Inside: News from Greenacres & Wiltshire Outreach New RF Services in Wiltshire Bad Habit Planet X What Is Pokemon Go? Welcome

Summer 2016 In association with Richmond Fellowship

Inside: News from Greenacres & Wiltshire Outreach New RF Services in Wiltshire Bad Habit Planet X What is Pokemon Go? Welcome

Welcome to the summer edition of The Wiltshire Bugle. The first half of this year has been incredibly eventful, as Britain made it’s decision to leave the European Union. We now await for Theresa May to take office and guide our country into the future. A lot has been said from both the leave and remain campaigns, and the nation is split. The democratic choice has been made and the people have spoken. I believe we have made the right choice and feel that whether you voted leave or remain. It’s now time to embrace the situation and move posi- tively forward into our impending future. I hope you enjoy the issue.

All Change!

There are changes afoot across the Wiltshire services, both in terms of staffing and premises. Julie Boyle, our Team Leader for Wiltshire Outreach, left at the end of June to have her baby, which is due in July. Julie plans to take a year off to care for her new bundle of joy. Good luck Julie!

To cover Julie B’s role, Julie Franklin, Team Leader for Wiltshire Community Hous- ing service, will move across to Outreach in August. And to cover Julie F’s role, Charlotte Barrett, Recovery Support Worker for CHS, will step up to cover the Team Leader role for a year. Jackie Ellicott has moved across from Community Links to CHS to cover Charlotte’s role. Well done to Charlotte, good luck to Julie F and Jackie E and we wish you well in your new roles. Within our Community Links team, there are also changes, with Team Leader Karen Frayling off to pastures new at the end of July. We will be sad to see her go – good luck for the future and we wish you every success. Ben Welbourne will be moving into Karen’s role as Team Leader for the Community Links team – well done on your promotion Ben! Regarding premises, we have taken on new office space at Bath Road Business Centre in Devizes, and we will soon be moving our admin function over to the new offices. Therefore Diane, our Administrator, will relocate to the new unit – but she’ll still be popping back to Greenacres now and again to say hello! We will still carry out reviews with clients from the Greenacres site, so there will always be somewhere private if you wish to talk to a member of staff confidentially. Wiltshire Sparks’ Under Construction

In the making as we speak is the new service website which has the working title ‘Wiltshire Sparks’. Having this online presence will not only help to link-up, share and advertise what we do, but provide a social platform for people to con- nect by. A news and events section, much like the Wiltshire Bugle, will act as a noticeboard, helping to showcase the work various groups have been involved with as well as pro- mote upcoming events such as open-days or astronomy eve- nings. A gallery space and open-mic style page will provide a ‘wall’ for people to share their creativity in all shapes and forms, such as photography, creative writing, video and mu- sic. Hopefully the site will build to become a ‘go-to’ place for support and resources in general by incorporating both a chatroom (in the style of a forum or blog) to share and chat via, as well as having a useful links page to other support services. If you are interested in either submitting some creative work for the webpage or would be keen to be involved in the site in other ways then please email Jonathan at: jona- [email protected]

Employment Advisors Update

Sue Hutton covers North Wiltshire and Jackie Crowther covers South Wiltshire. Our role is to support people back into paid employment by working with clients individually and in small groups to identify the steps they need to take to achieve this. Volunteering may also be a stepping stone to fulfil their goal and we can support clients with this.

We managed the initial waiting list of 105 and now have caseloads of approximately 20 each. We are meeting with these clients on a 1:1basis and are also taking on new referrals.

Bugle shout out - One client successfully obtaining paid employment!

We have set up Jobplan workshops in 4 locations in Wiltshire - Salisbury, Devizes, Trowbridge and Chippenham. These workshops will include:

 Introductions, ground rules/housekeeping  Help users get onto the internet  Check action plan and support where appropriate  Fun activity (5-10 minute energiser)  Work related activity as appropriate such as interview skills etc. Staffed by Sue and Jackie (one to lead on the workshop and the other to be on hand to do 1:1 interviews as usual with clients).

