LocalReach Clevedon December 2022 by localcm

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COMMUNITY MAGAZINES Issue No. 6

GARDENING – page 4 COMMUNITY – page 7 PUZZLES – page 13 RECIPES – page 18 KIDS – page 21 BOOKS – page 27

Cuppa and Company - page 7

LANDLORDS WANTED Have your property managed by the leading Letting Agent in the area!

• ARLA Level 3 Qualified in Residential Letting. • Over 30 years experience. • Highly Recommended on Google & Trustpilot.

Speak to the team for your FREE valuation…

BUSINESS A-Z – page 29

• Three and Four Wheeled Walkers • Wheelchairs • Bath Lifts • Rise and Recliner Chairs • Stairlifts • Mobility Scooters • Electric Wheelchairs • Cosyfeet Slippers and Shoes

01934 614 893 lettings@averyea.co.uk

LocalReach is an independent, family run business based in Somerset since 2010

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We used Central Roofing to take down an old flat roof and install another on our business premises at Knight Brothers Garage. The company was very reliable, they turned up when they said they would, the guys that did the work were very tidy and efficient. The work was completed in the time frame they set…we are more than pleased with the finished job. Karen Anderson

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WELCOME TO LOCALREACH

Are you looking for more visitors to your event or more customers for your business? LocalReach is an excellent way to promote your event or gain more leads for your business. Prices start from only £17+vat per month. We are the ONLY magazine delivered every month to ALL of your postcode area by the ROYAL MAIL. We now deliver 111,130 copies each and every month to ALL homes and businesses to ALL of: Westonsuper-Mare, Worle, Portishead, Burnham on Sea, Glastonbury, Street, Clevedon, Wedmore, Cheddar, Axbridge, Winscombe & Wells. A massive 95% of our advertisers rebook their adverts every month and we don’t hold anyone to a long contract. Readers say they love LocalReach and read it every month cover to cover, they keep it on their coffee table for 3-4 weeks and keep referring back to it, they then recycle LocalReach in the knowledge the new monthly issue will drop through their door. Readers tell us they love LocalReach, trust LocalReach and use the services of the businesses inside. If you are interested in gaining more visitors to your event or more customers for your business go to www.localreach.co.uk for more info or email hello@localreach.co.uk

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Disclaimer. Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this magazine, we make no guarantee that the content will always be current, accurate or complete. We do not approve any of the services or products provided by advertisers in this magazine. Anyone using the products, services or advice from advertisers will need to carry out normal checks to make sure businesses are trustworthy and reliable. LocalReach Ltd 2022.

DO YOU RECEIVE A COPY OF LOCALREACH EACH MONTH? LocalReach is delivered each month by ROYAL MAIL to ALL of the Clevedon, BS21 postcode area, including all towns and villages within the postcode areas, to every resident and business, totalling 11,669 copies each month. We take non deliveries very seriously and in the event of a non delivery being reported to us we follow the Royal Mail’s complaint procedure. If you are not getting your monthly copy by the end of the first week of any month please send us an email to royalmail@localreach.co.uk with the full address of the non delivery and we will ask Royal Mail to investigate and report back.

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GARDENING

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Garden View… This month - Magical Poinsettias If you want to try this, fertilize the plant once a month then cut back the stems in February to promote new growth. In May repot it to a larger container. From late September to 1st December cover the plant between 6pm and 8am as poinsettias need long periods of darkness in order to persuade the bracts to turn red. Around December 1st you should have a beautiful flowering poinsettia. But if this sounds too much like hard work...well, you can always buy another one!

In the UK, poinsettias have become as entwined with Christmas as holly and mistletoe. Yet poinsettias are actually sub-tropical plants, native to Central America and Mexico, requiring temperatures of between 10 and 21 degrees centigrade to survive. The bright red ‘flowers’ are really bracts, surrounding the real flowers, which are tiny and insignificant. They are notoriously difficult to persuade to flower again so it is with some pride that I tell you my current poinsettia is seven years old, huge, and flowers every year.

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As it’s the festive season I thought I’d finish with a traditional Christmas story, explaining how the poinsettia came to be associated with this time of year. If you buy a poinsettia for someone this year it might be nice to tell them the story when you give them the plant: In Mexico, there once lived a little girl called Pepita who came from a very poor family. Every year, she and her brother Pablo looked forward to the big Christmas festival in their village. A manger scene would be set up in the church and the days before Christmas were filled with parades and parties. On Christmas Eve the whole village would attend church and all the children would place a gift for the baby Jesus next to the manger. One year Pepita’s family had no money at all to buy such a gift so it was with a sad heart that Pepita walked to the church that Christmas Eve and as they drew closer she began to weep. “Little Pepita, why do you cry?” asked her older brother Pablo. “Because I have no gift for the Christ child,” she answered. “Oh Pepita, even the most humble gift, if given in love, will be accepted by him,” said Pablo, comforting her. Pepita considered this for a while then gathered a handful of weeds from the roadside verge and fashioned them into a small posy. But as she entered the church her heart felt heavier than before. With her head bowed she approached the altar and knelt to lay her posy before the manger. Suddenly the tiny bouquet burst into blooms of brilliant red starry flowers and all who saw them were sure they had witnessed a Christmas miracle. The flowers are known as Flores de Noche Buena in Mexico which translates as Flowers of the Holy Night. Happy Christmas, By Rachael Leverton

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Christmas Jumper Day! Thursday 8th December 2022 is Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day!

