Weston, , and NEWSLETTER

NOVEMber 2019

Sunset in Eathorpe

The Stop HS2 camp in South Wood

CONTACTS Eathorpe Village Hall bookings: Weston Village Website: [email protected] www.westonunderwetherley.org Hunningham Parish Room: Weston Village Hall bookings: 01926 632428 [email protected] Hunningham Parish Room bookings: Eathorpe Village Website: [email protected] www.eathorpe.org.uk

Editor: David Wray 632830 [email protected]

PeterBrooke

Plans drawn for Planning and Building Regulations for New Houses, House Remodelling, Extensions, Loft Conversions, Renovations. Free, no obligation, first meeting.

Tel 01926 633691 Mob 07740213572 email [email protected]

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VILLAGE NEWS WELCOME to Lucy and Shane at Elm Cottages, who have come to live in Hunningham. And also to Anna, Richard, Theo and Zara who have come to live in Weston. We wish them all every happiness in their new homes, and look forward to seeing them at Village Events

REMINDER for those with SMALL CHILDREN: WESTON TODDLERS GROUP meets every Friday at 9.30am – 11.15am in Weston Village Hall. Lots of toys to play with, and a chance to meet other Mum’s and Dad’s, Carers and Grandparents. Contact Jayne Harris: [email protected]

THANK YOU to everyone who supported Hunningham’s Harvest Festival in October. We have managed to raise quite a lot of money for Andrew Web- ster, and The Peace House really appreciated the produce that was donated. The Peace House / Night Shelter, admits people in the evening for a meal and a sleep, who are seeking asylum from horrific happenings in their lives while they are going through all the legal paperwork. They have no money they can claim, and no way of getting work. Thank you for your help.

COMMUNITY CAFÉ - come along to our “Coffee Drop-in” every last Wednes- day of the month at 10.45am at VILLAGE HALL. All villagers in Offchurch, Hunningham, Weston, Wappenbury and Eathorpe & around - are welcome PLUS friends and family. Coffee, Tea, homemade cake, and even “a hand massage”. No charge! For a lift ring Hazel Taylor 632428. Next dates: 30th October; 27th November. (NB No meeting in December).

A message from Fr Teddy O'Brien from St Anne's Church in Wappenbury. Father O’Brien would like to draw attention to the fact that there is a defibrillator positioned in the Presbytery porch of St Anne's, Wappenbury. Should the porch door be locked the key safe has a key for the porch - code number 6191.

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VILLAGE NEWS

TOG BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE

If you would like to have the name of a loved one written in the Book of Remembrance (which is kept in St Gregory's for the whole Offchurch Group of churches) so that they may be remem- bered on their anniversary - please contact Susan Denning (Tel 01926 470060 [email protected])

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WHY ARE PEOPLE CAMPED IN CUBBINGTON WOODS? Many of us enjoy camping, of course. But in the middle of a wet Autumn? In the middle of some ancient woods with absolutely nothing by the way of toilet fa- cilities? You would have to be mad, surely, or very committed to a thoroughly noble and im- portant cause.

This commitment has certainly been in evidence over the past few weeks in Cubbington as a group of local people have been camping out in Cubbington woods to stop the HS2 construction crew from felling trees, many of which have been there since long before any of us were born.

But surely, you will say, the Transport Secretary has said that an- cient woodland will not be destroyed until the outcomes of the HS2 review are known. Well, yes, he did say that but, as so often in these cases, there is always a let out, in this case stated as “if waiting would add significant cost or delay to the project”. As this particular project is already £20-30bn over budget and 5-7 years late, that was a rather strange thing to say!

But when the Cubbington woods began to be fenced off, a group of local residents were taking no chances and have set up camps in the woods. Much more information about this can be seen at http://stophs2.org/video-2/18713-cubbington-protection-camp.

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Reiki Practitioner Linda Blunsom Hunningham Hill, Fosse Way * Private Therapy Room* Mobile: 07787458578 - [email protected] Harmonizing body, mind and spirit

Eddie Croxall Painter & Decorator

1 Ellerton Grove , CV31 1YN Tel: 01926 882 420 Mobile: 07778 283 244

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HUGH’S PASTORAL LETTER November 2019

My grandson has just produced a great result from his 11 Plus examination. What a relief!

We had shared some trying times, preparing for the exam with coaching and test papers. Even Grandad went back to school to help sharpen his brain! But all that is behind us now and we wait with bated breath, hoping that a gram- mar school place will be his.

My own memories of those days are vague, with a focus upon do your best and that is that! No tutoring or coaching. It was all down to your teacher and yourself. So it was fascinating to make this journey with Alexander, with his parents and a tutor willing the lad on to fulfil his potential and open the door to educational opportunity.

Here in the parish, we have a number of people determined to invest their time and energy in our young people and children, too. They want to provide a launchpad for young lives, a good experience of what it means to believe in a higher order of being and belonging. And I think I can see a different and more positive approach emerging among us. Certainly my outlook is being changed.

