The Greatham Beck - Parish of St John The Baptist, Greatham, Hartlepool September 2020 Usually £3.00 per annum Or 35p each
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
The Greatham Beck
Parish of St John The Baptist,
Greatham, Hartlepool
September 2020
Usually £3.00 per annum Or 35p each
1
From the Editors………
Hope you've had a good summer, despite all of the changes
we are having to adapt to, and are continuing to stay safe.
September is usually the time when we get back to our nor-
mal routines after the summer break. With the current
coronavirus pandemic, it’s very different this year!
We think about all of the schools reopening after a long pe-
riod of absence and send our best wishes to everyone who is
working hard to educate our youngsters.
We congratulate all those students who have received their
exam results. If your results weren’t what you were hoping
for, we hope you will take inspiration from our article on
pages 10 and 11—Never give up.
You may notice the absence of our historical dates this
month. To avoid repetition, we decided to replace this with
the history of common sayings. We hope you like it!
We are ever hopeful of a return to printing very soon and to
try and keep everyone as safe as possible we are hopeful
that those subscribers currently receiving an email copy of
the Beck will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
This would enable us to concentrate on printing a limited
number of copies for those of our subscribers who do not
have the option of receiving an electronic copy.
As ever, we love to hear from you. If you have anything you
think our readers would find interesting, please send it to us
at greathambeck@gmail.com.
Linda and Justine
22
A message from Philip……..
There’s no doubt about it, our summer weather is far from “normal” at the
moment. The other day Britain was experiencing a sudden and unex-
pected heat wave. Even at 8.00am it was very warm as I took my dogs
out for their run on the beach. The sea was flat -calm with fishing boats
pottering back and forth and the sunlight shimmering off the water.
Yet only a few weeks ago on that same spot I stood in a gale and the
scene was completely different. I watched a small coastal vessel which
had just left port, rocking like a see-saw, burying its bow into the next
breaker and disappearing momentarily altogether behind those huge
white capped waves. In fact it didn’t look to be making any progress at
all but slowly, yard by yard it headed away from the shore and on to-
wards its destination.
Life can seem like that sometimes. One day it’s all bright and sunny with
not a cloud on the horizon and then sometimes out of nowhere a storm
of trouble and problems blows up which sets us rocking and seemingly
making no progress at all as we battle our way through.
One of the important truths of the Christian faith is that we are not spared
life’s storms but that God promises to walk with us through them. It may
seem sometimes that He is nowhere around but often like the footsteps
in the sand if we only look back at where we’ve been we can see where
He has walked alongside us and where we have been carried.
St Paul likens the Christian life to that of an athlete. “I have fought the
good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” he writes 2 Tim-
othy 4:7.With dedication and determination he kept his eyes not on the
present difficulties but on the prize that lay at the end. However bad or
difficult things were he was at peace because he knew that God in Jesus
Christ was with him and where his eventual destination was.
As we emerge slowly from the challenges and restrictions that Covid-19
has caused over the last few months, may that same peace of Christ be
with us all in life’s sunny days and storms.
Philip
3
St John the Baptist, Greatham
Visit our website at: www.stjohnthebaptistgreatham.org.uk
We are pleased to announce that we are now able to hold a Sunday
service in Church at 9.30am. Face masks and contact details are re-
quired. In addition we are still holding an online prayer service via
Zoom on Wednesday morning at 11.00am for a said service of worship
and prayer. If you would like to join us please contact Daniel David on:
Dandavid60@hotmail.com
There is also a video of prayer on the website which can be accessed, if
you so wish, by following the link below:
https://www.holytrinityseaton.org.uk/holytriniyandstjohnthebaptistnews
With thanks and best wishes,
Philip
Bereavements
Geoff Blumer 31st July, 2020
John Hawksworth 2nd August 2020
Rest in peace.
Any omissions will be included in the next issue.
altar flowers
Anyone wishing to make a donation for flowers to celebrate a
special occasion or in memory of a loved one please contact
Maureen Price for further details.
44
CAP launches Church Resources page
Christians Against Poverty has launched a new web page to help
church leaders who may be feeling daunted during the pandemic.