LOCALREACH

With the rise of consumer advertising in the fifties and sixties, jumpers had always featured heavily in Christmas adverts. The models’ usual suits and dresses were replaced with cosy knitwear to encourage consumers to buy seasonal goods. These were more conventional woollies though. As Christmas became ever more commercial, ‘novelty’ jumpers appeared decorated with snowmen, snowflakes, Santas, and popular cartoon characters dressed in festive attire. In the film Bridget Jones’s Diary, Colin Firth’s character sported a classic ‘ugly’ Christmas jumper with a giant reindeer’s head emblazoned on the front, and the ugly Christmas jumper entered British consciousness. Almost everyone from celebrities to politicians own at least one item of silly festive knitwear.

The charity Save the Children started Christmas Jumper Day in 2012. Every year since then, millions of people don gaudy festive knitwear in their school or office and donate £2 to a good cause. The Christmas jumper has grown in popularity, going from ‘hideously misjudged gift’ status to a desirable festive fashion statement. Some 12 million Christmas jumpers are sold in the UK in the run up to Christmas every year.

There’s a Christmas jumper to suit every taste, from ‘techno-knits’ covered in fairy lights, which connect to your phone and play musical clips, to jumpers bearing whimsical dachshunds in Santa hats, through to elegantly beautiful sparkly numbers that wouldn’t look out of place at a cocktail event. Pull on your Christmas pullover on December 8th and help raise money for a good cause. By Sarah Davey

Charles Green Tree Surgery

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The Twelve Days of Gleaming! On the first day of Gleaming my true love sent to me: A Gleaming Cooker cleaned by OvenGleamers On the second day of Gleaming my true love sent to me: Two Clean Roasting Tins and A Gleaming Cooker cleaned by OvenGleamers On the third day of Gleaming my true love sent to me: 3 New Oven Liners, Two Clean Roasting Tins and A Gleaming Cooker cleaned by OvenGleamers On the fourth day of Gleaming my true love sent to me: Four Gleaming Glass Doors, 3 New Oven Liners…and A Gleaming Cooker cleaned by OvenGleamers On the fifth day of Gleaming my true love sent to me: Five Sparkling Racks, Four Gleaming Glass Doors…and A Gleaming Cooker cleaned by OvenGleamers On the sixth day of Gleaming my true love sent to me: Six Shiny New Bulbs, Five Sparkling Racks… and A Gleaming Cooker cleaned by OvenGleamers On the seventh day of Gleaming my true love sent to me: Seven Seals Degreased, Six Shiny New Bulbs …. and A Gleaming Cooker cleaned by OvenGleamers

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On the eighth day of Gleaming my true love sent to me: Eight Hinges Gliding, Seven Seals Degreased ...and A Gleaming Cooker cleaned by OvenGleamers On the ninth day of Gleaming my true love sent to me: Nine Fan Blades Spinning, Eight Hinges Gliding…and A Gleaming Cooker cleaned by OvenGleamers On the tenth day of Gleaming my true love sent to me: Ten Shiny Oven Walls, Nine Fan Blades Spinning …and A Gleaming Cooker cleaned by OvenGleamers On the eleventh day of Gleaming my true love sent to me: Eleven Cooker Knobs Turning, Ten Shiny Oven Walls …and A Gleaming Cooker cleaned by OvenGleamers On the twelfth day of Gleaming my true love sent to me: 12 HOURS CLEANING SAVED, Eleven Cooker Knobs Turning …and A Gleaming Cooker cleaned by OvenGleamers!!

Call Graham at OvenGleamers TODAY on 01275 370571 and get yours gleamed!

A Festive Evening of Folk Songs for Ukraine

Cuppa and Company

Thursday 1st December: Cuppa and Company 1st Thursday meet 2pm-4pm December at St Andrew’s Church Centre, Clevedon, when we shall have some Christmas fun, a cuppa and chat. A warm welcome awaits.

Portishead Jazz Club

Saturday 10th December: Two highly acclaimed and popular singing groups Mendip Folk Choir and shanty group High & Dry are joining forces to put on an evening of seasonal folk songs and sea shanties in aid of the Ukraine War Appeal. The concert will be held on Saturday 10th December, Cheddar Baptist Church, Lower North Street. Doors open 6.30. Concert 7 - 10pm. Tickets in advance only - £5. Join us for an evening of wonderful songs, and rousing choruses you’ll find impossible not to join in with. Enjoy a glass of mulled wine, or coffee and cake (donations) in this stunning venue to get you in the Christmas spirit, and raise much needed money for the people of Ukraine. For tickets and further info. contact: Issy Emeney: issy@emeney.com, 01934 741551. James Barattini: winscombe.folk@gmail.com, 07703 538861.

Wednesday 7th December: We are pleased to announce that our December 7th trad jazz night will be featuring not 1 but 2 jazz bands – all for the same price as always! Why not come along and support our local musicians for a pre Christmas evening of social entertainment and fun. We’re certain you will enjoy the night, and give below our details of next years’ meetings:First Wednesday of every month Muskrats Dixieland Jazz Band Clarence House. Portishead. BS20 6PY For 8:00pm start Ample free parking Licensed bar Raffle £4.00 per person

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LOCALREACH

Sock it to Them

Socks are actually the perfect Christmas gift. They are great for stocking fillers, brilliant for Secret Santa, and just the thing for those awkward relatives and friends. Everyone needs a pair of socks in the winter, particularly now we’re all trying to use the heating less. Bed socks and Hygge-style lounge socks are making a big comeback this year as we all try to keep warm. And socks wear out, they also have a propensity for disappearing. It’s a rare person who can claim to have too many socks! They are affordable too. Even if you have a friend who favours designer brands, a pair of socks is usually within budget. Admittedly cashmere socks are super-expensive, but the recipient will love you forever.

