Voice
of the Villages
Blog Pages
The articles featuring here either concern issues currently making the news, or which reflect the personal interests of contributors. If you would like to make a contribution, just let me know. It doesn’t have to be long, or illustrated – just interesting!
Just click anywhere in the boxes below to read that blog.
From the organ seat
Wendy Green
August 28, 2024
I have many tales from the organ seat – I started learning the organ at the age of 17. However never having had a piano lesson I tried to adapt my ability to play by ear to expand to organ stops, manuals and of course pedals.
Our electoral system
David Wray
July 30th, 2024
Wherever you stand personally in your political views, a general election is always a fairly significant event. Even though I, like many people, I’m sure, stayed up until the small hours watching the results come in for General Election 2024, there does seem to be a growing feeling in the country that the way we run our elections is not the best possible way. What is wrong with our electoral system?
Kew Gardens
Wendy Green
June 30th, 2024
In early August 2007 my sister Margaret and I joined the Offchurch Gardening Club for a day trip to KEW GARDENS! We joined the coach in Radford Semele before 9 o’clock – Very Very excited.
Margaret's special 70th birthday treat
Wendy Green
July 20th, 2024
With suppressed excitement we set off for a weekend in April 2014 for Margaret’s 70th Birthday Surprise.
My sister, expecting a long journey, relaxed and nodded off. When I stopped the car she opened her eyes ……. we had only gone down the road a few miles to the Red House Farm near Lighthorne.
Isaac Asimov and Thiotimoline
David Wray
May 26th, 2024
In 1948 Isaac Asimov was 28 years old and already one of the world’s leading writers of science fiction (SF). At that time he also published a spoof research paper, “The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline”, written in the meticulous, impersonal style of the scientific journals of the time (or of today, for that matter). Asimov submitted the piece to his favourite SF magazine, Astounding Science Fiction.
A war story
Wendy Green
May 20th, 2024
I was ‘thought of’ in Folkestone and born in Leamington Spa in 1940 (work it out!)
In Folkestone Daddy was a skilled cabinet maker, and was told he was needed to help build aeroplanes for the war effort in Coventry; he really wanted to join The Royal Navy but they didn’t give him the choice. So in June 1940 the family moved to 110 Radford Road, Leamington Spa to the house where I have now lived for 83 years!
Hal-an-Tow
David Wray
April 28th, 2024
Hal-an-tow, jolly rumbalow
We were up long before the day-O
To welcome in the summer
To welcome in the May-O
The summer is a-coming in
And winter’s gone away-O
If you’ve ever visited Helston in Cornwall on the day of their May Day celebrations, you will have heard this song being sung in the streets (before the famous Floral Dance at midday.)
Maria Sybylla Merian
Warwick and Leamington Beekeepers
March 26th, 2024
Asian hornets are an invasive, voracious predator of our pollinator insects including Honey Bees. Accidentally introduced into France in 2004, they have since spread Eastwards to Italy, South to Spain and Portugal and North to Germany Switzerland, Belgium, Holland and now, to the UK.
Secondary school rules?
Wendy Green
March 20th, 2024
One of my earliest Easter memories as a family (in 1946?) is climbing up to the top of Newbold Comyn Hill come rain or shine (baby Margaret in a pushchair) to attend the Easter Sunrise Service on Easter Morning at 6 o’clock! A large cross, decorated with fresh flowers, had been fixed to the Beacon, which was not alight I hasten to add!
April Fools' Day
David Wray
March 26th, 2024
The exact origins of April Fools’ Day are uncertain, and there are several theories about how the tradition began. One popular belief is that it dates back to 16th-century France when the country switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, changing the date of New Year.
The Asian Hornet Threat
Warwick and Leamington Beekeepers
March 26th, 2024
Asian hornets are an invasive, voracious predator of our pollinator insects including Honey Bees. Accidentally introduced into France in 2004, they have since spread Eastwards to Italy, South to Spain and Portugal and North to Germany Switzerland, Belgium, Holland and now, to the UK.
Easter Memories
Wendy Green
March 20th, 2024
One of my earliest Easter memories as a family (in 1946?) is climbing up to the top of Newbold Comyn Hill come rain or shine (baby Margaret in a pushchair) to attend the Easter Sunrise Service on Easter Morning at 6 o’clock! A large cross, decorated with fresh flowers, had been fixed to the Beacon, which was not alight I hasten to add!
The Ploughing Dilemma
Guy Singh-Watson
February 28th, 2024
Like many of you, I’m sure, I have my vegetables delivered every week by a company called Riverford (and wonderful they are too!). The head of this company, Guy Singh-Watson, always writes a newsletter about farming issues, and includes it in the vegetable box. This month’s really intrigued me. It’s about ploughing.
Happiness and success
David Wray
February 26th, 2024
Why are some people more successful than others? Talent, hard work, ambition, discipline or luck? That’s certainly not wrong. However, it seems that there may be another interesting cause of success. Happiness and success are directly related – but probably not in the way you might expect. Put simply: you don’t have to be successful to be happy, you have to be happy to be successful.