The page will “share our knowledge and experience to help your
church provide crucial support to your community at this desperate
time.”
The charity promises that in the coming weeks, “we will be adding
resources that draw on the experience of hundreds of our partner
churches, as well as CAP's own knowledge and expertise.
The page will provide details of:
Information on Government and industry support
Signposting to organisations providing additional specialist
support, for individuals and churches
Practical advice on how to serve those in need in your com-
munity, starting with our new project: Pathways out of
Poverty
Go to: https://capuk.org/coronavirus/resources-for-churches
For more background, visit: https://capuk.org/connect/keep-up-to-
date/blog/launching-our-church-resources-page
What time of day was Adam created?
Just a little before Eve.
5
Bring back hedgerows
We need our hedgerows back – urgently. They are part of
‘nature’s toolbox’ to help us reduce our carbon emissions.
That was the recent message from the CPRE (Campaign to
Protect Rural England) countryside charity which points
out that there were twice as many hedges in England be-
fore the Second World War. Since then thousands of kilo-
metres of hedges have been ripped up to make way for
new housing and motorways, and to merge and enlarge
fields.
The 2007 UK Countryside Survey found that there were
600,000 kilometres of managed and unmanaged hedge-
rows in the UK, with the vast majority of them in England.
This was a significant decline on the same survey from
1984, when there were about 680,000 kilometres of hedg-
es across Great Britain. That is a reduction of 80,000 kilo-
metres, or 50,000 miles. To put that another way, we have
ripped out about 57,000 times the entire length of Britain
(874 miles).
No wonder, then, that the CPRE’s report, Greener, better,
faster: countryside solutions to the climate emergency and
for a green recovery, calls for millions of pounds to be
spent on new hedges. It says: “By planting more trees and
hedgerow, restoring peatlands and moving toward a more
sustainable way of farming, we can use nature’s toolbox to
capture greenhouse gases from the air, while revitalising
our natural environment.”
66
Become a Hedgehog Champion
Hedgehogs are declining severely in Britain, a third have been
lost since the millennium. Although they thrive in the mosaic
of hedges, fields and woodlands that characterise the British
countryside, Hedgehogs can be just as happy in urban loca-
tions.
Most people live in towns and cities with half a million hectares
of garden in Britain and hedgehogs can be found in their
highest densities here. Gardens provide hedgehogs with a
plentiful supply of food, both natural and supplementary, as
well as many potential nest sites for breeding, resting
and hibernation. Consider leaving areas of your garden a lit-
tle wilder to provide habitat for these much loved animals.
Check out HedgehogStreet.org to find out how you can become
a hedgehog champion.
There’s huge scope for each of us to do something for hedge-
hogs, even if you don’t have a garden. You don’t need any special
skills to be a Hedgehog Champion, just a bit of initiative and a
love for spiny creatures!
Anyone encountering a hedge-
hog in distress can
contact Sue, who is based
locally,
on 07817 256777
7
A grain of sand at a time
This autumn, do you feel overwhelmed
with all the things that you need to get
done? Then think of your life as an
hourglass. There are thousands of
grains of sand in the top of the hour-
glass; and they all pass slowly and evenly through the narrow neck in the
middle.
We are like that hourglass. When we start in the morning, there are hun-
dreds of tasks which we feel that we must accomplish that day. But if we do
not take them one at a time and let them pass through the day slowly and
evenly, as do the grains of sand passing through the narrow neck of the hour-
glass, then we are bound to break our own fragile physical and mental struc-
ture. Do not attempt more than God designed you to do.
Louis Pasteur – ‘father’ of microbiology
A tiny invisible thing that brings disease and death …. where have we heard
that before?! But Louis Pasteur, who died 125 years ago this month, on 28th
September 1895, was not interested in a virus from China, but in tiny living
organisms that brought disease and death in other ways.
Pasteur made some outstanding breakthroughs. He discovered the principles
of vaccination, and then created the first vaccines for anthrax and rabies. His
medical discoveries provided support for the germ theory of disease and nul-
lified the theory of spontaneous generation.