As a child growing up in the Seventies, I thought socks were the most boring Christmas gift possible until the year my Aunty Glenda bought me a rainbow-striped over-the-knee pair with individual toes. She was the coolest aunt and they were the coolest socks. I was the envy of my friends and my obsession with socks began.

And there’s a sock for everyone: witty, pretty, glittery, bright, pastel, practical, and luxurious. The choice is endless. And every time the recipient wears your gift, they’ll think fondly of you. So, sock it to everyone this Christmas. By Kate McCarthy

LOCAL MAN WITH A VAN www.manwithavan.info

I’m cheaper than a skip!

Hello, I’m available to help with removals & rubbish clearance. Please let me know you saw this advert in LocalReach.

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LOCAL EXPERT PAGE

Are your stairs a struggle? Enjoy independence in your home… Do I need a Stairlift? – If you have difficulty getting up and down stairs you are not alone. The decision to install a stairlift is sometimes a difficult one to take but, when compared with the alternative of moving or living on only one level of their home, many people have found a stairlift to be their preferred solution. Why choose us? – Suttons Stairlifts aim to provide a reliable and prompt service to their valued customers. Thanks to personal recommendations from satisfied customers referring us to their friends and relations Suttons Stairlifts is now a wellestablished company committed to providing expert advice with a no-pressure selling policy, guaranteed! Our Products and Services – We offer a range of new or refurbished Handicare stairlifts for either straight or curved stairs throughout the West Country, from Bath & Bristol right down to South Devon. We also offer a rental option for straight stairlifts as well as annual services and safety checks, repairs and removals. What happens next? – We will visit you to survey the staircase and conduct a user assessment leaving you the leaflets and prices so you can make the decision in your own time. Once you’ve made your decision we aim to install your lift within the week, or even the next day subject to availability. With our comprehensive 12 or 24 month warranty and 365 day coverage you can be assured of a firstclass and personal service from Suttons Stairlifts. Call us on 01749 346 900 for more information.

STAIRLIFTS NEW from £1,495 RECONDITIONED from £949 RENTAL from £55 per month

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LOCAL EXPERT PAGE

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Managing bladder weakness: our 5 top tips Living with bladder weakness may seem challenging at first, but if you only have a light to moderate bladder weakness, some simple lifestyle adjustments can make all the difference to managing your condition. Read on for our advice and tips: Firstly, see your GP or medical practitioner: what you might think is incontinence could actually be a different condition, such as a urinary tract infection (UTI), diabetes, or a kidney infection. It’s important to have a clear diagnosis, so your GP can offer the appropriate advice to help you manage your symptoms. Keep an eye on what you eat and drink: not drinking enough can lead to concentrated urine, which actually irritates the bladder and can make the problem worse. So try and drink lots of water (up to 2 litres a day unless your GP advises otherwise) and avoid fizzy drinks and too much caffeine or alcohol – all of which are known irritants. Eating a balanced diet, with plenty of non-citrus fruit, vegetables and wholegrains will help your overall health, and avoiding spicy and acidic foods, along with sugar and dairy can also be beneficial. Don’t forget to exercise: as tempting as it might be to avoid exercise, some people find lower impact activities such as cycling, yoga, pilates, swimming or even walking particularly helpful. Exercise also helps to maintain a healthy body weight, which reduces pressure on the pelvic floor, and of course exercise has a significant impact on your mental health. Use the right products: women will sometimes reach for sanitary products rather than incontinence products when dealing with mild bladder weakness. But the two products are designed quite differently, and an incontinence product will give far better protection. Be prepared: for light to moderate incontinence, you might find that discreet mattress or seat protection offers you some security and peace of mind. If you’d like some one-to-one advice on the best products to manage your condition, do drop us a line at info@arelle.com or give us a call on 0800 389 3597. We’d love to help.

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LOCALREACH

Give us a kiss for Christmas… otherwise invincible Baldur. But the gods were able to resurrect him, so (somewhat counterintuitively perhaps) Frigg declared mistletoe a symbol of love and vowed to plant a kiss on all those who passed beneath it. Mistletoe’s associations with fertility and health continued through the Middle Ages, and by the 18th century it had become entwined with Christmas celebrations. Unusually the kissing tradition spread upwards from the lower classes of servants to the middle classes. The old custom was that men were allowed to steal a kiss from any woman caught standing under the mistletoe, and refusing was viewed as bad luck. Some versions have the men pluck a single berry from the mistletoe with each kiss, and to cease their amorous intents when the mistletoe was bare. Do you love or hate the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe? So goes the vintage Pinky and Perky song. A kiss under a sprig of mistletoe is a well-known festive tradition. But why? Mistletoe is a parasitic plant which attaches itself to a tree by means of something called a haustorium, and through this it extracts water and nutrients from the host plant. So how did it become associated with romance? Mistletoe’s medicinal uses can be traced back to Ancient Greece, where they used it as a cure for everything from menstrual cramps to spleen disorders, and the Romans used as for epilepsy, ulcers and as a poison. No obvious romantic overtones there! Enter the Celtic Druids around 1st century A.D. Mistletoe thrives during the coldest winters, so the Druids adopted it as a sacred symbol of vivacity, and used it in both humans and animals in the hope of restoring fertility.

