Author: alpington-yelverton-admin

Over the long weekend of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee at the beginning of June, Alpington and Yelverton villagers enjoyed a variety of events to celebrate this unique occasion.

The Jubilee Quiz at the Wheel of Fortune pub was a well attended and fun opening to the events and the following evening’s Wine Tasting held at the Village Hall was both informative and a great social occasion.

The traditional Village Fete on the Saturday afternoon was blessed with good weather and very well attended.  Mr Sam greatly entertained both children and adults with his Punch and Judy and magic shows and Splat the Rat and Bowling for the Pig were a hit too!  

We were also treated to a performance by the Alpington and Bergh Apton Primary School choir.  The Tombola stalls had a successful afternoon raising funds for local groups.  The TWIG refreshments marquee served delicious cakes which were much appreciated.

During the afternoon, Mrs Jenny Purple was presented with a bouquet of flowers in recognition of her being the longest living resident of the Village, having been born in and lived her whole life in Alpington and Yelverton.

Sunday’s Big Picnic had to be moved into the Village Hall due to the inclement weather, but those who attended were treated to a performance of great sing-a-long tunes by Ukulele Group Jelly and the Biscuits.  This culminated in the National Anthem followed by Deputy Lieutenant of Norfolk, Bryony Falkus cutting the magnificent Jubilee Celebration Cake made by Leo Smith.  This delicious cake was then shared out to all who attended.

These celebrations were a success due to the volunteers who planned this over the year, and helped either on the days or beforehand putting up bunting, creating the flyers and banners, erecting the marquee and baking cakes.  

A big thank you to all the volunteers and also local people and businesses who loaned the marquee, straw bales, games, made banners, donated prizes and supported the events.

June was a very dry month so watering probably dominated most of your evenings and the hot weather has continued into July.

Weeding, feeding and dead-heading

Control the weeds on paths and pull out weeds in your flowerbeds.   Increase the feeding of seasonal patio pots and baskets – they will benefit from a weekly feed of liquid tomato fertiliser or liquid feed.

If you dead-head bedding plants, annuals and roses, as this will encourage more flowers to form. If delphiniums and geraniums are cut back after the first flowers they should flower a second time and they will also benefit from an application of Blood, Fish and Bone or a slow-release fertiliser.

Watering

Continuing with your watering routine as required this month. Bedding plants, leafy vegetables, seedlings, new plantings and plants in pots are most prone to drying out. If possible, water your plants early in the morning or in the evening and avoid watering during the hottest part of the day.

Protecting from disease or pests

Some diseases and pests thrive in hot summer conditions, so check susceptible plants – such as roses – for issues such as blackspot, mildew and rust. Treat and spray as required.

Water features

If you have a pond, rake out any overgrown oxygenating plants and algae, topping-up the water levels using rainwater collected in your water-butts if you can.

Mowing

If the weather is hot and dry, try not to mow too often and raise the height of the cutting deck on your mower. Brown patches on lawns in hot spells are inevitable but the lawn will recover quickly, so there’s no need to water. It’s better to use the water for your pots, baskets and flowering borders.

Painting and refreshing

Warm, dry summer weather is perfect for painting wooden sheds, fences, arches and arbours. There are lots of traditional and other vibrant colours on the market to brighten or refresh any wooden structure in your garden. 

Relaxing

Even though there are always lots of things to do in our gardens, hopefully you will be able to relax for some of the time and enjoy your Summer garden with your family and friends.

As part of our Village Festival there was a Village Trail for people to follow.

Here are the answers to the questions on the Trail going from the top at Yelverton Village Pond to the bottom at the Wheel of Fortune, Alpington and then the photo clues on the reverse of the sheet.

And heres the trail sheet in case you missed it and want to give it a go before you read the answers!

The Answers

Yelverton Village Pond- What is commemorated here?  Answer:  the friendship of Derek & Joyce Stansby on the plaque on the bench.

Junction of Dranes Lane and Back Road – Why do the villagers want sunny weather?  Answer: Each year the Village Community Benefit Fund receives a payment from the solar farm based on the solar energy generated.

Garrick Field- When was the Garrick Oak planted?  Answer: 26 November 2002 .  

When was Yelverton Football Club founded?  Answer: 1947

St Mary’s Church- Whose names are on the Commonwealth War Graves?  Answer:  Private W J Burrows ( the only one visible)

Village Hall – What is commemorated here?  Answer: The community’s resilience in the year of the Pandemic 2020/21 on the blue plaque beneath the Village Hall sign.

Wheel Road – Does living here ensure good luck?! Answer: Maybe! as the street sign is for Fortune Green.

The Wheel of Fortune- How many wheels can you spot on the outside of the pub?  Answer:  there’s two easily seen outside , one on the Pub Sign and one fixed on the garage wall but if you venture into the covered courtyard you will find another one fixed to the outer wall of the pub.

Wheel Road- How many houses are there with Cherry in their names?  Answer:  There are two cottages next to each other, Cherry Tree Cottage with a visible name and well done if you knew that next door is Cherry Cottage.  Also well done if you spotted Cherry House on Wheel Road.

