This is short and sweet this month as August is a quieter month for meetings and I am writing this in mid-September so I’m sure next month’s will be longer.
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Author Archives: AH
Waste & Recycling
I am collecting recycling for Kicks Count to produce leaflets which inform and support pregnant ladies about the important unborn babies small movements during pregnancy, and help reduce the stillbirth rate.
Items I’m collecting are:
Horticultural Show Pix
Lawrence House Museum, LAUNCESTON
Are you a Meccano person?
Lawrence House Museum is looking for any Meccano enthusiasts, old or young, who 
can help us make new models from a collection of authentic Meccano. Toy curator, Sylvia Wright would love to hear from you if you are interested in helping.
Telephone the museum on 01566 773277 or email lawrencehousemuseum@yahoo.co.uk to leave her a message and she will get back to you.
If our summer continues as unpredictably as it has so far, Lawrence House Museum is an ideal free excursion for all ages. If it’s too hot, it’s lovely and cool inside and the garden is a great place for a picnic. As it’s free, you can come in as often as you like. There’s a “Find the Beatrix Potter characters” quiz for children who can also track down the Mermaid of Widemouth Bay and her trusty Seahorse, Hippy, who are having fun hiding in the Museum. She may reveal her name to children under 12 who find her and they can take part in our Mermaid naming competition.
Then for rainy days you can take home one or two of our Mermaid colouring sheets especially designed by local artist, Karen Farrington, and enter our colouring and painting competition. You can even write a story about her. She used to be a Barbie “Spy Doll” so how did she end up alone on the beach at Widemouth? We want to know! Continue reading
U3A Talk with Mr Rodda
Our speaker on 4th July was Mr Philip Rodda who came to tell us about his family business. His grandmother Fanny was the instigator when she discovered she could sterilise the clotted cream she made every day. At the age of 18, extending hospitality
to some visitors, she offered scones, jam and cream. The visitors wished they could take some cream home with them but it wouldn’t survive the journey. This set Fanny thinking and she began to experiment with the cream until she found a way to make it last for 3 months. Thus began the family business. Continue reading
Church Matters
So far this summer the travels of my wife, Pam, and I have taken us to the cities of Glasgow, London and Barcelona. That perhaps all sounds a little extravagant and exotic, but Glasgow and London were mostly family visiting, with Barcelona being our real (4 day) break.
Barcelona is quite an extraordinary city it’s fairly extensive redevelopment and improvement for the 1992 Olympics having been carried on down to the present day. This doesn’t mean that it’s all modern buildings – far from it. New developments have been sympathetically blended with the buildings of the past, with both styles offering an architectural feast for the eyes. Put this against a backdrop of beautiful blue skies and surrounding hills and you realise it’s quite a special place.
As we walked around Barcelona it became apparent that we were not the only tourists in the city. All around us were the voices from France, Germany, Japan, China, America, Australia and many more countries. It was a real, buzzing hive of humanity that was simply enjoying the sights and soaking up the sunshine. The plethora of sidewalk cafes and restaurants all offered a laid-back feel to resting points, with locals often engaged in animated conversation at tables while tourists sat and drank coffee or beer in the shade of the brightly coloured parasols.
It really was an idyllic setting for a short city-break. But there was also an undercurrent of something else going on – something that wasn’t immediately apparent but the more you walked around the more you saw and felt it. Nearly every street had someone begging on it. Certain areas had their gatherings of the homeless around park benches. Large wheelie bins that populated the streets were regularly visited by those who would open them and scavenge for anything edible or useful they could find. It somehow felt disturbing that amongst all the splendour of the city, all the bliss of 
holidaymakers, all the leisurely reclining at table, there was this distinct subculture of poverty and need that was openly operating on the streets in broad daylight, and patently being ignored by the vast majority. On reflection, Glasgow and London had similar things happening, but perhaps not as pronounced as it was in Barcelona. Continue reading
from Cllr Steph McWilliam
There is much to fit in this month. Let’s start with more good news. CC Children’s services had a good Ofsted report. Quote – The final report confirms that we have received an overall rating of ‘Good’ for these services – putting us in the top 25% of children’s services in the country that have been inspected under the tougher new inspection framework. Well done to all concerned.
There is a campaign underway to try and persuade people to look after the sewerage systems by not flushing wet wipes. If you do, please don’t.
Blue badge holders – Those eligible for free car tax can register (for a £10 fee) to have a
card that permits free parking. The system had to change when government did away with tax discs being displayed but Cornwall Council was keen to find a mechanism to continue helping those with blue badges but you do need to reapply.
I know some people are still upset about the referendum result and concerned that we will lose all the funding. Please bear in mind that we are still in the EU and Article 50 hasn’t yet been triggered. It will be at least two years after that when we actually leave, which takes us up to mid-2018. Since the programme finishes anyway in 2020 and any contracts in place before we leave will be honoured under international law, it is very unlikely to have any impact on our economic development funding. Continue reading
Exe Trail Cancer Fundraising Challenge
A couple of references have been recently made in the Cornish Times about the value of Liskeard Community Hospital’s Triangle Centre ‘drop in’ service to local people with cancer and their families. The service includes counselling, complementary therapy and access to cancer support specialist nurses who can advise, inform and reassure on every aspect of cancer treatment and recovery. No appointment is necessary and you can always rely upon a warm welcome, a cup of tea and a piece of home-made cake! The service is free but, being separately funded from the NHS, the Liskeard Triangle Centre (and sister Triangle Centres in Tavistock and Kingsbridge) can never make assumptions about the future.
John is living with cancer and his wife Shirley is a cancer survivor. The Lisk
eard Triangle Centre has helped them a lot over the last couple of years and with relatively good health still on their side, it seemed timely and appropriate to try and give something back. On the 28th June, accompanied by several members of their family (the youngest being just 2 years old!) they walked, paddled and cycled the length of the Exe Trail to raise funds for the Liskeard Triangle Centre. Continue reading
South Hill Old School Pictures
As well as the South Hill Old School open day on July 16th when we invite everyone interested to join us and bring their stories and pictures. We are collecting local pictures and memorabilia in general and with the parish hall being 50 years old this year, at the Harvest Supper in September a display will be on show. We encourage you to let us know if you have items we can photograph and a page on this web site will be created to preserve these details. Ph Ali 384544 or email newsdesk@south-hill.co.uk Thank You
The Silverline Charity
The Silver Line Helpline for older people.
Dame Esther Rantzen described her feelings as a widow living alone for the first time at the age of 71. As a result Ellen wrote to her to describe her own feelings of loneliness.
“I can’t get out on my own due to health problems, so it can be as much as 3 days I go without talking to anyone… I dread the winter nights when everything seems to close in around me and I feel so isolated. I am an optimist by nature and sometimes I need that to get through another pointless day where I feel as if I am a waste of space.”
The reality is that older people should be valued as a tremendous asset to society. If, like Ellen, they become isolated and vulnerable, it is the nation’s responsibility to make older people feel valued, to include them, empower them, and connect them back to their communities. And that is what we hope The Silver Line Helpline will achieve.
Some vulnerable older people are so isolated they are extremely hard to reach. And there is a huge unmet demand for advice and friendship.
In the first year of operation, The Silver Line Helpline received 275,000 calls, 53% of callers saying they had literally no-one else to speak to. We now receive almost 1500 calls every day from lonely and isolated older people. Continue reading