But Louis Pasteur is best known for his invention of the technique of treating
milk and wine to stop bacterial contamination, a process that was named af-
ter him: pasteurisation. In doing so, he saved the French beer, wine and silk
industries.
All in all, this gifted French biologist, microbiologist, and chemist well de-
serves his title as the ‘father of microbiology,’ and to be seen as one of the
three main founders of bacteriology.
88
Parish Council
Greatham Parish Council meetings have now resumed and will
be held on the following dates:
21st September*
2nd November*
14th December
*to be held at the Heron Centre, Fens Primary
School
Ditch the commute?
We may prefer to continue working at home, rather than spend hours
commuting each day.
A recent poll has found that a high proportion of workers, who are new
to working at home, now want to carry on post-Covid, either entirely at
home, or at least with fewer than five days in
the office each week.
It might mean that commuting to work could
fall by as much as a fifth, even after the virus is
over, according to the poll by Toluna for KEK
Consulting.
Are you working from home, do you prefer it, are you
struggling to work on your lap with a lap top? We
would love to hear your stories.
9
Never Give Up
In 1962, four nervous young musicians played their first record
audition for the executives of the Decca Recording company. The
executives were not impressed. While turning down this group
of musicians, one executive said, "We don't like their sound.
Groups of guitars are on the way out." The group was called The
Beatles.
In 1944, Emmeline Snively, director of the Blue Book Modeling
Agency, told modelling hopeful Norma Jean Baker, "You'd better
learn secretarial work or else get married." She went on and be-
came Marilyn Monroe.
In 1954, Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry fired a
singer after one performance. He told him, "You ain't goin' no-
where son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck." He went on
to become the most popular singer in America, named Elvis
Presley.
When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, it
did not ring off the hook with calls from potential backers. After
making a demonstration call, President Rutherford Hayes said,
"That's an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use
one of them?"
When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he tried over 2000
experiments before he got it to work. A young reporter asked
him how it felt to fail so many times. He said, "I never failed once.
I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2000-step pro-
cess."
10
10Never Give Up contd…...
In the 1940's, another young inventor named Chester Carlson
took his idea to 20 corporations, including some of the biggest
in the country. They all turned him down. In 1947 - after seven
long years of rejections! He finally got a tiny company in Roch-
ester, New York, the Haloid Company, to purchase the rights to
his invention, an electrostatic paper-copying process. Haloid
became Xerox Corporation we know today.
Wilma Rudolph was the 20th of 22 children. She was born
prematurely and her survival was doubtful. When she was 4
years old, she contacted double pneumonia and scarlet fever,
which left her with a paralyzed left leg. At age 9, she removed
the metal leg brace she had been dependent on and began to
walk without it. By 13 she had developed rhythmic walk, which
doctors said was a miracle. That same year she decided to be-
come a runner. She entered a race and came in last. For the next
few years every race she entered, she came in last. Everyone
told her to quit, but she kept on running. One day she actually
won a race. And then another. From then on she won every race
she entered. Eventually this little girl, who was told she would
never walk again, went on to win three Olympic gold medals.
The moral of the above Stories: Character cannot be developed
in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffer-
ing can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition in-
spired and success achieved. You gain strength, experience and
confidence by every experience where you really stop to look
fear in the face. You must do the thing you cannot do. And re-
member, the finest steel gets sent through the hottest furnace. A
winner is not one who never fails, but one who NEVER QUITS!
In LIFE, remember that you pass this way only once! Let's live
life to the fullest and give it our best.