Photo clues

Feathered friends:  weathervane on top of Jarquin, Wheel Road;  Quackers on Church Road, Yelverton; the duck house on Yelverton Pond; Two Hoots on Dranes Lane.

Animal friends:  Yelverton Village Sign at junction of Church Road and Framingham Earl Road featuring a horse and a donkey; horses in the stables on Dranes Lane; alpacas in the field off Back Road 

Architectural details:  the bell cote at Alpington & Bergh Apton Primary School; gable end of Pond Farm, Dranes Lane; 1966 in brick on bungalow at Alberta Piece, Alpington; date sign on 1 Church Road, Yelverton.

ROCKLAND ST MARY AND DISTRICT GARDENING CLUB

ANNUAL FLOWER AND VEGETABLE SHOW

To be held in the Parish Room

On Saturday July 16^th 2022

All CLASSES ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

A charge of 20p per exhibit entry will be made

Entries will be accepted 9.30 am. – 10.45am

OPEN TO PUBLIC VIEWING 12.30 PM – 3PM

Schedule can be found in the attached flyer below:

Following the Jubilee weekend in June the Parish Council would like to make a record of the events. If you have any photos and are happy to share them please send them to the clerk at the following address at clerk.alpington@gmail.com

Or even just mention to that address that you’d be interested in contributing some. There’s no need to actually send the photos at this point, the Parish Council is investigating how much interest there would be, and what the total file size would be etc.

Our generation has enjoyed looking back at the photos from the previous jubilees, including fetes and street parties etc. So the idea here is to create a collection centrally of interesting pictures of the village events, that future generations can look back on and enjoy.

After the recent welcome rain, our gardens are leaping into Summer growth. We can now start to enjoy our gardens while keeping up with any weeding, watering and feeding.

Lawns

Continue to mow as needed, cutting the grass a little higher in hot dry weather.

Mulching

If your borders are in full sun and dry out quickly, consider applying a mulch of compost or bark on top of the soil between the plants to reduce water evaporation.

Feeding

Feed container plants, bedding plants and veggies. Liquid-feed tubs and baskets every fortnight if you haven’t already applied some controlled-release fertiliser.

Bulbs

Lift Spring bulbs when their leaves have turned yellow. Put them indoors in a shallow box to dry then remove the dried leaves and store them in a cool dry shed for Autumn planting.

Greenhouses

Water the greenhouse to dampen it down in hot weather and ensure you have sufficient shading on the glass to prevent your plants from becoming scorched. Spray cucumbers with water to maintain the humid atmosphere which they prefer.  Feed tomatoes, peppers & other greenhouse crops with a high-potash feed such as Tomorite as per the instructions on the bottle.

Harvesting

June is also the time for harvesting early crops – Strawberries, salads, spring onions and radishes you sowed or planted earlier in the year. You may also have the first onions – they are ready when the leaves turn yellow. 

Bring indoor plants outside for the Summer

Move any Summer-flowering house plants into the garden. They will brighten any patio area and benefit from the extra light.  

Relaxing and celebrating

On warm summer days,  try to take some time to relax in your garden and enjoy the garden you have worked so hard to create. 

Hopefully the weather will be kind for our Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations and we will all be able to enjoy and share our outdoor spaces over the Jubilee weekend. (Editor’s note, as I’m posting this late: it could have been kinder, right? But could have been worse!!)

TUESDAYS 6PM AT
ALPINGTON VILLAGE HALL

More info @ rebornfit@hotmail.com

TEL: 07521440431

We had some fantastic cakes entering our Victoria Sponge Baking Competition at the Village Fete held on Saturday 4th June, as you can see from the picture below!

After a rigorous judging process the results were as follows:

Adult competition:- 1st place  Sophie Hardesty; 2nd place  Bernard Pitt; 3rd place  Trisha Howlett

Junior competition:-  1st place  Amy Goodyear; 2nd place and an exceptional bake  Rosie Freeman 

Congratulations to the winners and well done to all who entered.

Just a reminder that the Flower Festival at St. Mary’s Church, Yelverton, is now on until the 11th June. 10am – 3pm.

We’ve previously posted about this here, but that post really did not do it justice! It’s not just flowers! The church is absolutely packed with displays. Check out the photos.

We popped along at the weekend and it was really busy, loads of people inside, chatting on the pews and walking around. There were refreshments available to eat and drink. A very welcoming atmosphere. And the displays were really interesting.

There’s old games and things from various decades that you’ll recognise, and it was good fun looking at the old books and photos. I personally remember in particular a sheet of facts about what was going on in the 70s which puts today’s situation into context! Hope you can make it for a bit at some point before all this hard work needs to be packed away.

GARRICK FIELD ACTIVITIES CANCELLED 10-12 tomorrow (5th June). But big picnic 12-2 is still going ahead, in the village hall.

The weather is not going to be kind so begrudgingly we feel it will be best to cancel the activities at the Garrick tomorrow morning (5th June) 😔

Hoping to re-schedule around the time of the Commonwealth Games 🙂

The big picnic activities will still be going ahead, at 12, inside the village hall.