PR activity includes:

 Attending Jobcentre Plus communication meetings to give a presentation on the service provided byRF  Arranging a visit with GreenSquare Housing Association If you feel you would benefit from the support of an employment advisor, speak to your keyworker about a referral to the employment service. Springwatch at BOA

Spring well and truly sprang at our Outreach project at Barton Farm, Bradford on Avon and everything has just kept on growing since. The meadow is well above waist height and although there’s been no sightings of any orchids yet there’s plenty of wildflowers out on show including some Ragged Robin! The weave of the labyrinth has been put on hold as the willow is in full leaf so we have harvested the non-woven section and come the Autumn, there’ll be one seasons growth for us to continue the weave. The pond has really come into its own this year! George (the local Kingfisher) has been a regular visitor when the River Avon has been cloudy and fast flowing after bouts of heavy rain. We had an abundance of tadpoles and over ten newts have been spotted but there could be many more hiding under the Lily pads!? Now the iris’ have finished flowering it’s the turn of the lillies and they look stunning! All this has attracted dragonflies, damselflies, mayflies and many varieties of butterfly have also been spotted across the meadow.

Wave of new Outreach projects in Salisbury

We have had the good fortune to expand the number of Outreach projects we offer, with a collection of new sites in the Salisbury area. The three main sites are the Avon Valley Nature Reserve (aka Five Rivers), Harnham Slope and Lime Kiln Way. Sitting nicely on the River Avon, the Avon Valley Nature Reserve is a mixture of marshy vegetation, willow wood, grassland, earth bank and reedbeds. In contrast, Harnham Slope, situated south of the city, is one of the very few wooded areas of Salisbury. The woodland has been designated a County Wildlife Site and the quarry at one end is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for geological reasons.

Last but not least is Lime Kiln Way which is an area being managed as a Local Nature Reserve for the benefit of the community and local wildlife. The main objective for this site is the clearance of encroaching scrub in order to avoid the loss of grassland which support a wealth of wildflowers and butterflies. The Outreach group on a Mon- day have recently linked up with various groups and volunteers involved with these sites to provide support with their management. Already the group have helped clear a lot of litter at the Avon Valley Nature Reserve, along with cutting back the vegetation around a hedge-line in order to help it continue to establish itself. A Very Bad Habit...

I have been a smoker for over 20 years. During the late 90s my mother opened a high shop in the town centre of Chip- penham ironically called “Bad Abbitt”. By pure coincidence this was the same period in which I began smoking. I found a packet of B&H and thought I would experiment and give it a try, not actually aware of how addicted I would later become. The following morning I bought my first pack, and easily consumed 20 a day, this became 30 a day and would later become between 40-50 a day. I was totally hooked on the weed and it had total control over me. Before I began to smoke, I was fit and very healthy. I was a fast runner and good at sport. After I began to smoke I began too lose races and my energy levels decreased dramatically. I would be out of puff after a short 100m sprint. But this did not concern me at the time, as I genuinely enjoyed smoking. It was my companion. Like a good friend by my side , supporting me though the highs and lows in life. I loved dragging back and inhaling, The artwork on the packet pleased my eyes. I was a total sucker to it!!! And I have to admit, It was great. I continued to smoke 40-50 cigarettes a day until something very strange happened on the 4th April 2016.

I developed a decompressed nerve in my right arm and had to undertake a minor operation to repair the problem. I was called in for a pre-op assessment before surgery could be undertaken. I had never met the surgeon before but he looked strangely familiar, like I had crossed paths with him before. He looked at me rather sharply and asked if I was a smoker. I replied “Yes! I smoke a lot”. He then said basically “You have to stop”. He said this without giving me any real reason (and I didn't even ask). I had a cigarette pre-rolled in my pocket for after the meeting. As I exited the ward and made it outside I threw the cigarette straight in the bin! And that was it!! I have now gone over 3 months and have absolutely no desire to smoke ever again. I find the whole act repulsive and horrible. However I do not mind or judge people who smoke. They enjoy it, like I once did! There is no shame in smoking. Millions of people do it everyday. Some are lucky and can make it through life with minimal trouble and others can acquire horrible diseases. What I like to do is read about people who have obtained life threatening problems due to tobacco , and it reinforces my desire to quit and never use it again.

I had a huge desire to quit for 15 years, but I could never do it! It seemed totally impossible. But that moment after seeing the surgeon and hearing those words “You Have to Stop”, the process was actually very easy. My lungs already feel clear and I have undergone many other positive effects. I really don’t miss my old abusive companion anymore!.

Joe B Planet X - By Fraser Cain

Have you heard there’s a giant planet in the Solar System headed straight towards Earth?

At some point in the next few months or years, this thing is going to crash into Earth or flip our poles, or push us out of our orbit, or some other horrible civilization destroying disaster.

Are these rumours true?

Is there a Planet X on a collision course with Earth?

