During the recent periods of lockdown and restricted travel, many of us have been getting better acquainted with our local landscapes, and some marvellous photographs have been produced. Drawing on this fund of creativity and talent, the Wolvercote Tree Group invite you to submit your favourite photographs of local trees focusing on those in the immediate area of Wolvercote and Wytham, with a view to producing a 2022 calendar featuring the best submissions.
To submit a photograph for consideration, upload an image to your Instagram account using #wolvercotetrees #month (e.g. #jan) and your name. If you don’t have an Instagram account, send the image to wolvercotetreegroup@gmail.com. We will upload it for you. Pictures will be selected by an invited panel for the 2022 calendar which will be sold to raise funds for the work of the Tree Group.
Please be aware that selected photographs must be high-resolution, and should be taken in a landscape format. To produce the calendar in good time for sale at the end of 2021, the deadline for submissions will be the end of October (TBC). So, if you have pictures from last November and December 2020 you would like to submit, please do so now!
We look forward to seeing your photographs celebrating the wonderful countryside we live in. Any questions or queries, please email wolvercotetreegroup@gmail.com
Every March, Oxford City Council organises Oxclean and supply all the necessary materials to hold a major litter pick. And every year the Wolvercote Tree Group and the Commoners join forces to give the village a good going over. This, for reasons we all know about, they will not be holding the event.
However, as we all now out having extra walks, it might be a good time to have a go ourselves. The council are unable to supply the necessary equipment (litter pickers and plastic bags) however there will be 4 pickers available for collection at 39 Meadow Prospect (you’ll need your own plastic bags). So how about the next time you go on one of your walks popping along collection your pickers from Meadow Prospect and having a go at a bit of litter picking yourself? Although it’s normally only the village covered, how about having a go at Godstow Road between Wolvercote and Wytham as well, which is always a mess of lager cans and MacDonald’s remains.
The virtual Autumn show is available to access from this afternoon and will remain on the WHS website so as many of you as possible will be able to take the time to look at the exhibits.
Huge thanks to Anne Charles for loading all the images on the web pages.
Thank you to all of you who sent a contribution. It has really made a great display.
Sadly St Peter’s isn’t able to hold two of our most social events this year – the Church Fete and our Patronal Lunch. But that doesn’t stop us finding a way to celebrate St Peter. And since Peter was a fisherman, a “fishy” theme seems appropriate. We’re going to make an art installation inside the church porch on Sunday 28 June for just one day – from 11:00-16:30. You, family and friends are invited to take part. Make a model fish, not too big and ideally no more than 30cm long in any material – fabric, card, paper or clothes pegs! If your fish is too heavy we won’t be able to catch it in our fishing net, so clay is probably too heavy. Attach a string or ribbon so you can tie your fish to the net. Older children and adults might like to make child-safe fabric fish (no buttons for eyes) which, after a suitable period of quarantine, could be sent to children in need. You might like to be around towards the end of the day to take photographs of the finished installation.
Hand sanitiser will be available. Please practice social distancing and queue patiently if too many people arrive together. For any additional information contact Phillipa Hardman (tel: 01865 513545 or email: Phillipa.hardman@virginmedia.com)
Thanks to Dr Alison McDonald for completing a virtual walk planned for this years midsummer festival. Pixey Mead is a very special flood meadow and this film by Emily Malden shows why. Use the settings on the video (bottom right) to play in the highest resolution your broadband can manage.
This year’s Summer Show is going to be a virtual display of exhibits available online.
No judging* (*except for Class 22! – This is a new children’s class sponsored by Carl at The Post Box.) No prizes – Just a wonderful visual miscellany of the produce of the society’s members and friends everyone can enjoy looking at!
Take a look at the classes you can enter ————–
Classes 1 to 9 are the flower and vegetable categories – send a photograph of any of the following you may have grown or that are growing in your garden
1Rose or roses 2 Summer flowers 3 Sweet peas 4 Herbs 5 Beans 6 Peas 7 Salad potatoes 8 Berries 9 Rhubarb 10 Floral arrangement – send a photograph of a floral arrangement you have created 11 Cake containing a vegetable – send a photograph of a delicious cake you have baked – let us know the vegetable included 12 Eggs – if you keep chickens or ducks send a photograph of their eggs
Classes 13 to 15 are craft categories – send a photograph of any item you have crafted, any willow you may have woven or any flower(s) you have painted
13 Hand crafted object 14 Example of willow weaving 15 Painting of flower or flowers
Classes 16 to 18 are photography classes so that’s easy.
