 264023 for further details.

2 ways to

PIG OUT THIS CHRISTMAS Be original this year and buy yourself, friends, relatives or someone who’s got a sense of humour but no freezer half (£130) or a whole pig (£250).

Just outside Potton our free range, outdoor reared Gloucester Old Spot Princess Beryl had 11 piglets back in March. Their days are spent under the trees (very important as piggies get sunburn), being cuddled, playing, escaping, snorting around and being ridden. Off to piggy heaven, ready for collect mid-December.

Or the perfect Christmas present - your own LIVE piglet. £1 a day for 9months (£270) and then half of her will fill your freezer for free. You’ll be called on their birthday so you can whizz over and then be able to visit loads. You will be able to feed them, play with them, hold them, cuddle them and then ride them when they are older. The children love it but the adults like it more as it’s the cheapest way to fill your freezer.

Contact us on 01767 313272 or simonauckland@hotmail.co.uk To advertise in The Villager and Town Life please call 01767 261122

21

Wildlife

Pretty Killers Most children are fond of ladybirds and usually continue loving the colourful creatures for many years into adulthood. But despite their benign and friendly reputation they are mass killers and voracious predators, as hostile to their prey as anything we witness on the Serengeti. Whilst ladybirds are hardly mega fauna such as lions, they are still deadly carnivores in their own diminutive horizon.

I fell in love with ladybirds when I was a child and first explored the natural world near ‘Laurie Lee’ country, the Cotswolds. All around our village the meadows and hillsides were normally full of wild flowers such as cowslips, buttercups, dandelions and daisies, which in those days, we took for granted. All sorts of flying insects made our playing fields - unkempt areas of grass and ‘sward’ - their home.

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By Andy Mydellton

Ladybirds are tortoise shell-like beetles. There are about 5,000 worldwide species. Some of Britain’s 40 species of ladybird are hard to identify without specialist help, although many can be distinguished relatively easily. For example the common two spot is widespread and grows up to 4mm in length. Individuals vary greatly but usually have one black spot on each red shell, or elytra, which they open out to fly. Most confusingly however, some two spot ladybirds can have more than two spots with some of them having black shells with four or six red spots. These winter individually or in small groups in either leaf litter or in covered areas close to the ground.

Another common type is the larger seven spot ladybird which often hibernates in garden sheds or tree bark. They usually emerge in spring so that they can lay their eggs in good time to hatch in the following summer months. The adult female

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Vanessa and her staff look forward to welcoming all new and existing customers to

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chooses to lay her eggs on or near a prolific aphid colony, so that when the eggs hatch their prey is guaranteed. The larvae will eat hundreds of aphids in about three weeks before they pupate and change into a beautiful flying beetle.

Other species include the 22 spot ladybird, which are only two to three millimetres long. The 14 spot ladybird is only slightly larger. These yellow and black ladybirds are generally not as common or as striking as the red ones, although just as beautiful.

One reason why ladybirds have such striking colours is that they are a defence mechanism: a common occurrence in the natural world. It is a warning to predators that while they can be seen and caught, they do not taste nice. In this way only a few ladybirds are sacrificed to birds every year which allows the rest to continue their lives without fear of predation.

However, the rarer species of ladybirds in Britain must be actively protected otherwise we will lose some of them and therefore be robbed of some of our precious biodiversity. Disconcertingly there is another threat which has unveiled itself in recent years, which could harm most, if not all British species.

The Harlequin ladybird is an invasive creature from Eastern Asia. It is larger than British ladybirds, looking more like a conventional beetle. But as well as eating aphids, they prey on other, smaller ladybirds.

While some creatures not native to Britain add to our biodiversity, like many conservationists, I dislike and do not welcome invasive species, which are feral creatures dangerous to indigenous wildlife.

Many conservationist organisations, including the Wildlife Trusts and the Foundation for Endangered Species would like to receive information about the Harlequin ladybird’s presence. They can then be monitored in any one locality, helping our indigenous ladybirds remain free from their damaging predation.

Caring gardeners and wildlife enthusiasts can act as a kind of wildlife ‘amateur policeman’ and with programmes such as Springwatch, where viewers gather information about their local wildlife and send it to the appropriate conservation groups, or where people participate in local wildlife activities, a much clearer picture can be painted, resulting in better outcomes.

Another way of directly helping ladybirds is by buying or making a ladybird cum lacewing box.

These are practical homes for many species depending on where the box is situated.

Generally speaking, lacewings prefer the box lower to the ground, while many ladybirds have a liking for them to be higher up.

After I placed my own box on the house wall, I noticed a sharp increase of ladybird numbers in the garden, and in particular on the stinging nettle patch which I allowed to grow. Whilst I cannot recommend growing nettles to all gardeners, especially those with children, I can report that I once counted nearly twenty ladybirds including six different species.

When I see a Harlequin ladybird, I act to stifle the danger it poses and encourage as many native species as possible. Why? Because I feel the same as many other people probably do, that ladybirds are just as beautiful now as they always have been and have a loving place in the wildlife garden.

Andy Mydellton FLS is an environmentalist journalist, founder and leader of the British wildlife charity, the Foundation for Endangered Species. He is the Chairman and the Environment Advisor to UNESCO ASPnet as well as a Fellow of the Linnaean Society.

Andy writes for magazines and other publications, mounts photographic exhibitions, gives presentations and broadcasted the ‘Andy Mydellton Wildlife Zone’ radio programme. www.ffes.org.uk e-mail: info@ffes.org.uk

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25

Time of Year

How to Choose a Turkey, Duck or Goose

By Susan Brookes-Morris

We all want our Christmas dinner to be special and a meal to remember for the right reasons! So how can you make sure that your bird is the best choice?

First take the time to buy your meat from a source you trust. You might prefer a trusted butcher, farm shop or mail order company.

Knowing how your meat has been reared and where it came from can help you determine the likely quality of the meat. Usually higher quality comes from younger animals that are subject to greater welfare standards. Of course prices will also reflect this so battery-reared birds will be much cheaper than those which have been subject to a mainly organic diet and free-roaming.

Look for birds with unblemished skin, and if buying fresh check whether they will be dressed or whether you will need to do additional preparation.

Consider carefully the size of the bird you require.

General recommendations allow around half a pound or 225 g per person for boneless meat and three quarters of a pound or 340g per person for meat with a bone in. Of course appetites vary and you may want to buy larger deliberately, in order to have enough for leftovers.

Choose well and enjoy your Christmas Dinner!

Potton & District Club NEW MEMBERS WELCOME. Keeping LIVE MUSIC live! every week!

DECEMBER 2014

Saturday 6th December - Heroes Journey Sunday 7th December - Members Children and Grandchildren Christmas Party from 4pm Saturday 13th December - Recovered Saturday 20th December - Huggy Flares Wednesday 24th December - Christmas Eve party night Christmas Day - Open 12-2pm Boxing Day - Open 12-8pm solo artist - Dan Arnold from 4pm Wednesday 31st December - New Years Eve Party Night (ticket event)

JANUARY 2015

Saturday 3rd January - The Kopy Katz (Wild and fun 3 piece rockabilly) Saturday 10th January - Subject 2 Change Saturday 17th January - Piano Groove (new) Saturday 24th January - The Soulman - Well known and loved by all - Soul/Disco classics

2015 MEMBERSHIP IS NOW DUE RENEW ASAP FOR YOUR FREE BAR CREDIT!

All information is provided in good faith, always check the web page pottonclub.co.uk for changes/updates.

Potton CIU Club, Charities Hall, Station Road, Potton Tel: 01767 261465 (Evenings) Website: www.pottonclub.co.uk 26

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29

A ‘Class Act’

Goes from Strength to Strength A Class Kitchens of Bedford

Readers may recall our article in the summer on A Class Kitchens of Bedford – a family-run firm that offers high quality but affordable bespoke kitchens and was founded by married couple Jon and Jemma Hough. Now moved to Shefford, the company continues to provide kitchens throughout Bedfordshire and beyond and has been growing steadily since then. Jemma brought The Villager up to date with some of their latest developments.

Customers clearly approve of Jon and Jemma’s friendly no-nonsense approach as A Class Kitchens now has 50 installed kitchens under its belt and currently has bookings until the early summer of 2015. Still working from their home, the couple continues to make sure overheads are low so that they can pass on the cost savings in their products and services to the public by ‘bringing the showroom to you’.

Since the summer of 2014, business has grown to the extent that the company is now taking on its first dedicated employee – an installations manager who will look after the fitting of a kitchen from the initial survey at the start right up to the

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finished article. This means that Jon will be free to do more design work and Jemma hopes that they will be able to move from installing two to three kitchens per month to double that, while more importantly, preserving the quality and service they offer.

Although Jon and Jemma haven’t ruled out having an A Class Kitchens showroom at some point in the future, it is more important to them that their prices offer value for money. “We will only have a showroom when our income is high enough to warrant it” says Jemma. It is also important to them that potential customers can see a working kitchen they have previously installed in someone’s home.

And they have found that many of their clients are only too happy to oblige, although there is never any pressure on a customer to do so. The advantage of this philosophy is that a customer can have a quality kitchen using

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solid cabinets that can be colour matched to doors if necessary, which Jon and Jemma are then able to price competitively against kitchens available on the market of a similar high quality.

Consequently, not only is the company growing, but so is its reputation. With social networking pages on Twitter and Facebook, and a customer review page on Checkatrade.com with a 9.8 out of 10 average rating, customer feedback is enthusiastic and positive. They are also seeing a trend towards orders for more supply only kitchens as customers seemingly prefer to use local businesses to larger chains.

Moreover, A Class Kitchens continues to have a philanthropic ethos, actively supporting local charities and the latest news is that the company is now embarking on a new community scheme. Jemma explains: “When we started our own business, we were lucky enough to get a government loan as we didn’t have any savings. Not everybody realises that these low interest loans, of up to £10,000, are available to small start-up businesses. We are promoting this through our local MP to help local companies like us have the opportunity we have had.”

Last month, Richard Fuller, Conservative MP for Bedford, welcomed Jon and Jemma to his constituency office saying: “I really enjoyed meeting with Jemma and Jon, and hearing how the government’s Start Up Loans have helped them to realise their dreams. It’s fantastic to learn that they are now expanding and looking to take on new staff.

“I’m proud that we are backing business and ensuring our budding entrepreneurs get the finance and support they need to kick-start their businesses.”

Jemma said: “We were delighted to meet with our local MP Richard Fuller and tell him all about our business journey so far.

We are grateful for his support and the help the Start Up Loan Company gave us to get started. I look forward to hopefully updating him further down the line, and inviting him along in the foreseeable future to see the progress we have made.”

Jemma is pictured with Richard at his constituency office proving that the local business continues to be ‘a class act’.

A Class Kitchens would like to thank all their customers for supporting local business and to wish them a very happy Christmas and New Year.

www.aclasskitchensofbedford.com Tel: 01234 589136 Email: info@aclasskitchensbedford.com

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31

Professional Balloon art and Event decoration Beautifully arranged balloon clusters, arches, columns and more Delivery and set up available Like us on Facebook for portfolio and special offers

07792 985994 or 01767 223675 bunchesballoons@hotmail.co.uk www.bunchesballoons.co.uk

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Time of Year

Keeping it Real!

By Debbie Singh-Bhatti

I live in a house that is divided. My husband loves real Christmas trees but in recent years I’ve talked him around to the artificial option, believing – incorrectly as it turns out – that a reusable tree is better for the planet than one that is chopped down and discarded after a few weeks.

Most artificial trees are made from PVC – one of the most non-renewable, polluting, unrecyclable materials around - and consequently their carbon footprint is ten times greater than that of real ones.

Shocked into realising that my fake tree is not the morally correct choice I thought, I’m now keen to join the six million Brits who opt for a real tree at Christmas.

Christmas trees spring up all over the place from late November and the quality varies greatly. Before you make your choice, do a bit of fact finding about its freshness. Ask where it was grown (UK produced trees are likely to be fresher), how long it has been in stock and when it was cut.

You can carry out a couple of tests yourself. Give the tree a firm tap on the ground or run a closed hand over its branches. If lots of needles fall off, chances are it’s not that fresh. You can also try bending the outer branches. They should be pliable - not brittle and dry – without discoloration.

Before leaving to make your purchase, measure

Visit our new community www.beds-local.co.uk

the height and width of your space and take a tape measure with you to check your tree. Most are trimmed to an 80% taper, which means that a 10 foot tall tree will measure 8 feet at the bottom.

You should also consider how you plan on decorating your tree. The three main species – spruce, fir and pine – all have their own characteristics. Spruces and firs have short needles whilst a pine’s are long. Pine branches tend to bend, making them unsuitable for heavier ornaments. Firs have lush branches and ornaments sometimes get lost in them.

The traditional British Christmas tree, the Norway spruce, is attractive but tends to drop its needles. An alternative is a “non-drop” variety like the popular Nordmann fir, which will last longer but is more expensive.

To care for your tree, cut off half an inch from the base of the trunk and place in a water-holding stand.

Position the tree away from sources of heat and keep it topped up with fresh water.

At present, 90% of real trees end up in landfill, so after Christmas is over try and recycle! By turning your tree into wood chippings or compost you will continue to do your bit for the environment.

Hopefully with this guide choosing the family tree will be a holiday highlight, not a headache!

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35

THE CROWN WILLINGTON FREE HOUSE

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19/11/2014 18:15 Please mention The Villager and Town Life when responding to adverts

Eyesight Correction

Health & Beauty

By Alison Runham (www.alison.runham.co.uk) Whether you have myopia (short-sightedness), hyperopia/hypermetropia (long-sightedness) or presbyopia (diminished close vision, which often affects the over 45s) there are a number of corrective options available.

Glasses - Most lenses are now made from durable, scratch resistant, lightweight plastics. Special techniques can make lenses lighter and thinner (ideal for high prescription glasses), reduce glare and provide tints or ultraviolet protection. Bifocal, trifocal and varifocal lenses allow one pair of glasses to be used for near and distance vision, while photochromic lenses can instantly turn normal glasses into sunglasses.

Pros: good correction.

Cons: poor peripheral vision; inconvenience, particularly during bad weather, changing temperatures or playing sports.

Contact Lenses - Both rigid and soft versions let oxygen on to the eye, keeping the eye healthy and allowing extended wear. Toric lenses to correct astigmatism and bifocal lenses are available too.

Soft contact lenses are made from a plastic polymer with high water content. They’re easier to adapt to than rigid lenses and more comfortable, but are easily damaged. Choose daily or monthly disposable versions, or non-disposables (cleaned daily and changed yearly).

Rigid gas permeable contact lenses are made from silicone polymers and provide better vision correction of some eyesight problems, and greater durability, than soft lenses.

Pros: more convenient than glasses; better peripheral vision.

Cons: infection risk (reduced in disposable or rigid lenses).