11Random Fun Facts
There are approximately 100,000 hairs on an average human head
At any given moment, about 0.7% of people in the world are drunk
There are more English speakers in China than in the USA
It takes an average person 7 minutes to fall asleep
When you talk, you spray around 2.5 microscopic saliva droplets per word
Rats cannot vomit neither can horses
620 million years ago, an Earth day was only 21.9 hours long. It is extend-
ing a little every year
Our ears and our nose never stop growing
The human heart can squirt blood to a distance of 30 feet
The name Australia contains 3 A’s and each of them is pronounced differ-
ently
An apple in the morning will keep you more awake than a coffee
Scotland’s national animal is a unicorn
The ancient Romans used to make a toothpaste that contained urine
An average raindrop falls at the speed of roughly 7 miles an hour
A cow will let herself be led up the stairs, but it will be impossible for you to
lead her down the stairs again
The hashtag is really called an “octotroph”
The bible mentions all sorts of domesticated animals—with the exception
of the cat
In France it is illegal to name your pig Napoleon
Sharks do not get cancer
In 1997, Steve Jobs managed to persuade the board of directors of Apple
to fire the previous CEO Gil Amelio and appoint him the new CEO as a
consequence of Apple’s very bad results. These bad results were partially
caused by an anonymous sale of 1.5 million shares. It was later revealed
that the anonymous seller was Jobs himself.
What do you call a potato with glasses?
A spec-tator
12
121. What is the longest river in the UK?
2. Which King was killed at the Battle
of Bosworth Field in 1485 marking the end of The War of
The Roses?
3. How many members does a jury have in Scotland?
4. Which county is home to Maiden Castle?
5. King Henry VIII’s daughter Mary was a devout Catholic
and persecuted Protestants, which is why she became
known as?
6. James I and his son Charles I believed in the ‘Divine Right
of Kings’, the idea that the king was directly appointed to
rule by who?
7. In what capacity did Judge Ito become a TV celebrity in
the 1990s?
8. In 1983 the first daily quiz show was aired on TV in Brit-
ain; what was it?
9. On 'Coronation Street' who was the editor of The Weath-
erfield Recorder?
10. In which 1968 film did Charlton Heston play an astronaut
stumbling across the toppled figure of the Statue of Liber-
ty on a beach?
11. What was Nancy Reagan’s occupation before she devoted
herself to help in her husbands political career?
12. What is Mother Teresa’s given name?
13. Which celebrity has collected teapots for over 30 years?
14. Which French term meaning ‘high fashion’ or ‘high sew-
ing’ is the creation of exclusive custom fitted clothing?
15. What does a herpetologist study?
16. How do frogs catch flies?
Answers on page 15
13‘I do like to be beside the seaside!’
For centuries, many doctors have sent patients to the seaside to recuper-
ate, believing that a bit of seaside air was good for them. Now the gov-
ernment agrees: a day by the coast does indeed have a therapeutic ef-
fect on you.
A recent study by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Af-
fairs has found that people who spend time by the sea reported in-
creased happiness and better general health. They were also more
physically active during their visit, compared with visits to other types of
environment.
Rebecca Pow, Parliamentary Under-Secretary
of State at the Department for Environment,
said spending time by the sea “has a welcome
impact on our wellbeing. This makes it all that
more important that we take care of our envi-
ronment.” In England, we make 271million
recreational visits to the sea each year, and
more than 22million of us live within five miles of the coast.
This year, we have been lucky to have a pod of dolphins feeding off the
Hartlepool coast. They were easy to spot from the shore while feasting
on the shoals of fish.
14
14Quiz answers from page 13
1. Severn
2. Richard III
3. 15
4. Dorset
5. Bloody Mary
6. God
7. He was the judge in O J Simpsons trial
8. Blockbusters
9. Ken Barlow
10. Planet of the Apes
11. Film Actress
12. Agnes
13. Denise Van Outen
14. Haute Couture
15. Reptiles and amphibians
16. They have sticky tongues
Our neighbour’s son is very active in church –
he squirms, wriggles and fidgets!
My advice, if you insist on slimming, is to eat just as much as you like
but just don’t swallow it. – Harry Secombe
15Happy Birthday, Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival. The name conjures up images of world-
famous bands and singers making loud music before enthusiastic crowds
who are up to their knees in mud.
The statistics for the famous Pyramid stage are impressive: standing 25
metres tall, it has 292 audio speakers and 8.5 km of cables for video and
audio. It has 354 microphones and 3743 lightbulbs. The festival uses
about 27 megawatts of power, enough to power the city of Bath.
It all began 50 years ago this month, on 19th September 1970, when a
farmer, Michael Eavis, opened his farm, Worthy Farm near Pilton in Som-
erset, for a festival. He called it the Pilton Pop, Blues & Folk Festival and
about 1,500 people turned up. It was a success, soon had changed its
name, and by 1981 it had become an annual event.
