Newslette r

August 2020

Newsletter Newsletter Heyshott Village

Harriet Ivison writes ‘During ‘lockdown’ I (like many oth-ers) felt restless and unsure of how to help during the pan-demic. I wasn’t able to work or volunteer because I was shielding, so instead I raised money for CLIC Sargent (a charity who helped me enor-mously during my transplant)

by making 1000 origami cranes and forming them into a large mobile.

According to ancient Japa-nese legend, it was believed that if one fold-ed 1000 origami cranes, one's wish would come true.

It has also become a symbol of hope and healing during challeng-ing times.

I have arranged my cranes in a rainbow pat-tern because they have become a mark of cour-age and support during our time of quarantine. They are now hanging in Heyshott church for you to enjoy.

Thank you to you all in Heyshott for supporting my challenge, both through kind words and donations to Clic Sargent. You raised over £1000 to support young people facing cancer.

Thank you Harriet.

Richard Cobden 1804-1865

Heyshott Parish Council https://heyshott.org.uk/

Congratulations Harriet

SUMMER SHOW 2016!

Page 2 Newsletter

Computer Corner Graheme

Wilson's Computer Hints, Tips and Traps

Wild Life Camera

Beyond Lock Down

Some kinds of wildlife have enjoyed a bonanza in recent months. They have exploited the right to explore new territo-ries free from human interven-tion. On the other hand the seagulls have had a lean time of it. The birds that used to feed on seasiders cast off food or those bolder birds that helped themselves to chips straight from the paper have gone hungry.

Life at Home

Stuck at home in the house or garden there is no need to look for wildlife. Here in our pleas-ant rural setting animals and birds come to visit us. As well as our daylight visitors there are also the nocturnal callers, all of these can be photo-graphed with the Raspberry PI camera.

Casing The Camera

The first task is to make sure that the PI is secure in a water-proof casing. I bought a couple on eBay to test them outside. I wanted to make sure that they would protect my PI before mounting it in the case.

The camera connects directly to the PI via a ribbon cable. I bought a longer cable as the cable supplied with the camera was too short.

Day Or Night

There are two three types of camera to choose from. The original PI camera is a day camera with a lower resolution than the camera 2. The cam-era 2 is available in day or night models. The night model

needs a circle of LEDs around it to allow it to see in the dark.

Wireless or Cabled

The PI models from version 3 onwards have Wi-Fi built in, earlier models need a USB dongle to provide the same capabilities. If you are using Wi-Fi the location of the broad-band modem in the house will dictate where in the garden you can install your camera. However you can extend the range with a repeater. This picks up your broadband signal and rebroadcasts it to improve the reception.

The other requirement is a power supply. The PI needs 5V. A rechargeable battery can easily handle this modest pow-er supply.

f you use cable instead then you will need some Category 5 network cable. The PI 2 & 3 both have a socket for a net-work connector. The camera can be as far away from the modem as your cable can reach. The power supply cable and the network cable can be house in plastic conduit to pro-tect them from the weather.

Storing the Pictures

You can set the PI to generate video or images at a time to suit you.

Depending on your camera type and camera settings the PI will generate a lot of pic-tures, typically 7GB to 13GB for a picture every two seconds for one and a half hours. The PI has its own storage but this will quickly become exhausted. It is much better to store the pictures on an external hard disk drive. 4TB of hard disk storage will cost around £90. This will be ample for most requirements.

Conclusion

Don't let wild life pass you by. There are badgers, foxes and deer out there foraging, waiting to make a guest appearance on your lens, maybe faeries, elves and gnomes as well! Find out for yourself for a small outlay.

Cobden Hall Talks Following last Winter’s very suc-cessful series of Talks in the Cob-den Hall arrangements are already underway for a similar programme for the Winter months to come. The first talk is scheduled to be take place on 22 Septem-ber. The speaker will be Bob Con-standuros and his subject will be ‘Goodwood - including the family, the airfield, the motor racing circuit and a certain amount about the horse race track’. If we’re still for-bidden to gather for an occasion like this we will simply roll the pro-gramme of talks forward in to the New Normal World that awaits us.

SUMMER

SHOW

2016!

WE LOOK

FORWARD

TO THE

SUMMER

SHOW 2021!

Page 3

Farm News. Coming out of lockdown.

Those looking skywards on the morning of July 8, sniff-ing the air to see if there was likely to be any play on the first day of the Test Match at Southampton, might have been surprised to see 100 Swifts flying southwards over our village. This was proba-bly the beginning of the re-turn migration, only a little earlier than the usual mid July departure. Yet the small colonies in Petworth and Singleton seemed unaffect-ed by this departure. Swifts are however notoriously sen-sitive to a drop in air temper-

ature, and it is perfectly logi-cal for the more northerly nesters to begin their return flight earlier than those nest-ing in our milder southern climes. Meanwhile, avid readers of the website of the Sussex Wildlife Trust will have seen a note by Glenn Norris la-menting the ‘physical and mental fortitude’ expended searching for the ‘delicate and unexpectedly difficult to find’ Musk Orchid. Musk Orchid spikes are small and their greenish colour camou-flages them well in their grassland habitats, but the colony on Heyshott Escarpment close to the flint heart is a reliable site (indeed probably the best in Sussex) for this Na-tionally Scarce orchid. Its scent has been described as ‘sweet honey’; this is per-haps a little flattering, but

nevertheless there is a scent which justifies the genuflex-ion needed to get down to its source. It continues to flower into the first half of August and conditions remain good for a rewarding search. It is of course not necessary to climb the Escarpment to discover orchids in Heyshott. The Village Green supports Early-purple Orchids, Green-winged Orchids and Com-mon Spotted-orchids in the late Spring and early sum-mer. All 3 of these species

can also be found in some Heyshott gar-dens - indeed the Green-winged Orchid is best known locally for its flourishing in one carefully tended Heyshott gar-den. To these 3 ‘garden’ spe-cies must now be added a fourth, the Southern