Surgery - Vision correction surgery can correct myopia, astigmatism and hyperopia, and generally results seem long-lasting. Complications occur in fewer than 5% of cases and severe vision loss is very rare.

Surgery isn’t appropriate for everyone. If you have a medical or eye condition, are taking regular medication, or are pregnant or breastfeeding, discuss this with your surgeon.

LASIK (laser in situ keratomileusis) A flap of corneal tissue is lifted using a blade or laser. The exposed section is then reshaped using an excimer laser, and the flap replaced. Wave-front LASIK, a more refined Visit our new community www.beds-local.co.uk

version, tackles irregularities in the eye, so that night vision, for instance, can be improved along with eyesight.

Pros: Minimal pain; fast healing and vision recovery.

Cons: Not always suitable for high prescriptions (the cornea may become dangerously thin).

Epi-LASIK An instrument called an epi-keratome separates a fine slice of the epithelial (surface) layer of the cornea. The cornea underneath is reshaped with a laser.

PRK (photorefractive keratectomy) Overtaken LASIK and LASEK, today PRK is predominantly used to correct low prescriptions. A layer of epithelial tissue is removed before the cornea is reshaped by laser.

Pros: Little corneal tissue is removed, so the remaining cornea is strong.

Cons: Healing and vision improvement take longer than for LASIK and LASEK. LASEK (laser epithelial keratomileusis) The epithelial layer of the cornea is retained as a flap, and the cornea reshaped by laser.

Pros: Less discomfort than PRK. Retaining the epithelium may help to prevent complications and speed up healing. A good choice for patients with thin corneas.

LTK (Laser Thermokeratoplasty) A holmium laser applies a circle of heat spots to reshape the cornea by contraction.

Pros: No cutting; the procedure takes seconds.

Cons: Can only correct low hyperopia prescriptions.

Effectiveness may reduce over time.

Vision Training - There are many exercise programs and apps that claim to correct poor eyesight. But most experts agree that there’s no evidence that they work.

Before making any decisions, seek advice from your optometrist or eye consultant. By law, your optometrist must supply a written copy of your vision prescription, which can be fulfilled anywhere you choose.

Before making any decisions, seek advice from your optometrist or eye consultant. By law, your optometrist must give you a written copy of your prescription after an eye test, which can be fulfilled anywhere you choose. Visit http:// www.allaboutvision.com/eyeglasses/eyeglassprescription.htm for help understanding your prescription.

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Come on down to Adore Beauty. we are situated next to the White Hart public house in Biggleswade town centre with lots of free parking. our qualified friendly staff will do their best to look after you and make you feel pampered and relaxed.

We offer a variety of treatments including: • opi/shellacs/gelish/ • Swedish/hot stone/ acrylic nails. aromapherapy massage.

• Threading, waxing, • Sienna x spray tanning, tinting, lashes, LASH sunbed PERFECT. • All occasion make up. ( free consultation for weddings) • Dermalogica facials.

1-2 Victoria Place Biggleswade Beds SG18 8RL 01767 448040 www.adore-beauty.net

Adore 1/4 page.indd 1

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17/11/2014 15:19

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Time of Year

Buying her Jewellery?

Read Our Guide to Get it Right!

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend right? Well maybe but some women don’t actually wear or even like this sort of jewellery. So how do you get it right?

Rule one - Look at the jewellery she wears every day. If she always wears a fine gold chain and locket and discrete earrings then she’s probably not going to want a chunky plastic bangle no matter how ‘current’ the style. Likewise if she always wears chunky costume jewellery in bright colours it’s highly unlikely she’ll covet a dainty pearl bracelet.

Rule two - Look at the colour palate she normally wears. The funky pink necklace might be the right style but if she usually wears browns and greens she might not have anything to wear it with so make sure colours tone with her wardrobe.

If you want to buy precious jewellery look at her natural colouring. Silver haired women look great in silver, platinum or white gold, as do dark skinned women. Blondes look beautiful in warmer

gold tones.

Rule three - Consider her build. Petite women suit fine chains and tiny stones whereas those who are larger need a statement piece of jewellery which won’t accentuate their size.

Choose carefully and she’ll be overwhelmed at your thoughtfulness. You’ll guarantee her a very happy Christmas indeed.

By Louise Addison

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39

Local News

SANDY TOURIST INFORMATION CENTRE

December 2014

Tis the year’s midnight, and it is the day’s, Lucy’s, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks; The sun is spent, and now his flasks “A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy’s Day, Being the Shortest Day” by John Donne 1572 - 1631 Saint Lucy’s Day or St Lucias Day is celebrated on the 13th December. Under the Julian calendar used in 17th century England, the 13th December was also the winter solstice – the shortest day. John Donne’s opening imagery is all about the dead of winter as experienced at midnight on the day of the saint of light (Lucy means ‘light’). Donne was an Anglican priest and is considered to be the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets.

Donne became Rector of Blunham in 1621 and made a gift of a paten and chalice to the church but did not live in the village. In 1621, he was appointed the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London and also served as a member of parliament and on his death he was buried in the old cathedral. The school in Blunham is named after this famous poet and priest Although winter has always been a very hard time

of the year, especially to the country dweller, it’s crowning glory has been the festival of Christmas, set in the darkest month of December.

This Festival is a time of celebration and customs including Church services with beautiful and uplifting music, carol singing, Christmas cards, special meals and the display of various Christmas decorations, including Christmas trees, Christmas lights, nativity scenes, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe, and holly. Not forgetting several closely related and often interchangeable figures, known as Santa Claus, Father Christmas and Saint Nicholas.

SANDY CHRISTMAS FAYRE In Sandy on Sunday, 30th November from 1pm to 6pm we have Sandy’s great Christmas Fayre. This festal event will include live music, Santa’s grotto, carol singing, market stalls, mulled wine, hot chestnuts and much more. Santa arrives at 2pm and the Sandy lights will be switched on at 4.30pm.

Many other events will be held in Sandy and in the neighbouring towns and villages in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Please look at the ‘What’s On’ section of the Town Council webpage www. sandytowncouncil.gov.uk) for details of some of

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AR

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13.00 £ ES low dry C I b PR cut & ut £9.50£6.00 s c men wet en cut 50 . s men r citiz rs £7 tuesday & a o seni r 16 ye ncession o e und citizen tcil 3pm un or seni esday n wed

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Merry Christmas

and a Happy new year to all our customers

Find us in the Market Square Potton Free Parking Telephone 01767 260256

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these. If you would like to advertise your event please forward details to the TIC AUTUMN/WINTER TALK On the 2nd December the Tourist Information Centre will hold its final Autumn/ Winter Talk. We again welcome David Fowler who will speak about ’The Rise and Fall of the Cardington Airships’. David gave this talk last November, but such was the great interest that we had to turn down over 50 people and so as promised we are holding this talk again this year.

David will speak about the history of airships and Cardington through two World Wars to the present day. The massive hangars at Cardington were built during World War 1 to accommodate the construction of airships by Shorts. David will speak about this industry and the famous Airships including the R31, R100 and the R101 bringing the story to modern times. The Talk will be held in the Sandy Baptist Church Hall, which is on the junction of the Bedford Road/Market Square. With regard to parking we suggest that you park in the Town Car Park in the High Street. The Talk will cost £5.50 per person and booking is advised. Refreshments will be served by members of the Sandy Branch of the Leprosy Mission for which donations will be gratefully received. Please call in or contact the Tourist Information Centre to book your place.

SANDY CALENDAR 2015 and CHRISTMAS CARDS The TIC has produced and is selling the Sandy 2015 Calendar which has various colour views of Sandy, including winter at The Lodge, Sandy horse riders, autumn woods, St Swithun’s Church, Stone Lodge, Sandye Place, etc .Please call into the Centre to see the Calendar and purchase copies either for yourself or for that special gift. Also, there are two seasonal Sandy scenes on the Centre’s Christmas Cards. The cards are sold with envelopes in packs of 10 at £3 .25 or individually with an envelope at 35 pence each SANDY TIC GIFTS We have a large number of gifts in the TIC with a local connection, that would make an ideal and unique present They could be for that person who lives locally, a friend or a relative who has moved away, etc. We have a selection of local items, such as a mug celebrating Sandy’s market gardening heritage, Sandy dishes, thimbles, notelets, pens and pen pots. Or, how about a gift of locally produced honey or jam?

Books are always lovely to receive at Christmas – enjoy a read about your locality. Some of the titles we hold include ‘Lost villages of Bedfordshire’, ‘Ghostly Bedfordshire’ and ‘Why we love Bedfordshire’. For the keen walker we have the book

- ‘Favourite walks in and around Bedfordshire’.

For those who enjoy looking at books with old photographs of the locality we have the ‘Pictorial memories of Sandy’ books, ‘Bedfordshire through Time’ and books in the ‘Yesterday’s Bedfordshire’ series There is a great deal of interest in both World Wars.

We have a number of books about the Great War in this year when we commemorate the centenary of its outbreak. With regard to the Second World War we have books including ‘Prisoners of War in Bedfordshire’ and ‘Spy Capital of Bedfordshire’.

There is a large amount of interest in RAF Tempsford the wartime secret airfield, as is shown by the number of visitors we get to the Centre, both locally, nationally and internationally enquiring about this historic place. We sell a number of books about Tempsford and the SOE written by local historian and author Bernard O’Connor including ‘Churchill’s most secret Airfield’, ‘Churchill’s Angels’, ‘ Women of Tempsford’ and ‘Churchill’s School for Saboteurs’.

Other books relating to the county include ‘Bernard West’s Bedfordshire’ with its delightful pen and ink illustrations and ‘Dan Albone’ a book about Biggleswade’s famous son who was an inventor, manufacturer and cyclist.

The three main towns of east Bedfordshire, Sandy, Potton and Biggleswade are captured in the DVD ‘Three Market Towns’. It makes a unique gift.

Why not give a Theatre Token as a gift – it is an ideal present and allows the receiver to choose from over 240 theatres nationwide, including several local ones and those in London’s West End. These gift vouchers can be used to see plays, musicals, comedies, opera, dance, etc and there is no expiry date, unlike other gift vouchers. The Tokens come in different values £5, £10 and £20 so you can choose what you want to spend There is a wealth of information, both local and national and a warm welcome awaits you when you visit Sandy Tourist information Centre.

With all Good Wishes for Christmas and the New Year from the staff at Sandy TIC.

Sandy Tourist Information Centre, Rear of 10 Cambridge Road, Sandy Telephone 01767 682728 – email tourism@sandytowncouncil.gov.uk OPENING TIMES Monday to Friday 10am – 3pm Saturday 10am-2pm Sundays and Bank Holidays Closed

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APampering ROM ATICS & Beauty Holistics Just £5 for 2 classes.

With this ad. New customers only.

Total body workout including dance-based cardio, strength training & stretching.

Our exercise classes are suitable for every size, shape and fitness level and use a variety of modern music.

Come and have fun with us in Sandy, St Neots, Cambourne, and other areas.

Schedule for Sandye Place Academy, Park Road Visit www.jazzfitness.co.uk for classes in St Neots or Cambourne.

Monday

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Welcome to Aromatics – a haven of peace, pampering and relaxation in the heart of Potton.

We wish all our clients past and present a very merry Christmas.

Please ask about our Christmas wish list, get what you really want for Christmas.

We’re open sunday 21st and Sunday 29th, pre booking is required.

check out our delightful December deals

Senior citizens discounts available every week day!

We have now moved to 58 King Street, Potton SG19 2QZ

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43

Air-Co

ndition

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HAIRDRESSING Professional hairdressing in Biggleswade

We welcome all clients both old and new OPENING HOURS

Monday - Closed, Tuesday 9.30am - 5.00pm Wednesday 9.00am - 5.30pm Thursday 9.00am - 8.00pm Friday 9.00am - 5.30pm Saturday 8.30am - 4.00pm Many thanks to all our clients for their support throughout the year.

We like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New year.

Over 10 years of successful hairdressing 1 Station Road, Biggleswade, SG18 8AH Tel: 01767 600510 Web: www.lavidahair.co.uk 44

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Charity

Angela’s

Charity Calendars Angela’s Charity is dedicated to Angela Butcher who lost her life to small cell ovarian cancer, aged 30, when no research had ever been carried out in the world and consequently, no treatment was available or hope given. Upon diagnosis, Angela set out to change this by fundraising and family and friends, who celebrated reaching £20,000 last year, have continued to support her small cell gynae cancer research fund at the Eve Appeal, which now stands at an incredible £27,650.03.

The Eve Appeal is the largest gynaecological charity in the UK have pledged to utilise Angela’s fund to support the very first small cell gynae cancer research in the world. Professor Martin Widschwendter of the UCLH plans to get this research off the ground and is presently making contact with all oncologists throughout Europe and beyond with any knowledge of the disease.

This will lead to clinical trials which will effectively offer some hope to anyone else who is unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with such a rare and aggressive disease.

If you wish to be part of this extraordinary initiative, please purchase one of our calendars.

Angela’s Charity Calendar Girls 2015 and Calendar Boys 2015 are out now at £5 each and available from The White Hart, The Yorkshire Grey, Mead End and High Street newsagents, Chase House in Arlesey and Biggleswade Football Club.

To advertise in The Villager and Town Life please call 01767 261122

45

Gift Ideas

The Best Christmas Gadgets For her

Some tech firms haven’t quite got the hang of making products for women: a quick look around the shops shows that for some, making gadgets for girls of any age simply involves taking an existing model and making it pink. Thankfully not everybody thinks that way, and there are lots of decent products around that don’t look like they should belong to Barbie.

If the person you’re buying for already has a Kindle, a tablet, a laptop or a smartphone, a luxury case makes a good gift - but beware of supposedly leather cases that come with bargain basement price tags, as that leather is the kind you only find on plastic cows. Think designers such as Barbour (available from John Lewis), or beautiful Italian leather cases from Maxwell Scott. They’re not cheap - Maxwell Scott’s iPad case is £85 - but they’re pretty and useful, as are the £149 luxury iPad cases available from notonthehighstreet.com. If she’s just got herself an iPhone 6, Apple’s £35 genuine leather cases are good value too.

46

One good gift for smartphone or tablet owners is a wireless speaker, such as Bose’s excellent SoundLink Mini (£179), Sony’s SRS-BTM8 (£85) or JBL’s Flip (£100). Cheaper speakers are available, but you do get what you pay for.

If she doesn’t already have a tablet, there are stacks of options including the latest iPad Mini (from £229) and the larger, more expensive iPad Air (£399), Amazon’s newly updated Kindle Fire HD (from £79) and a whole bunch of cheap tablets such as the heavily discounted Asus MeMO Pad, which is down to around £80. Don’t forget Tesco’s Hudl, too, especially if you’re a regular shopper: Tesco regularly runs promotions that double your Clubcard points when you buy a Hudl or accessories.

