Netherfield

Netherfield Village Post Office: As promised on Friday 31st August the Village Post Office & Cafe is holding a live music event with Hazel singing her heart out. Tickets are £7 and that includes a chilli. There will of course be drinks available and the Cafe and shop will be converted to hold all the people who want to come and be a part of this fantastic event. The show starts at 7.00pm and tickets are selling like hot cakes so don't miss out. Please book in advance either ate the shop of by phoning Nichola or Janette

Netherfield Village Hall Library Service: The library will open its doors every Wednesday from 2 o’clock or 14.00 hours, for approximately 2 hours. Our range will include fiction, non-fiction, cookery, gardening, poetry and children’s books. There will also be a range of DVDs, CDs and for those with a cassette player, talking books. Your original library ticket will be valid from the outset until we get organised. There will also be tea and coffee. We are still looking for more bookcases and books and would welcome any offers which we are happy to collect. We hope to offer a larger range of topics and genres as we progress and get more offers, so please bear with us. Details at the end of the column as to how to get in touch if you have some donations. Please take two minutes to inform us.

Natherfield Jumble Sale: Saturday 1st September is when the bargains will be available, well a jumble extravaganza anyway. Bric-a-brac, toys, clothes and the odd antique will once again be on offer for those who like a good rummage. Entrance is only 50p although children are free and will begin in the afternoon at 2.00pm. Refreshments will be available. Enquiries Jo 07888 657323.

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The Messenger: The Parish Magazine is on sale each month, costing 50p. It is full of articles on local villages including Netherfield and has a wealth of information on businesses within the local area. If you wish to order a copy call Gillian Slack. 01424 838825.

Netherfield and Battle Radio: Come on everyone, help me out here. Tell me what you think by contacting me at [email protected] or any of the alternatives highlighted at the end of the column.

Reflections on a garden: As I gazed out of our bedroom window this morning I could see, that despite using my barbering skills on the wisteria a few weeks ago to remove the long, snake-like tendrils and their Salome-like movements from the scene, a new batch had grown. Order and uniformity is important to me, not because it provides an easy lifestyle but as a result of genetics and my birth date. I am after all a Virgo. A patch of well-turned earth, crumbling and richly coloured is as exciting to me as a bed of flowers all neatly spaced and trimmed. Yes it’s true! Therefore, clippers must be found and the stringers removed in a surgical experience which will probably please me more than the plant. However, from my point of view, order will be restored.

It is amazing how the rain can change the appearance of any garden in just a couple of days. What had looked tired and uninteresting has now become vibrant and healthy once again. Our hops, and we have three of them - two males and one female, a menage-a-trois in the gardening world - were looking distinctly brown, lacklustre and drooping, have suddenly sent out new green shoots from the base, in an effort to remind us both that they are still about. The female, which provides the hops, has now come into its own, providing us with fruit which is almost the size of golf balls, pine-cone like in appearance hanging from our arbour, ready to be picked and add bittering, flavouring and stability to some expensive craft beer. Unfortunately, we have never used them for that process preferring to dream of what might be rather than what is. You can tell I have delusions of grandeur a lot too.

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The rain has also promoted a resurgence in the number of weeds and grasses which have germinated in what had been for a while, a pristine gravel drive and path on our plot. My good lady’s insistence at the beginning of the year on a bolster to our log-suffering trails, which had remained as was since we acquired the property all those years ago, had obviously added a layer above dormant seeds and weeds, which have finally found, because of the rain, the light of day. Now, there are spikes of green, reappearing where once had been grit. I therefore have to restart “weed watch”. This requires walking in a gymnastic-type pose with one’s head close to the ground and one’s arms ready to pluck, in a zig-zaggy pattern across the entire length and breadth of the gravel, the offending item. This operation must be effected carrying a heavy metal bucket and a sharp tool to dib, lever and pluck. Whatever you do, do not try to say those last few words too quickly.

More next week........

Contact: If you have any stories or articles of interest that will give our readership a reason to buy the paper please contact me on email at [email protected]. Call 01424838410 and ask for Maurice or text 07957588172

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