A village drop-in runs on alternate Thursdays at various villagers’ and exvillagers’ houses from 3-5.00. It is open to all villagers so please come along
if you want to have a nice friendly chat over a cup of tea or coffee.
Please email me at richmondbinov@gmail.com if you’re interested and to
find out the venue for the meetings.
Richard Burrow
Christmas Reading
This year’s Christmas Reading will be held in the Village Hall on 9th December at 6.30 pm
Reserve the date for your annual Christmas Treat, then join us to enjoy a
story full of magic and pathos and fun, adapted from the children’s book
by Matt Haig, “The Girl Who Saved Christmas”. Schoolchildren come
free, but adults will charged a £6 admission fee. That does include
seasonal refreshments, though. Tickets will be available next month.
Proceeds go to The Friends of St Mary’s Church.
Any questions or offers of help to
Malcolm Wright (850705)
Halloween Shindig
The staff at The George and Dragon would like to invite you to a Halloween Shindig on Saturday 28th of October from 7.00pm onwards. Best fancy dress wins a prize (adult and children). There will be a duet singing spooky tunes on the night, so come along for some monstermashing!
Nature garden update
Someone once made the claim that the single best thing you can do for
wildlife is provide a pond. This gets repeated all over the shop, but I haven’t
been able to find the actual, ahem, source. Not that it sounds too barmy;
doesn’t everything need a drink now and again? Anyway, we’ll be able to test the
theory ourselves: with the help of Nate and Jemma Dyson (see pictures)
we’ve just installed a water point in the nature garden. It’s a wide dish
with stepped sides set into the ground so creatures of all sizes can use it.
Although not big enough for plants or fish, it’ll give bugs and birds a
reliable water station – and maybe amphibians and mammals will stop for
a sip too. I learn from Dave Goulson’s book ‘The Garden Jungle’ that water
boatmen, pond skaters and water beetles can all fly, so we may get some true
pondlife into the bargain.We can keep the water point topped
up with unchlorinated water now that the butt is rigged and filling (thanks
to Luke James and UVHAT). If you’re ever passing and see the level in the
dish has dropped, feel free to use the watering can by the butt to replenish.
Besides putting in the mini pond, volunteers have given the wildflower
meadow its annual chop. As you’d expect after its cut (essential to
prevent grasses dominating) it’s looking somewhat dowdy, but still
attracting lots of wildlife. The disgruntled residents of a bee’s nest turned
out to protest when we started raking off the straw, and the area is teeming
with crickets, beetles, worms and woodlice. We’ll do some selective grass
removal and re-seeding in the next few weeks.
Other upcoming tasks include cutting back the hedge plants to encourage
them to bush out more. Plus weeding and mulching the perennials. If you’d
like to be involved and don’t yet receive volunteer mailings, please drop a
line to kieronhumph@gmail.com
Kieron
Short Mat Bowls in Upton
Short Mat Bowls
Quite simply, Short Mat Bowls is a version of outdoor bowls but played
indoors, predominantly over the winter months but can be played all year
round.
In Upton village hall we have all the equipment required and a group play
socially on three Wednesday evenings each month.
If you are looking for an evening fun activity then please come and join us
from September, I am a qualified bowls coach and Umpire and will help
you get started and to improve your game.
For more information, please contact Mike Weston -07706 795950 or Joan
Durbin – 850035
Short Mat Bowls is a competitive game played Nationally and
Internationally and although we just play for fun on our Wednesday
evenings, several of us play for Harwell in the Oxfordshire Leagues, with
some progressing on to County and National Competitions. Harwell is also
looking for new members and the club is holding some Open Sessions later
this year. Again, contact Mike on 07706 795950 for more information.
Upton Village Fete
The Upton fete will be taking place on Saturday, 2nd September from 12:00 to 3:00. Lots of exciting things to do including:
A fun dog show – bring your pooch (it doesn’t need to be pampered!) –there are lots of prizes to be won!
Gymnastics display
Morris dancing
Blewbury Brass Band
Classic car display and parade
Teas and cakes
Pimm’s bar
Barbeque
Kids’ area
Ice cream
Lots of stalls including plants, preserves, books, raffle, tombola and
books. Contributions welcome! Please leave books in the church porch and
tombola/raffle prizes with Katie Dickens at Midway, Prospect Road (green
box in the porch or call 0791 205 9430). Rosemary de Wilde will soon be
asking budding bakers for cakes.
We’ll need the usual help setting up on Saturday morning and dismantling
later in the day. Please let Paul Batho know if you’d like to volunteer
(pjsbatho@btinternet.com or 07794 239775).
