October 2020
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ST MARY’S and EASTHAM COMMUNITY October 2020 Lowfields Park Lowfields Park opposite Eastham train station has had a wonderful revamp. Have a walk and see for yourselves. (See back page for alternative walk.) 1 October 2020 Dear all, ‘To everything there is a season…turn, turn, turn’ Some of you may remember that, in the 1960’s, this verse from the Bible (!) was turned into a folk song…it carries on; ‘a time to be born, a time to die.’ It actually comes from the book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3 in the Old Testament. And its true, to everything there is a season. We are moving into the season of Autumn. Whereas I think of spring as magical and everything beginning to grow with new life and colour and more sunshine, I think of autumn as mystical, later days, earlier nights, lovely sunrises, mists and softer shades all around us. Virginia creepers are beginning to turn red and the birdsong seems more muted somehow and not so urgent! As I write this, we are having some local measures put in place for Merseyside as we try to stem the flow of new cases of coronavirus, and we will look back on this one day and see that we did do it. This will affect so much of what we do at St Mary’s. Harvest Festival on 4th October will be just our normal 10.00 am Communion ser- vice at St Mary’s. The uniformed organisations are not fully back yet so I don’t think they will be with us, but if you could bring some garden flowers or produce to the church on Saturday 3rd October earlyish morning, Chris and her team will put them all round the church. Please bring too any tins, cans, packets of food that will keep and, this year, it will be divided between the Ark and Eastham Food Hub for emergency food as people need it. Remembrance Service again will change for this year. We will not be walking from the Church Centre as we can’t have so many in church so there will be a Service of Remembrance outside at the War Memorial on Sun- day 8th November at 10.30 am. I can’t imagine or envisage what Christmas will be like this year. The schools will not be in and services like the Christingle and Nine Lessons and Carols and Midnight Mass may well not happen ..and what about the beloved Crib Service!! Whatever happens though, the community in Eastham will rally round, will stay as safe as we can, will love and care and pray for each other, and trust that the next year will see strong rhythms and brighter hopes! With love, Beth x 2 Please let me know if you need any- thing still! I have a fund of necessities and food safe! Beth 327 2182 or [email protected] Ivy – never underestimate its goodness! Autumn is in full swing but there is at least one plant that is in full bloom. Not spectacular to look at, yet ivy is an important source of nectar for bees, moths, flies and wasps, and while they are not most people's fa- vourite insects, they all play a vital part in Nature's jigsaw. Ivy produces flowers from September to November. Spherical clusters of greeny-yellow blobs, which on closer inspection have endearing little horns with knobs on! The resulting fruits are dark berries with ridged sections, resembling tiny black footballs each containing five seeds. Poisonous for us, but birds love them. Ivy is one of the few native climbing plants that can reach a substantial size. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a parasite. Its stems have lots of fibrous, adhesive-covered, roots which cling to buildings, brickwork, trees, telegraph poles, in fact just about anything to help it gain some height. However, when it comes to nourishment, that comes via the roots in the ground. [There's not much nutritional value in a brick.] Although ivy does not normally damage sound buildings or walls, and is rarely a threat to healthy trees, its weight can cause problems. What a useful plant it can be! Providing shelter, hibernation and nesting sites for birds and insects, its glossy green leaves are happily munched by sheep, goats and deer. These leaves, so familiar, are different shapes according to whether they are on flowering or growing branches. The flowers are surrounded by heart- or spear- shaped leaves, while the rest of the plant has the three- or five-pointed ones we all recognise. Many legends involve ivy. But has anyone discovered why although mentioned in the first line of the carol 'The Holly and the Ivy', it is absent from the rest of the verses? 3 Faithful Departed 1st August Alan Caig 21st August Kenneth Muirhead th 27 August Sybil Chrisp Households into Work Unemployment is an increasing problem at the present time. Wirral council has started a scheme to help people get back into work. It is recognised that problems may often be associated with other people in the household and so this new scheme looks to work with other members of the household to achieve the employment goal. The contact email address and telephone number are: Email: [email protected] Tel: 07554 22 85 26 St Mary’s Parish Church Eastham Village The graveyard is now open to be explored! If you enter the graveyard through the lychgate, you will see a box with some lami- nated copies of a graveyard walk. David Allan, who compiles the wonderful Eastham Archives leaflet, has put this together. Please take one to walk around with and then leave it please for others. I am hoping to have a Prayer Walk set up soon for people to reflect and meditate for a little while. Don’t forget, our church is now open Fridays and Saturdays from 11.00 am to 2.00 pm every week as well if you want to pop in and say a prayer? 4 St Marys Churchyard Due to regular cutting of grass we are finding it increasingly difficult to cut around- cremated remains tablets because of chippings, stones, slate and wood. These will be removed on our grand clear up day on the 31st October unless relatives have already done so. Volunteers Wanted Grand Clean Up 31st October 9 am -3pm Please bring rakes bags will be provided Sorry we cannot offer refreshments due to Covid Any help would be appreciated Many Thanks. The Graveyard Team. Can I just say a massive thankyou to Arlene Alan Ann and Margaret for carrying on in the churchyard while I was locked up (as my granddaughter said) shielding. Well done all of you “The Graveyard Team” So many people to thank for their help with the Church and its surroundings, but in this notice, we would like to give a special mention to two people in particular. Firstly, Steve and the owners of Eastham Hall, their support has been invaluable and without the help they have given to us we would not have made the progress we have achieved. Secondly Vinny at Autosave. Not only did Vinny repair our old red mower to get us mowing again, Vinny donated a petrol mower that has made our work so much easier (and more efficient!) Please join our team if you have time to spare. We meet every Thursday and any help and support would be so appreciated. Chris, Arlene, Anne, Margaret and Allan. 5 Some thoughts on Coronavirus Why singing in church is the same as shouting at the pub How dangerous is it to sing in church, when it comes to spreading coronavirus? About the same as it is to speak loudly in a pub. So say researchers at the University of Bristol. They have found that speaking loudly and singing generate about the same amounts of aerosol droplet – tiny particles of liquid – which are thought to carry Covid-19 Of course, the louder you sing or speak, the more the aerosol droplets. Is your face mask making your skin break out? Face masks are giving us skin complaints. In fact, so many of us are now suffering that the complaint has been given its own name: ‘maskne’. The causes are obvious. Our breath is warm and moist, and every time we exhale into our masks this humid air gets trapped. Masks move, and so we have friction. Added to that is the unpleasant fact that our saliva is actually teeming with bacteria (with more bugs per square inch than even a loo seat!). Acne mechanica is the medical term for ‘maskne’. With all that bacteria being trapped and rubbed against our nose and chin, no wonder ‘mask breakouts’ are rising dramatically. Stress is another cause for skin complaints, and the pandemic has given many of us huge stress this year. We may face crippling anxiety over job security, finances, the health of loved ones, social isolation, or even being trapped in an abusive household. No wonder our faces are breaking out in a rash So why are we being asked to wear masks ? Back in March we were told that masks were of little or no benefit. However, research carried out since then has shown that coronavirus can be transmitted through aerosols (minute particles that hang in the air) and not just through droplets. We also know that the virus can be transmitted two days before you have nay symptoms so none of us can say for certain that we do not have the virus unless we have just been tested and the re- sults have been returned as negative.