Star Festival
Parish Paper – December 2023
To save or read this issue, please click file: Parish Paper 2023 - 12 …
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Rectory David’s December Notes – Forever and Ever Amen
Christmas quiz – who sang “I wish it could be Christmas every day” (cue the sound of sleigh bells and children singing)? Bonus point – which year? (Answer below*)
Are you ready for the Christmas soundtrack – piped in the shops, looped on the radio, blasted by someone in your home, perhaps stirring old festive memories? Whatever our sentiment about Christmas being every day, it is upon us.
Christmas – the Power and the Glory of it. Ah, but we’ve done that bit of the Lord’s Prayer already. How about a hybrid Christmas song, then – “I wish …
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Paul’s Nature Notes October-November 2023
It’s that time of the year again when buzzards gather together in the fields. They seem to choose a different field every year. Last year it was one adjoining the back lane to Upton, the year before that they were over at Colestocks and this year they are in the field leading along the lane to the pig farms.
I have enjoyed photographing them mixed in amongst all those herring gulls and pigeons. Silhouetted along the edge of the ridge they appear huge and once again there is a very white individual amongst them. At first glance it is very easy …
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Payhembury Provisions December 2023 – Cards, Cards, Cards
It’s all about cards in Payhembury Provisions this festive season. Christmas cards, Greetings Cards and of course Loyalty Cards!! So many to choose from.
Payhembury artists Lucy Tweedie and Sue Derbyshire have both produced Christmas cards which are on sale in the shop.
Lucy - whose very popular birthday and greetings cards are regularly available in the shop, has created a beautiful bespoke Christmas card of the Village Green and The Six Bells, which we are selling in the shop in packs of 5, with proceeds going to the Church Roof Appeal. …
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Parish Council News – November 2023
Due to a misunderstanding, several of the Parish Council articles published in the November Parish Paper were different to those submitted for publication. Hopefully this did not cause any inconvenience or confusion. Please see below for correct details.
Dawn Chamberlain, Parish Clerk
Connecting your community to the Slow Ways National Walking Network
Slow Ways is an ambitious crowd-sourced, community-verified national walking network that connects all of Britain's towns, cities and national parks. Supported by the National Lottery …
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Payhembury Provisions – Nov 2023
Deck the halls, the festive season is upon us! We will have just had the spooks of Halloween and the gunpowder plot celebrations which they do in a very understated way in Ottery St Mary I always think. Well we here at Payhembury Provisions like to blow our trumpet and celebrate everything good about our shop and village. So once again you’ll be able to order a fine free range Turkey (may have been barn raised as I’m not up on the current poultry keeping laws) from us, the order form will be in the shop soon. We have a good range of Christmas …
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Reverend David’s November Notes – Upside Down
Some things are viewed better upside down. An example: one of my favourite album covers (one of my favourite albums), pictured here. Two handstands on a beach when inverted appear as people touching the sky, even being pulled up there.
Inverting things is sometimes attempted by force. The Gunpowder Plot, for example. Picture Guy Fawkes and his friends, crouched beneath Parliament’s chamber: “Oh, yes!” we hear him proclaim, “how we’ll invert things to their rightful way! These Protestant usurpers cast down, our kingdom raised again to the power …
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Yellingham Farm – November
You are not going to believe this……. yet again a need to involve my non-country guests to help on the farm and sort out some very boisterous bullocks. The term bullocks” made the ladies blush. No girls, not what you think.
My beautiful cow, named Princess was due to calve – her 4th calf and never before had she caused me any problems. Due date was 15th of the month, and she was a couple of days overdue, so I was not nervous, but just a little tense. I was up my polytunnel at 6pm as usual watering, enjoying picking Alpine strawberries …
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Paul’s Nature Notes September-October 2023
It is certainly a time of change with daffodil shoots pushing through on 9 October and - goodness me - there really have been a lot of hornets around this autumn and from all corners of the parish! Most reports tell us that they are over an inch long and suggest that despite appearances they are rarely aggressive, unlike the common wasp. Note the word rarely, because in my experience entering the garden after dark wearing a head torch is likely to induce some really unnerving behaviour – certainly enough to make me turn tail and run and even …
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