ALLOTMENT & GARDEN ASSOCIATION
There is plenty to do in the allotments these days. Peas need to be gathered as soon as the pods fill. Plant out winter greens and sow spring brassicas: pick runner and French beans as soon as the are big enough
Thinking about taking on an allotment? We have a few available now so if you’re interested drop in to the allotments on Open Gardens Day on 4th July and have a chat to Derek Worsley; he’ll be pleased to answer your questions!
Flower garden
Sow violas and pansies for next year and a few more wallflowers. Layer the carnations, pinning the branches with twigs then do not let them become too dry. Particular attention must be paid to all pests in the flower garden. To encourage good dahlias, disbug at least a proportion of some of the stems otherwise flower stems will be too short for flower arrangements in the autumn.
Outdoor flowering chrysanthemums make rapid growth in July, often producing too many shoots. Where large flowers are required, reduce the number of shoots to 5 per plant by removing the weaker ones.
Stake gladiola plants individually if you require straight stems; use wire rings or raffia.
Fruit Trees
Growth will be slowing down in July and attention should be given to the fruit. Support heavy cropping trees either by a stake for each branch or by ties from a centre post. Watch out for red spider and codling moth; damage from the latter may be seen then the fruit destroyed.
BROWNIES
The Girls are working hard at their 90th Birthday Challenge Badges; some of them will be attending the Birthday Party at Haverings on June 26th and we will be reporting on this in the next issue of Parish News.
We have a few vacant places now, so if you have a daughter 6½ years old and she would like to join the Brownies, then pop along on a Wednesday evening between 6 and 7.30. On some Wednesdays, weather permitting we shall be out and about, so call Gillian (Brown Owl) on 01582 723109.
Brown Owl
FRIENDSHIP CLUB
By the time this issue of Parish News hits the street, we will have started our summer programme of Days Out with a trip to Eastbourne: we hope the beautiful weather continues!
We have outings, including a Mystery Tour, planned for July and August, so if you want to join in, drop by the Village Hall Thursday afternoons at 2pm for a chat and a cuppa! For the more energetic, our afternoons also include a Bingo Session or two.
SLIP END & DISTRICT ASSOCIATION
A lovely day was had by all who went on the outing to Hunstanton on June 5th. The weather was kind to us with bright sunshine all day. Travel was good and smooth both ways with no delays and we all enjoyed an excellent meal, fish & chips or salad, before contentedly returning to Slip End.
We are grateful to all who support us through the year in raising funds for this annual event and we also thank the Grace Cook trust who also help out financially. This type of outing is just what Grace’s family had in mind when the trust was set up in her late memory some years ago. So we will soon begin fund raising for next year’s trip, so what out for our events and enjoy these sociable gets-together in a good cause.
OUT & ABOUT THE VILLAGE …
Right: Open Garden Day chief and Coronation Gardens Adviser, Valerie Church, gives final instructions to Post Office staff. What out for Anil’s hard sell next time you are in his shop as he’ll be pushing the Open Gardens programmes. Good news is that they are free, so get yours today!
Left: Council Contractors hard at work replacing inadequate plastic bollards in Crawley Close with more substantial wooden ones. Slip End, fast becoming the bollard capital of Bedfordshire, wins no prizes for the state of our verges, where increasingly invasive motor vehicles are scattered willy-nilly by their drivers.
We will be saying goodbye soon to Slip End School head teacher Cori Fisher, right. We wish her well as she to moves to Chantry Primary School in Luton.
CAN YOU HELP?
A Slip End mum has commented about the difficulties of manoeuvring prams and pushchairs around the village. Traffic congestion makes life difficult and dangerous: but cars parked unnecessarily on the pedestrian pavement are often obstructive and add to the problems. Now there is an increasing tendency for wheely bins to be added to this obstacle course on some of the narrowest pavements, not just on emptying day but throughout the week!
Consideration is requested: please ensure that bins are put away promptly after emptying.
ALEY GREEN METHODIST CHURCH
We hope and pray that, however you spend the summer, home or away, you will enjoy the warth of the sun and the longer evenings and that you feel relaxed and refreshed.
On July 5th you are all welcome to join us in church at 7.45pm for our Prayer Meeting. Then we will be marking National Children’s Home Sunday: there will be a Beetle Drive in aid of NCH on 16th at 6pm. Tickets are available from Ann on 733668. Our Family Service will be held on 25th July and this will be followed by coffee and biscuits.
We will be very thin on the ground in August, so there will be just one service that month, on August 15th at the earlier time of 10am. This will be led by Rev Beryl Lucas and will include Holy Communion. We will follow this with the Sunday School Bar-B-Que at 1pm: tickets from Lisa and David Richardson tel 422301.
Looking ahead to September, we will be running a Cake Stall outside Caddington Co-op in aid of the NCH. And on the 19th we will be holding our Harvest Festival.
God bless you this summer and always!
Ann Meader
Spot black
When offering your tube of fruit gums, do you palm the black? I recently found 5 blacks in a row! If the five colours are equally common and distributed randomly, the chance you get five in a row of any one colour is only 1 in 625, and of blacks 1 in 3125. On cracking open three more tubes, I found eight out of 17 blacks in the first, and only one in the next (with 10 greens) and one in the next (with 10 yellows). So no overall favouritism for blacks, but plenty of clustering!
DIARY
If you would like your event put in the Diary please contact the Editor
July
3rd Open Gardens Day 11am – 5pm
10th Slip End Lower School Summer Fayre - from 12 - 3
11th Caddington Village Open Gardens Day
16th Aley Green Methodist Church – Beetle Drive 7pm
September
11th Aley Green Methodist Church – Cake Stall at Caddington Co-op
19th Aley Green Methodist Church – Harvest Festival
October
2nd Dance at the Village Hall
30th Dance at the Village Hall
November
20th Dance at the Village Hall
December
4th Dance at the Village Hall
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