Glastonbury was born out of the hippie ethic and free festival movement
of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is now the world’s largest greenfield
festival, attracting about 135,000 each year.
Here are some highlights:
By 1985 the festival had grown too large for Worthy Farm, but neigh-
bouring Cockmill Farm was purchased.
1989 saw impromptu, unofficial sound systems spring up around the
festival site. They would play loud, electronic acid house music 'round
the clock.
1994 saw Channel 4's 4 Goes to Glastonbury bring televised coverage of
the festival.
1996 saw the release of Glastonbury the Movie.
In 1997 major sponsorship arrived from The Guardian and the BBC, but
also heavy rain which turned the entire site into a muddy bog.
16
16Happy Birthday, Glastonbury Festival contd..
1998 brought more severe floods and storms, but that year attendance
broke the 100,000 mark.
1999 was a hot dry year, much to the relief of organisers and festival
goers.
2000 saw an estimated 250,000 people attend the festival (only
100,000 tickets were sold) due to gate-crashers.
In 2003 the issue of 150,000 tickets sold out within one day.
By 2005, the enclosed area of the festival was over 900 acres. 150,000
people attended more than 385 live performances, but heavy thunder-
storms saw several stages struck by lightning, and flash floods of four
feet deep.
2007 brought so much torrential rain that everything was covered in
mud. When cars took more than nine hours to exit the saturated fields,
violence erupted.
2008 saw biodegradable tent pegs and biotractors running on waste
vegetable oil.
In 2010 Michael Eavis joined headline artist Stevie Wonder to sing
‘Happy Birthday’, for the festival’s 40th year. The weather was kind:
three days of abundant sunshine made it the first rain-free festival since
2002, and the hottest since the festival began.
The 2015 festival made good use of the hundreds of pairs of wellington
boots discarded by festival goers – they were donated to the migrant
camp at Calais.
In 2017 the BBC renewed its exclusive national rights to broadcast the
event until 2022.
Then this Spring, in March 2020, the 50th anniversary of the festival had
to be cancelled due to coronavirus. The next Glastonbury Festival is
planned for June 2021.
1718 18
As our children return to school...
A second year student explaining to a first year
student how to write essays: “When you take
stuff from one writer, it’s plagiarism, but when
you take it from many writers, it’s called re-
search.”
Mother to young daughter after first day at
school: “Well, dear, what did they teach you to-
day?”
Daughter: “Not much. I’ve got to go back again tomorrow.”
Sudoku Puzzle
Answers next month
19What’s the history behind some of the sayings
we use everyday?
White elephant
White elephants were once considered highly sacred creatures in Thai-
land, but they were also wielded as a subtle form of punishment. Accord-
ing to legend, if an underling or rival angered a Siamese king, the royal
might present the unfortunate man with the gift of a white elephant.
While ostensibly a reward, the creatures were tremendously expensive
to feed and house, and caring for one often drove the recipient into fi-
nancial ruin. Whether any specific rulers actually bestowed such a pas-
sive-aggressive gift is uncertain, but the term has since come to refer
to any burdensome possession.
Paint the town red
The phrase “paint the town red” most likely owes its origin to one leg-
endary night of drunkenness. In 1837, the Marquis of Waterford, a
known lush and mischief maker, led a group of friends on a night of
drinking through the English town of Melton Mowbray. The bender cul-
minated in vandalism after Waterford and his fellow revellers knocked
over flowerpots, pulled knockers off doors and broke the windows of
some of the town’s buildings. To top it all off, the mob literally painted
a tollgate, the doors of several homes and a swan statue with red
paint. The marquis and his pranksters later compensated Melton for
the damages, but their drunken escapade is likely the reason that
“paint the town red” became shorthand for a wild night out. Still yet
another theory suggests the phrase was actually born out of the
brothels of the American West, and referred to men behaving as
though their whole town were a red-light district.
20
20More everyday sayings with their history……...
