Hadlow Down Book Club’s August Reviews

Rebecca Stott’s “In the Days of Rain: a Daughter, a Father, a Cult”
&
Tara Westover’s ‘Educated’
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Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate said the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you: 2 Corinthians 6.17.

It seems that Jackie Kaye’s book gave us a taste for literary memoir so this month we chose Rebecca Stott’s “In the Days of Rain: a Daughter, a Father, a Cult” (2017) winner of the Costa Biography Award 2017, and also, as a comparison, Tara Westover’s “Educated”. It proved to be an interesting comparison, Stott’s book is an account of growing up in and breaking away from the Exclusive Plymouth Brethren, a deeply repressive fundamentalist Sect/ Cult , and Westover’s is also about growing up and breaking away but from an abusive survivalist Mormon family.
Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club’s August Reviews”

The Annual Show, Saturday 6th August 2022

The Horticultural Society are pleased to announce the schedule for this year’s Annual Show. All villagers are welcome to enter, there are lots of categories choose from. Here are all the details you will need to take part.

  1. Entry forms and fees to be handed in BEFORE Thursday 6pm 4th August 2022
  2. All fruits, flowers and vegetables, except decorative classes must have been grown in the exhibitor’s own ground.
  3. Only one exhibit per class may be entered by any one exhibitor.
  4. Exhibitors shall, on request, allow members of the Show Committee to visit the place where their exhibits were grown.
  5. All varieties of vegetables, fruit and flowers should be named if possible.
  6. Staging to be carried out between 8.30am and 10.00am on the Show Morning. Judges start Judging at 10.00am
  7. Any exhibit not according to schedule shall be disqualified.
  8. The Society does not accept responsibility for any loss or damage to any exhibit.
  9. PRIZE GIVING 3.30pm. NO EXHIBITS TO BE REMOVED BEFORE 4pm.

ALL CUPS AND TROPHIES MUST BE RETURNED TO ANY MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE BY 4 July 2022

Kathy Cracknell 830616, Penny Eliot 830006, Barbara Ball, Carol Franks, Janet Tourell, Roberta Smythe.

ENTRIES FORMS MUST BE HANDED TO A COMMITTEE MEMBER BY THURSDAY 6pm 4 August EVENING OR THEY WILL BE TREATED AS LATE ENTRIES.

 

SECTION 1 – Vegetables                                         Please see Rule 2   

  1. A garden trug of mixed vegetables (excluding herbs) to be judged on contents, quality and general presentation. Maximum length of trug 51cm.
  2. Four potatoes – one variety – White
  3. Four potatoes – one variety – coloured
  4. Three onions
  5. Three red onions
  6. Four shallots – pickling or large
  7. Three bulbs garlic
  8. Four carrots – one variety
  9. Six runner beans
  10. Six French beans
  11. Three leaves, spinach, kale or chard
  12. Two heads lettuce
  13. Six cherry type tomatoes (or small plum)
  14. Four standard tomatoes
  15. Four tomatoes of different varieties.
  16. Three beetroots
  17. Three courgettes not over 16cm
  18. Two cucumbers
  19. A misshapen vegetable
  20. Two of any vegetable not covered in schedule
  21. Five culinary herbs, named – one stem of each only – small pots provided.

STORMONT CHALLENGE TROPHY CLASS 1
ROWLAND GORRINGE CUP FOR HIGHEST POINTS IN CLASSES 2 – 21

SECTION 2 – Fruit                                                   Please see Rule 2

  1. Ten blueberries
  2. Ten soft fruit
  3. Any other fruit (one)

EWART CHALLENGE CUP FOR HIGHEST TOTAL POINTS CLASSES 30-32

SECTION 3 – Flowers                                              Please see Rule 2

(Vases provided in classes 40 -49)

  1. Single rose – one specimen bloom
  2. Cluster-flowered rose – one stem
  3. Flowering shrub – three stems, one variety excluding hydrangeas
  4. Five sweet peas – one or more varieties
  5. Three stems dahlias – one or more varieties
  6. Vase of herbaceous perennials one or more varieties, four stems only
  7. Vase of annuals – one or more varieties, four stems only
  8. Lilies- one stem
  9. One Spike e.g. delphinium, gladioli, hollyhock etc
  10. Fuchsias – two stems, one variety
  11. Three heads hydrangeas – lace cap type. Please bring your own container
  12. Three heads hydrangeas – mop head type. Please bring your own container
  13. Three heads hydrangeas – Paniculata. Please bring your own container
  14. INDOOR flowering pot plant; pot not more than 21cm. See rule 2.

