Friends of the Village
FEBRUARY
We’re enjoying these beautiful crisp winter mornings after all the rain in December, and can see signs around the village that spring is not far away. The Friends of the Village group are waiting with eager anticipation for our daffodils to bloom – some are already tentatively poking their shoots above the soil.
Some exciting news for the village centre … we’ve been in touch with BT about the sad state of our telephone box , and they’ve put it on their list to repair and repaint sometime between April and October. Won’t it be lovely to have a bright shiny red phone box?
This year is Jubilee Year, and we have plans to add some Patriotic touches to the village with Red, white and Blue planting in pots and some bunting dotted about the place. Can you help us???
* we will have a collection jar in the village shop for the next couple of months – could you pop some change in there?
* do you plant seeds, or buy plant plugs – could you donate some to us? (Red, white or blue, suitable for pots)
* do you have any spare terracotta flower pots that we could plant up around the village? Nothing plastic or coloured, and anything with a diameter of more than 10 inches
* do you have any spare bags of compost lying around? We’ll happily take them off your hands.
Thank you in anticipation of your support
Can you spare an hour a month to give the village centre a bit of a tidy up? We are a friendly and enthusiastic group of residents, and our ‘village’ mornings are always a lot of fun.
Cathy Ewbank
Judy Bowden.
OCTOBER
This month our focus has been on tidying up the Linhay.
So on Easter Monday a working party of 5 met for a couple of hours, and gave it a really good Spring Clean.
We weeded, raked, tidied and cleared, and a big bootful of rubbish was taken to the tip.
Thanks to all the villagers who walked past while we were working and cheered us on.
And also to those who have subsequently commented on its tidy appearance.
The pile of sandbags and road signs left by the contractors at the top of Deane Lane has also been removed. Our thanks to County Cllr Alistair Dewhirst for buying our group some equipment to help with this Litter Picking in the village, we appreciate his support, and hope to start our monthly Litter Picking group very soon.
As always, we’d love to hear your ideas, so please get in touch if you have any suggestions, or would like to be involved in this group.
SEPTEMBER
By the time you read this, autumn will be well and truly upon us … and the Friends of the Village will turn our attention to planning projects for next spring and summer. I’m delighted to report that our numbers are growing, and we are receiving many positive comments from villagers.
This month we met to give the village centre a bit of a tidy up – the War Memorial was swept and tidied, the Linhay was weeded, and we continued to try and eliminate rusty staples and drawing pins from the telegraph poles in the village.
We’re getting very excited about planting daffodils around the village in the next month – we’d love your help if you have an spare hour. At the end of September we’ll empty the collection jar in the village shop, and count all the change that’s been donated to the Daffodil Fund. We’ve also received donations of loose change from two residents, and two bags of daffodil bulbs from residents. We can’t wait to start planting!
The village Litter Pick will take place on Saturday 2nd October, from 10am – 11.30am, the meeting point is at the Village Hall, where you will be given pickers and bags. I do hope you will be able to join us.
If you’ve got an hour to spare each month and would like to join our friendly group, please get in touch – we’d love to have you on board.
AUGUST
This year is whizzing by, and our new village group is growing! Thanks to those who stop and talk to us while we’re tidying the village and cheer us on. It’s nice to know that you appreciate our efforts. And a big thank you to our new members for joining us.
DAFFODIL FUND – our collection jar in the village shop is filling up. Please donate your loose change and help us plant daffodils this autumn. Thanks to the very generous resident who has pledged us a whole bag of bulbs – we are very grateful.
This month we set about ridding the village of the rusty staples and drawing pins, string and cable ties – all of which have been used to attach posters and adverts to noticeboards and wooden posts. You’d be amazed at how many we removed! We then weeded the front of the pub – thanks to Simon for our refreshments.
LITTER PICK – We’re also organising a village litter pick on Saturday 2nd October. Please put the date in your diary and join us if you can. Thank you.
If you feel you could spare an hour a month helping us to keep the centre of the village tidy, please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.
JULY
Hello! We can’t quite believe it’s almost the end of July, and as I’m writing it feels as though summer has finally arrived. Our planters on Deane Road are looking so pretty at the moment, but our challenge is to keep them watered during the hot weather. Please give them a drink if you’re passing.
We had our monthly meeting of Friends of the Village on last Sunday, which started with tea and cake, and ended with a sparkling and tidy war memorial, a weeded Linhay and a tidy village sign on Deane Road … we had plenty of enthusiasm and hard work from our team of 7 despite the drizzly weather. Many residents stopped and chatted, and thanked us for the work we were doing, and we later had an email from another resident saying the same. It’s so lovely to know that our hard work is being noticed and enjoyed.
By the time you read this our Daffodil Collection Jar will be on the counter in the village shop … we are planning to have a big daffodil planting morning around the village in the autumn so would appreciate any loose change that you can put in our jar to help us buy bulbs. Thank you.
Can you spare an hour a month to help us keep the village tidy and get flowers into new areas of the village? We’d love to hear from you if you would like to join us.
Dates for the rest of the year are below, we usually meet at 10.30am
Sunday 15th August
Sunday 12th September
Sunday 10th October
Sunday 7th November
Sunday 5th December
We’re also organising a village litter pick on Saturday 2nd October.
Please put the date in your diary and join us if you can. Thank you
JUNE
It’s lovely to see our planted containers starting to flower beneath the village sign on Deane Road … we think it’s a very cheerful welcome to the village. Our main challenge now is to keep them watered through the summer months. If you’re passing, perhaps you might like to give them a little drink of water during the hot weather. We are planning to tidy the village sign on Forches Hill in the next few weeks, and hopefully add some plants containers there too.
Daffodils! our plan is to plant an abundance of daffodils in and around the village in the autumn and the village shop has kindly offered to have a collection jar on the counter to raise money for our Daffodil Fund during the summer months …. please support us by dropping your spare change (or more!) into the jar. Every penny counts …
Village Litter Pick – a date for your diaries. We’d appreciate you joining us on Saturday 18th September, 10.30am to litter pick around the village. We’ll meet at the war memorial, and it shouldn’t take long if enough of us join in. We promise there will be cake for the workers! More details to follow nearer the time.
If you’d like to be more involved in our group, or have ideas you’d like to discuss with us please get in touch with either Judy or Cathy.
MAY
This month we’ve been busy clearing the village sign on Deane Road, to create a nice ‘Welcome’ to the village – the sign has had a good wash, and the weeds and rubbish (including several pooh bags) have been cleared away. We’ve now added a couple of terracotta planters which we hope will add a riot of colour to this corner of the village during the coming months. Thank you to those of you who donated plants and bulbs, and gave their time to help with the planting. Our plan is to tidy and plant around all the Stokeinteignhead signs this summer.
On our list for next month is removing all the redundant cable ties and rusty staples and drawing pins on telegraph poles and railings in the village. Feel free to help us!!