Crocodile tears
English speakers use the phrase “crocodile tears” to describe a display
of false sorrow, but the saying actually derives from a medieval belief
that crocodiles shed tears of sadness while they killed and consumed
their prey. The myth dates back as far as the 14th century and
comes from a book called “The Travels of Sir John Mandeville.” Wildly
popular upon its release, the tome recounts a brave knight’s adven-
tures during his supposed travels through Asia. Among its many fab-
rications, the book includes a description of crocodiles that notes,
“These serpents sley men, and eate them weeping, and they have no
tongue.” While factually inaccurate, Mandeville’s account of weeping
reptiles later found its way into the works of Shakespeare, and
“crocodile tears” became an idiom as early as the 16th century.
Turn a blind eye
The phrase “turn a blind eye” often used to refer to a wilful refusal to
acknowledge a particular reality, dates back to a legendary chapter in
the career of the British naval hero Horatio Nelson. During 1801’s Bat-
tle of Copenhagen, Nelson’s ships were pitted against a large Danish-
Norwegian fleet. When his more conservative superior officer flagged
for him to withdraw, the one-eyed Nelson supposedly brought his tele-
scope to his bad eye and blithely proclaimed, “I really do not see the sig-
nal.” He went on to score a decisive victory. Some historians have since
dismissed Nelson’s famous quip as merely a battlefield myth, but the
phrase “turn a blind eye” persists to this day.
21September Events
St Protus and St Hyacinth -
victims of mindless violence
11th September
On this, the 19th anniversary of the Twin Towers, we remember
two innocent people who also met their death in the flames of
mindless violence. These were Roman martyrs mentioned in the
4th century list of martyrs. Hyacinth’s tomb was discovered in
the cemetery of Basilla, with his name and the date of his burial
(11th September). Inside were charred bones, indicating death by
fire. An inscription by Damasus says Protus Hyacinth were
brothers, and another ancient source called them ‘teachers of the
Christian law’.
Michaelmas Day
29th September
Michaelmas, or the Feast of Michael and All Angels, is celebrated
on the 29th of September every year. As it falls near the equinox,
the day is associated with the beginning of autumn and the
shortening of days; in England, it is one of the “quarter days”.
There are traditionally four “quarter days” in a year (Lady Day
(25th March), Midsummer (24th June), Michaelmas (29th Sep-
tember) and Christmas (25th December)). They are spaced three
months apart, on religious festivals, usually close to the solstices
or equinoxes. They were the four dates on which servants were
hired, rents due or leases begun.
22
22Michaelmas Day contd…..
It used to be said that harvest had to be completed by Michaelmas,
almost like the marking of the end of the productive season and the be-
ginning of the new cycle of farming. It was the time at which new serv-
ants were hired or land was exchanged and debts were paid. This is how
it came to be for Michaelmas to be the time for electing magistrates and
also the beginning of legal and university terms.
Folklore in England holds that the devil
stamps on bramble bushes or as they say in some
areas, spits on them. Therefore one must not pick
blackberries after Michaelmas.
Traditionally, in the British Isles, a well fattened
goose, fed on the stubble from the fields after the harvest, is eaten to pro-
tect against financial need in the family for the next year; and as the say-
ing goes:
“Eat a goose on Michaelmas Day,
Want not for money all the year”.
Music and memory
Have you ever heard a certain song or tune that immediately takes you
back to your youth? It can be a very poignant moment.
When researchers at the University of Westminster examined the choices
of 80 different guests on the BBC radio show Desert Island Discs, they
found that most guests had chosen music which dated back to when they
had been between 10 to 30 years old. This time span was identified as a
‘self-defining period’ in their lives.
The research concluded: “The music we know and love between the ages
of 10 to 30 will play a significant role throughout our lives, connecting us
as individuals to other people, places and times that become central to our
identity.”
Let us know what songs trigger the big memories for you and why?
23Tees Flex Bus Service Expanded
Tees Valley’s £3million state-of-the-art on-demand bus service has
been expanded to new areas across the region due its popularity,
with more than 1,000 passengers a week using the service.
