W/E 6th March - Mrs L. Lovegrove/ Mrs C Coward

W/E 13th March - Mrs A Jones/ Mrs S Brough

W/E 20th March - Mrs. G. Taylor/Mrs H Ridley

W/E 27th March - Mrs A. Hawkins/Mrs E Summers

W/E 3rd April - Mrs. M. Davies/Mrs S A Dennis

As promised ‘more news in 2010’…First of all a big thank you to Sophie for all her cleaning of the Church and warmest wishes to the Brough family in their new Kentish home…In Sophie’s place we are delighted to welcome Sarah Holifield onto the Church Cleaning Team. Finally, we thank Raymond and the PCC for their welcome gift of a new ‘Henry Hoover’. Henry has been unwell for a year or two now but hopefully will be fit enough to retire to lighter duties up on the Bell Tower carpet….

Tuesday 2nd March -   7.30 pm to 9.00 pm

Tuesday 9th March -    7.30 pm to 9.00 pm

Sunday 14th March - 10.30 p.m. – 11.00 am

              Quarter Peal  12.15 p.m. – 1.00 p.m.

Tuesday 16th March - 7.30 pm to 9.00 pm

Tuesday 23rd March - 7.30 pm to 9.00 pm

Tuesday 30th March - No Ringing during Holy Week

There was a programme on the television a few weeks ago which took us to Syria, a country I’ve never visited. The programme was studying religions, and the programme took us to the west of the northern city of Aleppo to the ruined basilica of a strange character named Symeon the Stylite, who was perhaps, the fifth century’s most famous celebrity.

For thirty years he sun bathed 60 feet up on the top of a pillar, three feet in diameter. It was kitted out with a railing and he wore an iron collar for his neck to prevent him from falling off it in his sleep. And he did this all year, not just in Lent! A ladder allowed disciples to bring him food and remove his waste. Symeon would stand with his arms outstretched for up to eight hours a day and bow down repeatedly, his head almost touching his feet, some days for over a thousand times before collapsing on his pillar. He would preach daily from his perch and shout answers down to his audience’s questions, although he refused to talk to women, and, he even barred his mother from his column.

The rather extreme logic of his confined and harsh regime was that the material world was of no account. Punishment of the body therefore served to release his spirit to be closer to God.

For all Symeon’s weird and wild eccentricity, we may wonder if the self-gratifying lifestyles we see today are any happier or more fulfilled than his of self denial.

No, I’m not tempted to build a pillar in the Rectory Garden, even if I were to get planning permission. It’s just that when we put God or others centre stage, when we forget ourselves and live for others, that is when we begin to taste the more abundant life. We seem to come alive.

In a sense, this is what Lent is all about. It is a chance for us to let our spirit come closer to God. It’s a chance to discover anew how much there is of us in what we do, and how little there is of God. It’s a chance for us to pray in the words of Jesus, "not my will, but yours be done."

After all, a little bit of self-denial never did anybody any harm, except maybe the Symeon Stylites of this world.

Father, Teach us to find our value in your Son, who did the will of his father. Amen

Mon. 8th March at the home of Jane Falloon: The Bell House, The Green, Gt. Milton

Mon 22nd March at the home of Mrs H Lawrence: Simeons, Gold Street, Little Milton

You and your family are warmly welcomed to our Benefice Mothering Day Service at St Peter’s Great Haseley. All welcome

A romantic drama about a Chicago librarian with a gene that causes him to involuntarily time travel, based on the best-selling book

Starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams

Want a fun night out in Little Milton?

Come and try our village

The weather is still grim and miserable, but the Shop is warm and cosy ! As I write this, the snow is falling (again) so Spring looks a long way off. Despite this, we are still very busy in the Coffee Shop, so a few words about it this month.

