Cotswold LInk (North Cotswolds) July August 2022

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July / August 2022

Local Business helps historic buildings

We recently spoke to Cotswold Listed Building Consultancy to find out more about the range of services they offer. Owner Neil explained, ‘‘We offer help and advice and surveys, so we can not only do surveys from damp to asbestos and electrical, but everything in between too. Added to this, we can help with advice on the correct materials to use on a listed building, how the work is done, advise on suppliers and contractors.

We can also help with budgeting out a project, getting quotes, checking quotes and

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even inspecting potential contractors previous work for quality etc.

All of these service can all save customers £1000s by ensuring the work is done properly the first time.

It also helps to avoid any potential fines, as carrying out unlawful works to listed buildings can carry hefty fines.

You can contact me for a free quote, I can either carry out a home visit or if applicable, I can carry out a remote meeting via zoom or similar.

I charge by the hour only, so you only pay for the time and help you need.’’

Neil Lutton Cotswold Listed Building Consultancy

I have over 25 years experience working with listed buildings including many local manor houses and even a local palace.

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www.cotswoldlisted.com clbc.uk@yahoo.com 07812 125975 facebook.com/ cotswoldlisted Find us on Instagram too!

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inside

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Garden View

We look at some top tips on the best way for gathering seeds to really enhance your garden

06 astronomy Should I buy second hand? news 08 local Moreton show returns!

10 education Enjoy the Summer holidays

12 Gone to seed! cotswold link 14 Advertising Details cotswold link 14 Index garden view

Welcome to the July - August issue In this issue we look at the September return of Moreton Show (p8), which promises to be a fantastic family day out. There’s also some great gardening tips on how to make the most of gathering seeds (p12), and an interesting look at astronomy equipment and how to buy it most effectively (p6).

I hope you all enjoy this issue and I’ll see you again in September.

Best wishes,

Christine Campbell | Editor

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The

Cotswold Sky

Starting Astonomy – Should I buy second hand?

The short answer is yes, but with advice and care. Presently there are thousands of unused telescopes lying in attics and spare rooms up and down the country.

These were bought by well meaning parents only to find that there little ones were not as enthused with astronomy as originally thought or learning that the setting up of the telescope takes more skill and attention than they were aware of.

Where to buy

The first port of call is the local astronomy club or society these can be located at http://www. astronomyclubs.co.uk/Clubs/Counties.aspx. They will be delighted to offer you advice on where to look and may indeed have members who have equipment that they wish to part with. No doubt you will also be invited to attend a meeting of the club/society which is a great starting point to begin your search and much safer than buying blindly from the internet. It will not be long before you realise that there is more to astronomy than a bare telescope and you will soon be taken into a new world with descriptive words such as Newtonian, Dobsonian, reflectors, refractors, catadioptric, computerised, spotting scopes, focal lengths, aperture sizes, Barlow eyepieces, filters, cameras, mounts and even binoculars.

Good Luck with your search and do not be too shy to ask for help.

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Diary

Meteorite Showers: The Perseid Meteor Shower is active between 17 July and 24th August peaking on the 12th/13th August.

The radiant point is always above the horizon, and they can be observed looking high towards the North throughout the night. Unfortunately viewing during the peak time this year is unfavourable due to the brightness of the Moon.

Alpha Capricornids (Yellow Slow Fireballs) Active from 3rdJuly to 15th August, peaking on Friday 29th July. Conditions for observing are excellent.

Look towards the south east from 22.00 hours they will be seen to progress towards the south west throughout the night.

Mercury In conjunction (opposite side of the Sun) during the most of July and very difficult to observe from the UK throughout August.

Venus Morning planet rising 2 hours before sunrise in July becoming brighter as we progress through August. Can be observed much lower and further east than the planets of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn as described below.

Mars, Jupiter and Saturn If you are an early bird then you will notice the 3 bright planets aligned across the sky as you observe from the east (Mars) to the south east (Saturn) with Jupiter in the middle during the first weeks of July and August. By the end of August their progress will be seen to have moved more towards the south and south west with Saturn being the first to set.

John Harris

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HAILEY SUPPORTS UKRAINE HUGE JUMBLE & BRIC A BRAC SALE, MINI FETE & TABLE TOP SALE Hailey Village Hall Saturday, 6th August 2022 From 2pm Entrance £1, children free Items / Donations welcome Contact 01993 773744 for more information

Moreton Show returns on Saturday 3rd September 2022 After a bumper Moreton Show 2021, when the countryside extravaganza returned with a bang, the team present Moreton Show 2022 and promise it will be even better than last year!

