Some of you may have noticed grown men (and women) disappearing out of the back of the Fox and Hounds on a Thursday night. Well here’s what’s been going on…
Quite disappointing really!
Thanks to Michael for organising and for the time-lapse footage and to the Fox and Hounds for hosting.
PS. The Giddings now has a YouTube channel. If anyone has Giddings related video and want to share it then email Paul and he’ll give you login details (and instructions if needed).
Calum Titmus (20) from Great Gidding has just returned to the UK having competed last weekend in Reykjavik at the Icelandic Inclusive Skating and Special Olympics Figure Skating Championships. He competed alongside competitors from Iceland, Great Britain and Canada. After two days of intensive competition, he came away with two Gold medals. These medals were presented to Calum by the President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grimsson. This now means that Calum has won 8 Gold Medals at National and International level in three different sports. This is all the more remarkable when you realise that Calum is Autistic with severe learning difficulties.
Three golds for Calum
Figure Skating as a Special Olympics sport was brought to Britain for the first time in 2012, and last year Speed Skating was added to the event. Calum entered the Speed Skating event at three distances, winning Gold in each race, and is now the first British Special Olympics Speed Skating Champion. Calum is also heavily involved with Inclusive Skating. This is a charity that is trying to set up a family orientated group at each ice rink in the UK. This group will be for anyone with any visual, hearing, bio-mechanical or learning difficulty, along with family and carers who want to learn to skate. Please look out for local fundraising events for Calum and Inclusive Skating.
Calum’s next competition will be the British Inclusive Skating and Special Olympics Competitions at the beginning of November 2014.
Calum attends Huntingdon Regional College and trains twice a week at Planet Ice in Peterborough. He also trains at the gyms in the One Leisure group and with the Piranhas Swimming Club in Huntingdon as well as the Peterborough Special Olympics Swimming Club. He represented the Eastern Region region in the National Special Olympics Games in Bath last August as a swimmer, winning a gold and silver medal.
Handyperson Services complete ‘odd jobs’ around the home, mainly for people aged 60 plus.
The County Council, Cambridge City Council, district councils and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), are working together to develop a countywide Handyperson Service. To help develop this service a survey has been produced for people over 60 or with a disability, carers, professionals and organisations and groups to say what sort of handyperson service they would like to be provided. The survey is now ‘open’ and closing date for responses is 5.00pm on Monday 23rd June 2014. Below are links to the survey should these be of interest for inclusion on your website for local people to be able to share their views.
Information provided by:
Amanda Davies, Communications Officer, ASC Personalisation, Cambridgeshire County Council
After such a wet start to the year it’s been good to see the sunshine and feel the soil warming up a bit.
There’s been lots of activity on the allotments and the annual anxieties of whether it’s too early or too late to sow or plant out have been occupying most of the conversations. Seeds are finally germinating in the warmer soil but many of us don’t fully trust the weather and have been starting seeds off in modules.
Hopefully there’s room in your gardens for some vegetables as well as prize winning flowers. This is a good time as hopes are high but don’t forget to prepare as best you can for all the pests and diseases which are waiting round the corner… use netting on brassicas against the cabbage white butterflies and put fine mesh over the carrot rows if you want to stop the pesky carrot root flies from laying their eggs in your beautiful prize winning exhibits.
We’re really pleased that we’ve already had some requests for schedules from other areas and hope that we might get more entries from children this year, especially as the cup awarded for the winner of the Children’s section is worth having on display!
Remember, the baking section is open to all, so let’s have more men trying their cooking skills against those of the ladies. Go on, give it a try…
For schedules/queries please contact Sue Jarvis. E-mail: jartrap@aol.com or tel: 01832 293271.
!['poached egg plant' Limnanthes douglasii] which the bees love and everyone should grow to encourage pollinators into their garden!](http://www.thegiddings.org.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/village-show-2014-flower-280x179.jpg)
‘Poached egg plant’ (Limnanthes douglasii) which the bees love and everyone should grow to encourage pollinators into their garden!
The district council now produces a quarterly e-newsletter called Huntingdonshire Online.
The e-newsletter aims to keep residents up to date with news & events taking place in Huntingdonshire. To receive Huntingdonshire Online, people need to subscribe at www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/subscribe providing us with a name & e-mail address.
The next issues will be sent out during the third week in June 2014. Read more about the newsletter on the Huntingdonshire District Council website.
Some good news for residents in the Giddings – Neighbourhood Watch is coming to town! Great Gidding’s Kim Wells is taking on the role of organiser and will be dropping leaflets through your door very shortly.
If you’d like to know about the scheme or get more ‘hands on’ then visit:
www.ourwatch.org.uk/your_local_area/neighbourhood_watch_schemes
Put in your postcode and all the Neighbourhood Watch groups in this area will come up. You will see ‘the Giddings’ and if you click on this it sends an email to Kim. Or you can email Kim at kimmol@.me.com and she will go through it with you.
United we stand.
We’re even having a few dare I say it much needed April showers. But don’t let these put you off heading out for a walk, cycle or ride.
