Beer Hackett

BEER HACKETT REP: John Parker johnwincanton@gmail.com DISTRIBUTOR: Susan Ferdinand

St. Michael’s Church

Our Carol Service will be in church on Wednesday 15 December at 6.00pm. We are looking forward to welcoming St. Andrews Singers from Yetminster to join us in our festive celebration service of Six Lessons and Carols. The Singers will also be performing two of their own carols.

You are invited to stay after the service for mince pies and seasonal refreshments. Other services in December are:

Second Sunday in Advent, 5 December, Holy Communion at 10.00am; and Christmas Day Christmas Eucharist at 10.00am.

We look forward to seeing you and to celebrate the blessings of this holy season.

John Bingham

Our Rottweiler road to Crufts (Happy, sad, happy)

In 2012, we bred a litter of Rottweilers and kept a male puppy, Chudley, who grew into the most super dog ever, not only with his placid attitude but as a happy dog always wagging his tail. Everybody loved him.

His showing career started at eight months and at 15 months he had gained his first Challenge Certificate (CC). A dog needs three CCs, given by different Championship show judges to become a KC Registered Champion. By the time he was three, he had achieved this.

Chudley went on to gain 22 CCs and 11 RCCs and, in 2015, won Best of Breed at Crufts and qualified for the Working Group at Crufts. He was the Rottweiler shown on TV that year running around the ring. We were so proud of him. We attended the Windsor Championship Show in June 2018 and Chudley was given the ticket. Sadly, this turned out to be his very last CC. Travelling home on the M25, he developed symptoms that turned out to be heatstroke. The traffic was horrendous, so it was very difficult to get off the motorway, but we eventually managed to turn off and, with the help of our son and Sat Nav, found a local vet. Chudley was in a dreadful condition upon arrival, so we had to leave him there. To our total disbelief we lost him overnight. An enormously sad time for us both.

Moving on, Chudley had been used as a stud dog the week before we lost him and, with so much grief from losing him, I just had to have one of the prospective puppies. Chudley was first and foremost an extremely lovely pet, not just a show dog.

So Sherman was born, the only male in the litter. I still could not face showing again but, with Covid prevalent, this wasn’t possible anyway.

This year, with Covid restrictions lifting, and after three years since our last show, we decided to enter Sherman at the South Western Rottweiler Club Championship Show on Saturday 23 October. It turned out to be such a lovely day catching up with lots of friends in the ‘Rottie’ fraternity. Sherman’s breeder took him into the ring and to our amazement, Sherman was placed second in a class of eleven entries. This win qualifies him for Crufts 2022.

Having owned about 13 Rotties over the years, we have now reduced our numbers to just two males. Rottweilers are lovely, though should not be taken on lightly as they are so strong. But, providing the owner is the pack leader, they are a wonderful ‘people loving’ breed, much mistaken by the media and we can say this from experience.

Olive and Norman Davison Happy Hacketteers

Once again, the village ‘WhatsApp’ group proved its worth as our tiny hamlet suffered a planned but unfortunately extended power cut quickly followed by a day when we were totally cut off by floods! Villagers could keep each other informed and pass on information to those without smart phones.

If you’re not already on the group – do please think about joining.

COP26 Reflections

Beer Hackett villager, Ben Keene recently managed to attend the recent COP 26

event in Glasgow and has kindly agreed to share his ‘takeaway’ thoughts and reflections:

Over the three days I spent in Glasgow, I met some brilliant people, discovered a (sunny) city and learnt a lot.

1. Don’t just do your bit. Do all that’s necessary.

There is no in-between. All our actions need to consider the crisis and the opportunities to behave differently. This means changing our consumer habits, being an active citizen and putting climate at the centre of our work.

2. We can do more than one thing at once.

Climate is complicated and reaches all parts of life – security, health, work, business, finance, food, biodiversity, education, sport… Reducing it to: ‘this is awful’ or ‘this is brilliant’ doesn’t recognise the complexity. When we drive a car, we track more than one data point: speed, fuel level, water temp etc. We can recognise the reality of the crisis and those who are suffering at the same time as being inspired by hope and action.

3. Our money matters.

How we save and invest is 21 times more powerful than combined actions of switching diets, travel habits and energy suppliers (which we should also do). Often, we’ll be cutting waste but unknowingly have pensions invested in fossil fuels – see www. makemymoneymatter.co.uk

4. Climate start-ups explosion

We will see a flourishing of ‘climate’ businesses. Creativity, empathy, resilience, comms – the entrepreneur skillset has never mattered more. Biz models, tech and leaders will adapt fast to the new opportunities www.raaise.co

5. How can we be good ancestors?

When we spend time close to nature and art, we connect to the deeper feelings of the ‘long now’, taking on board the significance of decisions we make today for future generations. Our culture has lost so much of this, but we can re-access.

6. Invest in communities

If, in the end, most of the funding cleans up energy systems but doesn’t support and protect those already suffering the consequences of climate change, then it will be for nothing. The great thing is that if it does happen, it creates benefits for all.

7. ‘In-person’ vs online

There’s more cynicism and optimism online than at the events themselves, which seemed focused on the difficult reality of the crisis as well as all the positive action.

8. Glasgow’s gated villages

Hosting a global summit in a pandemic would never be easy but the heavy security and ‘lockdown zones’ made it feel like two worlds in one town. It seemed a missed opportunity that activists, politicians and business leaders couldn’t be safely in the same spaces. It increased the sense of division. Understandable that many saw it as greenwash.

9. Tell better stories

A constant theme was that a greater focus on storytelling is needed, to bring people along on the journey to all the climate actions. The science is vital to understand but it often overwhelms us. We mobilise best when we feel part of positive stories for change.

[Ben is Co-founder of Rebel Book Club & Raaise | Startup & Community Builder]