16 Photography – “Keep your distance” 17 Photography – “What I saw on my Boris walk” 18 Photography – “In it together”
CLASSES FOR CHILDREN (photographed and sent):
19 Painting 20 Model 21 A cake 22 Planted cress – as part of a model or picture (judged by Carl at the Post Box) 23 Photography – “Wildlife” 24 Photography – “Funny” 25 Photography – “Rainbow”
ALL ENTRIES FOR THE VIRTUAL SHOW NEED TO BE IN BY MIDNIGHT ON THURSDAY 18TH JUNE 2020
Please email completed entry forms with your images in jpeg form to show secretary: claremwinterbottom@googlemail.com
Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to identify the sixteen numbered locations of these images of bridges and causeways, all of which are accessible on foot via public rights of way or common land in Wolvercote and Wytham. Please observe the current lockdown rules as you explore.
A map can be found here on which you can mark the numbers of the images in the location you have chosen. All the locations can be found on this map
If you would like a further challenge you may answer a question associated with each image, which you can download here.
The locations of the images and the answers to the questions or will be posted on the Festival Website later in the summer.
Good luck and enjoy exploring our villages on foot. Many thanks to Amanda Saville for putting this together on behalf of the Festival Committee.
In his last leading article before retirement as Vicar of St Peter’s and All Saints’ Wytham, Revd Charles Draper reflects on the wildernesses and solitary places which we’re currently inhabiting.
“This is a strange time to be writing my farewell article for the Flying Goose. Our Midsummer Festival cancelled, and with it all our opportunities for farewell services and events at St Peter’s and Wytham, means I shall finish work quietly on Sunday 12th July, at a time when we may, possibly, be just starting to open up our churches again…. If anything is happening at church, Jane and I will certainly want to be there, either at St Peter’s or All Saints’, until we move in mid August. We want every opportunity to see people again before we go – albeit from a distance of 2 metres! The churchwardens have kindly said that they will ask us back for a Farewell Service when restrictions are lifted, so we look forward to that.
It’s a strange time to be leaving – and yet I am glad to have been here through the worst of the coronavirus crisis. It has been like plunging into a wilderness experience. Most of us have been at home during the lockdown, but we are especially aware of those who live by themselves and those who are vulnerable. It has meant our congregations being unable to gather for worship or receive Communion, and adapting to church online, or print-outs through the letterbox for those not online. We have especially focused our thoughts and prayers on those in the thick of it, the NHS staff, care workers and other key workers, and above all, on those who are ill and those sadly bereaved.
There is a lot on the “Wilderness Experience” in the Bible and in Christian tradition. The “Wilderness” is a place of being stripped down and, as it were, brought to our knees. It is often a place of discovery, or encounter. If you are able to respond positively to this, it can become a place of renewal.
For me, the experience of Parkinson’s has been a kind of personal wilderness experience. Dealing with the side effects of Parkinson’s – 2 fatigue, anxiety, and occasional mild depression – has led to new discoveries; not only medication, but vigorous exercise, mindfulness, and what I hadn’t expected – a powerful experience of renewal in my personal faith. I have found that the wilderness really can be a place where new shoots, new life and new growth spring up.
Coronavirus has been a struggle, not only for those who have caught the virus, their families, and those who have cared for them, but also for those who have lost their jobs or their livelihood, those who have had to rely on foodbanks to survive, the homeless, and those for whom lockdown has meant being trapped in abusive relationships. It has been a real wilderness for many.
And yet many of us have found positives emerging from this time: a sense of peace and stillness, with reduced traffic and more time, an appreciation of nature – whether the flowers in our gardens or the sound of birdsong – and for some an experience of the kindness of neighbours or a deeper bonding with others in our household.
Perhaps the greatest positive has been the sharp reduction in pollution and carbon emissions – cleaner air and purer water. Some of us are hoping that we won’t go back quite to where we were before – that through this wilderness time we will have learned to live more simply, to appreciate the good things around us, and to care more both for each other and for our planet Earth. Maybe this wilderness could yet be a time of renewal for us and for our world despite, or even because of, the struggle.
My thanks to you all for your support and encouragement throughout these last five years.
