Dear all,

I usually send an email about just one concert, but there are so many amazing concerts coming up, that I would rather share the link with you.

In short:
Sunday 2nd of Feb at 4 pm - Manus Noble (guitar)
Sunday 9th of March at 4 pm - Voice, Clarinet and Piano
Friday 14th of March at 7 pm - Young stars from Abingdon School
Sunday 16th of March at 4 pm - Nina Schumann, a wonderful pianist, sharing her inspiring story of living with Parkinsons as well as focal dystonia and still playing, a talk and music.
Sunday 27th of April at 4 pm - Pavlova Quintet
 
For more information and to book your tickets, please follow this link:
 
https://www.whitehorseconcerts.co.uk/stonevaleconcerts.

Please let me know if you would rather like to leave a donation at the church, and reserve a seat, as that is also fine. Please share this with as many people as you can, as I am trying to build the numbers but also make as much money for the artists and the church roof fund.
 
Next year will be the 20th year of running Stonevale Concerts, and we are approaching 200 - quite amazing.
 
Best wishes,
Lynette

The Parish Council seeks your views on the timing of the verge cutting next season.

Please submit a response to the following survey:  https://forms.gle/JYTkzCcm2jv8uK8y7     
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Following my considerations as to what might be done to prevent used postage stamps going to waste and then an  announcement prior to Christmas, of the intention to set up a collection arrangement of used postage stamps towards fundraising for 'Canine Partners', myself and Emma Roodenberg have now had the opportunity of setting up a village collecting point at the Old Red Telephone Box.
 
Canine Partners at www.caninepartners.org.uk are a UK registered charity that provides training for highly skilled assistance dogs carefully matched to support adults with disabilities with daily living tasks (civilians and former service personnel), that include opening and closing doors, unloading washing machines, moving and picking up items, pressing buttons and switches, using cards at an ATM and fetching help in an emergency.
 
The collection of used stamps (cut from their envelopes please) has raised almost £30,000 over ten years for the charity as part of their overall fundraising campaign. Stamps are sorted and graded towards raising up to £6 per kilo at auction and the funds returned to the charity.
 
Donations also of first day covers, stamp collections or albums can be sent to the national training centre in Leicestershire by emailing: [email protected] or if you have further questions or enquiries regarding their work, or to donate money directly.
 
Your cut stamps can be collected by you, friends and relatives and deposited in an envelope and placed in the marked bin situated in the telephone box on the Holloway, and accessible to all in the village.

These will then be collected by us at the end of each month to be sent on to the charity. Please Do Not donate cash or cheques in the box as this is not secure.
 
Our thanks to our Parish Council and Red Telephone Box Trustees, along with our phone box Chief Librarian, Ian Mason, for the granting of permissions for the use of the box as a collecting point and for what will hopefully, be a village wide and worthy cause.
 
Thank you all for your support in 'training dogs to transform lives'. Any enquiries to us may be made on the village WhatsApp Group.
 
Malcolm Gee and Emma Roodenberg

Pat is looking to raise monies for the MND Charity, you can find details in the attached sponsorship form.

​Today the garden was shining with frost and deceptively still. It may look as if no animals are here apart from the birds but most of the creatures are hidden.

The grass, cut short at the end of the summer, offers protection for some to overwinter out of sight.  Bumblebees are deep in the soil in the wax lined cells they make in autumn. Butterfly and moth chrysalises wait attached to stalks, adult grasshoppers die but their unhatched eggs survive underground.

The scrub areas and stone piles provide shelter for other invertebrates, beetles, slugs, snails. and spiders. On warmer days worms will come to the surface and pull dead leaves down.

In 2022 we sowed patches of yellow rattle. It parasitises the grass, reducing its vigour to make more room for the wildflowers. It flowered in profusion last summer.  As it is an annual we are hoping it will be setting its seed now. Last summer also produced a record number of pyramidal orchids. The committee is always interested to hear of unusual wildlife sightings or photos to add to our records.

You will see that we have planted two new trees. One is a hybrid Rowan, Sorbus hupehensis, bearing pale pink berries and the other a hybrid Hawthorn Crataegus punctata ‘Ohio’, with showy berries and larger than average leaves. Inevitably, we have been visited by deer so have created some wire shelters for all the new trees. A few more spring bulbs have also gone in.

We welcomed a new professional gardener, Allan O’Connor, this year. He installed the sundial in June and mowed and strimmed the paths and meadows all year. In January and February, he will cut the hedges and clear some ivy. The nest boxes must be cleaned out before St Valentines Day. Come Art Weeks we hope the garden will be in good heart and draw its usual complement of appreciative visitors.

If you would like to support the Contemplation Garden please do be in touch with, churchwarden Pat Cook, email - [email protected]