27th APRIL 2020 TA TABLET - Thursford Village Website
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27th APRIL 2020 TA TABLET Inside this issue: News from community groups…The avid gardener makes an organic fertiliser…Dipping into the ponds in our parish…Thas a larf! … “Scrubbers” update …The potato stall returns on Friday BUT with a difference…Elderflower cordial recipe… Local suppliers…Don’t be fooled…Thinking towards VE Day 8th May Our Thursday evening orchestral concert Another great performance. A cacophony of sound reverberating around the parish. Even our dogs took to barking and baying! Continuing with reports from Community Groups Thursford Assist (TA) – publishing on line two TA Tablets a week, with useful information on suppliers and local news; shopping and medicine pick-ups; help with Zoom so that they could continue to work from home; looking after a Thursford allotment for a couple isolated away from the village Just need a telephone chat or shopping? Call 01328 878476 or 07826067035 http://www.thursford.org.uk. The good news is that there are reports throughout the village of neighbours going out of their way to help each other. Proving that we are so fortunate to live in such a neighbourly community. Do contact TA if you need help or you just want a chat. Also, we look forward to your comments and feedback for our newsletter so contact didann@outlook.com (editor). The Avid Gardener returns! Garden Centres (hopefully re-opening soon), are our source of chemical fertilisers – but you can make your own using comfrey leaves. They will give you a steady supply of organic, nutrient-rich feed for free. You can harvest comfrey on your exercise walks. You will find comfrey on the margins of fields – at the moment it is recognisable from its white or blue flowers. Comfrey has deep roots, which means it extracts large quantities of nutrients from far below the soil’s surface, inaccessible to other plants. These nutrients are stored in its leaves. By harvesting the leaves and letting them break down, you’ll have a rich, dark, nutrient-rich plant food to use around the garden. It is especially rich in potassium, making it the ideal feed to promote flowers and fruits in a range of plants, including tomatoes. You can do similar with nettles. You will need: Comfrey leaves (harvest them from the base of the stems wearing gloves); large bucket and brick, plastic containers. Remove flowers and tough stems, then chop up the leaves and pack them tightly into your bucket. If possible, choose a container with a lid, as the solution can smell as the leaves break down. Use a brick to weigh down the leaves. Cover with water. The leaves will break down gradually, releasing a smelly brown liquid. Collect any liquid, storing it in a cool, dark place. Top up with fresh leaves. Dilute the collected liquid at a rate of one-part comfrey to ten-parts water – the darker it is, the more you’ll need to dilute it.
Pond Dipping – looking at two of the ponds in our village gardens
A pond created before Lockdown
Chris’s photo earth did they know we had created a
new habitat for them so quickly? Our
first heron arrived soon afterwards, so
we rather hesitantly called in at
Fakenham Garden Centre to purchase
a few of their cheapest goldfish. “I’d
just start with five and see how you get
on” recommended the guy looking
after the fish. It was good advice, our
five fish have now multiplied to well
over 50! They may be useful if fish
supplies run out during lockdown, so
Why the phrase 'Pond Life’ came to we are waiting to see if goldfish turn up
become such a derogatory term is a in one of the weekly recipes currently
mystery to me. Since we completed circulating around Thursford. This
our garden pond in 2018, its residents year, the fish have been joined by
have been nothing but a pleasure to hundreds of tadpoles, so a frog’s leg
watch. Within a week of completion recipe could be useful too!
our first dragonflies arrived. How on
Lockdown gives opportunity for marigolds that brave the elements!
pond improvements Early Summer sees the blue and
“Time for reflection” – Gill’s photo yellow iris, hostas, lysimachia, striped
grasses and the mighty gunnera start
to take over, and the pond becomes a
haven for insects, newts and frogs. An
occasional heron flies in for a snack!