By Tom Hancock

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Then there is the Norse myth of Odin’s son Baldur, who was prophesied to die, so his mother Frigg, the goddess of love, went to all the animals and COMMUNITY MAGAZINES plants of the natural world to secure an oath that they would not harm him. But she forgot to ask Independent, family run, Somerset based the humble mistletoe, so the god Loki cunningly community magazine publishers since 2010. made an arrow from the plant and used it to kill the www.localreach.co.uk | 11

LOCALREACH

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Crossword

Word Search

PUZZLES

Across 2 Santa’s helpers (5) 5 _____ Christmas! (5) 6 _____ ____ fairy (5,4) 8 Frozen rain (4) 9 Circular decoration (6) 12 Santa’s means of entry (7) 13 Tree decoration (6) 16 Striped sweet (5,4) 19 Tree topper (4) 20 Film starring Martin Freeman (8) 21 Santa’s lead reindeer (7) 22 Kris _______ (7) 23 Dr Seuss’s green Christmas villain (6) 24 Little _______ Boy (7) Down 1 ______ Bells (6) 2 Traditional dairy drink (6) 3 Charles Dickens’ anti-hero (7) 4 The Holly and the ___ (3) 5 You might get a kiss under this (9) 7 Three Kings Day (8) 10 A girl’s festive name (5) 11 The Christmas ballet (10) 14 Used to build festive houses (11) 15 Famous snowman (6) 16 Christmas song (5) 17 Where Santa lives (5,4) 18 Santa’s transport system (6) 19 Hung over the fireplace or at the end of the bed (8)

Mindbenders

stuffing olives crisps apples tangerines parsnips grapes brie trifle red cabbage gravy broccoli roast potatoes turkey ham carrots sausage rolls mince pies cheddar sprouts mints chocolates Solutions: Turn to page 28 stilton nut roast crackers www.localreach.co.uk | 13

LOCAL EXPERT PAGE

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Is Your Furniture Christmas Ready? It’s the season for getting our homes ready for family gatherings and holiday parties. Whether it’s tired-looking furniture, scratches, scuffs or dents we definitely feel the pressure mount when guests come to visit us over the festive period. Is your furniture in need of a freshen up before Christmas? Let PremTech Furniture Repairs help you as the countdown begins!

Furniture Fact: Did you know that apart from a house and a car, furniture is the third most expensive thing people buy in their lives? If you feel like there is no hope for your beloved furniture, take a look at our website or visit our facebook page to see what we can do. Our services include repairs to frames, leather, recliners and wood as well as seat, back and arm boosts, replacement interiors and much more. We can provide a free, no obligation quote to all postcodes which this magazine reaches, as well as the surrounding areas. We can also provide quotations and independent inspection reports for the purpose of insurance claims.

Furniture Fact: Sofa owners sit on their sofas for an average of four hours every day. We welcome enquiries from all customers, individual or corporate and can offer an onsite or workshop repair (with no additional cost for us collecting and delivering your furniture). We never like to see a good piece of furniture end up in landfill when all it needs is a bit of TLC from us. People tend to assume that repairing or restoring furniture will be more expensive than buying new but in reality, it can sometimes work out hundreds of pounds cheaper. PremTech Furniture Repairs want to help you save those pounds so you can get the most out of this winter! We are booking up fast for Christmas now so please get in contact with us if we can help with your furniture needs.

Furniture Fact: Around 670,0000 tonnes of furniture ends up in landfill each year and 110,000 tonnes of this is furniture is re-usable in its current state. BEFORE

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All Change for Christmas Things are different now I spent Christmas 2019 working hospital shifts until Christmas Eve. Using logistical planning worthy of the British military I shopped, attended two concerts and a Nativity play in three different schools (on the same day of course), bought and wrapped gifts, decorated the house, attended two work parties, entertained my extended family, offended my mother over our choice of food, and my aunty over allowing our 17-year-old to have a beer, and I cried myself to sleep on Christmas Night. I spent Christmas 2020 working on the front line in COVID care. My family celebrated the day without me or a turkey and I cried myself to sleep on Christmas Night. Last year, in early December, while discussing how much of a ‘normal’ Christmas might be possible, my husband announced, ‘I don’t want to go back to normal Christmases.’ And suddenly I loved him more than ever. Last year we kept Christmas small, just us and the kids and a small twinkly tree. We ate chocolate for breakfast, played board games, went for a walk, watched a film, ate my husband’s amazing sticky Chinese chicken wings for lunch, read books, played cards, then ate Christmas pudding for supper followed by marshmallows toasted on the fire...I relaxed completely and shed no tears. This year I asked what everyone wanted to do. The consensus was that last year was great but there were some aspects of our previous Christmases that my kids and my husband missed. So, we took the chance to recalibrate the festive season, and this is what they came up with. Things we loved about Christmas last year: NO HOUSE GUESTS (everyone) Playing board games (everyone) Toasting marshmallows (the kids) Long walk (me and husband) Things we missed about Christmas last year: Singing in the church carol service (my husband) Ice skating (everyone) Going to see The Nutcracker (ballet-mad ten-yearold) Attending the Christmas lights switch-on (everyone) Family tobogganing night in the snow dome (everyone)

LOCALREACH

New things we’d like to try this year: Go to a local stately home to see the lights (everyone) Go to a German market (husband and me) Make a gingerbread house! (the kids) We’re still hosting immediate family for a couple of days between Christmas and New Year, and extended family are invited to visit for one of those days. Not everyone is happy about this state of affairs but I’m not going back to the pre-2020 madness of festive martyrdom, trying to be all things to all people and stressing over whether everyone else’s Christmas is perfect at the expense of my sanity. If Covid showed us anything, it’s that life is precious, fragile, and unpredictable. It forced us to make decisions about who we wanted to spend our time and energy on. The pandemic was a catalyst for change for our family, and I suspect it might be the same for other folk too. Will Christmas ever be the same? I don’t know, but different doesn’t mean worse. We can make new traditions that are more personal and meaningful than before and may even look back and wonder why we didn’t shake things up earlier. Merry Christmas, By Tania Brown

