AUGUST UPDATE

Dear St. Michaels,

Firstly, we have welcomed many newcomers to our village this year. It’s amazing how many of you have moved in and are now enjoying getting straight and growing into our community! Hurray and welcome! (Please let us know if you haven’t received a welcome pack?)

Summer, (says she enjoying a sea view in North Wales through the latest heavy rain cloud burst)’ has been quiet in our village. We have been taking a short break, but been busy refurbishing the kitchen and a few other maintenance jobs while giving the committee a petit vacance!


However we did entertain the Tenbury twinning group last weekend from Pont du Casse. After a weekend of activities and hosting we ended up in the village hall for a lovely meal and soiree with over 70 very jolly French and English friends. We hope to see them in 2025 and renew friendships.

Coffee mornings continue to flourish, we welcome you all on 3rd Friday of the month, this week will be 18th August. You will be welcomed with delicious cakes and now proper coffee from our new machine.


Our weekly activities continue with a few new ones, do feel free to try them out and tell others!

Monday; Art class 10.30-12.30am
              Creative writing/poetry is starting on 11th sept,2.30-4.30pm (fortnightly)
              Tai Chi 5.30-6.30pm


Tuesday; Total fitness 9.45-10.45am
                Village singers 7.30-9.30pm

Wednesday: Mums and Tots 9.30-11.30am
                       Scottish dancing7.30-9.30pm
 
Thursday: Zumba 10.00-11.00am
                 Chair based exercise 3.15-4.00pm(fortnightly starting 14th Sept)
                 Gentle Pilates 4.30-5.30pm (fortnightly starting 14th sept)


Our monthly activities continue;

                  Floral Arts:  2.00-4.00pm (3rd Wed in month)

                  Gardeners group:  7.30-9.30pm(2nd Wed in the month)

                   Women Institute: 2.00-4.30 (1st Thurs in the month)

                   Readers group: (3rd Mon in the month)

Dates for your diary!


QUIZ NIGHT—Friday 15th September 7.30pm, Tables of 4/5. £5 a head to include light refreshments.
Please let committee members know asap

VARIETY NIGHT—Saturday 21st October 7.30pm Tickets £8 from committee members
A wide variety of acts! Some local and some a distance, all brilliant and guaranteed to give you an excellent night!

CEILIDH—Saturday 18thNovember      

Please let us know if you are requiring any help with activities and dates, we hope there is plenty for all! Meanwhile I’ m putting on my sou’wester and going on the beach to finish summer!
Take care and thankyou for your continued support.

Ros and Village Hall Committee

Open Gardens

St. Michael’s Village Hall held their third very successful Open Gardens event on 3rd and 4th June and would like to thank everyone who was involved in opening their gardens as well as the many helpers who made it possible. Most importantly, thank-you to the many lovely visitors who made their way to visit on Saturday and Sunday, quite a few, both days!

In 2019 when we tugged with the idea of the wonderful “village fete” again, and realised we weren’t getting any younger and needed a change from lugging chairs and tables, other people’s white elephant stuff, gazebos and umbrellas that blew away to a venue or garden. So, we put on our first Open Gardens and to our delight it was successful, enjoyable, and profitable, which helped with our refurbishment project.


In 2021 we were keen to repeat the open gardens event, especially as people needed their spirits lifting. What better than to come out visit gardens. During the long months of the pandemic it was safer outside and believe it or not people came and gardens were the tonic we could provide! How fortunate we are to live and thrive here!


So here we were again for a third go.

Each time, different gardens have opened, with a unique flavour in each. Plenty of like-minded people come and visit and share their love of gardens and gardening.
We wish to convey our thanks to all involved in making this weekend so successful. The beautiful sunshine while visiting 18 gardens, including our newly refurbished pond area, was the icing on the cake. Your enthusiasm does not wane, your gardens are all so different and amazing; depicting those who live there!
It amazes me that if you are really tired, to go in the garden for an hour seems to have some therapeutic calming and restores energy.
Gardens galore!! Different and new attractions and a chance for people to renew energy and friendships; a chance to talk to people and make connections.

Thankyou to all of you who helped in some way, opening your gardens, help with parking, catering, selling tickets, and raffle tickets, providing delicious cakes and scones, providing excellent plants for sale as well as being there with lovely smiling welcoming faces!