Kindles make great gifts too, and there’s a brand new one at the top of the range: the Kindle Voyage (£169) has a better screen and automatic brightness. The Kindle Paperwhite is still a great buy at £109, and the cheapest Kindle is now just £59.

Many women’s letters to Santa

will include the initials GHD, whose hair straighteners have been tucked under Christmas trees for several years now. The firm’s latest range is the GHD Curve, a collection of curling wands and tongs that cost £110.

For sporty types there are stacks of gadget gifts, such as the Fitbit Flex activity tracker (£75), the Zepp motion sensor for tennis players (£129), Garmin’s Forerunner GPS watches (£89) and the TomTom Multi-Sport GPS Watch (£149). Don’t forget headphones, either: Philips’ ActionFit Sports (£30), Sennheiser’s PMX 685i Sports (£35), Monster’s iSport Victory (£130) and Pioneer’s SE-E721 (£40) have been specifically designed for runners and won’t pop out or fall off.

If you really want to delight a gadget fan, this year’s hot technology is the smartwatch - of which LG’s G Watch R is one of the nicest. The price hadn’t been announced as we went to press but the Androidcompatible smartwatch is likely to be keenly priced. Sadly the one smartwatch many of us were really hoping to see in our Christmas stockings, the Apple Watch, isn’t going to appear in 2014 after all: its launch has been put back to some point in 2015.

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?

?

WHAT? WithWeight

Watchers? *

Meetings

Online

Mobile

Sure. You can enjoy a bacon sarnie.

You see, it’s all part of our supportive plan that helps you eat well, lose weight and keep on enjoying the odd BLT. Piece of cake.

Which you can also eat.

Find out more at your local meeting

Lower School hers?St.IvelSwithun’s Road, Sandy SG19 1BA Monday 6:30pm Julie Dowse 07803 123 849 Weatherley Centre Eagle Farm Road, Biggleswade SG18 8JH Wednesday 10:00am Claire Mythen 07709 487 180 Wednesday 6:00pm Samantha Thompson 07766 421 000

Sandy Conservative Club 19 Bedford Road, Sandy SG19 1EL Saturday 9:30am Fiona Campion 07957 515 695 Ernulf Academy Barford Road, St. Neots PE19 2SH Monday 5:45pm Nicola Edgell 0345 677 7788

For more local meetings visit

weightwatcherslocal.co.uk

0845 677 7788

VisitWW9975_70380_The_Villager_Mag_194x131.indd our new community www.beds-local.co.uk

1

12/11/2014 11:09 47

Food & Drink

Beer

by Ted Bruning

As a beer-writer, I have always tried to wave the flag of beer and food. This is a matter not just of pleasure but of principle, for we beer-writers stoutly (see what I did there?) maintain that beer is the equal of wine at every opportunity imaginable and is actually its superior in some food-matchings, notably cheese and chocolate.

However Christmas pud has proved a bit of a problem and not just in making a choice. Rather they all tend to be very alcoholic and by that stage in the festivities something equally rich and fruity but a little less punchy might be preferred.

My first choice is an old-fashioned strong pale ale from Fuller’s of Chiswick. ESB at 5.9% alcohol is not an obviously weighty choice to accompany

something as rich as Christmas pudding; indeed it’s quite light on the nose – fresh, grassy, even, with a slight apple sharpness but a deep undertone of toffee from the crystal malt that Fuller’s uses so well.

The palate, though, is full-bodied with a sticky sweetness balanced by that sharpness, while the finish is still sweet but yielding to a lingering hoppy bitterness.

Strong Suffolk from Greene King at 6% alcohol is a fascinating survivor from history. It’s a blend of 10% alcohol stock ale, 5X, that’s matured for a year or more in huge oak tuns sealed with clay and a fresh pale ale, BPA. The aroma is a huge whack of rich toffee, reminiscent of crème brulée; the palate is not quite so overwhelmingly sweet and is silky-smooth, while the toffee returns in the finish, balanced by a wee hoppy bite.

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YOU ARE SOMBODY'S REASON TO

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PrivateCounselling Struggling with depression, anxiety, stress, relationship difficulties, trauma, bereavement, or maybe excessive drinking?

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History

The history of women’s underwear

Changing Shape The first issue of The Villager featured an article advising women on how to choose the most flattering bra and knickers to suit their figure.

In keeping with the centenary spirit, Catherine Rose takes a peek in the drawer at the history of women’s underwear.

For hundreds of years, women have attempted to change their body shape using underwear to hold them in or up, or to enhance or reduce their curves in accordance with the fashion of the time.

Our modern concept of underwear didn’t really exist until the 19th century. In medieval and Elizabethan times, women would wear a linen or cotton shift under their dress coupled with hose or stockings that came up to just over the knee and were secured by a garter.

A corset, stiffened with whalebone, would be worn next. During this era it was fashionable to have a fairly flat chest with a small waist and wide hips so the corset would flatten the breasts and clinch the waist.

Wealthy women would tie pads of fabric called rowles around their waist or use a farthingale to create wide ‘upholstered’ hips beneath a full skirt: some even incorporated pieces of wood! Hooped petticoats were also worn.

During the Victorian era, the hourglass figure came into fashion and longer corsets were used that supported the bust.

Pulled tightly in with laces, they could give a woman a waist of 18 inches or below although as a result it was not uncommon for them to cause fainting due to lack of oxygen! The derriere was now seen as Visit our new community www.beds-local.co.uk

something to be emphasized and consequently, the bustle – another structured undergarment – was also worn over long pantaloons.

The brassiere or bra as it is now known is said to have been invented in 1913 by a New York socialite named Mary Phelps Jacob who made a supporting undergarment out of two silk handkerchiefs and a pink ribbon after she found that her corset showed beneath a sheer evening gown she wanted to wear.

During the 1920s and 30s however, bras were irrelevant as post-war underwear went through a radical change when women cut both their hair and hemlines. The fashion for a boyish dropwaisted look meant that women bandaged their breasts or wore a garment called a side-lacer which flattened the bust. By this time, knickers were being worn.

The 1960s was the decade that nylon tights became widely available, largely replacing stockings.

These days, women can buy lightweight shapewear that claims you can drop at least a dress size and many brands are virtually seam-free like a second skin. There are also tights available that claim to be able to slim your legs or lift your bottom, as well as uplift bras designed to add a bit more cleavage to what nature gave.

Of course, old fashioned corsets are still around for the traditional girl and burlesque lover, the difference being they are often worn without anything else on top!

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POP go the crackers, POP goes the cork and POP goes HAPPY CHRISTMAS all you lovely Potton (and surrounding villages) people

We want to wish each and every one of you a fun, thoughtful and happy time.

We think you all have been brill, cool, supportive and generally lovely so we have our toes crossed for a certain someone to visit on Christ Eve. However what we really want to do is stretch out our lovely, long orange arms (think of a Mr Men) around anyone who finds this time of year hard and give you a big, fat community cuddle and squeeze and whisper gently in your ear that we love you, that there are others in the same boat and there’s loads of support around if you want to reach out for it.

If a paper cuddle is not enough then come to the turning on of the Christmas lights, 28th November, Farmers Market 6th December or to The Coachhouse from 7.30pm on 20th December where we start off on our merry mayhem roaming carol singing.

Happy christmas and a fun new year to you all.

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Kids

Toys For Boys?

By Debbie Singh-Bhatti

My sister and I grew up with an older brother and we thought nothing of spending Saturday afternoons sprawled on the living room carpet, constructing items out of his beloved Lego.

His creations were always more ambitious and sophisticated than ours of course – windmills and tractors and mansions with masses of rooms compared with our rather mundane boxlike structures. Occasionally we would ditch the Lego for a session on his Scalextric racing set.

We hadn’t a hope of winning, but we certainly enjoyed trying!

It never once occurred to me that I was playing with ‘boy toys’ which is maybe why, when I became mother to four daughters, I happily bought them their own sets of Lego along with other ‘boyish’ toys such as remote control cars, science sets and basketball nets (they had their fair share of dolls, prams and jewellery kits too!).

Like it or not, the society we live in stereotypes children according to their gender. Manufacturers influence their choice of toys with labels identifying items such as dolls and tea sets as ‘girl toys’ in their pretty pink packaging, and cars and construction sets as ‘boy toys’ in their predominantly blue wrappers.

There is evidence to suggest that girls and boys do naturally select different types of toys.

Experiments conducted on primates concluded that male monkeys were drawn to boy-toys like cars whilst female monkeys preferred girl-toys like dolls.

There are various explanations about why boys and girls have different toy preferences. One theory suggests it is due to testosterone levels, whilst another attributes it to the way the brains Visit our new community www.beds-local.co.uk

are ‘differently-wired’, and there’s no doubt that nurture and socialisation also play a part.

Regardless of the reason, the consensus of opinion is that if children are offered a wide range of toys and experiences, they will develop into more rounded individuals with an expanded range of thinking and skills.

Just as playing with girl-toys like dolls and tea sets fosters the development of verbal and social skills that might be useful to the male population, playing with boy-toys like cars can help girls with the acquisition of spatial skills. Other ‘boy-toys’ like science sets, Lego, Meccano and K’nex help develop STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) skills of which there is currently a shortage in the UK workforce - and why shouldn’t girls develop these just as much as their male counterparts?!

Some may argue – and I’m probably one of them – that at the end of the day whether male or female, children will be children and will naturally choose the toys that interest them the most.

The important thing is to at least give them that choice!

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Anstee Gorst

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including: Mortgages and Home Insurance Life assurance Critical Illness Cover Income Protection Pensions and Annuities Investments and Savings Contact Christopher Goodwin Ash Tree House, 48 Sutton Mill Road, Potton, SG19 2QB Tel: 01767 262760

goodwin@ashtree.uk.com www.ashtree.uk.com

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Fun Quiz - Christmas Music 1. Cliff Richard’s hit single The Millenium Prayer featured the words of the Lord’s Prayer sung to the tune of which traditional song?

2. According to the first verse of the song Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, what two things had you “better not” do?

3. Which singer from Band Aid’s original version of Do They Know It’s Christmas has a stage name that is mentioned in the lyrics of the song?

4. Who kept Take That’s Babe off the Christmas number one spot in 1993?

5. According to the lyrics of the song Fairytale Of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, what song were the boys of the NYPD choir singing?

6. Which famous Christmas song was originally called One Horse Open Sleigh?

7. Which war was John Lennon referring to in his song Happy Xmas (War Is Over)?

8. In the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslas, did the title character last look out on the 24th, 25th or 26th of December?

9. In 2008, Once Upon A Christmas Song was a hit single for Geraldine McQueen, as played by comedian Peter Kay. Which famous singer cowrote this song with Peter Kay? 10. Of the 364 gifts given in total in the song The Twelve Days Of Christmas, how many are birds?

1. Auld Lang Syne 2. Cry and Pout 3. Sting 4. Mr Blobby 5. Galway Bay 6. Jingle Bells 7. The Vietnam War 8. 26th 9. Gary Barlow 10. 184

Before

After

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Pets

Missing At this time of year, pet organisations usually warn us about the dangers of buying a puppy or kitten as a Christmas present. But what about families who face the festive season without their beloved dog or cat, often considered a part of the family?

Dog thefts and cat disappearances are sadly becoming increasingly common in our area and the statistics are grim, at present averaging a theft of a dog approximately twice a month.

Theories concerning the thefts include pedigree dogs being stolen to order and then sold, or, horrifyingly, dogs being used for organised and illegal dog fighting. Bedfordshire Police has recently urged dog owners to be extra vigilant following a rise in the number of dogs, particularly labradors, spaniels and terriers, that are being stolen – often in broad daylight and from under the noses of their owners. Police have received reports of twenty-two dogs being stolen across Bedfordshire. Alarmingly, dog walkers are being increasingly approached directly and intimidated by groups of criminals who then brazenly try and take their pet.

Willow, a female Cockerpoo, was taken while she was being walked on 30th September 2014 over Biggleswade Common.

Owner Hayley Walsh said: “One day we had everything and we were so happy, the next day it was all gone.”

Hayley and her partner Ross Scotney have been devastated by Willow’s disappearance, exploring every avenue to try and locate her, which includes setting up a Facebook page and offering a £1,800 reward for her safe

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return. Hayley said: “Willow is a shy dog. She is not one to dart off but that day, her walkers had her off the lead and for some reason she ran back onto the common and despite extensive searches she has just disappeared.

They are also working with the Stolen and Stray agency who are patrolling the A1, River Ivel and the railway track – all of which could be a danger to a dog on the loose. However, it looks increasingly as though Willow, who only weighed 9kg, could have been stolen.

Hayley and Scott’s case is only the tip of the iceberg. Bedfordshire Police are aware of the growing problem and Inspector Tracey Day, Bedfordshire Police’s Wildlife Officer, said: “We would urge all owners to ensure that they have their pet micro chipped so that any recovered animals can be reunited as quickly as possible. A number of thefts have occurred when dogs have been left unattended in gardens. If you have to leave your dog at home then it is important that they are in a secure environment.

“It is also important that dogs are well trained, return when called and do not go out of sight while on walks. Using an extendable lead can be an option.”

Anyone with information relating to these or any other incidents relating to dog thefts, can contact, Bedfordshire Police, in confidence, on 101, or text information to 07786 200011.

Alternatively you can contact the independent crime fighting charity, Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

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Friendly, Independent, expert advice on your personal and

Independent Financial Adviser

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Retirement Planning

Annuities • Open-Market-Options • Pensions

Savings & Investments ISAs • OEICs • Bonds

Protection

Life • Critical Illness • Income

Existing Plans & Portfolios Review Needs & Objectives For advice please call:

T: 01767 650 477 M: 07738 120 127 E: wayne.bacon@2plan.com

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Registered office: 2plan Wealth Management Ltd. Bridgewater Place, Water Lane, Leeds, LS11 5BZ. Registered in England Number: 05998270 VAT Registered: 894679251

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l Dates a t s o P s a m t s i r Ch Last Post

LAST RVICE RECOMMENDED SE S TE DA G IN ST LAST PO RVICE L STANDARD RECOMMENDED SE ) ail rm INTERNATIONA Ai ly S TE (former DA G IN ST PO g Asia, Far East (includin d lan Zea UK c w De Ne ), 3rd an d We Jap Second Class & alia str Au Royal Mail Signed Thurs 4th Dec c De th l 18 tra rs Thu Cen , Africa, Caribbean ddle For速 Mi & South America, Fri 5th Dec First Class & Royal East th Dec 20 e, Sat Mail Signed For速 op Eur n ter Eas , Cyprus c De 8th n Mo Greece Royal Mail Special Delivery c Poland a, De ad rd 23 Can s Tue Guaranteed速 Tues 9th Dec A US c De th 12 Fri Western Europe Poland) Sat 13th Dec (excluding Greece,

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Where AM I?

Do You Know?