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COMMUNITY MAGAZINES

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HEALTH AND BEAUTY LOCALREACH

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You Donate We Collect! Christmas tree collection service

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Collection Dates: 6&7 January 2023

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HEALTH LOCAL EXPERT COMMUNITY AND BEAUTY PAGE

Hospice ‘TreeCycle’ scheme is the hassle-free choice As you set out to buy a real tree this Christmas give some thought to how you can recycle it once the festivities are over. St Peter’s Hospice Christmas Tree Collection scheme will help your local Hospice raise much-needed funds for patient care in Bristol and help you to have a sustainable start to the New Year. Our team of volunteers will travel across targeted areas of Bristol and North Somerset collecting Christmas trees from your doorstep and recycle them on your behalf in exchange for a donation to the Hospice. We recommend £15 - £20 per tree (or whatever you can afford). The Hospice is aiming to reduce 1,500 Christmas trees to woodchips this year, benefitting the environment and Hospice care too. As long as your tree fits into a minivan, we can dispose of it for you. Nick Wilson, St Peter’s Hospice Community Fundraiser, says: “A real tree is a lovely thing to have, but clearing it away after the festive season can be a hassle. This service makes life easier for people because the trees are collected from their own homes and recycled for them, all while raising vital funds for patient care at the Hospice. It’s a winwin!” St Peter’s Hospice is the only adult hospice in Bristol and the surrounding area, providing care for patients and families facing life-limiting illness. It costs A donation to recycle your Christmas tree will help to around £25,650 a day to provide for the provide vital care for local patients and families needs of patients. While all care is free of charge, the Hospice relies on gifts in wills, donations, fundraising and their shops to deliver services. Supporting the Hospice by recycling your Christmas tree will help to pay for essential end of life patient care, when it matters most. The tree collection service takes place on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 January 2023 at selected postcodes across Bristol, Nailsea, Portishead and Clevedon: BS4, BS5, BS7, BS9, BS15, BS16, BS20, BS21, BS41 and BS48. To book your tree collection see: www.stpetershospice.org/treecollection

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RECIPE

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Last-minute Christmas Gift Cake Traditionally Christmas cakes are made well in advance but if you haven’t had time try our last-minute version. Because it makes two you can also give one away as a gift, and solve two problems with one recipe! Ingredients:

Makes 2 cakes, each serving 8 Preparation time: 30 minutes Cooking time: 1-1¾ hours depending on oven.

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600g good-quality mixed dried fruits 150ml whisky, warmed 150g stem ginger, drained, plus 8 tbsp ginger syrup from the jar 200g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing 300g plain flour 2 tsp baking powder 2 tsp mixed spice 200g soft light brown sugar 4 large free-range eggs 2 tbsp milk Finely grated zest of 2 small oranges and 2 lemons 50g ground almonds 150g whole glacé cherries Method: Put the dried fruits in a bowl and pour over the whisky. Set aside for 30 minutes to allow the fruit to plump up. Briefly blend the ginger and its syrup in a mini food processor until finely chopped. Preheat the oven to 160°C/fan140°C/gas 3. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin. Sift the flour, baking powder and mixed spice into a large bowl and add the rest of the ingredients except the cherries. Beat with a hand-held electric whisk for 2 minutes until pale and fluffy. Fold in the soaked dried fruits and any whisky, the blitzed ginger and the cherries. Spoon into the baking tin and level off. Bake for 1-1¾ hours (this depends very much on your oven. My fan oven is super-quick whereas my mother’s aga is slower). If you’re unsure I recommend you check after an hour then every fifteen minutes after that, until the cake is firm and golden brown. To check, insert a skewer into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean the cake is cooked. You can cover it loosely with foil after 1 hour if the centre needs more time. This prevents the surface darkening too much. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes, and then remove to a wire rack to cool. Remove a thin slice from all sides of the cake and discard. Cut the cake in half to make 2 rectangles. Top with marzipan and white fondant icing and decorate with a sprig of holly.

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Festive Terrine A delicious and easy terrine that looks impressive but is easy to adapt to ingredients you have available

RECIPE

onion in the bowl, add the chopped chicken, minced pork or turkey, and the rest of the chosen ingredients, with the thyme leaves, nutmeg, and a generous amount of seasoning. Mix thoroughly. Press the resulting mixture into the loaf tin, levelling off the surface. If you’re using bacon fold the overhanging rashers over the filling. Fold any overhanging bacon over the filling and cover with the remaining rashers. Press down again. Cover the top with a lightly oiled sheet of cooking foil and press this down on top of the loaf tin. Then wrap the tin securely in a double layer of foil and place put into a roasting tin. Boil the kettle then half-fill the roasting tin with boiling water and carefully transfer to the oven. Cook for 90 minutes until the terrine feels solid when the top is pressed. Lift tin out of the water, remove the outer layers of foil, leaving only the greased foil layer in place. Then carefully pour out any liquid from the terrine to prevent it setting as jelly. Leave to cool. Place a weight on top of the foil layer (tins of beans or even a house brick will do) and chill overnight.

Serves: 8 Preparation time: 30 mins Cooking time: 2 hours plus chilling time

Remove the terrine from the fridge and release it from the tin a couple of hours before serving, to allow it to come to room temperature. Slice and serve with chutneys, and warm crusty bread.

