• 2025 Best Kept Front Garden Competition

Peter Jackson from Scotsdales very kindly did the final judging on June 24th, he was very impressed with the gardens he judged:

First place: Hilary Mungovan, 55 Station Rd
Joint Second place: Katie Hayward, 9 St Laurence Rd and Rachel Kirby, 3 Mortimers Lane

Many congratulations to them and to all who won their area. As usual the cup will be presented at the village show.

• Village Show, Saturday September 13th 2025

Every house in the village will receive a copy of the show schedule this month. A copy of the programme is also available to view here. Do enter (if only one item), come along in the afternoon to see the exhibits, have some refreshments, enter the raffle and enjoy a “catch up” with friends and neighbours. In recent years we have been blessed with lovely weather for the show but whatever the weather the show is a great celebration of life in our lovely village.

• Photography workshop

Many thanks to everyone who joined our photography workshop on Sunday 20th July 2025. The morning began with Catherine Cairns and Rachel Macintyre giving an enlightening overview of the history and conservation activities in the Dovecot Meadow. This was followed by local photographer André Neves giving a introduction to flower and insect photography taking us through the concepts, equipment and methods. He then lead our group out into the meadow for some practical photography experience. In the afternoon, we held an exhibition of André’s wildlife photography from the local area and also from his travels.

The gallery below shows some of our photographers in action in the meadow and also some fantastic shots of flowers and insects taken on the day by Torrie Smith, Theresa Penfound and Rebecca Rajendra.

Thank you to Catherine, Rachel and André for making this such a fun, informative and successful event.

You can find out more about André’s photography here and on his website.

• Help our bees!

The recent hot and dry spells have left meadows parched and the impact on wildlife is considerable. Although some insects such as butterflies, wasps and ladybirds have thrived, bee populations have been heavily affected.

Wild About Gardens, which is linked to the RHS and The Wildlife Trust, has produced helpful information focusing on a different wildlife conservation theme every year. These action packs  provide a guide on how we can help and encourage a range of creatures such as hedgehogs, beetles, worms, bees and bats. A link to their guide on how we can help bees, which have been particularly impacted by the heatwaves, can be found here and more information is on their website. Thanks to André Neves for the link!