Exercise4Seniors starts in November in Great Gidding Village Hall on Thursdays at 11.00am.
Contact Steph Taylor on 07720 583340 or visit www.exercise4happiness.com
Here’s something to ponder on the lead up to Christmas. What type of tree will it be sat in the corner of the room, heavily draped in tinsel and a fine looking fairy/angel / Action Man adorning the leading tip. There are a couple of ex Christmas trees (Nordic fir trees) that have successfully grown in the Jubilee Wood from pot bound 2ft tall specimens to a healthy 10ft to 12ft. It does take time for them to get going and weed control is a must around the base.
There is always room for more specimen trees and evergreens so if you would give consideration to buying a rooted Christmas tree and donate it after the festive season we will endeavour to plant it in a good growing medium and the usual caveat with the natural world, despite the best endeavours it may not grow.
Come along for cakes, crafts and reindeers at the Christmas Fair being held at The Admiral Wells, 41 Station Road, Holme, Peterborough and help support Great Gidding School.
Free admission. Warm up with hot chocolate or mulled wine.
All proceeds to Great Gidding School and Holme Pre-School
Start Time: 17:30
Location: The Admiral Wells, Holme, Peterborough
Date: 2014-12-14
Great Gidding History Group
The group meets on the third Wednesday of each month between September and April. 7.30PM start time. The meetings are very informal – chatting and exchanging memories, sometimes photos or objects are brought in for discussion.
The next meeting dates are:
Wednesday 18th September
Wednesday 16th October
Wednesday 20st November
Wednesday 18th December
Wednesday 15th January
Wednesday 26th February
Wednesday 19th March
Wednesday 16th April
The venue will be the Village Hall unless otherwise stated.
The recent cold snap has added an extra photogenic element to our villages.
View the Photos section for more images of the January snows.
View the Photos section for more images.
On the evening of January the 9 th we will be exercising our pagan past with a Wassail
This is an event that has been introduced over the past few years more to reconnect with our rural history and heritage. The format for the evening has changed slightly. The very wet ground in the Jubilee Wood has meant that we will gather at the Village Hall from 7 pm for a Wassail Celebration at 7.30 pm.
Following on with entertainments of the Gidding kind. Please bring apple based drinks – or anything you fancy really and nibbles.
Waes-hael !
It’s the bleak mid winter, snow lying deep and crisp and even. Well you get the picture, so thank you to those who braved the cold for the February B & S night.
As usual it was with great interest to see what the various offering would be and how many bottles of the same beer would be set on the bar and as usual in that magical Gidding way none were duplicated.
A great range of beers
Fullers topped the evening but only one London Pride which is their main beer. London Porter and Chiswick Bitter along with ESB were sampled. A bottle of Golden Pride 8% has been held over for the next event. Hooky Gold and Hooky Bitter along with the Xmas 12 Days were offered from the Hook Norton Steam Brewery. Bateman’s ales were far more elusive with a bottle of Victory Ale. Somehow we acquired a good selection from the Sole Bay Brewery at Southwold. Any Adnams beer is welcomed so thanks for those. Because of the low numbers attending this time, several bottles have been put in the cellar for next time.
A talented newbie and a new top score record.
A robust couple of rounds of skittles were played and Newbie to the evening Mr Steven Garner showed us a thing or two about how to play skittles and was the overall winner of the evening and walked off with the Ale’d and Aimless trophy.
Mr Adam Titmuss almost demolished the skittle table with some power throwing and achieved an evening top score of 14.
The muppet award again fell into the hands of the event organiser for a dreadful first round score of 3 after showing so much promise in the warm up.
Drawn to the Jubilee woods by the light of bonfire and waning gibbous moonlight, the villagers once again gathered to join in with the ages old tradition of Wassailing. This year, to aid the abundant harvest of fruit on the trees, the Wassailing performed around the circle of five fruit trees in the wood – including, of course, a cider apple variety. Filling our cups with a wonderful cidery brew we sang, cheered and saluted ‘Waes Hail’! into the night before adding another toast to the tree branches – this time in the form of bread – for the sanity of the birds in the area.
But this was not all….taking steps toward the bench we were most entertained by a very clever and amusing heart-rending poem written and performed by Paul Burgess – dressed in his usual garb of scary white sheet. Sue Jarvis followed with a beautiful poem that she had written with Patrick (read the poems below).
Calamity – A Conversation By Paul Burgess
Greenhouse
How did this come to pass,
That I, a house of glass,
Should fall in shards upon the grass?
Wind
T’was I, the Wind replied
That tipped you over on your side,
And left your framework gaping wide.
Greenhouse
I heard you wield such mighty powers,
Which turn to storm the mildest showers,
But what of Val and her tender flowers?
Wind
I’m afraid I’m not concerned with that.
It is my job to knock things flat
Or set you running for your hat.
Greenhouse
But are you not concerned that this,
A dirty deed which none would miss,
Makes extra labour for poor Chris?
Wind
Why, no! I think you miss the point,
To create mayhem,God did me anoint
And, so, to altogether wreck the joint.
Nature
What you said is nearly true,
But you haven’t really thought it through,
For however hard you thought you blew,
I, Nature, in time will make it new.
And Chris your work will soon undo
After another trip to B&Q
© Paul Burgess
Entry for the Gidding Eisteddfod, 2012
Sue & Patrick’s Poem
Looking back and thinking about 2011
It seems fair to say it was no gardener’s heaven
The winter too cold, the spring too dry
It made us gardeners cry “Why oh Why?”
Allotment holders feared a mass plant slaughter
But wait! At last! The council has put on water!
Hurrah Hurrah we can weather the drought
And we allotment holders can now have no doubt
Our tates will be rounder, our leeks will be longer
Our peas will be greener and our onions will be stronger
Another year is coming to dig and to delve
So lets sing a song to 2012
Festivities continued in the Village Hall with hot soups and a variety of foods and, to bring us bang up to date again, Michael had pasted QR codes around the hall. These Quick Response codes are black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background and when you hold your iPad or smart phone up to them you get information. The evening ended with Paul Crank taking some photos of everyone and instantly putting them on our new Giddings website!
Thank you Michael, Julie and everyone who helped to make this another ‘great’ Gidding evening.
Report by Krystyna – Jan 2012