I did quite a bit of publicity in the local Media on a decision to re-wild an area of the village close to the B1172. This area was given the name Rectory Meadow and seemed to be thriving. Thriving that is until the district council came along and cut virtually the entire area.
This made parish councillors and local environmentalists angry and they wasted no time in contacting the district council and saying "just wait a minute what the hell is going on here?" (My words not theirs). But that was the sentiment of their contact.
District had an answer of course. They felt that they hadn't destroyed the wildflower meadow but had somehow enhanced it! Back went the parish "you haven't enhanced it, you have decimated it" (this time their words).
So I took off with my camera and notebook to see for myself, having covered the original story. So what did I find. A swathe of grass cut across what would have been bee and pyramid orchids.
Well the parish claimed they weren't told about the cutting but the district believe it hasn't damaged much, which isn't strictly true. So yesterday evening I put pen to paper to send in a report for the local press.
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I think we have just gone too far with these reality TV programmes although I'm not sure the baking ones would be called reality TV.
Got up yesterday morning to find Anne catching up on television and watching a programme designed to make a special Platinum Jubilee cake. Back in the mists of time (yes got the phrase in there again) at the 1953 Coronation somebody somewhere invented Coronation Chicken. I have no idea how it got that title!!
Well of course it was named after the 1953 coronation. The inventors of this dish (which I dislike on the grounds that I don't eat chicken unless I have to) were Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume, both members of the London Cordon Bleu Cookery School. It was Spry who proposed the recipe of cold chicken, curry cream sauce and dressing. To me that's a hideous nightmare in the making.
But now through the power of television we have a Platinum Jubilee cake. I guarantee that in 50 years time Coronation Chicken will still be eaten but the winning cake (which was actually a trifle) won't be. That's because making Coronation Chicken was a natural process, unforced by being a television competition. It was also an easy to make and simple dish.
The winning cake or trifle was so complex I can't see anyone sitting at home thinking "wow I must make that." I can't see restaurants making it either. The winner was a citrus packed trifle that went under the name "a lemon swiss roll and amaretti trifle." Can you really see anything with amaretti biscuits becoming nationally popular? Aren't they Italian anyway or have I got that wrong?
Anyway the programme said it hoped that hundreds of thousands of us would be making it for street parties throughout the country. Somehow I think not.
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Yesterday was the latest Forget Me Not Club in the village. We used to call it the dementia support group but changed the name as we wanted to be a touch more inclusive and include residents who just wanted to come along for coffee and a chat, perhaps because they are feeling lonely or perhaps just because they want to get out of their homes for a while.
We meet on the first and Tuesdays of each month. The first is just coffee, biscuits and chat and the third is more structured with talks, music, films, quizzes etc.
Yesterday we had singer/guitarist/songwriter David Wyatt entertaining. Many years ago David won Hethersett's Got Talent which was a competition based loosely on the Britain's Got Talent format. This was part of the village's 2012 London Olympic Games celebrations. Cwon with a song about the local doctors' surgery. He's promised to reprise it at a later date once he can find the lyrics.
David's set lasted an hour and everyone was right royally entertained. He introduced me to some new music as well. I thought I knew most of Gerry and the Pacemakers stuff but I hadn't come across Girl On A Swing before. I also enjoyed The Summer Before The War a Fairport Convention song I have been ignorant of before now.
David's set was very varied and he signed off by a 114 year old song by George Robey entitled. "Bang Went The Chance of a Lifetime." Robey was known as The Prime Minister of Mirth and was big in Music Hall Land. And I thought that was Boris Johnson!
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After going to Forget Me Not I popped along to The Queen's Head to meet up with licensees Richard and Philippa Bond and staff to talk about their two decades at the helm. This will be turned into a full feature for my next Hethersett Herald as well as one for the local press. In today's climate, 20 years looking after a pub is pretty good going. I will speak more about this in a future blog.
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I promised I wouldn't mention Eurovision again but this is only indirectly connected. Today on Breakfast TV they had a chat with Sam Ryder who was sitting at a table. I immediately identified this as a table in Ledenhall Market in London - the very same table we sat at earlier this year to have a coffee and (I believe) a sausage roll. So Sam was obviously following in the footsteps of the great and good (I wish). Having seen numerous interviews with Sam Ryder it is obvious what a sunny, happy and outward going person he is. We should all bottle what he has got and let it run free in our lives. We need more Sam Ryders in this world.
He was asked how he gets inspiration for writing songs and his answer was very interesting. Basically he said that anyone who writes songs or writes or draws ro does anything artistic will just sit and suddenly find ideas pouring down on them.
On the way back from the middle of the village I had a chat with Shirley, one of my regular readers. "I don't know how you think of things to write every single day" she said kindly. I think Sam Ryder answered that question better than I ever could. Hope your arm gets better soon Shirley.
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A few random photos from the last couple of days accompany today's blog.