Ingredients: 1 tbsp. olive oil, plus extra to brush 1 onion, finely chopped 2 tbsp. brandy, (optional) 12 rashers smoked streaky bacon (optional) 2 skinless chicken breasts, cut into small pieces (about 1cm) 500g minced pork or turkey. 50g frozen peas OR 50g roughly chopped pistachios OR 50g chopped walnuts 50g dried cranberries OR 50g chopped dried apricots OR 50g chopped dried prunes ¾ tsp freshly grated nutmeg leaves from two sprigs of fresh thyme. Plenty of seasoning. Method: Cook the onion gently for 10 minutes until softened and translucent. Pour in the brandy if using and cook for 30 seconds. Empty the onions into a large bowl and allow to cool. Preheat oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / Gas mark 4. If using the bacon, line a 2lb loaf tin with 10 of the rashers making sure you leave part of the rashers hanging over the edge of the tin. To the cooled

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Gingerbread Run, run, fast as you can, You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man!

Ginger root originally came to Europe via the Silk Road, which was an ancient trade route, and in the Middle Ages it was used for medicinal purposes and in the preserving of meats. By the late Middle Ages, Europeans had begun to bake sweet gingerbread biscuits. These were shaped like animals, kings, and queens, and were sometimes gilded with gold leaf. They were a staple at Medieval fairs across Europe, particularly in England, France, Holland, and Germany. Queen Elizabeth I is even said to have had some made to resemble the dignitaries visiting her court. So popular was gingerbread that the fairs became known as Gingerbread Fairs, and the gingerbread biscuits were named ‘fairings.’ As the fairs took place throughout the year the shapes of the gingerbread changed with the seasons: flowers in the spring and leaves in the autumn.

Who hasn’t eaten a festive gingerbread man? You may even have attempted to make a gingerbread house. Gingerbread is strongly associated with Christmas but how did that happen?

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The gingerbread houses we know today originated in Germany during the 16th century. Bakers created elaborate buildings were decorated with foil and white icing in addition to gold leaf. The Brothers Grimm penned the story of Hansel and Gretel, who discover a house made entirely of sweet treats, deep in the forest, but it’s unclear whether the popularity of gingerbread houses were a result of the fairy tale, or whether the fairy tale borrowed from an already established tradition. Quite why gingerbread became associated with Christmas is also unclear but is probably due to a number of factors. Christmas markets were big ‘whole town’ events, and gingerbread is easy to make, and keeps well, so it’s ideal for selling on a stall. It’s likely that the combination of white icing and foil decoration was easily adaptable to create miniature snow-covered dwellings which provided pretty centrepieces for the festive dinner tables of middle-class households. The longevity and structural integrity of gingerbread also lends itself well to creating edible decorations for hanging on trees or giving as gifts. Historically diets of ordinary people were simple and bland because sugar was an expensive luxury. People could only afford to splash out on ingredients for cakes, biscuits, and sweets occasionally, and Christmas was the time when even less well-off people spent a little extra on fancy food and drink. Whatever its history, gingerbread is now firmly entwined with the festive season, from sweet little gingerbread reindeer to gingerbread lattes, the sight, smell, and taste of gingerbread is synonymous with Christmas. By Sarah Davey

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Have you got your Lasting Powers of Attorney (“LPAs”) in place yet? You need to consider making these important documents whilst you are able and have capacity to do so to ensure you are protected. We do not know what our future holds for us and you should consider making the LPAs sooner rather than later to put your affairs in order. LPAs need to be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (“OPG”) before they can be used and at the moment, the OPG is taking nearly five months to turn the LPAs around - not days as shown in a recent episode of Emmerdale! This could be a problem for your family should you need assistance during that period and is another reason why you need to consider making them. With Grove Wills we do everything for you. Our fees are very competitive too. Please contact us to arrange a free “no obligation” appointment to discuss further.

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Clutter-free for Christmas Look around your house. Would you be able to invite people in without a second thought? Or would unexpected festive visitors send you into a panic? It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by clutter but follow these simple ‘no extra mess steps and you’ll soon be ready to open the front door with a smile. Grab a bin bag. Go quickly through the house from room to room and put in anything that is obviously just rubbish: empty packets, wrappers, junk mail etc. Once you’ve done it, go through again and see whether you’ve missed anything. The chances are that going through the first time has opened your eyes to other things which can just be thrown away. Now do any washing-up or load the dishwasher. Clearing the kitchen surfaces makes a huge difference. Grab another bag. Go through the house again and this time look for items of clothing that need to be washed. Pop them in the bag and take them to the washing baskets. Take couple of empty and go through yet again, this time looking for items that are easy charity shop donations - things you won’t need or use again so don’t want to waste time finding a home for, but which are too good to throw away. These might be old toys and games, CDs, DVDs, books, extra pots and pans etc.

Will Writing Lasting Powers of Attorney Free Reviews Friendly and Professional service in the comfort of your own home. No form filling - we do it all for you. Call Karen to discuss further

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By now things will be looking much tidier. At this point grab another box and go through one last time and look for things that are obviously out of place but which you know have a home. Put them in the box and rehome them as you go round the house. Then do the washing and drying, and fold and put away the items Hopefully by now you should feel more in control of your surroundings and will be able to see a way forward Obviously if your clutter is such a big problem that you are still overwhelmed speak to your doctor about seeking professional help. By Tracey Anderson