ROPNER ROSE BOWL FOR BEST ROSE CLASSES 40-41
HARRISON CHALLENGE CUP HIGHEST TOTAL POINTS CLASSES 40-52

SECTION 4 – Domestic Classes

PLEASE PLACE ON YOUR OWN PLATE, WE WILL SUPPLY A COVER.

  1. 59. Four fresh eggs in any container
  2. A loaf of bread.
  3. My favourite chocolate cake.
  4. A Vegetable flan
  5. 5 Savoury biscuits
  6. An Individual pudding
  7. Jar of marmalade
  8. Jar of relish
  9. Jar of jam
  10. Small jar of jelly – fruit or herb
  11. A small bottle of spiced Rum
  12. 3 Fairy Cakes Men only

SLEE MEMORIAL CUP FOR HIGHEST TOTAL POINTS IN CLASSES 60-69
BARBARA BALL CUP FOR THE BEST ENTRY IN CLASS 70

Advanced Warning. In 2023 a small bottle of Sloe Gin

SECTION 5 – Flower arranging.

  1. “BONFIRE” up to 30cm
  2. An Arrangement in a Tea Cup.

POLLOCK MEMORIAL CUP FOR BEST EXHIBIT CLASSES 80-81

SECTION 6 – Craft

  1. A bag made with Ties
  2. A homemade gift made for no more than £2.50. (Please give costings.)
  3. A homemade key fob
  4. A small animal made from felting technique. Up to 15cm
  5. “I made this during Lockdown”
  6. Article in wood, ceramic or metal

HADLOW DOWN FOR CUP THE BEST EXHIBIT IN CLASSES 90-95

SECTION 7 – Art, Photography and Poetry

(Items not previously exhibited at this show)

  1. A portrait in any medium. (Art)
  2. A landscape in any medium (Art)
  3. A still life in any medium (Art)
  4. Photograph – “Village Wild Life”
  5. Photograph – “Picnic”
  6. Photograph – “I spy something beginning with O”

All photographs to be unmounted, unframed and no larger than 13×18 cm

  1. “When We Were Young” (A4 paper, name on back)
  2. An Adult Nursery Rhyme. (A4 paper, name on back)

VICE-PRESIDENT’S TROPHY FOR THE BEST EXHIBIT IN 100-102
ANNIVERSARY CUP FOR BEST EXHIBIT 103-105
STOCKLAND CUP FOR POETRY CLASS 107-108

HINTS FOR  EXHIBITORS

Potatoes:                Tubers should be washed with a sponge.

Onions & Shallots:  Do not over-skin. Tops should be tied and roots trimmed.

Beet & Carrots:      Tops cut off leaving approx 3”of leaf stalks, which should be neatly tied.

Cabbage:                3” of stalk remaining.

Beans:                    Cut from vine with scissors with some stalk attached.

Courgette:              Do not cut main fruit to conform to size requirement.

Lettuce:                  Roots should be washed and wrapped in moist tissue, inserted into a plastic bag and neatly tied.

Tomatoes:              Aim for uniform set of fruits with small eye and firm fresh calyx.

Cucumbers:           Should be well matched, with a well developed stalk end.

Garlic:                    Leave 1” of dried stem.  Stage bulbs as complete specimens.

Soft Fruit:              Should be exhibited with stalks

Preserves:              Fully-dated label on lower half of jar. Jars to be full, with screw tops.

Ken Mine’s ‘Garden Jobs’ – July to September

JULY
Flowers
Autumn-flowering bulbs, such as autumn crocuses, ColchicumSternbergiaAmaryllis and Nerine, can be planted now.
Divide spring-flowering plants such as Irises now or during the next two months.Take cuttings of patio and container plants ready for next year. Last chance to sow biennials for next year – Sweet William, Wallflowers and Foxgloves.
Pinks and carnations that have become leggy can be propagated by layering or by cuttings. Propagation can improve the appearance of untidy clumps.
Prop up tall perennials such as lupins, delphiniums and gladioli if staking was neglected earlier in the season.
Liquid feed containerised plants and keep well-watered in dry spells.
Some late-flowering border perennials may benefit from a quick-acting feed before they come into bloom, especially if the soil is not very fertile.
Agapanthus thrive in sunny spots and free-draining soil where they won’t be overshadowed by taller plants.
Start collecting seed from plants you want to grow next year, especially annuals such as Calendula, poppies and love-in-a-mist.
Inspect lilies for the scarlet lily beetle whose larvae can strip plants in days. Pick off any you spot by hand.
In dry weather a silvery white coating may appear on the leaves of plants such as clematis, roses and Lonicera, caused by the fungus powdery mildew. Although it’s unsightly, it’s not usually harmful to plants.
Continue reading “Ken Mine’s ‘Garden Jobs’ – July to September”

