NORDELPH COMMUNITY WEBSITE: APRIL 2006
The observant among you may have noticed one, or possibly two, things slightly different on this page of the website. There's a three-digit number just to the right of the section 'tabs' above. It's a count of the number of visitors to the site since March 3rd. We can't actually tell you what it is at the moment, except that it's above 179, which is the value as we write.
We got the idea from the Welney website www.welney.org.uk, which we monitor constantly for good ideas that we can steal!
Frankly, we are astounded at the size of this number -- there has never been a day with less than 2 visitors, and the maximum at the time of writing is 29. But we also learn a lot about our visitors -- where they come from, what computers they use, which browser and so on. You can read about what we've discovered so far in a new web statistics page in the 'web matters' section.
And we mentioned a second difference? Well, the presence of the counter has thrown out our careful page planning! Some of you may have found an unnecessary horizontal scroll bar at the foot of your browser window. Sorry, we're working on it.
Fen Food
We've made another website change this month. Our 'vegetable of the month' column was sharing its 'master page' with our collection of recipes. When we wanted to spend the next twelve months adding some information about what's in season, and what's coming up, we needed some space to put it. From this month, clicking Fen Food in the index will take you to the local fruit and vegetables master page. A new index entry, Fen Cooking takes you to the recipes. There are no new recipes on the site (yet), but our F&V correspondent has heeded our pleas to feature a vegetable we've actually heard of, and this month you can learn more than you wanted to know about the parsnip. And on the master page, you'll find the beginnings of our seasonal calendar, with what's good in April.
Popham's Eau
A number of good folk and true set to work on clearing the plantation area near Popham's Eau in the middle of March. To find out how they got on, and to see more photographs go to our report of the conservation activities.
As a result of the work so far, there will be a meeting in Nordelph Village Hall on Wednesday 5th April at 7.00, to discuss the future development of this village amenity.
Holley and Holly
There's a further contribution -- our eleventh -- to the 'Favourite Images' section. So far, most of these have come from people associated with Nordelph, but this latest contribution is from someone that we interact with in a professional way that has nothing to do with the village. Matthew Holley works in the media; if you want to see more examples of his photography, visit his personal website.
And sorry about this, but we really can't resist word-play! There's a fresh entry in our 'Trade Directory' -- most of you will have seen Holly Landscapes around the village, not least because they currently have the contract for maintaining the public areas of the community. They're happy to advertise on the website, and might be useful for those of you who are viewing the imminent growing season with some trepidation.
Parish Council
There's a lot of new material in our 'Parish Council' section. After the recent Parish Assembly, you can access the Minutes of the 2005 Assembly, and the Report of the 2006 Assembly. There's also the Minutes of the January Council Meeting, and very shortly a Report of the March meeting. This latter is not in place yet as we update the site, but we'll put it in place as soon as we can.
Finally
If, like so many of us, you're fascinated by steam railways, there's an opportunity to see the locomotive pictured below (an LNER B11 4-6-0 61264, for those of us to whom these words are poetry) when it hauls an excursion train 'The Fenman' through Downham Market on Monday 1st May. For full details of its travels click here to see the full advertisement, or contact the Railway Touring Company (Kings Lynn based) on www.railwaytouring.co.uk. If you just want to see and smell steam, the train passes South through Downham at around 10.45. Enjoy!