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£25 Argos Voucher

3 Shown are 3 pictures which have been taken in one Town or Village somewhere in our distribution area, can you name it?

Send your name and address with the correct town to WAI Dec 14, Villager Publications Ltd 24 Market Square, Potton, Beds SG19 2NP

Last month’s answer

Last month’s images were taken in Thorncote Green and Shuttleworth House.

Our Where Am I photography is by Adam Bent.

Where Are we?

The Villager and Town Life magazine is delivered door to door throughout:

VILLAGER The

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Booking your advertising space is easy just call Nigel on 01767 261122 or e-mail nigel@villagermag.com

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Local Business

The Titmus Family

Woodview Farm Shop Café What happens when you add some café culture to a well-respected farm shop run by a local family with four generations of market gardening behind them, then mix in a head chef with a flair for fine bistro food?

The answer is Woodview Farm Shop Café.

Situated on the B1040 between Potton and Gamlingay, Woodview Farm Shop Café has been open for 24 weeks.

Those who have used the farm shop since 2007 will already be aware of this welcome addition which is accessed through the back. But if you have never visited, it is well worth the trip.

Bright and airy, with a 700 square footage and seating for 52 people, Woodview Farm Shop Café is welcoming from the moment you step past the open plan kitchen. With its well-spaced custom made tables, stylish green and cream décor and local artwork adorning the walls, you feel as though you have discovered somewhere a bit special. A rack of daily newspapers on the wall and shelves of books by the cloakroom mean you can imagine losing quite a bit of time here over a cup of coffee or tea chosen from their wide selection.

Woodview is a family-run business, and with a successful farm shop, owners Geoff and Lorraine

Woodview Farm Shop Christmas Fayre

(meat also available to order) Free range Bedfordshire turkeys, Three-bird roasts, Rolled turkey crowns, Sausage meats, Pigs in blankets, A wide selection of flavoured sausages, 21 day matured Hereford beef joints, Fore: rib, Rolled topside, Rolled sirloin, Home produced lamb and pork, Pork pies, gammons and a selection of English and continental cheeses from the deli counter Fruit and vegetables, Beers, wines and spirits, Cards and gifts

Woodview Farm Shop and Café Open 8.30am to 5pm, seven days a week Mill Hill, Potton Road, Gamlingay SG19 3LW

Café - bookings and enquiries (and to pre-book Christmas lunch) - 01767 651667 Shop – 01767 650200 Email: enquiries@woodviewfarm.co.uk

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Titmus saw a need to open a café around three years ago.

“It’s been a learning curve but if you have a business of this type, you need to move with the times and most garden centres and farm shops are now complimented with a café” explains Geoff. “The shop is separate to the café, but the two work together. When customers visit the shop, they can have a coffee or some lunch and at the same time get to sample some of the produce we sell here”.

Planning and designing the extension themselves, the café opened this summer, taking on a local head chef, Dan Rose who Geoff says has “set the bar” for their good value bistro-style menu with daily specials using seasonal produce that comes fresh from the shop and which according to regular customers “cannot be faulted”.

“The farm shop has a reputation for good quality meat” says Geoff. “Customers know they can expect the highest standards at the best price. We have reflected this is in our café.

“My philosophy has always been that you are constantly working on the next sale so people need to leave satisfied that they’ve had good value. Repeat custom is important to us.”

With a staff totalling 16, the business is very much a family affair with Geoff and Lorraine’s four grown up children all helping to supervise.

Robert takes care of the fruit and vegetables and looks after the ‘larder’ that stocks beer, wine and spirits; Jason heads the butcher’s team; Kenny helps look after the farm with its pigs, sheep and around 5,000 free range hens and Abi is the kitchen manager. All profit is ploughed back into the business.

Growing by reputation, to date, the café has catered for large parties of diners; and Dan and his team are frequently very busy for the popular Woodview traditional Sunday roast lunch where booking is advised.

Where the farm does not supply its own produce, they try and support local suppliers.

“We like to buy and source locally. If it’s good enough, we will stock it” says Geoff. Fruit and vegetables are supplied by Neil Richardson of Beeston with the rest bought fresh from London markets. Meat comes from well-known reputable family suppliers David and Chris Hunt of Watergate Farm, Hockcliffe. There is always fresh fish on a Friday when fishmonger Adrian Wright visits from Lowestoft and Dan consequently has a fish special on the café menu every week.

With Christmas on the horizon, the farm shop is now stocking its Christmas fayre and can take turkey orders up to the last minute. The café is also introducing a special pre-bookable threecourse Christmas menu available for a fixed price per head during the whole of December and the first week of January.

Described by Geoff as having a “can do” attitude, Dan puts together all the menus and says that he has aimed to “create a relaxed dining experience using top quality, freshly made and freshly cooked food”.

One of the nicest compliments Dan has had was when an American lady told him she had eaten “the best chicken Caesar salad ever” at the café, after having travelled the world.

Geoff and Lorraine have plans to expand further.

They are already building a decked outside area and garden which should be ready by spring when lambing begins, and they hope to turn the farm into an open one with a children’s playground that families can visit. They have also just leased some land that links directly to the Clopton Way. With plenty of parking at the front, they want to encourage groups of walkers to come along and enjoy their walk followed by a welcome lunch.

A new, bigger kitchen is also on the horizon which should please Woodview’s head chef no end.

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Garden

I’m dreaming of a Green Christmas

By Pippa Greenwood

I love giving presents, whether that gift is a thing of beauty or something totally practical. With gardening as one of the nation’s top pastimes, here are a few ideas for things which I am sure most green fingered friends would be delighted to receive.

If you know a newish gardener then the basic tools are always well received, especially if you choose good quality, sturdy ones. So think fork, spade and rake – yes, they are difficult to wrap but worth the effort.

For anyone gripped by the Grow Your Own bug you could give one of my ‘Grow Your Own with Pippa Greenwood ‘ gift cards – they choose the veg they want to grow and I send them out, at the right time for planting and accompanied by weekly advice and tips emails….it couldn’t be simpler!

Find out more at www.pippagreenwood.com Weeding is always an issue so a hoe is useful or for smaller spaces (such as in between plants, in gravel, between paving, or to tackle weeds within planters) try the hand held red-handled weeders – I think they’re indispensable.

A few packets of vegetable seeds are always appreciated and most garden centres already have a good variety in stock. If you want to spend a bit more, a heated propagator makes a fantastic gift.

With tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and many of the fancier ornamentals needing to be sown soon, it’ll be a gift put to use straight away.

Gardening gloves too are something we can always have more of. Some of the gauntlet style gloves are perfect if you have to tackle a pruning job on a thorny plant or one with really rough or sharp leaves. Alternatively, there are many lower-priced types available with gripping pads on the fingers or with leather toughened strips across the knuckles.

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Classic greens, ravishing reds or funky florals, gloves are definitely not boring.

Birds in the garden not only help to keep pest numbers down, but they also add charm which everybody appreciates. A peanut feeder, nest box or perhaps even a bird table will attract them in and there are many designs available from modern to rustic.

For the ‘other half’ who is less inclined to help with the tough jobs in the garden, admit defeat and give them a garden lounger or even a hammock.

As container gardening continues to rise in popularity, another idea is to give a few gorgeous looking containers - either empty for the friend or relative to decide what to put in it themselves, or make them into a complete gift by planting them up with a selection of plants and under planting them with bulbs which you know will bring extra delight next year.

Finally, houseplants such as poinsettias, cyclamen, indoor azaleas and jasmines are perfect for providing bright colour indoors at this time of year.

But remember when you buy any indoor plant during cold weather, it is essential that you protect it thoroughly on the journey from the shop to your car and from your car into your house as even a tiny exposure to cold drafts and low temperatures can cause damage.

Visit www.pippagreenwood.com for a great rate of Gardeningrelated Gifts including stylish ‘Grow Your Own with Pippa Greenwood’ gift cards, Pippa’s favourite weeding tool, signed books and lots of useful garden items for your friends & family…or for yourself!

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Garden

Fungi - Friend or Foe?

Rural Ramblings. By Geoff Wharton

Autumn is a great time of the year for wandering through a woodland. The leaves are starting to fall and the display of multi-coloured mushrooms and toadstools is always impressive especially following a dry summer. It always impresses me how many leaves can build up especially after a cold snap and how they slowly disappear as if by magic.

Of course the slow breakdown of once living, organic remains is due to something of this world and is principally carried out by the refuse collectors and disposers of the natural world which are mainly the fungi. Throughout the warmer parts of the year, they are busy growing, often unnoticed and of course they need food. They obtain this from anything which was living and contains materials which they can digest and absorb. Such materials, depending on the kind of fungus, could range from dead leaves, fruits, vegetables, living plants and animals, the timber in our houses, the compost in our gardens and the sugars in our fruit juices.

The range of types of fungi is quite staggering, but they all have one thing in common. Unlike green plants, they cannot make their own food from light water and carbon dioxide. They must obtain it “second hand” from either living or dead things.

The structures we see sprouting out of the ground will be the fruiting bodies which produce the spores to be liberated for the wind to disperse. These spores will germinate and grow into new colonies if by chance they happen to land on a suitable food source and the growing conditions are favourable.

It is fascinating to read about the discovery of penicillin. Many fungi produce chemicals called mycotoxins which can be very dangerous to humans.

The penicillium fungus however was found to produce a chemical (penicillin), which was harmful to bacteria and not people. Small dishes which contained colonies of bacteria had been left out instead of being cleared away and purely by chance a spore from a penicillium fungus had floated in through a window and landed on one of the dishes.

The growing conditions were good and it began to spread and in doing so came into contact with the bacteria. Fortunately for us ,it began to produce it’s anti–bacterial chemical and the bacteria began to be killed off, leaving the penicillium with a clearly defined clear area around itself. We must be thankful to Dr. Fleming and others who possessed great observational skills for seeing this effect and having the wisdom to understand the significance because this was the start of the development of the hugely important antibiotic industry which has been responsible for saving so many lives.

So where do we stand on the issue of moulds being harmful or beneficial? Plant diseases caused by fungi can be catastrophic and include peach leaf curl, blackspot of roses, mildew, scab and blight of potatoes and apples, rust and a whole range of other species which cause massive amounts of damage to agricultural and horticultural crops both in production and storage. Other fungi are responsible for the harm to farm animals and ourselves, our houses (wet and dry rot of timber) and food in storage. For example the aflotoxins produced by some moulds growing on badly stored seeds in can be extremely toxic. On the other hand the production of alcoholic drinks (benefit or harm?) is thanks to yeast and tasty cheese and yoghurt depend on moulds also! Then there is the compost heap. We must take this into account too! And on a more serious note the re-cycling of nutrients brought about by decomposition being possibly the most important issue of all? I will leave it to you to decide while I enjoy a sip or two of beer and a bite of cheese on toast.

Geoff Wharton Gardening Services

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Reliable, experienced, well qualified.

General and specialist garden work: Jungle clearing, Pruning, Hedge and grass cutting, Regular maintenance, Licensed waste disposal.

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Geoff Wharton - BSC honours Hort.Science Email:geoffwharton@hotmail.com

Tel: 01767 261727 69

RSPB

Big Garden Birdwatch The worlds’ biggest garden wildlife survey is on its way...

The UK will once again be peering out of their windows for the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th January 2015, now in its 36th year.

The survey has provided information about the changes in numbers of garden birds in winter, and helped to alert conservationists to those species in decline like house sparrows, greenfinches and starlings.

The number of people taking part has grown considerably and now around half a million participants make it the world’s biggest garden wildlife survey.

To take part, families are asked to spend just one hour at any time over the Birdwatch weekend noting the highest number of each species seen in their gardens or local outside space. They are then asked to submit the results to the RSPB before 13th February 2015, either online at www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch or in the post.

This year, participants are being asked again to log some of the other wildlife they see in their gardens to help build an overall picture of how important our gardens are for giving wildlife a home.

Almost 7.5 million birds were counted in this years’ survey (January 2014) with the results showing greenfinch and starling continue to decline. For the first time however in Birdwatch history, the great spotted woodpecker made it into the top 20 and goldfinches swooped into the number seven spot.

You can register from 15th December 2014 for the Big Garden Birdwatch 2015 at www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch

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We don’t aim to save you pennies - just £’s New look, new stock (therefore stock to clear including BBQs, furniture, decorative stones)

Stock Clearance Due in February a brand new range of superb garden furniture

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Along with seed potatoes and onions sets many other varieties of vegetable seeds Tel: 01767 680983 now being sold loose giving great massive savings!!

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Largest Open 9am-5pm Tuesday - Saturday • PatchworkSunday Cutters ••Karen Davis Moulds Cakecraft Shop Ribbons10am-4pm Closed Mondays

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Well Being

A Woodland Wonderland

By Nooshin Hassan I had been looking forward to a tasty lunch followed by a lovely countryside walk. We’d had the tasty lunch: thick slices of seeded rustic bread and bowls of hearty warming soup, but the lovely walk was looking unlikely to happen.

Outside the French doors, the rain was pouring down and the skies were an endless grey. I tried to see the silver lining in that continuous sheet of cloud. We needed the rain so it was probably a good thing.

The rain eventually slowed to a drizzle but it still didn’t look inviting to head out. My friend had other ideas though (fuelled perhaps by her two young daughters running around the house and chasing after the dog). Rainy weather, she declared, was perfect for young kids who love muddy puddles. I couldn’t argue with that, so we donned our wellies and coats and grabbed as many umbrellas as we could find, driving a few minutes to Monks Wood.

As we stepped into the wood I already felt refreshed. The lush leafiness all around breathed life into the atmosphere and re-awakened my senses. We began to follow the route through the woodland, with a very inquisitive dog leading the way and two excitable young girls not far behind him. Something had carved deep ridges into the muddy trail, which proved excellent for providing large deep puddles just begging to be jumped in.

The damp foliage on the soil gave a slightly

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sweet, earthy fragrance that wafted in and out of our walk, and I embraced it, wanting to capture some of it and save it for another time to make me feel uplifted and refreshed again. Charmed by the peaceful, rich woodland, we lost our way a little and found ourselves ducking under fallen branches. Kids being kids, they each grabbed a broken branch and became instant explorers in this kingdom of overgrown undergrowth.

I smiled to myself, recalling times when my sister and I had done exactly the same thing, and I gave thanks that in this day of ‘virtual’ life, children can still find their own adventure with just a stick and the wildlife that surrounds us.

At the same time that we saw a clearing, signalling our re-discovery of the pathway, we also saw a pale stream of sunlight filtering through the trees. Gradually the sunlight became brighter, and as we reached the end of our walk the warm glow had found its way through all available spaces and portrayed the woodland in new shades of splendour.

As we left Monks Wood we saw others just about to enter. It was lovely to see them enjoying this natural beauty on our doorstep, especially now the sun was out but I felt lucky to have appreciated the wood in both grey skies and glorious sunshine. Life is doubly enjoyable if we can seek out the pleasure in less than perfect weather, and then enjoy the same pleasure when the sun shines.