Unlike some of the answers science gives us, where we need to give a vague and nuanced answers, like yes AND no, or Maybe, well, it depends…

I’m glad to give a straight answer: No.

Any large object moving towards the inner Solar System would be one of the brightest objects in the night sky. It would mess up the orbits of the other planets and asteroids that astronomers carefully observe every night.

There are millions of amateur astronomers taking high quality images of the night sky. If something was out there, they’d see it.

These rumours have been popping up on the internet for more than a decade now, and I’m sure we’ll still be debunking them decades from now.

What people are calling Planet X, or Nibiru, or Wormwood, or whatever doesn’t exist. But is it possible that there are large, undiscovered objects out in the furthest reaches of Solar System?

Astronomers have been searching for Planet X for more than a hundred years. In the 1840s, the French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier calculated that another large planet must be perturbing the orbit of Uranus. He predicted the location where this planet would be, and then German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle used those coordinates to discover Neptune right where Le Verrier predicted.

The famed astronomer Percival Lowell died searching for the next planet in the Solar System, but he made a few calcula- tions about where it might be found.

And in 1930, a young Clyde Tombaugh with one of his famous homemade telescopesh successfully discovered Pluto in one of the locations predicted by Lowell.

Astronomers continued searching for additional large objects, but it wasn’t until 2005 that another object the size of Pluto was finally discovered by Mike Brown and his team from Caltech: Eris. Brown and his team also turned up several other large icy objects in the Kuiper Belt; many of which have been designated dwarf planets.

We haven’t discovered any other large objects yet, but there might be clues that they’re out there.

In 2012, the Brazilian astronomer Rodney Gomes calculated the orbits of objects in the Kuiper Belt and found irregulari- ties in the orbits of 6 objects. This suggests that a larger object is further out, tugging at their orbits. It could be a Mars- sized object 8.5 billion km away, or a Neptune-sized object 225 billion km away.

A false-color, visible-light image of Comet ISON taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

There’s another region at the edge of the Solar System called the Oort Cloud. This is the source of the long-period comets that occasionally visit the inner Solar System. It’s possible that large planets are perturbing the orbits of comets with their gravity, nudging these comets in our direction.

So, feel free to ignore every single scary video and website that says an encounter with Planet X is coming.

And use that time you saved from worrying to appreciate the amazing discoveries being made in space and astronomy every day.

Naughty but Nice!

Jam making has recommenced again this summer at Greenacres, with freshly picked strawberries from the garden being made into a delicious strawberry jam by clients and staff. Half the jars were sold before the day was out, once we’d all had a sample of the sweet treat. The remainder will go into the shop ready for our open day on Sat- urday 30th July. The plan is that in time, we will have an external outlet for the sale of our preserves, such as a local shop or café, so that jam making can continue as an activity when we no longer have the Greenacres shop to sell from.

Lambing, Calving and Cutting at Parsonage Down

The lambing season was hectic at Cherry Lodge Farm and the Natural England farmers were tending to their flock right across the reserve at Parsonage Down. Over eighty ewes gave birth to singles, twins or triplets and we were fortunate enough to be present at some of these. In fact several clients got very ‘hands-on’ with feeding, tagging, carrying and even herding sheep! One particular lamb captured the limelight as during the birthing process, he broke one of his front legs. After treatment from the vet and a few weeks of monitoring, he made a full recovery and was seen skipping around the field with all the other lambs.

Since then the farmers have been busy calving with both their Long Horn and Herefordshire herds of cows. There was no rest for us either as the growing season was upon us and the grass cutting and allotment plots have been in full swing! The ex- ploding rabbit population were beginning to enjoy our fresh green shoots so we have been fortifying our defences with an extra chicken wire fence and gate!

As a reward for shifting well over 100 hay bales by hand and clearing out the storm drains in the yard, Roger (the farm manager) took us out on the reserve to see the Green-winged and Burnt-tip Orchids that are now showing in the long grass up on the chalk land. We also saw blue and white Milkwort and I have to say, the hawthorn blossom was spectacular!

