Our village in the news

We drove through Long Ashton yesterday morning at 7.15, to find six or seven police cars in the main road, and a fire engine. We didn’t have time to stop, and there was nothing on the radio news about it.

We drove back through at about 2.30 p.m. Still lots of police cars, two outside broadcast units, and a huge police incident unit in the Co-op car park.

Very sad case – man set fire to his house, then hanged himself, , 6 year old child died 🙁 I know it’s a cliché. but I just wouldn’t expect it to happen *here*.

More details from BBC news, and from The Times here.

weekend 2-3 dec 06


in memoriam
Originally uploaded by ramtops.

another nice one – although we failed to go to etriganuk‘s party due to the horrors of the UK train network, which is a shame; we’d have loved to be there.

Saturday: lazy morning, then a couple of hours round the village taking more photographs for the web site, including some of the Polish Airmen’s Memorial in the church yard. Then we went into Bristol – onnabus! – to buy a new lens for my D70. I wanted an everyday lens with a bit more zoom, and ended up with a Sigma 18-200 which has a) more zoom, and b) not much more weight – weight is a problem with my hands. Two hundred and thirty earth pounds, which is not bad for over the counter sales.

and I bought the Feral Cardigan – this called to me loudly when we cut through M&S on perlmonger‘s last hospididdle visit, but I was good and didn’t buy it. And then sulked mightily until Pete said we’d better go and have another look.

Saturday evening was a tub of mutton and date tagine from the freezer, and X-Factor. Good riddance to the dreadful McDonalds, I say.

Sunday morning I made a batch of carrot and coriander muffins for breakfast, then faffed about for a bit before being Good, and taking the plastics to Sainsburys for recycling, and doing the shopping.

made a pot roast out of a piece of topside and half a bottle of red wine that had gone over a bit, then out on the monthly Village Walk, yomping up very steep and very muddy fields and paths – I found this hard going, and my knees were Not Happy, but at least I did it. I think the glucosamine are helping quite a bit.

home for a rest, and to consume the pot roast, with potatoes and cabbage from the Riverford box – it was utterly delicious; probably the best I’ve made evah. And then – astonishingly – the Jordans sallied forth to meet Pat and Dave (WANOLJ but are known to many of my readers) where we formed a team for the Quiz Night at the British Legion Club in the village. We had a whale of a time, although what inspired Dave to play the joker on the Classical Music round, ghod only knows. We called ourselves The Aliens, and we will be making a regular event of this, I’m sure.

all in all, an excellent weekend.

well, I wanted to get involved …

so far this week I have done:

  • two afternoons at the weekend organising the Parish Plan questionnaire hand out
  • school governors’ curriculum sub-committee meeting
  • Village Walk committee meeting
  • school governors’ Assessment for Learning walk through this morning

and upcoming is:

  • tonight and tomorrow night – deliver aforementioned questionnaires (which have to be collected again by Dec 15)
  • get up early on Saturday and make some muffins for the local Wildlife Trust bazaar
  • Nailsea Festival committee meeting
  • go to Scotland for six days (hurrah!)
  • full governors’ meeting two hours after I get off the train back from Scotland
  • N Somerset LibDems AGM
  • Long Ashton Millennium Project mince pie and win thing in the village hall

that takes me through to the end of November …

village life

it’s nice living in a village, and today we had two reminders of why …

went up to the Post Office with a couple of parcels to post. I’d managed to mistype the postcode on the label for major_clanger‘s Big Box of Goodies, and when they checked it, I had the road wrong as well [sigh] – clearly, yet another badger moment.

never mind – the guy in the post office just hung on to it, and said to phone him when I found out the right address.

then we popped along to the village off-licence to put in an order for some wine. We normally go in and tell them what we want, then collect it the next day. But David from the Little Tipple gave perlmonger, the wine, and some eggs and carrots a lift home, while I popped to the chippy for our lunch. I know, I know, but the *smell* …

in other news, we had to put some stuff in the loft this afternoon, and we got the cashmas decorations out. I’m not going to put them up yet, *obviously*. But there they are, lurking in the server room in a twinkly manner.