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SURECLEAN Countrywear

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 Personal customer service, collection and delivery available.  Assessment of individual requirements.  Full after sales backup and parts service.

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Contact Richard for more details 01767691115 or 07810820523 email sandygrabservices@outlook.com Longacre Farm, Moggerhanger Road Sandy, Beds SG19 1ND

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Local News

December at the Swiss Garden The Swiss Garden re-opened almost three months ago following a major Heritage Lottery and Central Bedfordshire Council funded project to restore its buildings and landscape to their early 19th century design, improving access. Described as a ‘fairyland’ by a visitor in 1839, it is a unique mix of ‘Regency Gem’ and ‘Victorian Fancy’, and the undulating landscape was created to mirror the foothills of the Swiss Alps, as its name suggests.

The new Woodland Sculpture Walk has been a great success, and the final (and biggest) sculpture, at the end of the lake, will be unveiled soon. Called Changing Scenes, it will reflect the movement of the seasons in the woodland and nearby garden.

Spring bedding plants and hundreds of bulbs have been planted this autumn, promising a colourful display for early 2015. The Dolphin Tazza bed has changing colour schemes from year to year, as do the various urns and planters dotted around.

Garden projects over the winter period include

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formative pruning in some key areas, including the Broadwalk, where overgrown hedges and trees will be cut back to create a more formal backdrop for the recently restored Night and Morning Vase along with the introduction of climbing plants up and along some of the garden’s ornamental arches.

Please see What’s On for December events at The Swiss Garden.

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Pets

Seasonal Canine Illness

Animal Knowhow A number of mystery dog illnesses have been reported in late autumn over the last number of years. Symptoms include severe vomiting, diarrhoea (which can vary from watery to bloody), shaking, trembling and high temperatures. These have generally been displayed within 24 hours of walking in the countryside, especially woodland.

The cause of this is unknown but the RSPCA warns owners to be vigilant.

If your pet exhibits any of these symptoms, take them immediately to your vet. In most reported cases, the affected dogs are treated with fluids by drip and with antibiotics. Although the majority of dogs have recovered within ten days, in some cases the dogs have died (the majority of these being in Norfolk). The exact numbers of dogs involved are not known.

It’s still unclear what is causing Seasonal Canine Illness. Recently, there has been a focussed effort to document the details of the dogs affected and various agencies have teamed up to ensure that data collection is coordinated. Research plans at The University of Nottingham are at an early stage but are likely to focus on toxins naturally occurring in plants, fungi and algae blooms in woodland areas, which may fit the profile as a potential cause of the sudden onset of these symptoms in dogs.

If you’re a dog owner: • be vigilant for signs of illness and contact a vet immediately if concerned

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• be aware of where your dog is and what it may be eating/drinking/walking through • you may wish to keep your dog on a lead during autumn in woodland and the countryside • help the research efforts by filling in the Animal Health Trust questionnaire if you have walked your dog in an affected area – even if your dog has not become ill. There are specific questionnaires for various sites that can be downloaded from the Animal Health Trust website (www.aht.org.uk) • notify other pet owners you encounter about the project – spread the word!

So, the advice is to be vigilant and if you have any concerns, contact your vet immediately. Although the evidence suggests it’s a seasonal illness it is best to stay vigilant at all times of the year.

The RSPCA and Animal Health Trust are not in a position to advise where dogs should or shouldn’t be walked, but we’re trying to alert dog owners to this potential risk so you can make a betterinformed decision. If you’re worried you may wish to walk your dog on a lead so you know exactly where it is at all times. Alternatively contact your local vet to see if any cases have been reported or seen by them in your local area.

ANIMAL STORIES is one of a series of articles brought to you by the RSPCA Bedfordshire North branch. www.rspca-bedfordshirenorth.org.uk

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Broadies Walkies

Dog Walking, Sitting, Home use Ho Visits, Vet Runs on: Call alice for more

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04/11/2014 14:40

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Pets

Ask Alan Sue asked - I have heard that it will be compulsory to have all dogs microchipped from 2016 but am worried about side effects. Do microchips cause problems?

Dear Sue Microchips are the best way to permanently identify your pet so they can be returned to you if they ever go missing. As an added advantage, some microchips can read the temperature so your pet does not have to have the indignity of having the temperature taken with a thermometer!

The chip, about the size of a rice grain, is injected under the skin between the shoulders. The chip number is read by a handhold scanner and is registered on a central database.

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Apart from stinging a bit when implanted (which is quickly over), chips do not cause any adverse effects. While they can move under the skin they cannot penetrate organs or joints. The most common problem is that owners forget to update the database when they move so when a stray is scanned (as is routinely done), the information is not usable.

You still need to identify your dog with a collar but collars can go missing and a microchip cannot. Even if it was not becoming a legal requirement, I strongly recommend that you microchip your pets.

Best wishes,

Alan

If you have any questions you would like answered, please email them to villager@pottonvets.co.uk For more information visit

www.pottonvets.co.uk or pop into the clinic in Potton Market Square.

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y chaps doggy day car p p Ha Offering your dogs and safe fun e filled environment Est 14 yrs Open all day every day All operatives fully insured and qualified dog trainers.

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To find out more call Nigel on 01767 261122 or email nigel@villagermag.com To advertise in The Villager and Town Life please call 01767 261122

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A flexible day nursery for children from 6 weeks to 5 years with extensive and well resourced grounds. ur o y f f o Excellent links to s onth’ 1st m es the A1, St Neots and fe Sandy railway station.

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To find out more call us today

01767 681805 76 London Road, Sandy Beds. SG19 1DZ e: info@manorfarm-day-nursery.co.uk w: www.manorfarm-day-nursery.co.uk

“Where learning is fun” Has vacancies for children aged 2, 3 and 4 years old Based at Potton Town Football Club, The Hollow, Biggleswade Road, SG19 2LU Website: woodentops-potton.com Email: woodentopspotton@gmail.com Mobile: 07947 892823 Tel: 01767449443 or 01767 261100 Ball skills every Wednesday provided by Premier Sports 82

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Craft

Get Crafty Kids!

By Debbie Singh-Bhatti

Every Christmas as a child I received a new colouring book and set of crayons with which I spent many happy hours sprawled on the living room floor colouring in the pictures.

As the years progressed, the colouring book was replaced with a series of craft sets, and I remember one year spending ages knitting an extremely long scarf!

Crafting helps children to develop their imagination, express themselves and explore new ideas or concepts. The creative process brings feelings of satisfaction and pleasure, and builds children’s confidence in their ability to make their own decisions and choices.

Crafting is a great way to learn how to solve problems, follow directions and develop skills such as cutting, measuring, gluing and sewing.

It can also give family members the chance to spend quality time together in a shared activity.

Christmas offers children the opportunity to hand make gifts for friends and family members. From home-baked treats to a painted plant pot or a decorated photo frame, there is no end to the possibilities.

Craft sets also make ideal stocking fillers and promise hours of entertainment. Loom bands are extremely popular right now, knitting is enjoying a revival, finger puppets are always lots of fun and card-making, jewellery kits and scrap books are guaranteed winners. You could also consider science and modelling kits.

Have fun getting crafty this Christmas!

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83

Motoring

Preparing your

motorcycle for winter

Benn Adgie, from Motorcycle Engineering in Biggleswade, has over 30 years of experience in riding and working on motorcycles. Here he gives some simple advice on how you might be able to save yourself some hassle/expense if you are not planning to ride your bike during the winter months, or if you have already taken your bike off the road for winter: 1 Ideally try to store your bike in a garage. If your bike cannot be stored in a garage, then do use a motorcycle cover or a tarpaulin. The worst thing you can do is leave a bike in driving rain for any length of time. On a dry, windy day, take your bike out, uncover it and leave it so that any moisture can evaporate.

2 Before storing your bike give it a really good clean and polish. Spray a small amount of WD40 (or similar) on areas including fork stanchions, engine casings, chrome parts, and all other parts susceptible to external corrosion.

3 Try to run your bike every couple of weeks up to running temperature. If running stationery in your garage, and your bike has an air-cooled Engine, do this for around five minutes or so each time. If you have a water-cooled bike you can run it for longer.

4 Keep the fuel tank full up which avoids internal petrol tank corrosion.

5 Keep the battery fully charged with a conventional charger or a trickle charger. In freezing conditions, if your garage isn’t heated, then remove the battery from the bike and place in a warm place or indoors. A battery on a bike even with a trickle charger, in freezing conditions, can still be damaged or destroyed.

6 Keep tyres pumped up so that they don’t deform where they sit on one spot. If the bike isn’t going to be moved, then turn the wheels so the tyres aren’t sitting on the ground in the same spot. Do this once a month if possible.

By doing all of the above you should be able to avoid the battery dying, and the carburettors from gumming up. The main reason to run your bike regularly is to make sure internal engine parts are coated with oil and fuel systems don’t get clogged up from modern, unleaded fuel which can go stale very quickly.

When spring comes, before hopping on your bike for your first ride make sure you check all controls before riding off. Treat your tyres as new ie they are likely to have an oxidised film on them that develops over the time they are not being used and this can make them ‘slippy’.

Check brakes several times before going out.

Do a simple nut and bolt check and look around the bike to ensure that there is nothing loose or hanging off.

Happy, and safe, riding! Cheers Benn.

Benn Adgie, Motorcycle Engineering, 07772 862447. Look for Benn on yell.com and search for Motorcycle Engineering in Biggleswade.

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SERVICING Good Garage Scheme Industry Standard Service Or to manufacturer specification

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Motoring

Top Five Sports Cars

by James Baggott, Car Dealer Magazine Most people spend all their lives dreaming of owning a sports car – but for a lucky few that dream can sometimes become a reality.

After years spent gazing longingly at every Ferrari and Porsche that drives by, finally strolling into a dealership to shell out on one for yourself can be a life-changing event.

But when you’ve spent years scrimping and saving to own one, when the time comes to choose which one to put your money down on, the decision can be rather tricky to make.

Here we’ve tried to help by picking the top five you might want to consider.

Ferrari 458 Italia Price: From £178,526 If it’s a Ferrari you’re after there really is only one you should be considering – and that’s this, the 458 Italia. Not only does it have looks that can kill from 100 paces, but it has an incredible 4.5-litre 562bhp V8 engine, a top speed of 202mph and can hit 60mph in a brain-melting 3.2 seconds. There’s no wonder many consider this to be the motoring nirvana.

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Porsche 911 Price: From £73,509 Practicality isn’t generally high up on the agenda when buying a sports car, but with four seats in a Porsche 911 you might just be able to convince your better half that’s it’s the perfect family car.

Ok, who are we kidding, that’s never going to happen, better then to focus on the fabulous flat-six engines and incredible handling. The 911 has been the definitive go-to sports car for generations and the latest “991” model is no different. Well worth a look.

Jaguar F-Type Coupe Price: From £85,000 It took three decades for Jaguar to finally build a successor to its legendary E-Type – but the wait was worth it. The F-Type, which comes in soft-top and coupe guises, is not only stunning, but brilliant to drive too. There are three versions available: V6, V6S and V8S. We’d opt for the latter which combines a glorious exhaust note with stonking performance from the 542bhp 5.0-litre V8.

Lotus Exige S Price: From £54,235 Let’s forget luxury for a minute and just go for something a little bit bonkers and a lot of fun. The Lotus Exige S covers all that. It doesn’t have leather, in fact you’re lucky to get a radio, but this is not a performance car to be snubbed. It has a mid-engine 3.5-litre V6 engine that will propel the wild-looking machine to 60mph in just 3.8 seconds and is guaranteed to put a smile on anyone’s face. Just don’t expect to be comfortable.

Toyota GT86 Price: From £25,110 Yes, we’ve lined up a Toyota against supercar glitterati, but before you scoff, hear us out.

The GT86 may not have the kudos of a Ferrari, but if you’re looking for sports car thrills on a budget it’s worth considering.

Starting at just £25,000 you get a huge amount of car for your money like the entertaining 2.0-litre Boxer D-4S engine, smart styling and seat-of-yourpants driving thrills.

By James Baggott, editor of Car Dealer Magazine (CarDealerMag.co.uk)

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THE BIGGLESWADE TALKING NEWSPAPER

Local news, for Local Listeners by Local volunteers supported and funded by Local organisations

• The Biggleswade Talking Newspaper is one way that the Blind and partially sighted person can independently access local news.

• If you know anyone who you feel would like to have a ‘’talking newspaper’’ on a memory stick each week, free to the listener, please contact us 07840 504940 or visit our web site.

• We are the official “talking newspaper” for East Bedfordshire, Biggleswade, Arlesey, Potton, Sandy, Shefford, Stotfold and the surrounding villages.

• The BIGGLESWADE TALKING NEWSPAPER DAY our Listener numbers have increased by 50% in the last 18 months.

www.biggleswadetalkingnewspaper.org.uk We are a registered charity No 281316 established in 1981

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Time of Year

Retro Sweets

By Susan Brookes-Morris

This Christmas why not take your loved ones back to their happy childhood-days by buying them some retro sweets.

Lots of treats fro yesteryear are have become available again, and you can buy them in all shapes and sizes from single items to whole boxes of your favourites, and some that are gift packaged in hampers or used to create tree or flower designs.

Many of us will remember sweets such as Space Dust, Black Jacks, Flying Saucers, Refreshers, Sugar Mice, Parma Violets, Midget Gems, Wham Bars and Traffic-Light Lollies- and I could go on to name many more. For me it was a Friday treat to have 10p to spend and select carefully ‘one of those and one of those etc’ which the assistant would then place into a little white paper bag and hand over to me. I would then joyfully savour them as I walked home from school taking ages to decide in which order I’d eat them.

Behind those items, all laid out in small trays on the counter, were shelves crammed with tall glass jars, containing items such as Pear Drops, Bon-Bons, Pineapple Cubes and Cherry Lips, all of which were more commonly bought by the quarter.

There are now many shops with these layouts again, selling retro sweets. These range from tiny independents to chains that have many branches across the country. They all create a sense of nostalgia, and I’ve watched grown ups get such joy in once again telling the assistant ‘I’d like one of those and one of those etc.’ They are even known to whoop with delight when they find an old favourite again for the first time.

Such retro sweets have also become firm favourites at weddings, where special candy carts are sometimes set up for guests to enjoy.

So if you are old enough to remember when Snickers used to be called Marathon, chances are your friends and family are also of the right era to enjoy a Sherbet Dip liquorice stick or some Fruit Salad chews. Why not take them back to their carefree days, pop in to an old fashioned sweet shop and tick another present off the shopping list.

You could also arouse the interest of your younger relatives too, who won’t familiar with these sweets but are sure to find them as delightful as we did.