Bridge Success Hurrah! After about a year in the making, we finished building the bridge over the River Blackwater at Langley Wood for Natural England. The grand opening was held on the 14th April 2016 where the Natural England crew broke through the tape with their 4x4 truck and proceeded to drive all the way across…. and back!!! It was a great success and the bridge should stand the test of time and be used for conservation works for many years to come! National Trust work It’s been both a busy and exciting time for our client group involved in volunteering for the National Trust! We braved the cold spring with those late frosts, wind, rain and even hail and managed to clear a Bronze Age barrow that has recently been re-discovered at Melbury Down. Not far from there is Win Green (pictured), the highest point along the Cranborne Chase and on the south slope, we have cleared vast amounts of scrub to prevent ash, hawthorn and other trees taking over the wildflower rich calcare- ous grassland. At the east end of the slope, we helped install a stile in the fence line to give better public access to the walks. The chalk and flint made the digging incredibly hard going! We will soon be embarking on Ragwort pulling (yes it’s that time again already!) up on the topside at Win Green and also at Fontmel Down, which is another beautiful stretch of downland along the Cranborne Chase. The National Trust have tenant farmers who graze cattle up there and ragwort is poi- sonous to cattle and horses so our work is invaluable to them… Now to the exciting bit! May 2016 saw the start of our Stourhead project, yes Stourhead! Once a week, we go into the grounds of this flagship National Trust property and so far we’ve been in the woods cutting down and burning Western Hemlock and will be doing the same with Rhododendron soon. We’ll be involved with the tree plantation & estate maintenance programme which, combined with the gardens, make it a truly stunning place to work! The Video Game of the Future?

Pokémon Go is a free-to-play location-based augmented reality mobile game developed by Niantic and pub- lished by The Pokémon Company as part of the Pokémon franchise. It was released worldwide in July 2016 for iOS and Android devices. The game allows players to capture, battle, and train virtual creatures, called Pokémon, who appear through- out the real world. It makes use of GPS and the camera of compatible devices. Although the game is free-to- play, it supports in-app purchases of additional gameplay items. An optional companion Bluetooth wearable device, the Pokémon Go Plus, is planned for future release and will alert users when Pokémon are nearby. The game quickly became one of the most used smart device apps after launching, surpassing the previous record held by Candy Crush Saga in the United States. Pokemon Go was a boon to the stock value of Ninten- do, which owns a part of The Pokémon Company. It was praised by some medical professionals for potential- ly improving the mental and physical health of players, but attracted some controversy due to reports of causing accidents and being a public nuisance at some locations.

The idea for the game was conceived in 2014 by Satoru Iwata of Nintendo and Tsunekazu Ishihara of The Pokémon Company as an April Fools' Day collaboration with Google, called Pokémon Challenge. From that, Tatsuo Nomura of Google Maps became a senior project manager at Niantic, and was the centre of the project. Niantic used data from its previous 2012 augmented reality game, Ingress, to populate the locations for Pokéstops and gyms within Pokémon Go. The game's soundtrack was written by longtime Pokéman series composer, Junichi Masuda, who also assisted with some of the game's design. In 2015, Ishihara dedicated his speech at the game's announcement on September 10 to Iwata, who had died two months earlier. The decision to create the Go Plus rather than create a smart watch app was to increase uptake among players for whom a smart watch is prohibitively expensive. On March 4, 2016, Niantic announced a Japan-exclusive beta test would begin later that month, allowing players to assist in refining the game before its full release. The beta test was later expanded to other coun- tries. On April 7, it was announced that the beta would expand to Australia and New Zealand. Then, on May 16, the signups for the field test were opened to the United States. The test came to an end on June 30. Real- ly annoying or just good fun?? (Article courtesy of Wikipedia) Blooming Gorgeous!

Spring turning to Summer at Greenacres has seen some beautiful de- velopments in the garden, with blooms and grasses, vegetables and fruit, trees and borders looking better than ever. Clients and staff have been working hard to make what is likely to be our last year working on the gardens at Greenacres a success. A special mention goes to Jac, who has put in many hours and worked tirelessly to make the gardens look as beautiful as they do. If you get a chance, visit the site and have a walk around – it’s well worth the trip! The gardens can be accessed on foot, through the little side gate, at any time whether the main gate is open or closed. Blooming Gorgeous Summer Perseids Star Party – All Invited!

On the evening of 12th August, we will be hosting a Star Party at the Greenacres site in Devizes, watching the Perseids meteor shower. This will be a great opportunity to either drop in or camp over - ‘Star Party’ style – and a chance for anyone to set up with their own observing equipment, or just arrive out of curiosity to come see what other people use and get ideas or suggestions and simply enjoy looking through a variety of optics. Aside from that it should be a good night, if the weather is clear, for the calendar’s most prominent meteor shower. Please contact [email protected] for further information.

SOLAR OBSERVING!

Green Lane, Marshall Road, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 5ER (Sat Nav SN10 5DS) 01380 724833