Recommended to us by a certain famous Frenchman down the road, the machine we use is used at both Le Manoir and The Fat Duck at Bray, Heston Blumenthal’s 3 Michelin Star restaurant. We can vary the blend of coffee according to taste, so if you like Rocket fuel to get you started in the morning, we can oblige!

Our cakes are home made by two very talented local ladies, Catherine & Nadine. We already have many customers addicted to Catherine’s Carrot Cake, or Nadine’s Coffee & Walnut cake, or the Flapjacks, or the Brownies, or the Rocky Road .

We also bake fresh Croissants and Pain Au Chocolat every morning. These are fabulous to dunk in your coffee, and if you haven’t tried them, you are in for a treat. These are the genuine article, again endorsed by a certain Frenchman.

We are stocking a range of bacon, sausages, ham, gammon, pies and Scotch eggs from Calnan Brothers butchers in Watlington.

They are one of the very best butchers in the area, and recently won two Gold Medals and one Silver Medal at the Two Counties Show for their sausages. Very definitely worth a try, and a world apart from most supermarket offerings.

Finally, we are launching a Wine Club for anyone who enjoys wine and would like to try new wines. We are having monthly tastings of six different wines, and the next one will be on THURSDAY MARCH 25^th at 8.00PM at the SHOP. We already have some amazing finds, including one Italian Red that has astonished all who have tasted it.. Membership for the year is £10.

It will be nice to see the back of this winter. It seems to have been cold and miserable for a very long time now but at least as the days get longer each dip in the temperature should be less severe than the last. I am sure it will have done us no harm at all, the plus being that there appear to be many more birds in our gardens in their search for food. We have noticed of late that we have scores of greenfinches around the farm, this is good news as we are constantly being told that they are on the endangered list. The lack of food has had the same effect on the pigeons descending on the crops of oilseed rape, it is a pity that such an attractively marked bird can do so much damage and is therefore hunted so much, albeit with little effect. This time of year farmers often used to mount organised pigeon shoots, the idea being that every farm would organise an "armed guard" to shoot pigeons at the same time. This was so that the pigeons could not settle in any one place and to obviate the problem that once a shot is fired they up sticks and go next door. Sadly for us though they do not give up and this process has very little long term effect, we battle on.

I have written of late about the presence of buzzards at Views Farm, we now see them on a daily basis which hopefully means that they may well have become resident. I say hopefully as they are such magnificent creatures to observe although of course they are a predator and perhaps I should not be quite so excited as the other day I noticed one fly out of the trees by our chickens, at which time there was not a chicken to be seen in the field until he was long gone.

There has been discussion lately, about opposition from farmers to the release of Chinese lanterns. I personally could not see anything wrong in this until I heard a report on the BBC’s "Farming Today" programme. The problem with these rather attractive and supposedly benign objects is hidden in the materials that they are made of. Apparently they have a structure that contains a wire cross and a bamboo hoop, which in themselves are harmless enough. The problem arises when they return to earth and land on grassland, the wire can and does get eaten by cattle, and the hoops if on the ground when the grass is cut for hay or silage can be scooped up by the harvesting machinery. This harvesting procedure will inevitably smash the bamboo causing it to splinter, leaving these splinters in the winter food of all farm animals.

Whilst on the subject of "Farming Today", there has recently been a very interesting set of programmes relating to access to the countryside. They stressed the fact confirmed by conservationists that straying, not only humans but dogs as well, from the right of way would have an extremely bad effect on wildlife. I am sure they are right on this point, I was horrified to see that same week on "Countryfile" that idiot of a presenter walking the Derbyshire fells with his dog LOOSE! Then the following week another presenter was walking in Shropshire with a group and they were four abreast on a footpath that is only one meter wide. This is a programme that used to be centred on farming and was watched religiously by the farming community. Now it could not be further from its origins and we only watch it now as its time has changed to a more convenient slot.