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Food and Drink

Seasonal Delights

Roast Turkey with Leek, Apricot and Chestnut Stuffing Serves 8-10 Ready in approx 4 ½ hours, plus resting time Roasting the turkey in a ’tent’ of buttered foil will keep it moist and succulent. Always allow time for the cooked bird to rest before carving.

INGREDIENTS 100g butter 1 tbsp olive oil 1 leek, trimmed and chopped 2 shallots, peeled and finely chopped 75g ready to eat dried apricots, finely chopped 150g fresh white breadcrumbs 100g cooked chestnuts, finely chopped 2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves 5.4kg oven-ready turkey, giblets removed 16 cocktail sausages 4 rashers smoked streaky bacon Fresh herbs, to garnish 1. Heat half the butter and the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the leek and shallots for 6-7 minutes until softened. Remove from the heat and stir in the apricots, breadcrumbs, chestnuts and half the thyme leaves. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper and leave to cool.

2. Preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/gas 5. Line a large roasting tin with buttered foil. Use about one third of the stuffing mix to stuff the neck end of the turkey (press the rest of the stuffing in a shallow ovenproof dish to cook separately). Weigh the stuffed turkey and calculate the cooking time

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- allow 20 minutes per 450g plus 20 minutes. Place the turkey in the lined roasting tin and smear all over the skin with the remaining butter. Sprinkle over the rest of the thyme leaves and season.

3. Cover the turkey with a tent of buttered foil and roast in the preheated oven for the calculated cooking time, basting occasionally. Uncover the turkey for the last 45 minutes until the skin is golden and the juices run clear when a skewer is inserted into the thickest part of one thigh. If the juices still run slightly pink return the turkey to the oven for a further 15-20 minutes then check again.

4. Leave the turkey, loosely covered with foil, in a warm place to rest for at least 20 minutes. Stretch the bacon rashers with the back of a knife and cut each rasher in half. Wrap the short rashers around the cocktail sausages, securing with a cocktail stick. Place in baking tray and cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden and cooked through.

Drizzle a couple of spoonfuls of juices from the turkey over the stuffing in the dish and cook in the oven at the same time as the bacon-wrapped sausages for 20 minutes.

5. Serve the turkey on a large warmed platter with the bacon-wrapped sausages and garnished with fresh herbs. Serve the extra stuffing separately along with all the usual festive vegetables.

TIP - For a quick gravy, simmer the roast turkey juices with a splash of red wine and a couple of spoonfuls of redcurrant jelly.

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Food and Drink

Christmas Spirit!

By Nick Clare

With winter nights drawing near, the late light evenings nothing but a distant memory and our advent calendars on the wall, it is clear for all to see it’s DECEMBER again! PANIC! I love Christmas and all that it brings but like many of you I have gifts to buy. Although I enjoy this process, some people are harder to buy for than others whether this is because of discerning taste or simply that they want the same bottle of scotch every year (or at least that’s what you tell yourself when you reach for it in the supermarket).

Well, maybe this year could be special for that certain someone too? I love spirits and love giving them as a gift especially if it’s something new for that person to try, so I thought I would give you some alternatives to your standard bottle of whisky. These include whiskys but are just something a little different.

First up is Hakushu. This is a great whisky from the Japanese Suntory Whisky Company. They also make Yamazaki and Hibiki. My favourite is Hakushu 18 year old single malt; it’s a great pale yellow colour and has tasting notes of green tea, apricot and a subtle smoke. If the person you are buying for likes cocktails I recommend the Hakushu distillers reserve.

Penderyn Madeira single malt is a crisp well rounded welsh whisky with a great Madeira after taste. I love this whisky and it is amazing value for money.

Then there is getting into the Christmas Spirit.

This is a great spirit that tastes like distilled Christmas pudding and is a must have for the festive season. It is made by the English Spirit Distillery.

Santa Teresa 1796 rum is a rum that is produced using the traditional solera method. This rum has the delicious aroma of toffee with flavours of dark chocolate and maple. It really is special!

If you want to surprise them then you could make the following cocktail:

The www. (worldwide whisky) Ingredients: 30ml of Penderyn Madeira cask whisky 30ml of Hakushu distiller’s reserve 2 dashes of Scrappy’s chocolate bitters 2 dashes of Scrappy’s aromatic bitters 5ml of Demerara sugar syrup

Method: Fill a tin or glass with ice add ingredients and stir 20 times until a nice dilution has occurred. Strain into a rocks glass and Enjoy!

Cocktail recipe and article by Nick Clare of www.mixedupbars.co.uk

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The idea of giving up tobacco products is something that the vast majority of smokers would love to accomplish. Not because they don’t enjoy smoking, but because they don’t want the health implications and the financial drain. I know this because I have smoked from a young age and could easily see 40 disappear in a day.

I tried most of the ‘traditional’ methods but failed at each attempt, because I wanted to give up for the wrong reasons.

The reason that electronic cigarettes are becoming so popular is because you don’t give up, You simply switch to the healthy alternative that has the bonus of very impressive savings.

Vaping is very personal and my shop caters for all.

Some people do start vaping just to cut-down but the vast majority have no intention of ever smoking another tobacco product, and it works.

There are a lot of products on the market now due to its popularity and my shop has it covered. I will happily take time to explain the products, what’s in the juices and why I only use the top names in the industry which, along with my juices, are governed by a regulatory body.

Feel free to come down for some friendly advice and sample some of the 40+ flavours I stock.

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95 07/10/2014 08:29

Local News

FREE

Biggleswade Sandy Lions Club Biggleswade Sandy Lions are proud to support CAFFE (Computers Are Free For Everyone), a registered charity in this country providing free computer education to underprivileged young people in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Without computer skills, they would be consigned to menial jobs because of their background, so this charity leads them to better jobs and a better life.

The students come from the local area. Large families live in one cramped room with a tin roof, no electricity or running water and with primitive sanitation. It is extremely hot in the summer and the dwellings flood in the monsoon. The parents cannot afford to send their children for costly training so welcome the free training CAFFE provides.

This charity runs 23 classes for 200 students. Luke Doyle is their inspiration and co-ordinator. In addition, they have 5 paid teachers, 3 of whom are students but teach part time. One of these full time teachers is Kobir, who came to them

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from the slums as their first student. As well as training in keyboard skills, and developing maths and language skills, they also, teach business skills, because many are better off running their own small business than working for someone else. Computer art and how to design and make computer games are part of the CAFFE syllabus.

The monthly expenses are only ÂŁ4 per student.

The national government only gives grants to large charities so that small ones such as this have to fend for themselves. CAFFE has a charity shop in Clair Court, Bedford, run by Luke’s parents. In addition, they receive support through donations and from people signing monthly standing orders.

Visit www.caffebd.org for more information.

Whilst Biggleswade Sandy Lions primarily give help to those in need in our local area, we also support overseas projects like this one, as we are an International organisation. You too could be part of our fundraising team and help us give to our local community. All we ask is for just some of your time.

How do we do what we do? Just go to our website www.biggleswadesandylions.org.uk. Or ring 0845 833 9749 and chat to Dave or Judith Hagger. You are very welcome to meet us first hand on 1st and 3rd Wednesdays at Biggleswade Conservative Club.

Come and be part of a pride of Lions.

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Time of Year

Alison Runham (www.alison.runham.co.uk)

Christmas Eve 1914. The Western Front. Weeks of rain have ended and mud is becoming ice.

Despite calls for a Christmas ceasefire, fighting has continued throughout December, although today it seems half-hearted in many places.

Staff Sergeant Clement Barker is in his trench with his comrades. Across No Man’s Land, the Germans are decorating tiny trees sent from home with candles as they sing Stille Nacht (Silent Night).

“The trenches were a blaze of Christmas trees,” one Tommy recalled, “and our sentries were regaled for hours with traditional Christmas songs.” In some places, English troops decide that they “ought to retaliate in some way.” “So we sang The First Noël... they all began clapping; and then they struck up another favourite of theirs, O Tannenbaum.”

At Barker’s trench, a German soldier appears. “He said that if (we) did not fire, they wouldn’t in the morning,” Barker wrote later. Next morning, Barker’s men cautiously venture out to retrieve and bury their dead. No shots are fired. Soon they’re shaking hands with the Germans and exchanging gifts, and then “a football is kicked out of our trenches, and Germans and English play football.”

Henry Williamson, who later wrote Tarka the Otter, also recalled football matches, but behind German lines; if British and German troops played together, he made no mention of it. However, despite the myths surrounding Truce matches between both sides, some are well-documented in letters. Two soldiers of the 6th Cheshires described a huge, freefor-all match in Wulverghem, Belgium, where No Man’s Land was less damaged by shell fire.

Williamson recalled the Germans singing Silent Night, too, before inviting the English closer. His unit suspected a trap. “We crept out... expecting

any moment to fall flat with the machine guns opening up. And nothing happened.” Both sides were soon exchanging gifts and greetings, and similar scenes were occurring at many points along the Front. Cigarettes, rations, uniform buttons and even addresses were exchanged. One English trench received a German chocolate cake, together with a ceasefire request and an invitation to an impromptu concert. “Just think,” wrote one soldier to his family, “while you were eating turkey I was talking and shaking hands with the very men I had been trying to kill a few hours before!”

The truce at Williamson’s position held for four days before orders arrived to end fraternisation, while the Germans were warned to expect visits from senior officers; they sent a message across, explaining that they would have to fire their machine guns, but would fire high to avoid hitting anyone.

For Barker, peace lasted a little longer too. “Night came and still no shots. Boxing day the same, and has remained so up to now,” he wrote a few days later. But gradually fighting resumed. Captain J.C. Dunn’s account of resuming hostilities is poignant: “I fired three shots in the air and put up a flag with “Merry Christmas” on it, and I climbed on the parapet...[the Germans] put up a sheet with “Thank you” on it, and the German Captain appeared... We both bowed and saluted... he fired two shots in the air, and the War was on again.”

Both truces (and football games) had occurred in earlier wars. So what makes the 1914 Christmas Truce especially memorable? Perhaps because in a war that cost over 10 million lives, it was, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said, “one human episode amid all the atrocities.”

The Christmas Truce 100

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Easy Suduko

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Fill in the grid so that each row, column and 3x3 box, contains the digits 1 through to 9 with no repetition. Use your logic to solve the puzzles.

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Travel

The Gambia by Solange Hando Glancing at the map of Africa, it’s easy to miss the Gambia. Tucked on the bulge of the western coast, it is the smallest country on the mainland, barely 30 miles across at its widest point, stretching along the lower section of the Gambia river. This mere ribbon of land is surrounded by Senegal on three sides but claims a fine coastal strip where the river meets the Atlantic ocean.

Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of independence for one of Africa’s most stable states, no longer part of the Commonwealth but still using English as its official language, at least for the time being. Add the promise of winter sun, just six hours away and no jetlag, and it’s no wonder the Gambia has proved popular with British tourists.

Imagine soft tingling sands, swaying palms, warm waters, a cool sea breeze sweeping the shore, the perfect picture postcard whether one opts for quiet beaches or the popular Senegambia strip with its fruit stalls, thatched restaurants and savvy ‘bumsters’ selling African beads, wood carvings, sea shells and cashew nuts. It’s friendly, colourful and most exciting when a small fleet of dug-out canoes appears on the horizon, riding the crest of the waves, and everyone rushes down to the beach to help pull in the fishing nets. There’s much bargaining and sorting out on the sand, red snapper, bonga, cat fish, calamari and more, before the men head for home with whatever is left for the family’s supper.

Broad sands cover much of the shore, secluded coves hide here and there, framed by rocks and cliffs, and when the sun sets all red and gold over

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the ocean, myriad tropical birds twitter in the trees.

It’s a magical moment.

But there is more to the Gambia than sand and sea.

Banjul, the capital, has a lively market brimming with fancy footwear, frilly clothes, batik, knobbly tomatoes and bags of ice cold water. Tailors compete for business, babies bob on their mother’s back and tourists climb up to the balcony for a bird’s eye view of the nearby streets. Meanwhile, others seek out the Gambia’s UNESCO heritage, from Kunta Kinteh island and related sites, highlighting European encounters and the slave trade, to the stone circles of Senegambia, a vast cross-border area with a sacred landscape dating back 1500 years.

As for nature lovers, the Gambia is a dream. You may not find the ‘Big Five’ of eastern or southern Africa but this tiny country manages seven nature reserves and national parks, home to monitors and crocodiles, endangered monkeys, pretty butterflies such as the dark blue pansy or citrus swallowtail, and 576 species of birds, in wetlands, forest and along the shore. Highlights include watching the sun rise over the mangrove when nothing disturbs the peace but the gentle paddle of traditional canoes. A bird calls, a kingfisher dives in a flash of colour and soon the dawn chorus rises all around, parakeets, sunbirds, sanderlings, drongos, black egrets and many more. A golden light spreads across the creek, oyster shells glisten on the mangrove roots and the canoes drift in silence in this quiet country basking on the banks of its namesake river. According to legend, Gambia means ‘place of the king’, a glorious name for the smallest nation on the African mainland.

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n O s ’ t a h W 1 December The Cambridgeshire on the Western Front 7pm for 7.30pm The Comrades Club, Godmanchester The Cambridgeshire branch of the Western Front Association is pleased to present a talk by Steve Smith examining the role of the Cambridgeshire regiment on the Western Front. Non-members most welcome.

Web: www.westernfrontassociation.com 2 December Potton Ladies Club 7.30pm The Pavilion, Mill Lane, Potton Guests £3 Come along for a Christmas themed meeting.

Wine included.

3 December Folk Evening 7pm Moggerhanger Village Hall First Wednesday every month. Open floor folk session evening.

Tel: Chris 01767 640242 for more info 3-7 December Christmas Tree Festival Wed-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 2-5pm St Paul’s Church, Bedford, MK40 1SQ Admission £2.50, Children free Over 60 trees will be decorated to the theme ‘Friendship thru Sport’. Includes two Trees of Remembrance. Proceeds shared between St Paul’s and the Bedford Hospitals Charity. This must see annual festival has raised over £100,000 since 2001. Refreshments served.

Tel: 01234 340163 for further details 4 & 18 December Biggleswade Cancer Support Group 1-3pm The Meeting Room, Biggleswade Baptist Church Sessions free – donations welcome An informal, confidential group for cancer patients, families and friends in the Biggleswade area. It is a place to meet with others and provide mutual support.

The group meets on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month.

Tel: 07812 796581 Email: csgbiggleswade@gmail.com Facebook: Biggleswade Cancer Support Group

4 December Christmas Concert 7pm Sandy Upper School Tickets £4 St. Swithun’s Sandy Christmas Concert with the Stotfold Salvation Army Band and local groups in aid of The Leprosy Mission. Tickets available from Sandy Tourist Information Centre or below.