The water mint and bog bean need to
be kept under control so that they don’t
strangle the yellow water lily. Apart
from the centre of the pond (5’ deep),
there are shallow margins designed to
My Wildlife Pond help wildlife get about, but in dry
Since lockdown one of my projects has weather the water level drops to
been to improve our garden wildlife expose the black liner. I have now
pond, which had become truly wild! covered these unsightly areas with
After raking out 5 years’ worth of birch large flints and cobbles, interspersing
twigs and rotting leaves - (a pair of iris. Our only problem now is that
waders would have come in useful!) Barney (year old black Labrador) also
I chopped out the dead parts of the loves to paddles and recently
gunnera. This left some useful new enthusiastically turned the pond,
spaces to plant spring bulbs, grape complete with frogspawn and tadpoles,
hyacinths, primroses and ferns, to add into a washing machine - no idea
colour early in the year, when it’s where the tadpoles ended up – might
usually only the cheerful marsh explain his scratching?! Anyway, it is
supposed to be a ‘wildlife’ pond! Eds Note: We will be featuring two more ponds in our next TA Tablet. We have enough ponds in the village to do “Pond Crawl”! Now, thas a larf! I asked a friend if she and her husband had been able to carry on working and she replied "No, me and Andy have been furlonged". Mind you, an amazing number of people think that something can be "A bit of a damp squid" instead of a squib. Talking to one of my gardening friends revealed a very First World problem. Telling me about some of the design faults of the ride on mower at their second home in Norfolk - perhaps the worst was that you couldn't get an Emma Bridgewater mug in the cup holder. I think she might have been joking - at least I hope so! Update on Norfolk Scrubbers Project – from Sylvia You may have registered to make Norfolk Scrubs (kit for the NHS). Sylvia’s daughter in Foulsham has managed to locate a lady who is co-ordinating Norfolk Scrubs for this area. They have had about 800 enquiries and are absolutely overwhelmed at the moment. Hopefully, we can get the fabric and a pattern for scrubs and other materials in due course. But you can get started by making laundry bags. Sylvia has made some lovely laundry bags about the size of a pillowcase with a drawstring at the top and double seams as they need to be strong and not fray. Material used must be washable at 60o. Once you get going on your making you can ring Sylvia on 878823. Sylvia will coordinate collection of all items and arrange for them to be forwarded to the NNUH. The Potato Stall returns this Friday Come and help yourself to lovely free Fenland Friers Potatoes. Also, on the stall we will have jam jars for this year’s jam making and bottles for that lovely elderflower cordial you will be making. Elderflower will soon appear in our hedgerows and collecting those few sprays you need is a great activity in your exercise hour. Here is what you need for elderflower cordial. Ingredients: 1kg Granulated sugar; 1 lt boiling water; 50g citric acid or juice 2 large lemons; zest of 2 large lemons; 15 elderflower heads, stalks removed 1. Put the sugar in a bucket or basin with the boiling water and stir to dissolve. Add the citric acid or lemon juice and the lemon zest. 2. Shake the elderflowers to remove any insects and add the flowers to the sugar syrup. Cover and leave to stand for 1-2 days, stirring morning and night. 3. Strain the elderflower cordial through muslin and decant into sterilised bottles. It’s now ready to use. Try to make this elderflower cordial within a couple of hours of picking for best results. Gather elderflower heads on a sunny, dry morning – their aroma fades by the afternoon.
Local suppliers - DIY Enthusiasts note B & Q, Enterprise Way, Fakenham could
be back in business! Certainly, their website is advertising the opening hours - week
day opening 8.00 – 8.00 p.m. Best check before you go Tel 01328 852340
Bike to Binham in your exercise hour and buy a litre of that delicious “Raw Milk” from
Abbey Farm Dairy. The source of the milk is the happy black and white cows
grazing in the meadows near to the Priory. Take your sketch book on your visit!
Don’t be fooled - Information Alert from Norfolk Police
Looking to give to charities responding to the pandemic, make sure you do it safely.
With many people giving generously to support charities that are responding to the
pandemic, make sure you don’t fall victim to scammers who may try to divert vital
funds from genuine causes. If you are looking to donate, take time to check it is a
genuine charity by following the advice below: There are simple ways of making sure
you give safely to registered charities:
• Check the charity’s name and registration number at gov.uk/checkcharity. Most
charities with an annual income of £5,000 or more must be registered
• Make sure the charity is genuine before giving any financial information – it’s ok
to decide not to give on the spot. Be wary of unsolicited emails from charities you
have never heard of and be careful when responding to emails or clicking on links
within them
• Use the same caution as with any other internet transaction, for example, to
donate online, visit the charity’s own website and always type the website
address into the browser yourself
• Contact or find out more online about the charity that you’re seeking to donate to.
Ignore requests to donate through a money transfer company
• If in doubt about an approach, give to a charity with whom you have an existing
relationship.
Thinking towards VE Day - Friday 8th May
BBC Website June 2019 “Next year's Early May Bank Holiday will be moved back by
four days for the whole of the UK to coincide with the 75th anniversary of VE Day.
May Day is traditionally held on a Monday but will be put back to Friday 8 May 2020.
VE Day, or Victory in Europe Day, marks the day towards the end of World War Two
when fighting against Nazi Germany came to an end in Europe. The holiday will form
part of a three-day weekend of commemorative events. They will include more than
20,000 pubs encouraging people to toast the heroes of the war, while churches will
take part in a Ringing Out For Peace.” Sir Andrew Gregory, chief executive of
SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, said the government's decision was "fitting". "It is
our duty to keep the events of the past alive in collective memory, including future
generations - this is how we ensure that such a conflict never happens again," he
said.
We still need to mark this event and would be interested in your thoughts about how
we could do this. One idea is to string bunting or decorations up in our front gardens
for three days. Another idea is to have a village trail with timed slots for participants.
Whatever – we need to remember. Eds note: look forward to your replies on this.You can also read