Moreton Show is a premier one-day agricultural show, set in the heart of the North Cotswolds. It has been established for over 70 years and is now one of the largest one-day agricultural shows in the country attracting more than 20,000 visitors.

The show, prides itself on its traditional values, providing a stage for local produce and crafts, as well as championing the best in British agriculture and equine showing, all whilst delivering an entertaining and educational day out for all visitors.

Jess Parkes, Horse and Farms & Crops Secretary, said: ‘The preparations for the show are in full swing and the team flat-out getting ready for this year’s Moreton Show and it promises to be another spectacular event. After such positive feedback on the new showground layout we decided to stick with the widened aisle ways and trade stand avenues, giving visitors the chance to move around more freely and browse

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at all the food, craft and retail offerings.’

Last year’s highlight, the Shetland Pony Grand National, is making a comeback and with this year’s main act of the Squibb Bike Stunt Show the Grand Arena will be the place to be for unmissable entertainment!

Jess continues: ‘The new Senior Showing London International Horse Show Qualifiers have sparked a great interest and will hopefully be very popular. As always there will of course be plenty for all the family to do with educational activities about the countryside and family fun with Circus Skills and Magic Pete.’

Tom Hayman-Joyce, chairman of Moreton Show, said: ‘I’m incredibly excited about the show this year and the team have been working really hard to take it up another level, to add more value to our visitors. We received amazing feedback from last year’s show and will retain many of the features we change to enhance the experience for all.’

Further information on show membership and sponsorship opportunities, please phone the Moreton Show team on 01608 651908 or email richard@ moretonshow.co.uk.

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A message to all Parents:

ENJOY THE SCHOOL HOLIDAYS YOU ARE I am aware that there are parents who dread the long summer school holidays not knowing how to overcome the perceived boredom that some of the children experience during this period of time. To all parents, may I ask you to recall your time when you were your children’s age. It will not be difficult because the memories of these periods in our lives were so important to us.

Likewise, our children are now experiencing the same process albeit under different conditions. Yes there are those who have meticulously planned the summer holidays well in advance but what can those do who are not in such a position to do so?

It’s easy for me to sit in my arm chair and come up with ideas and I appreciate that the options are varied, here are a few pointers: Be Positive Take advantage of the additional time with your youngsters to utilise

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these holidays as a life skills learning period. No sitting at desks for set periods of time, no formal schooling but more one to one with your young one even if s/he be a strapping teenager. In fact a one to one discussion even for 10 minutes a day with the latter may produce more dividends.

Be Active Paula Radcliffe the Olympic Gold Medallist is a great believer in keeping the children active and encourages them to find a sport they love. Take the children out for walks let them run wild with their friends and organise competitive games. These activities alone will go a long way in teaching them to work as a team and bond long term friendships.

Screen Time Are you tired of going on about the excess time spent on Social Media? Then practice what you

MAKING MEMORIES FOR THE CHILDREN preach. Set an example by limiting your own time on your own mobile and other devices. Go one step further and introduce a screen free day and screen free parts of the house. Be firm and fair with the children and teens by encouraging them to earn their screen time by tidying their rooms and helping with jobs around the house.

Teenage Parties Why not? It gives the older teens the opportunity to show their advancing maturity and to take on more responsibility. Discuss with your teen the challenges that the party may present and how they can be dealt with. Set the boundaries that you expect to be enforced but carry out your discussions with enthusiasm and positivity.

Explain if the first party is a success you will consider another in due course.

Concluding The above has scarcely scratched the surface of what can be done during the holidays, but always bear in mind a happy holiday will live with the children for a lifetime just as yours did.

John Harris

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Garden View

This month

Gone To Seed Gardening is a hobby and, after a while, most people with hobbies find themselves experimenting.

They get a bit creative and want to see if they can do something on the cheap, or for free, or simply find to out whether it’s possible to do something just for the simple pleasure of trying.

Seed collecting falls into this category for me. Most seeds are not particularly expensive to buy, so why would I or anyone else want to collect our own?

Well I can’t speak for anyone else, but I get a real buzz from collecting seed, knowing that I can perpetuate a favourite plant without any outside involvement. Sometimes I’ll collect

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seed with a fair degree of certainty that I’ll be able to raise hundreds of little seedlings, and sometimes I do it for the challenge, as not all seeds are easy to propagate.

If you want to have a go at seed collecting (and be warned, it’s a highly addictive pastime) then here are a few tips.

You will need: Large paper bags – Must be paper.

Plastic bags won’t do as they retain moisture and cause the seeds to develop fungus or go mouldy. You can buy them from eBay or make your own from brown paper and artist’s paper tape.

Felt pen - for labelling. This is important as you will forget what you’ve

collected even if you think you won’t!