Silver Jubilee 1977
Wendy Green
February 20th, 2024
It was about the middle of March 1977, chatting to neighbours, that we came up with the idea of having a Silver Jubilee Street Party for the Queen here in the Radford Road. We formed a Committee – and I said I’d see to the music! We set about having a weekly meeting which turned out to be the highlight of the week, a lot of fun and laughter, trying out various Punches, with someone’s delicious homemade cakes or cookies. Not mine, I just don’t feature in the kitchen!
Valentines Day
David Wray
January 20th, 2024
Valentine’s Day, celebrated on February 14th each year, has its origins in both ancient and medieval times. It has evolved over centuries into the widely recognized celebration of love that we know today.
Wintry Tales
Wendy Green
January 23rd, 2024
Back in the mid-70s I had a colourful very long Doctor Who scarf, and as I rushed out to go to work one morning, I slammed the front door with the end of my scarf still inside. I nearly strangled myself trying to reach my keys to release me from my front door, then drove to work laughing!
In the winter we would put a ground sheet over my car to keep it from freezing up, using a heavy garden fork to hold it in place. One morning, having hurriedly pulled the ground sheet off, I drove to the office. When I got there a smiling colleague came out to meet me and I thought how kind ……. then she asked me why I had a garden fork on the bonnet of my car – I think I pulled it off like a Magician with a tablecloth at a children’s party!
Eathorpe Christmas Lights
David Wray
January 20th, 2024
We have lived in Eathorpe for 25 years now and, as in all communities, we have seen several changes – new houses, new people, a brand new village hall and so on. But Eathorpe Christmas Lights have always been part of our experience of this village at Christmas. And the experience of lots of other people too, it seems. Village residents this year put up their lights around December 9th and they were lighting up the December sky until just after News Year’s Day.
New Year celebrations around the world
David Wray
December 20th, 2023
The marking of a New Year is an age-old tradition around the world — common features of the celebrations are food, fireworks and reflection with friends and family. The forms and dates of these celebrations vary between different calendars, religions and cultures of course.
Leamington Spa Illuminations 1952/3
Wendy Green
December 24th, 2023
Brian and I went into the town on a very cold night in January last year, a little late, to see The Christmas Lights in the town – really beautiful. This reminded me of the JEPHSON GARDENS ILLUMINATIONS back in 1952/53. They were spectacular – almost every flower bed and statue, tree and fence was adorned with thousands of coloured bulbs depicting famous legends, pictures and stories – they were amazing!
Brits spend nearly 4 hours online every day
David Wray
December 28th, 2023
It appears that UK adults spent an average of 3 hours 41 minutes a day online in May 2023, eight minutes longer than a year earlier. This amounts to 56 days a year online – two more than in May 2022.
The figures come from Ofcom’s Online Nation 2023 study, which analysed the behaviour of over 14,000 internet users aged between 13 and 84 during May.
Telling the bees
David Wray
November 25th, 2023
There was a time when almost every rural British family who kept bees followed a strange tradition. Whenever there was a death in the family, someone had to go out to the hives and tell the bees of the terrible loss that had befallen the family.
Christmas Carols by Candlelight!!
Wendy Green
November 25th, 2023
As an Organist I was often asked to play for Brownies Christmas Carol Services in a village church nearby, so one year i arrived in plenty of time and found the Church in darkness. I waited a while in the car, getting colder every minute – then realized this was the wrong church in the wrong village!
Superfoods
David Wray
November 25th, 2023
For those of us wanting to improve our health, the idea of a ‘superfood’ as a one-stop shop for nutrition can be pretty appealing. But are ‘superfoods’ really the miracle-workers some claim them to be? Do superfoods really exist?
Women and the Marathon
David Wray (from a BBC article)
October 25th, 2023
In 1966, a young woman named Roberta (Bobbi) Gibb applied for an official place in the Boston Marathon. Her application was refused but a derogatory comment made her determined that she WOULD run the Boston Marathon whether they would let her or not.
Family Hospitality
Wendy Green
October 25th, 2023
My 2 sisters & I were 4,8 and 11, just after the War, when Mum & Dad decided to invite a Jewish refugee from Czechoslovakia to share our home – she was called Margarita Hamerstein – Auntie Hamer to us children.
Bonfire Night and Hallowe'en
David Wray
October 25th, 2023
Hallowe’en is celebrated each year on October 31, but the heavily-American influenced version we have nowadays disguises the much older tradition underpinning Hallowe’en – and other celebrations linked to it.
Happiness Hormones
David Wray
September 24th, 2023
Science tells us that it’s not your heart that controls your happiness. It’s your brain. Almost everything that makes you feel “happy” is linked to one of the four happiness hormones: dopamine, serotonin, endorphin and oxytocin.
What's in a name?
Wendy Green
September 24th, 2023
I am the middle of 3 sisters, Julie, Wendy, and Margaret. JULIE means Youthful, Love’s Child. MARGARET means Pearl, Patron Saint of Expectant Mothers.
WENDY means?
What is a celebrant?
Lesley Coles
September 24th, 2023
Do you ever think “I wish I could do it my way?” When you think about getting married, do you want your story told – of how you met, fell in love and the journey to your fantastic day? When you are saying goodbye to a loved one or a friend, do you want to hear about them and their life so you can laugh and cry?