Brandon Town Magazine - Issue 87

Brandon

Welcome to Brandon

Deadline for September issue 31st August

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Rotary Club of Brandon & District

The Rotary Club of Brandon & District presented the annual award “For making a difference” on 7th July.

This year we had two very worthy winners Evie Simonds and Alfie Keeley from Brandon IES School who received a cheque for £100.00 each and a shield to keep. IES School will display the annual award shield at the school.

Present at the awards, held outside to comply with COVID Legislation, were Evie and Alfie together with their parents, School Principal Jon Winn with Laura Woods, teacher and Director of Community Engagement, and Natalie Chandler Chair of Governors & Trustees. Sue Meader Club President with Matt Arnold Vice President of Brandon Rotary Club.

The Rotary Club make an annual presentation to the individual[s] nominated by the public for their work in the community where it has made a significant difference; and judged by the School & Rotary to be the worthiest recipient of our award. This year we couldn’t select just one so made a dual award.

Evie spends much of her spare time volunteering and assisting at the local Karate Club, promoting health, fitness, and confidence. Giving further time outside of

normal karate classes to help individuals achieve their grades.

Alfie has volunteered for over four years with Brandon in Bloom and has become a key member of their team, demonstrating kind words and thoughts with tremendous humour with his fellow volunteers some of which are pension age. He contributes ideas to projects and motivates others.

You can find more information about Rotary at www.facebook.com/brandonrotaryclub or contact Sue Meader on 07884 313563 or suemeader1@gmail.com

Breckland Cats Protection

We are appealing again for fosterers for our cats and kittens. Sadly some of our current fosterers have had to stop fostering for us for one reason or another. Therefore we are very short of space, as we don’t have a central cattery, but foster in our homes. Some of our fosterers have a pen in their garden which can be used for adult cats.

If you are interested in helping us, you would need to have a dedicated room in your house, with a washable floor, so that it can be disinfected between foster cats. Also our cats are not meant to meet any cat you already have, as a precaution, in case our cat is carrying any sort of disease. Usually our cats are vet checked, blood tested for feline aids and feline leukaemia and had flea and worm treatment before being given over to a fosterer. But must still be kept separate from your own cat or dog as they may not be used to being with other animals and may become stressed if they come face to face with your pets.

Everything you need to look after a cat on our behalf is provided so that you are not out of pocket. It is only your time we ask for. If you need to buy food or cat litter, then you are reimbursed once a month. It would be helpful if a new fosterer was able to drive, in case the cat needed to go to the vet. Mileage is also

paid for any travelling done on our behalf.

It can be a very rewarding experience and it is lovely when a cat is found a new home and goes off happily to an adopter. We have a waiting list for cats that need to come into our care, which means you won’t be without a foster cat for very long. Finding homes for our cats is done by our rehoming officer, and it won’t be your responsibility. But potential adopters may want to come and meet the new cat, which means people coming into your house. It has been awkward in the past with the Coronovirus, but me have managed to home cats safely. Some of our adopters use a conservatory for our cats, which means adopters can see them through the windows without having to come into your home. And if you have a pen in your garden, then the cat can be easily seen.

We can provide a pen, and pay for hard standing for it and also we would install an electricity supply so that there is lighting and heating in the winter.

If you are interested in fostering for us, please call the number below. If you need any help or advice or assistance with the cost of neutering, our number is 01842 810018.

Rita Thompson.

Brandon Fire Station

On Thursday 12th August Matt Rickard, crew commander at Brandon Fire Station, organised a training exercise at Brandon House on the High Street.

The exercise was a mock hotel fire with people reported inside the building. An appliance from Brandon attended along with a neighbouring appliance from Mildenhall.

Neither of the crews in attendance knew what to expect before they arrived.

Matt said: “We had 6 firefighters in breathing apparatus with no visibility, to find and rescue all the unaccounted casualties throughout the hotel on all levels.

“The hotel is fully furnished so made it very difficult for the teams to find their way around.

“We carried out the exercise to help us and the crews with search and rescue and managing an incident of that size. This type of incident also helps us train with other stations.

