BATS JACK AND THE BEANSTALK AUDITIONS
Next year’s pantomime auditions are taking place in October! All auditions take place in Brantham village hall.
Pre audition meeting: Come and find out all about the show. Tuesday October 14th from 7.30 – 10.00pm.
Children’s auditions: Sunday October 19th from 10.00am to 12.00 noon. If you can dance and sing and are aged between 7 and 16 come and have a try!
Principle auditions: Tuesday October 21st from 7.30 – 10.00pm.
BATS PLAY FESTIVAL
BATS 20th Annual Play Festival takes place Friday 31st October and Saturday 1st November, in Brantham Village Hall. Several companies will compete for fourteen awards. This is open to colleges and schools and we hope this year that more will take part.
Making the Money go Round
Whatever else we may have on our minds just now I guess the state of the British economy is one of them. Rising energy and food costs, high inflation and falling value of the housing stock are making us all poorer. Salaries increases are not keeping pace with rising costs and the threat of job losses is preventing employees from doing more to rectify the situation. On the other hand a rapid rise in incomes would only make matters worse; more companies would go bust, more jobs would be lost and the task of reducing the level of inflation would become more difficult. This country (and indeed most of the industrial world) is in a bind which will only be solved when economic activity settles at a lower and more sustainable level.
The origin of our present difficulties is twofold, of which the first is growing scarcity of natural resources such as oil, industrial metals and fresh water. The second is more immediate and local, namely the enormous level of debt and the creation and sale of risky debt packages. It has been known for a long time that these trends would end up in trouble, but little has been done to prevent them happening. On the contrary, the first has been accelerated by the rise in resource demand from emerging countries such as China, India and Brazil and the second with the assumption that debt would be contained by continuing economic growth.
So where do we go from here? Market forces are already at work – higher of energy and raw materials costs are reducing demand, banks are clearing losses from their balance sheets and the price of property continues to decline. Individuals and
families are cutting down on non-essentials and looking for ways to reduce energy outgoings. However, any hope that we can look forward to a return to the conditions of the past must be discounted. Prices are unlikely to fall to previous levels and there is talk of stricter regulation of the debt market.
Indeed, it is unwise even to wish to return to those conditions. House prices need to fall to a more sustainable level and higher food and energy costs will encourage us to waste less. The level of debt needs to be cut and as we must all must surely realise, economic growth cannot go on for ever. Finally let us not forget the inhabitants of the Third World who always come out worst under these circumstances. The economic challenge we face is not getting back to growth, but the reduction of poverty and inequality and achieving a sustainable future. It is to realize these ends where we must concentrate our efforts
John Gamlin
The ‘End’ Of An Era??
Whist Drives can’t organise themselves so, unfortunately for that reason, the last card was dealt at the weekly Monday afternoon Drive held at the Brantham Leisure Centre on 1st September.
They have served their purpose since commencement in 1996, raising funds for the then BASC (now BLC) and providing a friendly (home before dark) leisure activity for those lucky enough to be retired. It’s a pity circumstances have caused a stoppage but maybe it won’t be lasting.
Thank you Penny, Bernard, Wendy, John and Eric for your help over the years.
Jean Lace
RSPB Stour Estuary reserve news
Rick Vonk, Mark Nowers, Didge Everett, Liz Cutting.
Cattawade breeding season 2008
Amazing what you can do with a good splash of water. What we really need for good breeding figures of waders and ducks is the right grass levels (sward) and lots of wet fringes and shallow flooding, which makes excellent feeding habitat for hungry chicks and dabbling ducklings. The foot and mouth outbreak last year was obviously bad for farmers, but it worked well for us on Cattawade. The livestock restrictions meant cattle could not be moved for some time and as a result, they got the sward just right for lapwings (well cropped) and redshanks (more tussocky). The sheep over the winter did their bit as well. Consequently, there were record numbers of lapwings (33 pairs) and redshanks (43 pairs). There was also the bonus of two pairs of avocets – a first for the reserve. Duck numbers were also well up - twelve mallard broods were noted, and pairs of other species were as follows:
There were even lingering pairs of pintail and wigeon, but these were not seen beyond the end of April.
So far it has been an incredible year for migrant waders too. A Little Stint in July was the 28th species of wader seen on Cattawade this year. Star billing was the two temminck’s stints (for a sense of scale, picture a wading bird the size of a robin), up to five wood sandpipers, spotted redshanks and a count of 34 greenshanks in early July. Roll on the rest of the autumn!
Cattawade Marshes is a very sensitive site and we try to minimise disturbance. There is no public access to the reserve, but a walk along the tidal river towards Flatford can be very rewarding, with excellent views across the reserve.
Ditching and digging on Cattawade
Following on from the amazing success we had at keeping the Cattawade water levels high well into the spring, we'll be sending a digger and dumper truck there soon. The lucky driver will be asked to improve some of the ditch profiles, sort out fencing, improve water level control structures and a hundred & one other things all designed to make life better for wintering and breeding birds.
The barn continues to receive TLC from Didge, who has been responsible for much of the renovation and repairs there. We're now pretty watertight, having replaced the weatherboarding on the entire south west facing corners. Next comes more storage space for sawn timber, left to dry there in racks - it dries so much quicker there than in our large workshop at Stour Estuary reserve.