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Countdown to Christmas The Origins of the Advent Calendar I loved the arrival of the Advent Calendar when I was growing up. Every year we had a cardboard one from Woolworths, printed with a Christmas scene, each little door opening to reveal a tiny picture such as a teddy, a reindeer or a bauble. My brother and I would take it turns to be ‘odds’ or ‘evens’. I always wanted to be ‘evens’ so I could open the Christmas Eve door which was always slightly larger and had a picture of the Nativity or Santa on the roof of a snow-covered house. When some of the kids at school started boasting about their ‘chocolate’ Advent Calendars we begged my dad for one and eventually he gave in. We were disappointed when we realised that once the chocolate was removed there was no picture, just an empty space where the chocolate had been. The ‘open’ chocolate Advent calendar had all the charm of a mouth with missing teeth. We never asked for another one. The Advent calendar originates from Germany. It began with German Protestants marking the days of Advent either by burning a candle or marking a wall with chalk. This morphed into the practice of hanging a devotional image every day and ultimately to the creation of the first known wooden Advent calendar in 1851. The first printed calendars appeared just after 1900. Small doors were added in the 1920s. Often short bible verses were hidden behind the doors alongside the picture. During the World War ll cardboard rationing put a stop to advent calendars but when hostilities ceased Richard Sellmar of Stuttgart obtained a permit from the US officials to begin printing and selling them again. He designed a calendar based on a German winter town scene. By the 1950s, they were massproduced and affordable and exported across the world. Chocolate Advent Calendars might seem like the new kids on the block but they have been around longer than you might think. Fry and Son produced the first chocolate Advent calendar as early as 1958 and Cadbury popularised them in the Seventies. Lego got in on the action in 1998 with a set that contained a Santa Claus minifigure and simple brick-made structures, which could be finally reassembled into a bigger model or scene. They’ve produced at least one every year since. My oldest teen begs me for their Harry Potter one every year. Over the past decade Advent calendars have gone ‘luxury’ and become a key marketing strategy for

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many companies. This started around 2010 when Selfridges department store launched a beautythemed Advent calendar with the cosmetics giant L’Oréal. It was filled with product samples from fragrances to body creams. There is now a advent calendar catering for pretty much every taste, most of them marketed at adults rather than children. There are advent calendars for gin-lovers, tealovers, and nail-polish addicts; there is even one for pets, and they are not cheap! Some cost upwards of £150! It’s all a worlds away from Sellmar-Verlag, now run by Richard’s grandchildren, which still produces traditional card Advent calendars to this day. The company’s most popular advent calendar is still Richard’s original design, called Little Town. A few years ago my husband (knowing my love of traditional Advent Calendars) bought me a wooden one which is reusable and is a beautiful Christmas decoration in its own right...in fact my teens actually argue over which one of them will inherit it when I die (that’s the festive spirit guys!). However you choose to mark the occasion...Happy Advent! By Kate McCarthy

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Our Daily Bread

But if you’re interested…

A bread maker means you’ll never be without fresh baked bread again

Automatic ingredient dispenser - I paid a premium for this feature twenty years ago but it’s more common now and I would definitely recommend it for adding dried fruit and nuts easily.

If there was a Top Twenty for aromas then surely the smell of freshly baked bread would be number one. Top three at least. But how many of us have the time to bake our own bread? Enter the bread maker. I bought one twenty years ago and have never regretted it. It’s still working, but I’m tempted recently to upgrade, and bread makers have moved on light years since my initial purchase. My old Panasonic is a bit of a behemoth. It takes up a lot of counter space, and I was surprised that some newer models are even larger! But there are compact appliances available now too. So, what do modern bread makers have to offer? Well, they will all cook standard white and wholemeal loaves, and if that is all you require, a basic model is all you will require. Why pay more for features you won’t use?

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Alarm – You can’t add moist ingredients like cooked onions of grated cheese or ingredients that might melt like chocolate chips, into the automatic dispensers of most bread makers, so an alarm to let you know when to do it manually is useful. A delay timer – My delay timer is now a bit temperamental, which is one of the reasons I’m looking to upgrade. A delay feature means you can add ingredients to the mixing bowl several hours ahead, so you have freshly baked bread at a time to suit you – in the evening with supper, or first thing with your coffee. Viewing window - A few new models offer this. I managed for 20 years without one but it’s a cool feature for checking on the progress of your loaf. Keep-warm - This setting keeps your freshly baked bread warm for up to an hour after the programme has finished. Handy if you’re delayed. Speciality breads - Modern bread makers have mastered brioche, rye, sourdough, Italian and French (though not baguettes obviously because of the shape!). Some have even mastered glutenfree, though some models manage this better than others (The Tefal PF240E40 Bread Maker has many GF fans). Some bread makers make a great pizza dough and /or fresh pasta dough (Gastroback 62823 Automatic Bread Maker Advanced, Morphy Richards 48281 Bread maker, Sage the Custom Loaf Bread Maker). I love making pizzas and I do love fresh pasta, but find it a faff to make the doughs by hand, so they would be bonus features for me. Yoghurt - I learned to make yoghurt in a thermos over lockdown. Apparently it’s a similar process in a bread maker but how useful it would be for me I’m not sure. Jam - Some models promise to cook the sugar and fruits at the right temperature to make jam, so that it can be decanted straight into jars. If you’re into jam-making as well as bread-making it’s something to consider. If you’ve always wanted to have a go at making your own bread but never have the time, try putting a bread maker on your Christmas list this year. It’s the gift that will keep on giving. By Louise Addison