As a result of its success, from Tuesday 1 September the buses will
serve a number of new destinations, such as Nunthorpe Station
and James Cook Hospital for residents of Redcar & Cleveland;
Greatham Village, Tees Bay Retail Park and Hartlepool College for
those in Hartlepool; and the Amazon Warehouse, Egglescliffe
School and Stockton Riverside College for people in Stockton and
Darlington, along with many more.
Tees Flex, which operates six days a week, can be booked via a
smartphone app, a website or over the telephone. This initial three
-year pilot has been funded by the Tees Valley Mayor and Com-
bined Authority and is being operated by Stagecoach.
Single and return journeys can be made to requested pick-up and
drop-off points within one of three serviced areas to secondary
destinations including train stations and hospitals across that bor-
ough.
For more information on the new destinations Tees Flex will serve
and updated coronavirus travel guidance, visit teesflex.co.uk
24
2425
Answers to Last month’s Sudoku
Please send us anything you would like included in The Beck,
ideally 250 words or less.
We aim to have The Beck delivered by 1st of each month, and
the cut off date for the next issue is:
15th of September
Please use this address for all contributions
greathambeck@gmail.com
Alternatively take your article into Whitfield’s General Store
We reserve the right to refuse or alter any item submitted for
inclusion.
26
269 –11am
27Welcome to September’s instalment of gardening bits and bobs!
At this time of year, the warm and wet weather brings its own
particular set of problems to the amateur and professional gar-
den alike. No more so than with the humble potato! Just when
everything is growing well, brown patches appear on top of the
leaves and a white mould fringe underneath them. This is the
dreaded potato blight! If caught early it can be treated with a
copper tonic which will also slow down the spread. If left too
late, there is no effective treatment and crop yield will be re-
duced.
Tomatoes, being from the same family as potatoes, can suffer
similar problems such as mosaic virus (a yellow mottling of the
whole leaf surface). Regular spraying of insecticide will control
the virus carrying aphids. Mottling and bronze leaves may
mean a magnesium deficiency. This may also stunt
growth. Regular feeding and a multi tonic should remedy this
problem.
In general, a healthy plant is more resistant to fungal and insect
attack therefore regular weeding, feeding and watering are para-
mount. Not every plant will succumb to a virus or aphid infesta-
tion. All react differently and require different treatments, too
many to mention here. If you’re unsure, pop in and ask me at
the nursery.
28
28The new season’s plants and bulbs are ready to be planted
into the ground and containers. Don’t plant your bulbs too
deep as this results in them growing blind (no flower
head). Plant bulbs in groups as this will give a better show
in the spring. When planting winter pansies, my personal
choice would be a variety called Premier as many other va-
rieties purporting to be hardy, do not survive the extreme
winters of the North East. Hopefully, we’ll have an Indian
summer before then!
Happy gardening,
29Baked raspberry & bramble trifle
with Drambuie
Ingredients: 350g raspberry , fresh or frozen, plus extra to decorate
225g/8oz madeira cake or any other light sponge, thinly sliced
5 tbsp Drambuie whisky
1large orange , grated zest and juice
1l double cream
4 eggs
85g golden caster sugar
few drops vanilla extract or essence
8 tbsp bramble jam or jelly
5 bought shortbread biscuits , coarsely crumbled and lightly toasted
icing sugar , to dust
Method: Step 1 The day before, preheat the oven to fan oven 140C/
conventional 160C/gas 3. Tip the raspberries over the base of a large
deep, ovenproof dish. Press down lightly with the back of a spoon to
release some of the berry juices.
Step 2 Cover the raspberries with the slices of cake, then spoon over
the Drambuie and orange juice. Leave to soak for 10 minutes.
Step 3 Whisk together 600ml of the double cream with the eggs, sug-
ar, orange zest and vanilla extract or essence. Spread the jam over the
sponge to cover completely then slowly pour on the custard mixture.
Step 4 Sit the dish in a roasting tin with enough hot water to come at
least 5cm up the sides. Bake for 1 hour-1 hour 10 minutes, or longer
depending on the height and width of the dish. The custard should be
just set with a little wobble left in it. Leave to cool then cover with
cling film and keep overnight in the fridge.