We are fortunate to have an exceptional village hall committee (the latter word meaning committed!) but there are others who have given such time and effort in making this such a grand weekend. The after supper was welcomed by all involved and such a buzz was apparent from discussions and stories of the two days events!
The fete will no doubt come round again, or something new? Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Well done and thank-you.


RP

May Update

Dedication of the pond
Skittles

Thank-you to you all for coming along to enjoy another great skittles night on 22nd April. Everyone who attended enjoyed a few goes and then the chance to win killer. Vernon undoubtedly is king of killer! With Danny a close second!
Many thanks to all who helped and organised the night; to Vernon and his team for erecting the alley, Mary and hers for scoring and Di and her team for providing lovely bangers and mash half way through. A great night all round!
If you wish to book or hire this marvellous alley for your private party or a fundraising event please get in touch with Vernon  or any committee member.

Coronation weekend

Service around the pond
One of the areas that our new King Charles III has a special interest in is the green canopy of England! Therefore we have taken this coronation year to focus on our own millennium pond area, and develop this area of natural beauty.
In the past two years we have received help and interest from Natural Networks, Malvern Hills who have visited and suggested ways  to enhance the pond area, including the flora, fauna and wilding. From their advice we then engaged Biosphere Organics, a local team, to clear much of the pond and the surrounding. They also installed bat boxes, bird boxes and bee posts, together with an information board.
Each year we hope to maintain approx 25% of the pond area within a rolling programme in order to keep this area a significant area of beauty for passing walkers, cyclists and of course the local wildlife!

During the service we dedicated the pond area:
“This is for all with the special occasion of this coronation of Our King,we hope you will enjoy this area— and in doing so we dedicate this blessed area to our community for enjoyment and memories to be nurtured!
 GOD SAVE OUR KING!!”
 Thank-you all for coming along.

Coronation Tea
A glorious tea was held on Sunday 7th May to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III. 80 lovely people sat down to tea dressed in red, white and blue, they all looked lovely and the smiles and laughter went well with the surroundings. Sandwiches, cakes, scones, jam and cream were abundant, all prepared by volunteers and served and prepared by the village affairs group. We listened to our King’s playlist and watched wonderful slides of the coronation, enjoyed a raffle and learned a bit more about Charles and Camilla in a quiz.

King Charles especially wanted people from all walks of life and volunteers at his coronation. Some of us are fortunate to have remembered the Queen’s coronation 70 years ago! Have our values of life changed much? People are the most important feature and therefore each and everyone of us is valued.We are all volunteers of some sort and help make communities survive and thrive.
Therefore the tea on Sunday was held for friends and community, to gather together in celebration of our King and celebrate his coronation.
Secondly the tea was to raise funds in order to keep a rolling programme of maintenance for our wildlife pond area for the future to enjoy.Thank-you for your support.

Future events

OPEN GARDENS—3rd and 4th June—12 till 5pm

We look forward to welcoming you to st Michael’s Open Gardens, parking, teas and lots of interesting gardens to visit.

Midsummer Madness supper /dance—8th July,

Thankyou for your continued support!
Ros Plested

Live and Local – Friday March 31st 2023

Ashley Hutchings, with Becky Mills and Blair Dunlop

St Michaels Village Hall was fully booked for this much anticipated Live and Local production, with Ashley Hutchings, one of the best-known performers on the British folk music scene. On this occasion, he was accompanied by Becky Mills, a fine singer songwriter in her own right, and also by Ashley’s very talented son, Blair Dunlop.

The first half of the evening started with a song each, by Blair and Becky, showcasing not only their own writing and performance skills, but also just how varied and entertaining “folk music” can be. The rest of the first half consisted of excerpts from Ashley Hutching’s double album of prose and music “Paradise and Thorns”. As you may guess from the title, the songs and words were written to display the many forms which love can take – the joys, heartaches, the anticipation and excitement, and sadly, sometimes the pain of lost love. Ashley told the audience that much of this album was written directly from his own experiences. This probably explained why his song lyrics about early sixties dance floors brought back so many memories to the audience!

The second half contained more great music, some individually from Blair and Becky and also from the three combining to entertain with a wide range of styles. Ashley has played with Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and the Albion Band and we were treated to an evening of high-quality folk music and thought provoking and entertaining prose.

It is a tribute to the Live and Local organisers, that this format so often manages to attract top quality performers in so many varied forms – music, theatre, comedy etc. Once again, here in St Michaels we were treated in our own back yard to an evening of first-rate entertainment.