Hadlow Down Book Club Review for July 2022

What makes us who we are’

It is rare that everyone really loves a chosen book, but this month we were unanimous in our enjoyment of the Scottish Poet Laureate, Jackie Kaye’s memoir Red Dust Road (2010). Jackie’s birth father was Nigerian, and her mother came from the Highlands of Scotland, but she was the adoptive daughter of Helen and John Kaye, leading figures of the Scottish Communist Party. They gave her a warm loving upbringing but when Jackie herself became pregnant the found the need to find her birth parents became overwhelming. Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review for July 2022”

The Rude Mechanicals – Gods and Dogs

Gods and Dogs, Hadlow Down Cricket Field, Thursday 16th June at 7.30pm

This new comic dystopian allegory is set in 2084 on the fictitious island of Abatina in a world where people are either glamorous celebrities or slobbering dog-like followers of them gripped to their telepafones – with the exception of the Nevnops (Not Very Nice People) as the President, Big Al, calls them. The story follows Tina who enters ‘Marriage Maker’, a ‘telepavision’ gameshow. The idea of the game is if you win you get to marry the super-glamorous footballer, Harry Best, on the Saturday, have a weekend of love, then divorce him on the Monday. ‘All the fun & no ties!’ as the compere, Rich Nobb, puts it. Unfortunately, Tina makes the mistake of falling in love when she wins & doesn’t want to divorce. Doreen, her best friend, has her own opinion, but then she might be a Nevnop & the Mind Police might get to her first & send her to the wolves on the ‘Other Side’ – a dangerous world over ‘the mountain’ where the inhabitants of Abatina, according to Big Al, must not go, with dangerous free-thinkers & wolves that might get them.
Booking details etc.
https://www.therudemechanicaltheatre.co.uk/book-tickets/

Driftwood Gardens Visit

Those wanting to join the Hadlow Down Horticultural Society car trip to the remarkable Driftwood Gardens on Thursday 16th. June need to let Heather Mines know by Saturday 11th.
May be an image of flower, tree and outdoors
The inclusive price for entrance and reputedly excellent refreshments is £11.50. Please contact Heather at heathermines2@hotmail.com or on 07974204231 to confirm.
All meet at the gardens located at 4, Marine Drive Seaford BN25 2RS at 10.30 am.
An article about the gardens from BBC Gardeners World Magazine can be viewed at
http://www.geoffstonebanks.co.uk/media/gwmay2021.pdf

Hadlow Down Book Club Review – June 2022

I live my life in widening circles/ that reach out across the world’ Rilke

Our book this month was one of the Mann Booker short-listed books, Great Circle (2021), by Maggie Shipstead, also short-listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022. Referred to as ‘a ride of a book’, it was at times exhilarating although the book club’s members sometimes found it to be a rather bumpy ride. It was an ambitious novel on a grand scale, spanning a full century and the entire planet. Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review – June 2022”

Move Some Chairs and Make Someone’s Day!

The Hadlow Down community has a long established reputation for friendliness and geniality.  Although there are always opportunities to  be involved in different ways with various village projects and activities a current opportunity is available to join the group of great people who believe that being a real ‘villager’ is more than just having an address in the area and want to be a part of the village proper by just giving a small amount of time each week to be involved in the reputation.
The TN22 Club is a charitable organisation providing meals and entertainment for older members of the community on Wednesdays in the Village Hall.  An able-bodied person (or persons) is needed to help set out the chairs and tables which usually takes less than one hour in the mornings at 8.30 am. and to put them away again at 2pm or 4pm (alternating weeks) that takes about 30 minutes.
It’s a great way of meeting others who give something to the village of which they are part.   Just turn up at 8.30 am on a Wednesday to get involved