Repair café, Sun 23 Nov, 2 to 4pm, Village Hall Why not bring your bike for a check over? Or, some clothes you’ve been putting off mending? We will try to mend your household items including electrical and gardening articles, sharpen tools, and fix bikes for free. Come and see what we do. Refreshments available. Donations welcome to cover costs. Thanks to all our volunteers who come to do the repairs. We want to thank Jo Lakeland for initiating repair cafes in Blewbury over s

For the care and maintenance of the Nature Reserve, Quaker Wood and the Chalk Pits, Sustainable Blewbury has acquired two scythes and three other volunteers have their own. We are using them to cut back the rough grassland and vegetation in the Orchard area at the Nature Reserve. We are intending to use them at the Chalk Pits this autumn and in the spring. Why scythe rather than strim? Historically, meadows were cut over weeks which gave a much greater chance for regrowth of

It is now November and autumn on the Reserve. Leaves come in a range of colours and there is a fine crop of hips, haws and sloes.  Bird wise it is relatively quiet, the most obvious signs of life being roaming flocks of long-tailed tits and twittering groups of goldfinches seeking out any remaining seeds in the stands of teazel.  Blue and great tits are active and there are churring wrens and peeping dunnocks low down in the vegetation.  Robins are singing, laying claim to th

MP Watch is an organisation that works to engage MPs in environmental debate and encourage them to join environmental groups such as the Conservative Environment Network, Socialist Environment, Resources Association, Labour Climate and Environmental Forum and UK100. I went to an event in Oxford in September organised by the local group MP Watch Witney featuring a cross-party debate with panellists John Selwyn Gummer, Lord Deben (Conservative peer, formerly MP for Suffolk Coas