“I would like to thank Andy Rose the owner of The Ram Hotel and The Saxon in Weeting who is the new owner of Brandon House and would like to wish him all the best in his new purchase.

“Also a big thank you to Terry Hawkins for giving up his time to come and take photos of the exercise.”

Brandon Creative Forum

brings you the long-awaited and much anticipated vocal workshops!

Our project that began and halted as lockdown started in 2020 is now able to take place!

There is a series of workshops being held during August and September in Brandon Country Park where we will be exploring our voices in some really fun ways with Sally Rose, our music leader, at the helm.

Anyone is welcome to come along, whatever your ability, or lack of! The idea is to sing for the pleasure of it and to discover how vocal breathing techniques and muscle control can be a benefit to our health and wellbeing.

At the end of the workshop sessions we aim to have brought together a group of vocalists who just love to sing, whatever their ability, to become Brandon’s Happy to Sing Choir.

Details of the workshop dates will be advertised on our Brandon Creative Forum Facebook page or you can email us at brandoncreativeforum@gmail.com for more information.

Follow us on Facebook @ shoestringtheatrebrandon to keep up to date with our plans and events.

Brandon & District Photographic Club

To celebrate the beginning of a new season of face-to-face meetings, Brandon and District Photographic Club are presenting an exhibition of framed photographs during the month of September.

Turner Funerals in Brandon are kindly hosting this event, 10am – 4pm, Monday – Friday, at 2a Thetford Road, Brandon, IP17 0BS.

We hope you may be inspired to come along and share your interest in photography with us. We meet fortnightly at the Baptist Church Hall, 39 High Street, Brandon, IP27 0AQ, at

7:30pm from Wednesday September the 8th 2021.

Covid precautions and Government Guidelines will be observed at all times.

For further details, please visit www. brandonphotograhicclub.co.uk

Or email info@brandoncameraclub.co.uk

We look forward to seeing you in September. In the meantime we hope this editorial finds you all well. Take care and stay safe.

Rachel Sobiechowski

Gardening

TOP TIPS

Keep on top of watering, using grey-water wherever possible

•Prune summer flowering shrubs once the flowers have finished

The last month of summer has arrived and August always brings plenty of opportunities to relax and enjoy the garden, however there are still plenty of jobs to be done. If any plants are looking tired dead-heading spent flower heads and removing brown leaves will quickly rejuvenate their appearance.

With rising food prices, shortages and a growing appreciation of organic produce, it’s no surprise the grow your own movement has continued to surge in 2021. By growing your own produce, you’ll also be supporting the environment by helping to reducing plastic waste. Quite simply growing your own vegetable crops from seed is cheap, easy and rewarding

There were 14 allotment gardens on show at Hampton Court Palace flower show this year, and a feature garden “The RHS No Dig Allotment Demonstration Garden” inspired by Charles Dowding’s 40 years of experience pioneering and developing no-dig techniques. The garden demonstrates how to grow abundant food year-round without digging or disturbing the soil. An annual mulch of compost feeds the soil and soil life for a year, increasing soil biology and enhancing soil fertility. The garden shows how no dig means less weeding, produces higher yields and works with nature, increasing biodiversity, reducing pests and locking in carbon. To learn more about the no dig method visit: https://charlesdowding.co.uk/

Vegetable growing isn’t just about what you can grow in summer, and in August it’s time to look ahead and start sowing the vegetables that will provide valuable winter harvests – as well as quicker crops for autumn pickings. You can still sow quick maturing salad crops

such as summer lettuce, radish, rocket, sorrel, chicory and fennel. Along with winter crops such as spring cabbage, chard, spinach, turnips, Oriental vegetables and overwintering Japanese onions.

There are other tasks to be done in the vegetable garden now:

• Summer prune sideshoots on restricted trees (such as espaliers and fans) to three to four leaves to form fruiting spurs.

• Remove straw and old leaves and tidy up strawberries after fruiting.

• Prune out fruited summer raspberry canes and tie in new ones.