Box or trug - for carrying the bags of seeds around the garden.

Small pair of scissors or secateurs – for snipping the heads.

Choose a dry day with little or no wind. Select a healthy, pest and disease-free plant with seedpods which look as though they’re about to split.

Label a paper bag (it’s much easier to do this first) then cut off the seedhead and turn it upside down into the bag.

Place the bag into a dry place and wait for the seeds to ripen. Check regularly.

When most of the seedpods have opened, tip out the contents on to a dry surface and separate all the seeds

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from any remaining bits of pod.

Store the clean seeds in a small, labelled paper bag or envelope, in a cool dry place until ready to be used.

Easy seeds to collect and grow Nigella damascena (love-in-themist) Aquilegia (ladies bonnets) Papaver (Poppy) Digitalis Purpurea (Foxglove) Helianthus annuus (Sunflower) Cosmos bipinnatus (Cosmos) Lunaria annua (Honesty) You’ll soon discover many more.

Happy collecting.

Happy Gardening.

By Rachael Leverton

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There are

thousands

of reasons to advertise with us...

Index Bathrooms Country Bathrooms: p6 Builders & Contractors Calarel Developments: p7 Cotswold Listed Building Consultancy: p1 Country Roofing & Building: p15 Garolla Garage Doors: p15 Hooper Joinery: p14 Mitre Oak Buildings: p16 North Cotswold Builder: p14 Rooflight Company: p3 Phil Dadge: p6 Thomas Contracting: p13 WB Home & Garden Maintenance: p13 Children’s Services Cotswold Tutor: p11 Walkers Day Nursery: p16 Clearances Oxfordshire Clearances: p2 Education Cotswold School: p5

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North Cotswolds

West Oxfordshire

16,900 20,500 homes & businesses

Cotswold Tutor: p11 Elderly Services Hearing & Mobility Store: p12 Windrush Care: p4 Electrical Services P Wheeler Electrical: p14 Events Moreton Show: p8 Furniture Amanda Hanley By Design: p1 Graham Lane Furniture: p6 Hilltop Joinery: p7 Hooper Joinery: p14 Phil Dadge: p6 Roundabout: p8 Framing Witney Framing: p9 Garage Doors Garolla Garage Doors: p15 Gardening & Outdoors Coln Clearances: p12 Stockwell Davies Tree Contractors: p12 Thomas Contracting: p13

homes & businesses

Tom Negus Tree Care: p12 Waterside Landscaping: p13 WB Home & Garden Maintenance: p13 Gifts Alain Rouveure Galleries: p9 Haulage Mustoes Haulage: p12 Healthcare & Wellbeing Bourton Podiatry Clinic: p1 Cotswold Deep Tissue Massage: p11 Cotswolds Foot Clinic: p11 Lumiere Laser Clinic: p3 Paul Brookes Foot Health: p11 Runnerbean: p10 Hearing Aids Hearing & Mobility Store: p12 Home & Interiors Alain Rouveure Galleries: p9 Amanda Hanley By Design: p1 Country Bathrooms: p6 Country House Curtains: p7 Hilltop Joinery: p7 Paul Dadge: p16

Christine 01609 777401 07742 595747 christine@jkanorth.com

Next issues

West Oxfordshire September-October Copy: 3rd August Dist: w/c 29th August

Rooflight Company: p3 Locksmiths Just Carpentry & Locks: p14 Motoring Cotswold Garage: p15 Painters & Decorators Paul Dadge: p16 Phil Dadge: p6 WB Home & Garden Maintenance: p13 Plumbers M.P.N Plumbing: p4 Property Maintenance Coln Clearances: p12 Cotswold Listed Building Consultancy: p1 Country Roofing & Building: p15 Dovecote Property: p7 G & B Power Washing: p13 Garolla Garage Doors: p15 Hilltop Joinery: p7 Hooper Joinery: p14 Just Carpentry & Locks: p14 MJ Harris Domestic Repairs: p2 Mossinator: p1

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North Cotswolds September-October Copy: 3rd August Dist: w/c 29th August

Phil Dadge: p6 WB Home & Garden Maintenance: p13 Recruitment Mustoes Haulage: p12 Removals Coln Clearances: p12 Oxfordshire Clearances: p2 Sports & Leisure Cotswold Archery: p8 Cotswold Riding: p9 Runnerbean: p10 Tree Surgery Stockwell Davies Tree Contractors: p12 Tom Negus Tree Care: p12 Tuition Cotswold Tutor: p11 Volunteering Bourton Old Sweats: p9 Windows RJB Window Restoration: p15 Rooflight Company: p3

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