No longer are we to regard children as being done to, but part of a whole- ness in all of life. I already knew the importance of giving people their voice and that remains with me. But it is refreshing and new for me to have a deepened sense of listening to our youngsters and changing how we are, be- cause of what they are sharing with us.

Greta Thunberg stands out as a young person who has obeyed her inner conviction and found her voice. Her message to me is that we have things to learn from the younger generation; that they, as well as we, have the capaci- ty to enrich all our lives now. So, we are growing our commitment to our younger folks and that involves listening as well as directing. Kahlil Gibran summed it up in this way:

Your children are not your children, they are the sons and daughters of Life’s

7 longing for itself….. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

And Jesus was even more direct. “He called a child, set him in front of them, and said, ‘I tell you this: unless you turn round and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven.” And Sister Frances Dominica who set up the first Children’s Hospice in Oxford, said “the children are my teach- ers.”

I have still got my L - plates on!

Every blessing, Hugh

Hugh Priestner Tel. 01926 257845 Vicar – The Offchurch Group Mob. 07568 166 910 [email protected]

The following was taken from the Cubbington Action Group website (https:// www.hs2-cubbington.net/)

Here are five reasons why we oppose the HS2 project: 1. HS2 is not the best use of the nation's limited resources. 2. HS2 would be of no benefit to a large part of the population. 3. HS2 would give a poor return on the huge investment required. 4. HS2 would cause massive damage to our environment, both in countryside and cities. 5. HS2 is not green: it would not reduce greenhouse gas emis-

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Church wardens: Mrs Jane Inman, 01926 338704, [email protected] David Ellis, 07985 004353, [email protected]

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ISSUES WITH COMPUTERS A couple of weeks ago, I switched on my computer to find this message on the screen:

As you can probably guess, this caused some panic! I went straight to look at my files and found that every one of them had had its name changed and they all now had the file extension .Adame. I googled Adame and found that I had been subject to what is known as a ‘ransomware’ attack. All my files had been encrypted and, it seemed, the only way to get them back would be to send lots of money to the people who had attacked my computer.

Of course, I’m not stupid, and realized that sending money would most likely just result in my being robbed as well as computer hacked. It’s at times like this that you have to go back to basics as a computer user. So this is what I did.

It was clear that my files were now lost. Lots of articles on Google claimed there was no way of getting them back to their originals, so the only recourse was to delete them all. Plus, I didn’t know whether there was hidden soft- ware on my computer which would just carry on infecting new files like this. So … deep breath, followed by a total reinstall of Windows. When Windows reinstalls, it asks you if you want to format your disc first—i.e. completely wipe everything from it before reinstalling the operating system. This is by far the safest thing to do. So, after almost an hour of this task, I then had a brand new version of Windows, guaranteed free of any viruses. But, of

10 course, also free of any of the thousands of files I had lost. And that meant work files, photos of the family, videos of various kinds—everything. You might be wondering why I wasn’t tearing my hair out in frustration. Nobody nowadays can afford to lose ALL their computer files! These represent and record our entire lives. But, and here is the main point of this little tale, I HAD BACKUPS OF EVERYTHING!

Actually I’m a bit of a backup addict. I pay for 2 terabytes of backup space on a cloud- based system called Dropbox, which syn- chronises my files onto the Internet when- ever any of them changes. I also have on my desk a Network-Attached Server (2 hard drives of 3 terabytes each) which is set to back up my entire computer every hour or so. I also have several portable hard drives which I use for occasional (weekly) backups of specific folders—one of these for example contains backups of all my family photos and videos.

I used to apologise to people for this somewhat obsessive approach to back- ing up—BUT NO LONGER!!! Using all these systems I was able to restore everything to my main computer within a hour or so.

So the message here is:

KEEP BACKUPS—UPDATE THEM REGULARLY—KEEP THEM IN DIFFERENT PLACES.

Oh, of course, I also have yet to work out how I got that ransomware virus in the first place! My solution to that has been to become obsessive about up- dating my Internet Security software. I currently use Avast Premium Security which claims to be able to prevent ransomware attacks. It costs, but not as much as losing all those files would have done!

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THE OFFCHURCH GROUP – YOUTH CLUB DO YOU KNOW ANY 11 – 16 year old who would like to join our TOG YOUTH CLUB?

Fun and friendship for the young people of our villages.

Contact Marcia Watson 07775 645853 for more information

HUNNINGHAM CAROL SINGING

The annual village carolling will take place on Wednesday December 18th. We will meet at the church at 6pm and then go on our annual jolly jaunt round the village. Everyone is wel- come to join in whether you can sing or not. Discordant voices mostly make great harmo- nies!

Carol sheets and reflective vests will be provided to you and hopefully we will have a few hospitality stops along the way (anyone volunteering please?).

Please wear appropriate clothing and bring a torch.

The evening will end at the Red Lion where any survivors will receive a drink!

If you want more info please call Mark on 632197

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