Tel: Colin Osborne 01767 682032 Email: colin.osborne@codo.co.uk for further information 5 December Bedfordshire Family History Society 7.15pm Mark Rutherford School Drama Hall, Bedford, MK42 9RX Members free, Visitors £2 Illustrated talk is “Behind The Scenes Of ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ TV Programme”

by Dr .Nick Barratt. Bedfordshire Family History Society welcomes new members to its talks. Library and bookstall are available at meetings. Next meeting will be 9 January 2015.

Web: www.bfhs.org.uk 5 December ‘Classics at Christmas’ Concert 7.30pm St Paul’s Church, Bedford Tickets £15 including glass of wine As part of the Christmas Tree Festival, once again The Ensemble of London will be presenting a ‘Classics at Christmas’ Concert at St Paul’s Church. Tickets available by telephone or online.

Tel: Tickets 01234 783181 or St. Paul’s Church 01234 34016 Web: www.bedfordhospitalcharity.org.uk 5 December Bingo Night 7.30pm Moggerhanger Village Hall Monthly Bingo Friday night with cash prizes, raffle and licensed bar. Also open the box.

Tel: Carolyn 01767 640727

Deadline for What’s On entries is the 12th of the previous month.

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5-7 December Cinderella Fri 7.30pm, Sat 2.30 & 7.30pm, Sun 2.30pm Eco Hub Gamlingay Advance tickets: Adults £8.50, Children (up to 16) £5, Family (2a + 2c) £25 On the door tickets: Adults £10, Children £6, Family £30 Gamlingay Players present ‘Cinderella’. The Players have been rehearsing hard since the beginning of September to bring the words to life and many of our junior members will be making their stage debut. Do come along and support your local Drama group in this glittering and traditional pantomime. Tickets available online, The Eco Hub and The Cutting Mill.

Web: www.gamlingayplayers.co.uk 6 December It’s a Cracker 10am-12 noon, 1.30-3.30pm Swiss Garden, Shuttleworth, Old Warden £4 per person, £12 family (4 people) Join the Swiss Garden team as we look at Christmas crafts through the ages. Have a go at making a Tudor pomander, a Victorian style Christmas cracker or a cornucopia Christmas tree decoration. Everyone welcome. Children should be accompanied by an adult.

Tel: 01767 627924 for bookings (Mon-Fri 9am5pm) 6 December The Signals Museum 10am-4pm The Signals Museum at RAF Henlow is open to the public. Entry is free but official photo ID such as a driving licence, passport or over 60s Bus Pass is required to get an entry permit from the Guardroom. See website for full information.

Web: www.rafsignalsmuseum.org.uk 6 December Annual Christmas Bazaar 11am-3pm All Saints’ Church, Sutton Many stalls, Father Christmas, singing by Sutton Lower School Choir, demonstration of Holly Wreath making, chocolate tombola, light refreshments and a raffle, amongst other attractions. There will also be organ music and demonstration of the ancient barrel organ - a rarity in Bedfordshire.

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n O s ’ t a h W 6 December Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire Hardy Plant Society 2pm Weatherley Centre, Eagle Farm Road, Biggleswade Speakers will be Roger and Penny Gray, ‘Visits and Holidays undertaken by The Group. A pictorial presentation.’ Visitors welcome - small charge which includes refreshments.

6 December Carols at Jordan’s Mill 2.30pm Broom St Mary’s Singers Potton will be carol singing.

6 December Communal Carol Singing 3.30pm & 6.30pm £10 per person Caldecote Church Harmonium accompaniment. Seasonal readings, mulled wine and mince pies. Due to big demand for tickets to this highly popular event in previous years, there will be two sessions. Admission by ticket only. Tel: 01462 742440 6 & 7 December Christmas Tree Festival Sat 12-8pm, Sun 12-6pm St Swithun’s Church, Sandy.

Adults £1, Children free A display of beautifully decorated trees created by the community of Sandy. Christmas music.

Tel: Corinne Hetherington: 01767 681353 Email: sandytreefestival@yahoo.co.uk 7 December Lights of Love Service 4pm/6.30pm Sue Ryder St John’s Hospice, Moggerhanger Annual Lights of Love service to celebrate the lives of those near and dear to us that we have lost. It is an opportunity to remember loved ones at either a 4pm or 6.30pm carol service at the hospice. There will be a Christmas remembrance tree with the opportunity to fill out a memory bauble in their name. Please let the hospice know if you would like to attend by Friday 28 November for light refreshment catering. Wrap up warm and bring your wellies! Tel: 01767 642424 11 December Potton History Society 7.30pm The Community Centre, Brook End, Potton ‘Pictorial Entertainment’ we finish the year with a dip into our photographic and video archives of past and present Potton. Visitors are always welcome. Christmas refreshments provided.

Web: www.pottonhistorysociety.com

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11 December Mid. Beds. Floral Society 7.45pm Flitwick Village Hall Visitors £5 AGM. Christmas practical workshop and buffet.

Visitors welcome. Tel: Marion Tucker 01234 742396 for more details and to book 12 December Christmas Carols 7-9pm Swiss Garden, Shuttleworth, Old Warden £5 per person Featuring the St. Andrews Church Choir, Biggleswade. Sing along to a selection of favourite carols in the enchanting Swiss Garden, followed by a glass of mulled wine or nonalcoholic punch and mince pies. Please bring a torch. Looking for Christmas gift ideas? Our Visitor Centre Gift Shop will be open before and after the event with a range of lovely products on offer. Tel: 01767 627924 for bookings 12 December Whist Drive 7.30pm Moggerhanger Village Hall Fortnightly Friday Whist Drive. All welcome.

Refreshments included. Tel: 01767 640727 12 December Gamlingay Photographic Society 8-10pm Gamlingay Village College, Station Road, Gamlingay Lecture evening. Pradesh and the Pantanal – Brazil. Dave & Judy Hodgson DPAGB BPE2*/CPAGB BPE1*. Non-members welcome free of charge.

Refreshments and optional raffle.

Tel: Nick or Jackie 01767 651025 for more info about the evening/the Society Email: Jackie on nickbruce7@btinternet.com 12 & 13 December Christmas Concert Fri 7.30pm, Sat 2.30pm St. Mary’s Church, Potton Adults £10, Under 16s £5 Lead by our Musical Director David Beer featuring Traditional Carols, seasonal music; Vaughan Williams Suite Fantasia on Christmas Carols; A special piece composed by our Accompanist Anne Wright “Follow the Star”. The programme includes soloists Flutes: Emma Brown and Clair McDonnell; Cello: Jackie Manderson; Organ: Justin Waters and Baritone: Simon Williams. Tickets from Tysoes, Market Place, Potton or by telephone.

Tel: Tickets Val Whiteley 01767 601877 or Shirley Tant 01767 316948

13 December Christmas Wreaths 10am-12.30pm Swiss Garden, Shuttleworth, Old Warden £30 per person Create your very own Christmas masterpiece at this seasonal workshop, led by our experienced florist. Refreshments and all materials provided.

Tel: 01767 627924 for bookings 13 December Huntingdonshire Philharmonic: A Christmas Feast Hinchingbrooke Performing Arts Centre, Huntingdon 7.30pm Tickets: £14 / £12 (Student Concession £7 / £6) Hunts Phil’s well-loved Family Christmas Concert with a mix of old and new carols, excerpts from Haydn’s Creation and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet, and more. Tickets available via telephone, email or on the door. Tel: 01832 274834 Web: www.huntsphil.org.uk Email: tickets@huntsphil.org.uk 13 & 14 December The Big Christmas Weekend St Mary’s Church, Gamlingay A Christmas Tree Festival – enter a tree as an individual or group. Performances by Village School Choirs, A Cappella Group, Gamlingay Community Choir, The Ivel Handbell Ringers and Steff Laugharne on the organ. Craft stalls; Raffles; Children’s games; Face-painting. Santa will be touring the village before arriving in his Grotto.

Refreshments available from lunchtime and throughout the afternoon. Also back for this year is the fantastic ‘RAVE IN THE NAVE’ on Saturday 6.30-10.30pm with live bands, disco and BBQ. The weekend ends with the Grand ‘Switch-on’ of the new floodlights for our church, accompanied by Community Carol-singing!

14 December Biggleswade Ladies Circle Christmas Wreath Making Ladies Circle is a modern, vibrant club for women aged 18 to 45 who want to make new friends, have fun, do new things and maybe do a bit of fundraising along the way! Members include single and married women, those with children and those without, working and not working we’re a varied bunch and everyone’s welcome Email: biggleswade.circle@yahoo.co.uk Twitter: @BwadeCircle Facebook: Biggleswade Ladies Circle

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14 December ‘A Christmas Carol’ 8-10pm Caldecote Church £10 each incl mulled wine and mince pie Organised by Caldecote Church Friends. We are always pleased when a supporter uses his/her initiative to raise money for our church repairs.

Supporter, Matthew Jones from Letchworth, has stepped forward and will read out loud in the church Charles Dickens’ much-loved tale ‘A Christmas Carol’ from 8-10pm. The church will be lit by candles (there is no electricity). They are strictly limited, so if you cannot get one, you may care to sponsor him instead.

Email: mathewbjones@gmail.com for tickets 17 December Concert of Christmas Music & Readings 7.30pm St Swithun’s Church, Sandy Tickets £4 Concert by The St Swithun’s Singers. Tickets on the door or from The Drop In Café.

18 December ‘A Little Bit of Christmas Magic’ Shopping Evening 7.30-10pm St Andrews Rooms, Biggleswade, SG18 8BA Advance tickets £2, On the door £3 A selection of local traders and craftspeople selling a range of handmade and unique gifts.

Perfect for last minute Christmas shopping or simply treats for yourself! With carol singing, mulled wine and mince pies also on offer you’ll have a lovely festive evening, all while helping to raise funds for breast cancer charity Walk the Walk.

Tel: Victoria 07809 757687 for info/tickets Web: www.facebook.com/ArcticSnowQueens 19 December Carol Singing 10.30-11.30am Budgens, Sandy Join us as we sing carols outside Budgens.

Churches Together in Sandy & Beeston. Sing or donate to ‘Crisis at Christmas’ & ‘Embrace’.

Deadline for What’s On entries is the 12th of the previous month.

20 December Father Christmas Fly In 11am-2pm Swiss Garden, Shuttleworth, Old Warden £15 per child Shuttleworth are delighted to once again welcome Father Christmas this December as he sets to make a stop at the wonderful Collection before his long journey around the globe.

Rudolph and his friends will be having a well needed rest back at the grotto whilst his helpful elf will fly Santa to Old Warden Aerodrome, home to the Shuttleworth Collection. Visitors are invited to book their place and come along for Christmas fun and a freshly prepared lunch whilst waiting for Father Christmas to fly in* with gifts for the children, where they can visit him in the Grotto within the newly opened Swiss Garden. Before you visit on the day, your children can come along and post their letter to Father Christmas in the Christmas Post Box available in the Visitor Centre (available from 1st December until Friday 19th December).

Ticket cost includes freshly prepared lunch, craft and Christmas fun, a visit with Father Christmas, gift, a cup of tea/coffee and mince pie for accompanying adult. *Aircraft will fly subject to weather conditions – alternative non-flying ‘arrival’ may be substituted.

Tel: 01767 627924 for bookings (Mon-Fri 9am5pm) 20 December Children’s Concert 2pm The EcoHub, Gamlingay Adults £3, Children free The Choir of Gamlingay First School joins The Amici Singers for a Children’s Concert.

20 December The Amici Singers’ Christmas Celebration Concert 7pm The EcoHub, Gamlingay Advance tickets £10, On the door £12, Children under 16 free The Rotary Club of Sandy presents The Amici Singers’ Christmas Celebration Concert. Music includes ‘A Christmas Celebration’ (a suite of 12 Christmas carols and songs with narration), together with other Christmas music and audience participation carols. Proceeds in aid of Sandy Rotary Club charities and The Amici Singers.

Advance tickets available from choir members, members of Sandy Rotary or 01767-260815.

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21 December Biggleswade Antiques Fair 9.30am-4pm The Weatherley Centre, Eagle Farm Road, Biggleswade Admission £1.50 This antiques fair offers a diverse range of antiques and collectables so whether you are a professional dealer, an avid collector or just looking for something special, this monthly fair is the place to visit. Café serving breakfast, lunches and afternoon tea.

Tel: 01480 382432 or 07906 647346 Web: www.madisonevents.co.uk 31 December New Year’s Eve Party 7pm Moggerhanger Village Hall Tickets £5 Family fun, children’s games, disco raffle and licensed bar. Bring and share buffet.

Tel: Carolyn 01767 640727 17 January Traditional Burns Night Dinner 7pm for 7.30pm Scout Hut, Hatley Rd, Potton Tickets £18 Three course meal, Piping in of the Haggis, Ceilidh Band. Tartan wear encouraged. Bar and Raffle.

Tickets available from Camerons from 1 January.

30 & 31 January Hansel and Gretel Tickets £9 and £5 Little Gransden Village Hall The Revellers bring you an action-packed seasonal pantomime full of traditional fun for all the family. Three performances - Friday evening, Saturday matinee and Saturday evening which promise an excellent evening’s entertainment.

Tickets can be booked in person on 13 December at The Reading Room, Fox Street (10am-12pm) or online at www.roundaboutrevellers.com from 14 December.

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Time of Year

Party Politics!

By Susan Brookes-Morris

Many of us look forward to celebrating Christmas with our work colleagues. It’s a chance to get out of the office and have a bit of fun. But for some employees the morning after is full of embarrassment and regret. Your behaviour at such events could seriously damage your career. Equally, if handled correctly you can also do a lot of good for your career at the annual festivities. So here are a few tips to help you be remembered for all the right reasons: Always attend- whilst you may think not attending is the safest option, it is best to go along even if it’s for just a short while as this demonstrates your willingness to be part of a team.

Dress appropriately- you may be excited by the opportunity to get out of your work attire but remember that you are still with work colleagues and probably your boss. Where you are going will have an impact on how you dress but whatever the venue its best to avoid clothing that is overtly sexual.

At many parties there will be alcohol and it can be tempting to over indulge, especially if the boss is paying. But it’s best to drink in moderation and alternate alcohol with water. If you feel you may be getting a little too relaxed opt for soft drinks.

Remember to eat well to soak up the alcohol.

Do socialise and chat to lots of people at the party.

It can be a good time to build relationships with colleagues from other departments, or those you’d like to impress but don’t usually get chance to speak to, so do circulate. Don’t be boring by talking about nothing but work however. Usually some general conversation about holidays, families and hobbies will suffice and can stand you in good stead when you need to get these people on side for your next work deal. Don’t be tempted to be drawn into gossip or talk about others or the organisations latest ideas in a negative way. You never know who’s standing behind you. Of course don’t swear, be impolite or vulgar.