Marsh-orchid. As its name implies, this impressive tall orchid flour-ishes best in wet meadows, and it has found its way to the edge of a garden pond in Heyshott. But this species is by no means restricted to wet habitats - it is widely, albeit sparsely, distributed across West Sussex and has been known to appear irreg-ularly at the top of Heyshott Down. The Sussex Wildlife Trust lays claim to the presence of 23 orchid species across its 22 Nature Reserves. In Heyshott we can ourselves lay claim to 13 species which can be seen regularly every year. Unfortunately the pan-demic led to the cancellation of this year’s Heyshott Or-chid Walk. We trust that nor-mal service will be resumed in 2021. Nick Sherwin

Heyshott’s Nature Notes

We've come out of lockdown not feeling any different than when we went in, except more grateful for friends around us, including the Heyshott Angels. I suppose we live in a world of our own anyway as farmers do: used to working alone and be-ing mostly independent.

We couldn't have been without the Graffham shop in the begin-ning, however, or in our case the online supermarket, Ocado where Richard's immobility gave us one advantage of being pri-oritised for booking slots. Unlike some people we certainly were-n't bored: stuck to our routine, up at 7, breakfast, phone calls, nap (Richard) exercises or walk if fine outside, lunch, nap (Richard), Tramper ride if fine, walk indoors or paper work if not. So it goes on .... Not so enjoyable, looking out onto the fallow fields which the contractors sub soiled and culti-vated for the second time in preparation for autumn planting of wheat. At least the fields are having a rest and the black-grass and mares tail is not get-ting a hold. All they need is a fine autumn. Remember last year's rain, rain, rain?

For Andrew at Leggs Farm lock-down didn't make any difference either. He made some good hay and still had some to do when he made a start cutting winter barley on the hill, on the western side of the farm. We say made a start as he had to stop - it wouldn't thrash. i.e. the awn (the long, prickly bits envel-oping the grain) wouldn't come off. Everyone cutting barley has the same problem but they don't know why, said Andrew. Rain delayed him trying again but at least it was a useful amount for Richard's maize which had turned slightly blue - a sign it was drying out. A good thing, too, for his grassland, cut twice for haylage and going strong for a third time, maybe. Something the contractors won't encounter on Manor Farm, vast swathes of ragwort. Not all of it

will be pulled up by the roots as it should be but it is cut down before it can seed everywhere. On driving out of Heyshott (it's becoming more commonplace now!) the ragwort growing on the roadside where trees have been felled is a disgrace. Any volunteer ragwort slayers?

An anecdote recalled by Rich-ard (one of many, farmers have such a store) when reminded of the hill field Andrew was com-bining: forty five years ago it was part of the Manor Farm tenancy. The combine then was a Ransome Cavalier and it wouldn't start. Giving that it was on a hill what better way to get it going but to bump start it. He remembers it rearing up, almost tipping over before bursting into life. They kept it running all day and then Richard drove it all the way to Elsted in the dark for it to be fixed by Maxwells, the engi-neers. It actually had lights. But that's another sto-ry .....

During lockdown it was such a good feeling to do someone a favour like sharing seeds, plants etc. One favour returned from neighbour Magda - a lemon tree, admittedly only an inch high which she started off from a pip.

Apparently there's a lot of inter-est with people wanting to move into the countryside so imagine our amusement to be asked if we would like to sell the house. The letter came from the Petworth office of Savills, the Cowdray Estate's Agents!

Sue

Southern Musk orchid

SUMMER SHOW 2016!

Chris Boxley 1 Pinewood Court

Church Road West Lavington

GU29 0EH

Editor

Phone: 01730 814405

E-mail: boxley@talktalk.net

Material for the

September 2020

edition to reach

Chris Boxley by

20th August please

The Unicorn Inn

01730 813486

The Unicorn is

Reopening

Saturday 1st August

After our forced shutdown on March

20th, the Unicorn will be reopened on

Saturday 1st August. Due to the current

situation we urge you to book, even if

just for drinks, to help us make sure

there’s plenty of socially distance

space.

HEYSHOTT LUNCH

CLUB

The next Lunch Club Date is Wednesday 19th

August 2020

We will be serving

Cottage Pie followed by

Apple Fool.

Booking is essential—the

numbers are limited to en-

sure social distancing.

We are aware that many might not like to

come and mix in these times and we will be

making takeaways.

If you are planning to attend, it would be ever

so helpful if you could contact us at the Uni-

corn, so we are able to determine numbers.

Bonfire

Cancelled

2020

Like a lot of things this year, we

have decided to cancel this year’s

Heyshott Bonfire. As a committee

we do not feel that the event can

proceed safely in the current cli-

mate.

We look forward to a bumper year

2021!