Step 5 To serve, whip the remaining cream until it just holds its
shape, then spoon it over the custard. Scatter over the raspberries and
toasted shortbread and finish with a dusting of icing sugar.
30
30Roast chicken legs with Chinese five
spice and plums
Ingredients: For plum sauce:
2 1/2 cups sliced plums (about 3/4 pound)
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
Thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
2 tbsp Chinese five spice
1 whole large free-range chicken, jointed into 8 pieces
2 red onions, cut into wedges
6 plums, halved and stoned
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
15g unsalted butter
Method: To make plum sauce, combine all ingredients in a sauce-
pan. Cover; bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Reduce heat
to low; cook for 15 minutes or until plums are tender. Cool slightly.
Place in a food processor, and pulse 6 times or until chunky.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan180°C/gas 6.
Rub grated fresh ginger and Chinese five-spice into the chicken .
Season.
Mix the onion wedges and plum halves together in a roasting tin
with the olive oil, soy sauce and some seasoning. Drizzle plum
sauce over the plums and onion.
Dot over the butter and top with the chicken pieces (skin-side up).
Roast in the oven for 35-40 minutes until the chicken is cooked
through, sticky and golden.
Serve with boiled rice and steamed or stir fried greens.
31Your face mask and your dog
Face masks have been a big adjustment for all of us, but dogs especially
may be struggling, warns the animal charity, Dogs Trust.
Dogs use our facial expressions to tell how we are feeling, so if they sud-
denly encounter people whose faces are covered, they could become
confused, stressed, and even feel threatened. Their confusion may lead
to a loss of obedience and cooperation with you.
Here is how to get your dog used to you wearing a face mask:
Hold your hand over your face for a moment, speak reassuringly
to your dog, and then reward him.
Introduce your dog to your face mask, let him sniff it and let him
see you put it up to your face, and then down again. Reward him.
Put it on for a moment. Reassure and reward him.
Put it on and move about the room, while reassuring him.
Reward him.
Gradually build up the length of time that you wear the face mask
around him. Keep reassuring him. Reward him.
Expect that he may not be so quick to understand and obey you when
you are wearing the mask – be patient.
Don’t take him into public places where many people are wearing masks,
unless you absolutely have to do so. It could be very stressful for him.
All these humans
with muzzles! Who
did they bite?
32
32Observations on modern life…...
History books will inevitably tell the story of a virus that swept the world
in 2020. But it is up to us what that story will look like. Either… the story
of a virus that … showed up the weakness, selfishness and frailty of peo-
ple… or how people responded with their best, how the virus was a medi-
cal but not a social tragedy. – Canon Will Hughes, Vicar of Petersfield,
Portsmouth Diocese.
When you wear a tight mask around your face, a hat, a face shield, a gown,
two pairs of gloves, and something to protect your shoes, it is a totally dif-
ferent (nursing) thing; and, as nurses, you have to stay in that side room
or unit for 12-and-a-half hours. It is really draining physically. You…can’t
even go to the loo because your patients are terribly sick. They are on
maximum (life support), so you can’t take your eyes off that monitor. –
ITU nurse on the reality of nursing in PPE
Character is not made in a crisis – it is only exhibited. – Robert Freeman
Paul was thankful for others – brothers and sisters in Christ, fellow serv-
ants, ministry partners. In his correspondence Paul didn’t just leave it at
generalised expressions of gratitude – he often took time to identify spe-
cific individuals for whom he was grateful and to let them know how
much he appreciated their contribution to his life. Do we do that? – Nancy
Leigh DeMoss
We would like to acknowledge the kind contribution made by the
Hospital of God Trust Greatham,
for their continuing support which allows for the printing of this
magazine. We hope we will be able to print again soon.
3334 34
Whitfield’s News:
Thank you to all our customers for your patience during our reduced hours
over the past few months. We hope to return to our usual opening hours
soon. As ever, please phone on 07484 272 450 or message via Facebook if
you need us. We can prepare your shopping ready for you to collect.
Macmillan Coffee Morning - unfortunately, due to social distancing
measures, we are unable to host our coffee morning this year.
3536 36
You can also read