It may be that you have fancied one of your colleagues for months ( or they become irresistibly attractive once you’ve had a few drinks), but insisting that they join you under the mistletoe or showing them your best Dirty Dance moves is not advisable.

These could lead to public humiliation at the event and years of teasing and having to avoid a ‘certain someone’.

It is possible to have fun at an office party, but for your careers sake, remember everything in moderation!

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• Supply & fit at competitive prices • Free home calls to estimate & advise • Friendly reliable service For all enquiries, please call or email:

01480 509 685 M: 07833 222 199 T:

E: pgscarpets@hotmail.co.uk 114

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Sureclean

J. Jenkins

Building Services

DOMESTIC & COMMERCIAL CARPET & UPHOLSTERY CLEANING

• Spot stain and odour removal • Anti-stain protection • Leather suites cleaned and reconditioned • Tile and grout cleaning • The very latest equipment used • All work guaranteed • Fully insured • Local company

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For all your building needs Call John on 01767 222219 or 07831 283296 Email: chippyjenkins@gmail.com References available on request

T&R Roofing Ltd

Family Business Est. 1985

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All NEW work guaranteed Fully insured for employer & Public Liability Call Tony Simpson for a FREE estimate on:

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Crossword Solution for The Villager November Edition Last Month’s Crossword Winner - C Hawkes from Letchworth

November’s Codeword and Suduko Solutions

Easy

Hard

Advertising in The Villager is easy.

To find out more call Nigel on 01767 261122 or email nigel@villagermag.com To advertise in The 01767 261122 Please mention TheVillager Villagerand andTown TownLife Lifeplease when call responding to adverts

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The Villager £100 Prize Crossword

Prize

£100

Across 7 A red fruit (6) 8 On every side (6) 9 Deceased (4) 10 Hold back (8) 11 Sprinkle (7) 13 Weeps (5) 15 Concerning (5) 17 Farewell (4-3) 20 Acquainted (8) 21 Require (4) 23 Disclose (6) 24 Thick, oily substance (6)

1 Finished (4) 2 Outlaw (6) 3 Expedition (7) 4 Severe (5)

Complete the crossword, fill in your details below, cut out this page and send to the address below before

15th December 2014 Prize Crossword, Villager Publications Ltd 24 Market Square, Potton, Beds SG19 2NP



Down

5 Terror (6) 6 Completely (8) 12 Green vegetables (8) 14 Bravery (7) 16 Allied (6) 18 Beast of burden (6) 19 Feminine (5) 22 Simple (4)

Name: Tel: Address:

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KEMP GARAGE DOORS SALES • INSTALLATION • REPAIRS • Family Run Business • 25 Years Experience • Up and Over • Sectional and Roller Doors www.kempgaragedoors.co.uk • Security Shutters

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Finance

By Ann Haldon

Using Christmas Money Gifts to

Start a Savings Pot Would you rather give and receive money at Christmas, or do you prefer traditional gifts?

People give money as a gift for various reasons.

Maybe they’re not sure of the recipient’s taste, or particularly in the case of teenagers, think they might prefer to spend the money on something of their own choosing.

Christmas is an ideal opportunity to start a small savings pot for a friend or family member, using money that they might otherwise spend frivolously, or on everyday expenses such as food and petrol.

It shows thought and consideration and has the potential to grow over the years. It could provide funds towards a summer holiday, a new car, or something long-term.

Using the same reasoning it’s in your own best interests to save the Christmas money gifts you receive, rather than put them to one side to be swallowed up by everyday needs.

So what are the best options for starting a savings pot for a loved one, or saving your money gifts this Christmas?

Tax-free savings are the obvious choice The old cash ISAs have now been replaced by NISAs (new ISA), and anyone over the age of 16 can deposit a maximum of £15,000 each year.

This is a significant increase on the old cash limit of £5,600 although the interest rates may be lower, but this type of savings account is still the best option for easy access.

The Junior ISA is available to under-18s but can only be opened by parents or legal guardians, so if you’re giving money to a member of your extended family or a friend’s child, you’ll need to physically give them the money to pay in.

Each year from 6th April, you can open a new NISA with the same limit, so this is a great way to save long-term too. For those looking for an investment rather than cash savings, Stocks and Shares NISAs are also available.

Regular savings accounts As the name suggests, you’ll need to drip-feed these accounts on a monthly basis. Regular savers generally offer a much better interest rate than standard savings accounts, but tax may be payable on the interest depending on your circumstances.

Interest rates of around 6% are not unheard of, and some accounts may even beat the NISA for interest. Banks often offer regular savings accounts as a promotional tool, however, in the hope that you will take up some of their other products once you’re a customer.

Saving ad-hoc Not everyone is able to save on a regular basis, but a separate place to put spare cash as and when you get it is very useful. Standard savings accounts usually run alongside current accounts, making it easy to either pay in money directly or transfer it from the current account.

The Mason jar savings method Often started on the 1st January each year, this involves saving £1 the first week, £2 in week two, and so on throughout the year. Although there’ll be no interest, it’s surprising how motivating it can be to literally see your money grow, and you’re still saving for a purpose rather than frittering it away.

So if you are offering money gifts for Christmas this year, it’s worthwhile giving a little more thought to how they are offered. On the other side of the coin, receiving money for Christmas could provide you with the start of a useful nestegg. https://www.gov.uk/junior-individual-savingsaccounts/opening-an-account http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/ junior-isa http://frugalbeautiful.com/blog/mason-jarmoney-method-start-1-save-1300-year/

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Country Stoves Quarter page MAY Advert:Layout 1 10/

COUNTRY STOVES & SWEEPS STOVE INSTALLATION CHIMNEY SWEEPING

• Wood burning & multi fuel stoves • HETAS certified installation • Chimney lining • Twin wall flue systems • Free survey & quotation • ICS Qualified chimney sweeps • Insurance certificates issued • Bird guards fitted • Local, professional & reliable

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Everyone at The Villager would like to wish all our readers and advertisers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

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The

Ironing Fairy Do you hate ironing, or just don’t have time to do it?... ...Then let me do it for you!

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Time of Year

BL 30 Here’s Looking At Yule, Kid

By Derek Thompson www.alongthewritelines.blogspot.co.uk Even though we’ve had it planned for months, Christmas is always a magical time. Our decorations go up late - sometime between the Winter Solstice and Christmas Eve - apart from the wreath that Anne makes from anything seasonal in the garden or the woods.

It’s a Heath Robinson affair with holly, hebe, laurel, pinecones, acorns, or anything else we see on our travels. (One year it included a little plastic helicopter, until Anne made me take it off.) In lieu of an indoor tree, I’ve started hanging baubles on the silver birch in the garden.

We’ll skip the village carol service - you may recall ‘Carolgate’, where we ended up sitting in the pulpit due to a scarcity of seats - but we’re certainly not of the “Bah! Humbug!” brigade. (A bar of chocolate would be a different matter altogether) I know I’ll wake up early on the big day like an excitable child. We’ll begin with the ceremonial unwrapping of the cat’s present, accompanied by tea. After that it’s a small present each, quite possibly swapping packets of heritage seeds, and then off to the beach. If the tides are with us we’ll hunt beach glass for that mosaic we’ve been saving up for, along with any weathered crockery pieces. After a bracing walk across the sand, it’s back home for festive (cinnamon) porridge and present time again. This year I’ll surprise Anne with a new addition to her charm bracelet - an Irish thruppenny bit, sporting a hare. It’s nostalgic recycling, as it was once a part of my boyhood coin collection. Both of us have a thing for hares.

We’ve gone back down the sloe gin route this year, after I promised not to say that it tastes like medicine again (don’t worry, she never reads these columns until the following month). In fact, this year it’s a Better Life Christmas altogether. Anne’s chicken is locally sourced, while my nutroast is my own work 124

(I think we all realise that Anne will probably need to rescue it). Similarly, the veg is either homegrown or produced in the area. We’ve skipped festive crackers so that I can read from a list of jokes I wrote and couldn’t sell.

For example: This year, due to cutback, Father Christmas is only making ‘Made in China’ stickers.

The eagerly awaited Christmas pud is Anne’s pet project; she’s been feeding it with a monthly sup of brandy since last December, so it’ll definitely flambé! She has also promised icecream (we got the machine cheaply through an ad in the local paper) using some blackberries from the freezer.

And Anne’s big present? Well, in the past we’ve had a fox, bats, a toad, shrews, moles and at the very least a hedgehog poo in the front garden, so I thought it’d be fun to capture some evidence. The new wildlife camera can take pictures in daylight or at night-time, so at the very least we’ll see just how active the cat is nowadays.

In the evening there’ll be cards or a Scrabble tournament, as we watch the Yule log burning and argue over whether you’re allowed to put down ‘zo’ if you can’t say what it is. Then, after victory and defeat, we’ll raise a glass of sloe gin by candlelight and start thinking about the Boxing Day garden tidy-up. Cheers!

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125

Health & Beauty

Facial Massage

For Beautiful Skin

Most people appreciate the benefits of a neck and shoulder massage to ease tension. But life’s everyday stresses can also build-up in the facial muscles, ultimately resulting in a lined and furrowed brow.

A facial massage is a great way to refresh your skin, smooth-out wrinkles and relax. Not only will the ‘down-time’ during the treatment be an instant pick-me-up, but it’s a useful tool in the fight against ageing.

By relaxing the muscles, your face will appear softened and stresses will be released. The massage will also help to drain fluid build-up from around the eyes, increase blood circulation and make the creams you apply afterwards even more effective because they’ll be more easily absorbed into the skin.

The salon is the most effective treatment, particularly because you will be very relaxed.

But if you don’t have time to get to the salon, or you want to keep up the good work between visits, follow our guide to performing an effective massage yourself at home.

1. After thoroughly cleansing your face, take a moisturiser, face oil or serum and use your knuckles to gently - but firmly - massage the product all over your face, ensuring that you work from the centre outwards to your ears. Do

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the same for your neck.

2. Next, de-clog your pores by moving your fingertips over the same area - working from the middle of your face outwards and upwards, towards the lympnodes, situated behind under the earlobes - to promote drainage.

3. Use the flat and heel of your thumb and the side of your bent index finger in a pinching flick movement along your jaw line, starting from your chin, then moving to each ear.

4. Move your fingertips in small circular motions all over your face, again starting at the centre and moving outwards and. Do small sections at a time, working from your chin to ear, lip to ear, nose to temple, centre of forehead to hairline.

5. Using your fingertips tap gently around the eye area, apply an eye cream if you wish. Start at the outer corner and move to the inner, taking care not to be too heavy-handed.

Massage around the eye contours to help brighten the eye area, working around the eyes in a circular motion using a light pressure from your fingertips. This will help to reduce puffiness from the eye and drain fluid build-up.

6. Next, tap all over your face using the same action, working again from the centre and moving outwards.

7. Ease tension in your face by stroking upwards from your brow, this will serve to smooth and lift the skin. Do the same for your neck - taking care to move only in an upwards direction.

8. Find the pressure points on your face: Pressure on the third eye - located right between your eyebrows - stimulates the pituitary gland - this helps to enhance the all over condition of your skin. Press on this area for 60 seconds.

Located 1cm below the eye socket - right below the iris - the next pressure point will help to reduce blemishes. Press on this point under both eyes for 60 seconds.

9. End your facial massage by pinching your earlobes between your thumb and forefinger.

Once you’ve finished your skin should have a pinky flush and a healthy radiant glow and you should feel totally relaxed.

By Helen Taylor

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Books

BOOK REVIEW

By Bruce Edwards

‘From Notting Hill with Four Weddings . . . Actually’ Ali McNamara Pub: Sphere p/b £ 7.99

There’s always a plethora of new books from established authors at this time of year, gearing up for the Christmas bonanza, for it is fast approaching peak sales time in bookshops.

Presents, as you will know, are notoriously difficult to always get right, so giving a friend or relative a book (which of course you will read first before wrapping it up . . .?) seems like an easy option and doesn’t usually require too much thought. Ali McNamara has a niche readership but that is no disparagement. There’s a delightfully open sense of make-believe in this and yes, if you recognise the title wordage that’s fine for it sets the scene. Lovable young Scarlett - her name another blast from the past - gets caught up in a lace-frothy world of glitz and high glamour whilst trying to hang on to legitimate marriage plans of her own and a worthwhile charity job, commuting across the Atlantic. All sorts of girly problems head her way! If you feel you’ve been here before - and Christmas offerings appear from lots of established authors in appropriate snowy covers - you may be right, especially if you also read Carole Matthews (her latest is ‘The Christmas Party) but it makes for an easy, pleasant, unassuming and a give-away-able read. New York or Notting Hill for the wedding?

Have a guess . . .

Suggestion and queries to: writerselect@gmail. com. We’re always happy to consider specific titles for review, though without obligation.

Can’t find a title? E-mail your details and we’ll try to help.”

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25 Years Experience Contact Stewart Gyles on T: 0798 444 1638 or

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Classifieds Aerials and Satellites AERIALS & SATELLITES

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Classifieds Garden Machinery Service/Repair

Pet Services

Garden Machinery & Mowers Expert Service and Repair Collection & delivery available Unit 12a Whites Farm, Great North Road, Biggleswade SG18 9BE Tel: 01767 600085 Mob: 07593 553581

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M. Philmore (Phil) - Kitchen and Bathroom Fitter Disabled showers supplied and fitted.

General plumbing.

57 Green Acres, Gamlingay, Beds. SG19 3LR Tel: 01767 650619 Mobile: 07870366414

Painting Services

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Steve Swain

Plastering, Painting & Decorating Painting & Decorating Plastering, Pebble Dashing Rendering, Screeding Mob: 07887 861881 Tel: 01767 226404

Private Car Hire

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Classifieds Private Car Hire

Removals, Delivery & Storage For All Your Storage, Delivery and Removal Requirements

Mats Cars Private Hire Potton Based

4+7 Seater Cars Available

Airport/Stations/Nights Out etc Local and Long Distance

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01767 682789

The Team at Friends wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2015

CHRISTMAS PROMOTIONS

Come and see us during December for a hair appointment and let us spoil you with our gift vouchers for you to use next year, our way of saying thankyou and Merry Christmas Buy any Redken Christmas retail box and receive 2 exclusive vouchers with discounts worth up to ÂŁ30 off services

Extended Christmas Opening Hours Sat 20th 8.30 - 5.00pm, Mon 22nd 9.30 - 9.00pm Tues 23rd 9.30 - 9.00pm, Weds 24th 8.30 - 2.30pm, Thurs 25th and Fri 26th Closed Sat 27th 8.30 - 4.00pm

Opening Hours: Mon, Tues & Fri 9.30 - 6.00pm, Wed & Thurs 9.30 - 9.00pm, Sat 8.30 - 4.00pm

www.friendsfivestarhairdressing.com facebook.com/friendshair Friends Five Star Hairdressing 1 Market Square, Sandy, Beds SG19 1HT Tel. 01767 682 789