• Check plants regularly for aphids and deal with them as soon as you see them.

• Look out for tomato and potato blight and deal with it as soon as you spot it.

• Watch tomatoes for blossom end rot (caused by irregular watering), and other ripening problems.

• Cut back herbs now to encourage a new flush of tasty leaves you can harvest before the frost.

Mark

Thetford

Prawn Fettuccine Alfredo

Serves 4 Ingredients Enough Fettuccine for 4

3 tbsp butter

1lb raw prawns, peeled and deveined, tails removed

Salt

Ground Black Pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp plain flour

1 cup double cream

1/2 cup milk

1 egg yolk

1 cup freshly grated parmesan

1 tbsp chopped parsley

Cook the pasta as directed on packet and save a cup of the pasta water to thicken the sauce if needed. In a large pan over a medium heat melt a tablespoon of butter and add the prawns.

Season with salt and pepper and cook until pink and completely opaque. Remove from the pan and set aside.

To the pan add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and the garlic.

Cook until the garlic becomes fragrant.

Whisk in the flour and cook until no longer raw, about 2 minutes.

Stir in the cream and milk and then whisk in the egg yolk.

Bring to a gentle simmer and whisk in the parmesan. When the cheese has melted and the sauce has thickened slightly add the cooked pasta and prawns, tossing to mix well.

Season with salt and pepper and garnish with parsley and some more parmesan.

Brandon in Bloom

It’s great to be able to bring news of an event where 3 of the towns groups are helping a forth to start up. We had the pleasure last week of attending a well supported session jointly organised by Brandon in Bloom and Brandon Suffolk Rocks, hosted by The Brandon Legion, in what is hoped to be the beginnings of Junior Bloomers.

The idea is to enable young people to bring parents along and get involved in the next generation of our wonderful caring community, several have already organised their own litter picks, taken part in localised planting where they live and at Brandon Country Park.

Friday saw a really good show of interest in the latest event with over 60 youngsters attending and joining the trend in the art of Rock Painting. Rocks, paint and brushes were provided and we welcomed Alison Findlay our friendly East of England RHS Community Outreach Advisor once again who with great enthusiasm took the lead. Bloomers were able to provide the back up support which is crucial in these events and thanks must go to St. Peter’s Church and Tesco Brandon

in providing lunch items. Funding came from West Suffolk DC in the form of an “I will” grant which is being used to get these activities off the ground.

You may have seen painted rocks around the town hidden in various places. These “rocks” are for the finder to either take and relocate or to keep, all the painters ask is for you to take a photo and mention on social media.

Brandon Rocks have so far turned up in several National Parks, The Lakes, The Peak District and Snowdonia. I’m sure it wont be to long until one goes abroad and gets pictured on the page.

The aim of last week’s event was to let the mind paint anything nature related and these rocks will then be kept and at a future event placed in a frame at the recently installed Friendly Bench® as the Bloomers look to expand on the work already undertaken at The Triangle.

If you hear of any youngsters showing an interest in the Junior Bloomers then please can we all show them some support and encouragement.

Useful Telephone Numbers

Councils

Brandon Town Council (Town Clerk)

West Suffolk Council (Customer Services)

Suffolk County Council (Public Enquiries)

Health Services

Doctor - Brandon Medical Practice (High Street)

Doctor - Forest Group Practice (Bury Road)

Dentist - Apex Dental Care (Bury Road)

Dentist - The Dental Surgery (High Street)

Hospital - West Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds)

NHS 111 - Medical Help (Less urgent than 999)

Help & Advice

Citizens Advice Bureau (Brandon Office)

Social Care Services (Customer First)

Suffolk Constabulary (Non Emergency)

Utility Companies

Electricity - UK Power Networks (Fault Line)

Gas - Cadent (Emergency Number)

Water - Anglian Water (24 Hour Leakline)

01842 811844

01284 763233

0845 606 6067

01842 810388

01842 810206

01842 812276

01842 812381

01284 713000

111

0300 330 1151

0808 800 4005

101

08007 838 838

0800 111 999

0800 771 881