If you have fruit trees in your garden you will have noticed how heavy the crop is this year despite the lack of water throughout the summer. The hedgerows are laden with blackberries, sloes, and crab apples and it seems that everyone is busy making the most of this bumper harvest by making jams and chutneys and freezing the apples, plums and pears. Apple pressing and BBQ organised by the BBVA has been brought forward to next Saturday October 4th at 1pm because of the glut!
So this brings me to Harvest Festival which is on Sunday 12th October at 10.30 and is our annual thanksgiving for the abundance of food we see all around us. Let us also not forget our farmers who work so hard tilling the land to bring food to our tables against all the awful conditions that nature can throw at them. For some years now we have asked for your donations so that we can support our local Besom food bank in Carterton and Witney so once again I ask for your generosity by providing food donations for this worthy cause. Obviously we can’t pass on the bounty from the trees and bushes around us but any nonperishable food will be most welcome. You can include things like canned baked beans, tomatoes, lentils, beans, peas, pasta, rice, biscuits, tinned fish or meat, breakfast cereals or packets of sauces, coffee, tea and sugar. I almost forgot jams, marmalades, pickle – the list is endless but you get the idea. Items can be left in the church on the Friday or Saturday prior to the service or I can collect if you would like me to. Thank you in advance and I hope to see you in church that day.
There will no doubt be a notice elsewhere in the newsletter from the Parish Council about the meeting in church on Weds 15th October 7 p.m. for a discussion about using a defibrillator. We are lucky enough to have had one in our village for some years but it would be useful to know more about it and what we should do if we ever need to use it. I urge you to attend this meeting – it’s important for us all to be aware of this facility should we need it.
The Gardening Club continues with it’s autumn programme in October with a talk on ‘Autumn Planting’ by Paul Green from Gloucester. The club have just completed their first year and have done well with coffee mornings and guest speakers and a trip out to Friars Court. New members are welcome and the meetings are always very enjoyable with coffee and biscuits for all.
Looking further ahead we will be holding our popular Christmas Bazaar in November, more details next month, but please contribute if you can by making a cake or letting us have some produce from your garden or even a raffle prize! There will be a tombola so smaller items for this are welcome too. Tell your friends and pop the date in your diary Sat November 15th from 10.30 till 1 p.m. in the church so that you don’t miss it.
Services this month are Harvest Festival on Sunday 12th Oct 10.30 and Evensong on Sunday 26th 6 p.m.
Before I go I would like to say congratulations to Olivia and Aaron who are getting married at St Mary’s on Friday 24th October at 11 a.m. We wish them both a wonderful wedding day and hope that they have may years of happiness together.