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LOCAL EXPERT PAGE

Live the life you deserve If you thought bathing safely and stylishly wasn’t possible, think again Picture the scene, it’s the end of the day. Your body feels tired and your mind is ready for some downtime. You imagine what it would feel like to climb into a warm, soothing bath and let you cares melt away. Then a niggling doubt takes hold. Last time you had a bath you had to call your partner to help you get out. Maybe it won’t happen this time. So, you run a bath anyway thinking this time you’ll be ok. But can you enjoy your bath with those doubts in your mind? We know that going from a ‘normal’ bathroom to one with mobility aids feels like a step in a direction you don’t want to go. But it depends how you look at it. It’s very common for people only to seek help with their bathroom as a result of a fall, accident or near-miss. Should you wait that long, or are there changes you could make now? Just because you’re adding grab rails or a raised toilet in your bathroom for example, doesn’t mean it will look like a hospital bathroom. You could see it as an opportunity to refresh and update one of the most important rooms of your house. Updating your bathroom with AHM We guide you through the whole process of updating your bathroom. If you’re in immediate need of a solution, we do our best to make it happen quickly. If you prefer taking time to think through the options, that’s fine too. We’re a small, family-run firm with a background in caring and mobility, so we’re flexible and we know what it’s like. We visit customers at home, for free, to get a full understanding of their needs and there’s always a real person at the end of the phone. We don’t employ salesmen. Our experienced surveyors visit you to discuss your needs. We also pride ourselves in employing courteous and trustworthy fitters to install every bathroom. We use specialist bathing products which come with a manufacturer’s warranty, plus our own 12-month installation warranty. If you’re ready to seek help with your bathroom, call us on 01275 403188.

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Board Games or Bored Games? There are two types of families; those that love a game of Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit or Scrabble, and families like mine. Our little festive hearts sink when guests suggest breaking out the Cluedo. We always thought we were odd until a few years ago when we befriended new neighbours. They invited us round for festive drinks and about halfway through the evening they suggested we play some games. They must have seen our collective look of horror. Oh no, they laughed, not BORED games...and with that they whipped out Dobble, Q-Bitz and Genius Square. These were games I had never heard of, although admittedly I hadn’t really researched the subject. What ensued were a couple of fast-paced fun-filled hours, which resulted in us buying the same games and few more besides. That evening our neighbours showed us that we didn’t hate board games, we’d just been playing the wrong ones. My family is very kinaesthetic. We like to touch and manipulate things. We have a dozen different Rubik cubes and enjoy solving them. Traditional board games just aren’t engaging enough for us. Dobble is a ‘spot-it’ style game. There is a deck of circular cards covered in images and each card

shares just one image in common with each other card. The idea is to spot the match quicker than your neighbour in a series of lightning rounds. Like snap but way more challenging and far more entertaining. Q-Bitz is a match-it game, where you race against other players to reproduce the pattern on a card, using sixteen cubes, which all have different pattern-parts on each face. There are speed and memory variations, and children tend to be better than adults...at least in our house. If you love Tetris you’ll probably like Genius Square. The blocks are the same shapes and colours, and by throwing special dice you block out various coordinates on your square, then race to fit all the blocks into the remaining spaces. These three games have become our family staples and we’ve discovered that lots of our friends prefer them to traditional board games too. So, if you’re ‘bored with board games’ try these and see if they convert you. By Sarah Davey

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BOOK REVIEW

A Good Read

A Boy Called Christmas One Day in December by Josie Silver

It’s the time of year for a feel-good romantic novel, one that can be enjoyed curled up under a blanket with a nutmeg-spiced hot chocolate. Laurie is unlucky in love and stuck in a career rut. One day she is sitting on a bus when she spots a man reading at the bus stop. He looks up, their eyes meet and somewhere there is a spark. Laurie can’t stop thinking about him, wondering if they will ever meet. Her best friend and roommate Sarah is Laurie’s opposite. She introduces Jack, her new boyfriend to Laurie, anxious that they will hit it off except... her boyfriend is the man from the bus, the guy that Laurie has been dreaming about. No surprises here...classic romantic chick-lit so far. Cue heartbreak and hiccups, and the quest not to hurt a friend while pursuing your own ‘happily ever after’. But this novel actually spans a decade (unusual for a romance) of friendship, fate, unrequited feelings, forgiveness, heartache, and love. It’s not a typical love story...there’s good character development. It’s told both from Laurie and Jack’s perspectives, with the reader privy to their thoughts and feelings. It has all the nostalgia (and a few of the cliches) of a Richard Curtis film, but the trio of central characters clearly care deeply about each other. Their friendship feels genuine, which in turn makes us care about them and gives the story its heart. If this book doesn’t get made into a film at some point, I’ll be surprised.

by Matt Haig, illustrated by Chris Mould This enthralling tale tells the story of Father Christmas as a boy. It’s touching, funny and packed with memorable characters Nikolas and his lumberjack father Joel are poor. Miika (a mouse) is his Nikolas’ only friend. In his whole life Nikolas has only received two Christmas presents: a sleigh and a turnip doll. Then Anders the Hunter comes to recruit Joel to work on a mission for the King. If they can prove the existence of Elves they will be rewarded handsomely. Keen to improve their circumstances, Joel heads off, leaving Nikolas to be looked after by his horrible Aunt Carlotta. When Joel doesn’t return Nikolas begins to worry and eventually sets out with Miika on the long and treacherous journey to find his father. Along the way there is Elf Village, a kidnapped elf, a naughty Truth Pixie that likes to watch people’s heads explode, and an unpleasant Troll named Sebastian. There is also of course, a flying reindeer. Haig does not disappoint with the ending, explaining how Nikolas finally finds his purpose, by becoming Father Christmas. A Boy Called Christmas is the perfect festive story to read to children on the run-up to Christmas. As a bonus it is beautifully illustrated by Chris Mould. One you will return to each Christmas. By Tash Donovan

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Fully qualified & insured arborist COMMUNITY MAGAZINES

Independent, family run, Somerset based community magazine publishers since 2010.

All aspects of tree work & hedge trimming PLUS log deliveries & general advice

07547 616370

gnarlytreesbristol@gmail.com

www.localreach.co.uk | 31

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Specialising in… Resin bound & bonded driveways Stone Paving • Block Paving • Tarmac Drop kerbs • Landscaping • General building Check out our 4.7 star rating on

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Tel:

01275 400471