LEAP working party

The lockdown has ended, but despite being in Tier 2 of national restrictions, we can hold a LEAP working party!

This Saturday we are going to do some work in the village pond – not as much perhaps as previous years because it might be too cold to actually enter the pond, and we must be more careful.  We have two new LEAP waders (welly boot sizes 9 and 11) if anyone wants to get in.  We do not have any cromes though; these are the funny forks with long handles for pulling weeds out of the pond.

We need to cut back the pond surrounds, taking the cuttings up to the compost bins by the cemetery.

We have to maintain social distancing, and not share tools.  Please bring your own shears, forks, scythes and wheelbarrows.  I will have the three quarantined LEAP shears you can borrow, but they cannot be shared.  The Covid-19 risk assessment has not changed from last time, and will be available if you want to see it.

We will meet at 10am on Saturday (5th December) in the Village Hall car park, and finish around midday.  We will have a break, but because we cannot provide the usual refreshments please bring your own!

If there are too many of us to easily stay at least 2m apart then I will have to limit numbers.  I think this is unlikely but might be necessary.  There is no need to wear masks because we are outside.  If you are feeling at all unwell then please do not come.

I am looking forward to seeing you there!

[Note: See Local restriction tiers: what you need to know – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) for Exemptions from gatherings limits in all tiers, which includes: “for work or providing voluntary or charitable services” ]

Late October.

I often think about the Bronte sisters at this time of the year, as they loved wild weather and their haunted literature summons the elements in a primal way that deeply inspires me. The word “wuthering” means a strong wind or place where there is a strong wind, coming from old Norse, the word is picked up in Yorkshire dialect. It sounds a blustery, feral word and Emily Bronte chose it to name the hostile place at the heart of her only novel. At the beginning of the story, it is a gale that traps Lockwood for the night at Wuthering Heights, where he witnesses the extraordinary visitation of Catherine Linton:

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October.

A wood in autumn can be like a place of burial, the leaves closing in as they fall and the mulch of leaf decay beneath one’s feet. The feeling that dusk is getting nearer as time passes. A melancholy, yet varied landscape filled with experience of a turning year. The Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) wrote of the bitter-sweet sensuality of the season in a letter to Cezanne:

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Cobbler’s Brook Pollution

Dear All,

If you have not already seen it, please read the following announcement from the Parish Council about pollution in Cobbler’s Brook:

https://us4.campaign-archive.com/?u=bc8b5d4e4fba3d6669236b169&id=1408eff85c

On a happier note, Richard has written a few more wonderful Rambles, including one about Cobbler’s Brook earlier this summer.  I have put them on our website.

All the best,
Eddie