A recent headline in a daily paper "Food prices rise as wholesale cost falls" confirmed the fact that the retailers are taking us for a ride. It then went on the give a few figures derived from the Office of National Statistics such as the price of butter falling from £3,400 per tonne to £2,825 since September 07 and conversely 250g packs in the shop have risen from £0.92p to £1.04p.Also in the period from March 08 wheat prices have fallen from £195.50 to £109 per tonne however a loaf of bread has risen from £1.12p to £1.22p Maybe people will now realise why we need a supermarket ombudsman.

Not wishing to labour the point in the above paragraph but just recently it has been announced in the farming press that there is to be a 9,000 head herd of dairy cows to be set up in Lincolnshire. This just illustrates the many differences within the industry. Obviously those planning this project have the confidence in the future of dairy in spite of the fact that other dairy farmers are losing money and throwing their milk away in protest. The whole project poses a lot of questions, welfare, pollution, smells etc. On the welfare they are to have a resident vet and pollution is being catered for by erecting an aerobic digester that will produce gas for electricity from all their waste. It is this sort of large scale production to which we the consumers tend to object to, it is because the pressures imposed on our industry as the figures quoted above demonstrate that drives this sort of development.

The Chalgrove neighbourhood also covers the parishes of Stadhampton, Little Milton, Newington, Drayton St Leonard, Great Milton and Great Haseley.

Crime in the Chalgrove neighbourhood has slightly increased since this time last year.

December saw a decrease in all crimes except anti-social behaviour (ASB) which increased from two incidents to four.

ASB incidents have been few and far between this month (January) and the problems at the youth centre have dissipated for now. We will continue to patrol the area around the recreation ground and will deal with any ASB robustly. If anyone has any information regarding the break in at the youth centre please contact us.

There has been an increase on other areas of South Oxfordshire of shops and newsagents being burgled during the night. We are currently visiting shops on our area offering safety and crime reduction advice to them, checking their locks, windows and CCTV systems and offering advice on how to make the most of the security they currently have in place. If you would like crime reduction advice regarding your premises then you can contact the Chalgrove Neighbourhood Team via the details shown at the bottom of this document.

It has come to that time of year again that we need to evaluate the local priorities for the Chalgrove neighbourhood, so that the Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG) can continue to work on the issues that affect the local residents. Each year we have a consultation and members of the public are asked to fill in a short questionnaire. These are then collated and then the priorities for the NAG to work on are generated. More information on the NAG and the current priorities can be found on the Chalgrove neighbourhood internet page. During this period we will be conducting consultation in Little and Great Milton, and the Haseleys. Chalgrove, Stadhampton, Newington and Chiselhampton will be in phase two around July time.

The consultation is in progress and we are looking for volunteers who would be willing to get some of the questionnaires filled in, as we need to obtain a decent number to get the views of as many residents as possible. Usually we would ask each volunteer if they could get around 20 filled in but would be very grateful if you would be willing to help in any way you can.

If you would like to help us and volunteer or like to enquire about joining the NAG please contact one of the Chalgrove Neighbourhood Team on the details listed at the bottom and we can give you more information.

If you want any advice or would like to contact the neighbourhood team you can call us on the police non emergency number 0845 8 505505 or email ChalgroveNHPT@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk. Please note this email address cannot be used to contact Thames Valley Police to report crimes or for any urgent matters. Alternatively you can visit the force website at www.thamesvalley.police.uk to view information on your neighbourhood.

Register now for On Your Bike, the biggest family bike ride in South Oxfordshire raising money for two very worthy local charities on Sunday 25 April starting at 10.30am from Sonning Common Primary School.

Thanks to support from sponsors, including South Oxfordshire District Council’s GO Active project, 100 per cent of entry fees and proceeds will be shared between Sonning Common Primary School and Sue Rider Nettlebed Hospice.

Organisers are aiming to get over 1000 participants to cycle through the stunning local countryside, doubleing previous records. There are distances to suit all abilities and a health walk for those who would prefer to walk than cycle.