No. 42 Spring Blooms and Community Events: From Snowdrops to Easter Eggs

Sidewall thorn puncture ruins new tyre 21- 2-13

Thorns: Once again thorns in the lanes have caused problems, especially in late winter when they are hard. One resident of Long Lane, with no alternative route, had
seven punctures in a few days, and a
repair cost of £125. Approaches have been made to County and Parish Councils to see what can be done.

Fire 1: Our regular chip van blew up in
February after an overhead branch had damaged the chimney. Even the fire extinguisher itself blew up with a loud bang. Proprietor Terry Garner managed to commission a replacement van and resume service in March.

Fire 2: The “Tommy Dutch Barn” on the Appleton – Deighton road near Ingram Grange was set on fire on Fri 15 Feb. The fire brigade were there all night and most of the next day.

Levy: The proposed Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is causing concern. It would charge £8,500 for a 100 sq m house and £1,000 for a 100 sq m barn. Hambleton DC has extended its consultation to tomorrow 15 March.

Parish Plan: Residents have received a letter from the Parish Council about the prospect of a parish plan in one or another form. It asks whether you feel that there are any issues of local concern that require pro-active effort and whether these need the support of a plan You are urged to make a response, by 31st March!

Weather from Rod: Well, for a change, February was actually very dry, with just 9 mm of rainfall during the month. This doesn’t include the precipitation from the snow we had,
but even allowing for this it was our driest month since April 2011, when we had just 11mm of rain (but no snow). Strangely, the first day of February was the warmest (11 °C) and the last day was the coldest (–3.7 °C). Overall, February’s average monthly temperature of only 2.8 °C made it the coldest month since
December 2010 (ave. = -0.8 °C), the
exceptionally cold period when we first started weather recording. To date (10th), March has been wetter but warmer with the warmest day of the year so far on 2nd March (14.2 °C). (There’s a correction to some of the data given last month…… I said the coldest night we’d recorded so far was 8th December 2010 (–9.2°C). Well, that was the correct temperature for that date, but it was much colder on 21st December 2010 when it dropped to –11.2 °C. Still not sure how I managed to miss this?)

Citadel By Kate Mosse

This is the third volume of Kate Mosse’s ‘Languedoc Trilogy’
and was eagerly anticipated after the success of ‘Labyrinth’ and ‘Sepulchre’. Readers will not be disappointed since the author continues to show her skill as a consummate storyteller
and to display her knowledge and understanding of the region she writes about. This is a large volume (and a heavy one!) but we are drawn in by the story and the writing and quickly become addicted.

Unusually in Yorkshire, Rusty is a genuine wild New Forest pony, bought as a 2-year old. He will be 11 this year. Technically, ponies are not baby horses but are defined by their shorter height as adults, and they tend to live longer than their
larger counterparts. As a child, Hannah learned to ride on a pony called Joby who is a year older than she is. Joby is still going strong at 35 with her original owner Jennifer Walker (no relation), née Elsdon.

So Rusty is by no means finished, despite some scary episodes like anaphylactic shock after eating a bee in 2009 (with immediate horrendous effects and a lifesaving emergency visit from the vet) and ivy poisoning in 2010. Then early in 2012 he developed lameness from difficult-to-diagnose tendon injuries which take a long time to heal and rehabilitate.

In Rusty’s first year of competition he and Hannah reached the semi-finals of a showing class at Ponies UK 2006, only bone place short of qualifying for the final.
In the following year they won the UK
Chasers 2007, and many other successes followed. It is a team effort between horse and rider, managing technicality and psychology as well as physical performance varying from the discipline of dressage and the bravery of jumping to controlled long-distance endurance.

Their bond has built since Hannah first trained Rusty from a wild 2-year old.

Typical of his breed, Rusty is tough, clever and cheeky, needing a lot of work to keep him occupied.

Though she was born in Osmotherley, when mum and dad ran the Pied Piper pub there, Hannah’s life has revolved around Welbury. Her grandparents Commodore Ernest and Mrs Irenee Thomson lived at what is now West View. They renamed it Lennel, after an ancestral Scottish village. After their death, Joy had
the bungalow built next door, taking the name Lennel with her, and the old house reverted to West View. So it was in the same fields that Hannah learned to ride at her grandparents home, where she was a frequent visitor.

Joy’s expert coaching and support continue to be a big factor in Hannah’s success. Joy herself was in the same pony club team with Mary Tweddle, Olympic gold medallist Nicola Wilson’s mother – abit more reflected glory for Welbury! While
studying biology at York University,
Hannah was home every weekend with her ponies and part-time work at the Duke of Wellington. Now back at York as a researcher in the Yorkshire Cancer Research Lab, Hannah commutes from Welbury by car, train and bike, keeping her bike at York station and cycling the 3 miles to the university in all weathers. Research work might have taken Hannah
away to Cambridge or America, but she chose to stay at York and Welbury, the village she loves and which has shaped much of her life. She worked part-time for 5 years at the Duke of Wellington, back when the Thompsons were there, with the
staff banter and popularity with the young farmers, as well as several years at the Cat & Bagpipes and the Station at Picton. “You have to be a people person to work in a pub”, says Hannah, who obviously enjoys it. What a delightful example she sets for us for finding a really positive and pleasurable work-life balance!

The likely lads 1-3-13 Friday night darts at the Duke of Wellington
From left: Alan (tournament winner), Anthony, Andrew, Jonny (Killer champion), Richard & Rod

Pancake champ 16-2-13 Winner Gareth Hunt and friends after the pancake races at the Duke of Wellington