It’s amazing how pleasurable a walk in the rain can be. The whole walk can be transformed into a glorious experience, as long as you’re dressed for it & you don’t get cold.
Firstly the smell of rain on spring flowers, hedges & grasses is a delight, not to mention the sensation of it landing on your face & hands.
I was out in the rain this week & a kind lady in a car pulled up beside me & asked me if I needed a lift. She was surprised when I said I was enjoying a leg stretch in the rain!
Don’t get into the habit that you only do things when the weather is fine & sunny & to dismiss the rain or dull chilly weather as bad! This is very easily slipped into & the problem is we miss out on so much that is going on around us in our lovely countryside.
So go on, get out there & experience all weathers. It’s so exhilarating & really makes you feel alive & brings you into the present moment.
Things to look out for : Birds building nests & looking for worms, swallows newly returned from far away & dancing in our skies. Skylarks above your head singing. Cowslips, May blossom,bees working the blossoms. Cows turned out to summer grazing. Horses enjoying the spring grass, perhaps without their winter rugs & lots & lots more.
Enjoy!
Rachel
Calum Titmus (20) from Great Gidding has just come back to the UK having competed last weekend in the Austrian Special Olympics Figure Skating Championships. He competed alongside competitors from Germany, Russia, Finland, Great Britain and Austria. After two days of intensive competition, he successfully defended his title as Austrian National Special Olympics Figure Skating champion. This is all the more remarkable when you realise that Calum is Autistic with severe learning difficulties. Figure Skating as a Special Olympics sport was brought to Britain for the first time in 2012, and this year Speed Skating was added to the event. Calum entered the Speed Skating event at three distances, winning Gold in each race, and is now the first British Special Olympics Speed Skating Champion.
Calum Titmus
Inclusive Skating Charity
Calum is also heavily involved with Inclusive Skating. This is a charity that is trying to set up a family orientated group at each ice rink in the UK. This group will be for anyone with any visual, hearing, bio-mechanical or learning difficulty, along with family and carers who want to learn to skate. Please look out for local fundraising events for Calum and Inclusive Skating.
Heading off to Iceland
Calum will also be one of the senior British Inclusive skaters, that is any figure skater with an impairment, heading to Reykjavik, Iceland at the end of May 2014. He will also be competing as a Special Olympian.
Calum attends Huntingdon Regional College and trains twice a week at Planet Ice in Peterborough. He also trains at the gyms in the One Leisure group and with the Piranhas Swimming Club in Huntingdon as well as the Peterborough Special Olympics Swimming Club. He represented the Eastern Region region in the National Special Olympics Games in Bath last August as a swimmer, winning a gold and silver medal.
The lane will be closed for a short period as Anglian Water have some work to progress. Please see quoted text below.
“We are the project management company for the new build taking place in Gains Lane, Great Gidding for Mr Jack Bolton.
We are currently in the process of applying for a short term temporary partial road closure of Gains Lane through Cambridgeshire County Council’s Street Works Department during the construction works and they have informed us that it is our responsibility to inform local residents/businesses that may be affected by the closure. As your website covers all the local news and information of the area I felt you would be the best point of contact to convey this information. Could we possibly ask that you publish the dates of the Road Closure( see below for details) on your website to allow a good period of notice of the works?
We will of course be personally notifying all residents of Gains Lane separately to this notice coming to you.
The dates of the proposed closure are 02/06/2014 until 26/06/2014 however the road will not be closed at weekends and alternative access for residents and emergency vehicles will be available as per the terms set out by the Council. In fact other than a few short days when Anglian Water will be digging a trench right across the road to supply the site with water there will be reasonable access for all residents.
Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have questions or concerns regarding this matter.
Many thanks.
Kind regards
Lucy O’Regan ”
Great Gidding skater Calum Titmus has been selected to represent Great Britain and to lead the British Special Olympics Figure Skating team to Vienna to compete in the Austrian Winter Games at the beginning of April. He will be looking to win back the title that he won as the first British Special Olympics figure skater two years ago.
Calum, age 20, will also be one of the senior British Inclusive skaters, that is any figure skater with an impairment, heading to Reykjavik, Iceland at the end of May 2014.
Gold and silver medal success
Calum, who is autistic with severe learning difficulties, has been the British Special Olympics Figure Skating Champion since 2012 and in 2013 became the first British Special Olympics Speed Skating Champion. He has also represented the East of England at swimming at the Bath 2013 British Special Olympics Summer Games, from which he brought home a gold and silver medal.
Calum is also heavily involved with Inclusive Skating. This is a charity that is trying to set up a family orientated group at each ice rink in the UK. This group will be for anyone with any visual, hearing, bio-mechanical or learning difficulty, along with family and carers who want to learn to skate. Please look out for local fundraising events for Calum and Inclusive Skating.
Calum attends Huntingdon Regional College and trains twice a week at Planet Ice in Peterborough. He also trains at the gyms in the One Leisure group and with the Piranhas Swimming Club in Huntingdon as well as the Peterborough Special Olympics Swimmimg Club.
A young man of many talents
His most recent successes are learning to dive, jumping off the 7.5 metre board and coming 1st in the Huntingdon Flipathon!
Well done Calum!