Our rainwater-fed ditch has remained topped up all year long, with some fantastic flowers blooming there, dragonflies laying eggs and a family party of mute swans using it for a while. The cattle haven't poached the edges of the ditch this year, which was my main worry - the clay "liner" is only a foot or so thick and I thought it would be quite fragile.
Events
Remaining events this year are:
Fun with Fungi at Stour Wood – Sunday 12th October 2 pm – 4 pm
Birds by Barge (Stour) – Thursday 20th November 9.20 am to 1.20 pm
Birds by Barge (Stour) – Saturday 6th December 9.20 am to 1.20 pm
Booking is essential for all of the above.
However, excellent bird watching is available absolutely free of charge at our Aren’t Birds Brilliant! events. Come and look through our telescopes and get really good views of black-tailed godwits and other fabulous birds on the estuary, on any of the following:
Sunday 5th October 12 noon to 2 pm at Mistley Walls
Friday 17th October 9.30 am to 11.30 am at Manningtree Co-op
Sunday 2nd November 9.30 am to 11.30 am at Mistley Walls
Sunday 30th November 9 am to 11 am at Mistley Walls
Tuesday 16th December 10.30 am to 12.30 pm at Manningtree Co-op
No need to book!
If you would like to get in touch:
RSPB, Unit 13, Court Farm, 3 Stutton Road, Brantham, Manningtree, Essex. CO11 1PW.
Tel/Fax 01473 328006 Email: stourestuary@rspb.org.uk
Registered Charity England & Wales no. 207076207076, Scotland no. SC037654
BRANTHAM OVER 60’s CLUB
Having missed the last issue there’s a little bit of catching up to do, so back to May when Mrs Jennifer Gibbs, dressed in traditional costume, spoke about “Life In Turkey” and how unusual circumstances following a holiday there in 1993 resulted I her purchasing and renovating an ancient farm house in a remote inland village where she has since lived for six months each year.
Our first outing of the summer was to Dunwich on 27th May - purely for a pleasant coach ride and lunch at the well known “café of the beach”. It followed a night of severe thunderstorms and power cuts and coincided with a breakdown at Sizewell, but, thank goodness for generators, we had a lovely meal and then went on to Wyevale Nursery for a couple of hours and afternoon tea.
How a doodle can quickly become a recognisable object was demonstrated by Mr Paul Seymour, a professional and teaching artist, at the beginning of his talk and Artistic Entertainment (in the style of Rolph Harris) on 24th June and it was included in the delightful landscape he produced. As anticipated, we enjoyed our third visit to the Hut at Felixstowe on 17th June - a be as lazy as you please day - and were very impressed with the alterations undertaken during the winter months.
Unfortunately a late cancellation by speakers (due to family bereavement) on Guide Dog for the Blind on 8th July but it will be given on Tues 16th September. We replaced it with True or False tales by members which proved quite amusing. Pleasant outing to Lowestoft the following week and a larger than usual party supported Tommy’s Charity Day on the 20th July. A real highlight on 29th July when Mrs Deborah Preston spoke about her career, up to retirement, as an Executive Housekeeper in some of the top London Hotels. With amusing anecdotes position, she certainly kept the attention of members. The title of this talk is Britain’s Top Mrs Mop - the headlines in a northern newspaper (Deborah hails from Derbyshire) when she was awarded a rather prestigious trophy by fellow hoteliers. We have booked her for a second instalment but have to wait until 2010!!
A holiday break in August but, as usual, we had a mid-month get together with a super Ploughman's lunch on Tuesday 19th. Members prefer anonymity but thank you Jean G for organising it and helpers Angela, Margaret and June. At last the
Brantham Leisure Centre has a kitchen pleasurable to work in and the co-operation of the secretary with table layout was greatly appreciated. Thank you Phil and Keiran.
The Autumn/Winter programme commenced on 9th September with a talk about Peru - Land of the Incas by Mr & Mrs John Green, which was very interesting, informative and gave an insight into the lives of the Incas, mostly very poor people, quite happy with their lot. Their dress is very colourful and clothes made from alpaca wool, altogether an amazing talk.
Report of three interesting events which occur after the copy date will appear in the next issue. We continue to hold bi-monthly quiz and bingo afternoons (can’t afford a speaker at every weekly meeting) and the monthly pub lunch and once again a warm invitation is extended to visitors to join us on any of these occasions.
Dates for your Diary
October 14th More To Talk About - Rev. Mrs Stephne van der Toor
21st Bingo (lunch at the Crown)
28th Queen Victoria’s Children - Mr & Mrs D Ablewhite
November 11th Caribbean Journey - Mrs S Bignall
18th Quiz
25th Let Me Entertain You - Mrs V Carter (Xmas Lunch)
December 2nd Social Afternoon
9th Manifest - Daytimers
16th Christmas Lunch at The Lion
We meet weekly on Tuesday (bar the first in the month), 2.30 - 4.30pm at the Brantham Leisure Centre. Further information from Hon. Secretary on 01206 396242. Visitors will be very welcome and we certainly could do with some new members. Perhaps we should be renamed the Fifty Plus Club because, ladies and gentlemen, you certainly don’t have to be of retirement age to join and, if new to the area, it’s one way to meet people.
Jean Lace, Hon. Secretary