Volunteers on the day are always needed and just now we are ‘recruiting’ in
a couple of areas:
The Barbecue – can you offer a stint for an hour or so? Training provided!
And if anyone could loan a large gas-fired barbeque for the day, that would
be great.
The Kids’ Zone – there’ll be lots of attractions and games for younger
Uptonians, and we’re looking for people to manage and supervise this area.
It’s a perfect role for the whole family!
Please let any of the organising committee know if you can help: Katie
Dickens, Nicky Hall, Paul Batho, Jessie West, Ben Shaw, Katherine Verso,
Ann Parham and Peter McLaughlin, or drop us a line on uptonfete1@outlook.com.
Ladies Wine & Tapas Night
Thank you to all the ladies who came to our Tapas and Wine evening on the
7th! A special thanks to Jacqui, for her incredible culinary skills and support with planning and setting up, Duncan, for volunteering to be our superb barman, and Brian, for supplying a great selection of wines for us to enjoy and to enter into the raffle.
It was wonderful to see so many people who are relatively new to the village, as well as those who have been involved in village events for a number of years. For some, for differing reasons, this was the first opportunity they had to socialise with villagers -something I feel is incredibly important.
We were also welcomed by our very active and supportive female counsellors Cllr Debra Dewhurst and Cllr Sally Povolotsky. For a small group of 21 women, we raised a respectable profit of £350 for our charities – £225 for our Village Hall Association Trust, and £125 donated to Blewbury Preschool. The school have given us a card and passed on their thanks to the village. They rely on fundraising to keep open, and every little donation really does make a difference to keeping this incredible facility for local families.
Nichola Hall
New Photographic Competition
Summer – from now until 30th September.
Three categories –
1. Upton and Surrounding Area.
2. Birds – any kind: sitting, flying, eating and
from anywhere.
3. People/Person – at work, play, holiday,
family, friends or stranger
Good luck and get snapping!
Entries should be in JPEG format (highest
resolution you can manage) and emailed to –
upton.photo@outlook.com
Rob Traynor
Upton Village Fete
Upton fete will be taking place on Saturday, 2nd September from 12:00 to 3:00. Lots of exciting things to do including:
A fun dog show – bring your pooch (it doesn’t need to be pampered!) –
there are lots of prizes to be won!
Gymnastics display
Morris dancing
Blewbury Brass Band
Classic car display and parade
Teas and cakes
Pimm’s bar
Barbeque
Kids’ area
Ice cream
Lots of stalls including plants, preserves, books, raffle, tombola and
books
Contributions welcome! Please leave books in the church porch and
tombola/raffle prizes with Katie Dickens at Midway, Prospect Road (green
box in the porch or call 0791 205 9430). Rosemary de Wilde will soon be
asking budding bakers for cakes.
We’ll need the usual help setting up on Saturday morning and dismantling
later in the day. Please let Paul Batho know if you’d like to volunteer
(pjsbatho@btinternet.com or 07794 239775).
But above all, keep the date free and tell all your friends!
Upton Nature Garden
The grass is high, there’s elderflower in the air and the swallows are
swooping – the hallmarks of a classic Oxfordshire summer. In the nature
garden one villager has noted a good display of ox-eye daisies, viper’s
bugloss, campion and purple loosestrife. The roses, irises and honeysuckle
are blooming too. Also spotted: cherries on the tree Caroline planted for
Kit.
We’ve been asked by the PC to say whether the garden ‘is where it should
be in terms of appearance and plant development’. Interesting question.
We planted according to a design drawn up by a professional
horticulturalist, using plans and some computer renderings of what the
garden might look like in a few years. You can see them on the nature
garden website (www.nature-garden.co.uk). You can also see a fab bit of
tech magic courtesy of Brian, showing how the site looked before we began
the transformation and how it looks now. I think that’s a fair reflection of
where we are. But it’d be great to hear from you, especially if you’d had
different expectations of the nature garden, so we can feed back views
from everyone.
And while we’re talking about the garden’s genesis, it’s worth remembering
that every penny spent on the garden [£6,700], including all materials,
plants, trees and equipment has been covered by grants or donations.
Creating and maintaining the space has been entirely down to our excellent
and enthusiastic volunteers. Thank you.
Which brings me to:
Working party on Saturday 1 July, 10am
Please join if you can for a maintenance session – plenty of light tasks
available or heavier jobs if you fancy a workout.
All ages and abilities welcome. Cake and drinks.
We look forward to seeing you if you have any time to spare.
Kieron Humphrey