QUICK TOUR QUICK TOUR NORDELPH COMMUNITY WEBSITE: February 2009
Unfortunately, circumstances combined to prevent us from updating this site for a period of almost nine months. Our apologies to those who were inconvenienced by this failure, and our thanks to those who continued to submit material and access the material that was there. We are now back!
WHILE WE WERE AWAY ...
While we were away, comprehensive vandalism ruled in our part of the world. Once upon a recent time, the village had one of these:
Admittedly, the one we had wasn't especially convenient -- it was on the edge of the village and there was no safe way of getting to it on foot. But at least we had one, and if we declined to use that one there was a very convenient office in Downham Market railway station. Now there are none of these, and just a single office in Downham, one that you can't park especially close to.
Our irritation at the dismantling of something that should have been celebrated -- a national network of convenient local offices offering necessary services overseen by (generally) well-informed and helpful postmasters was heightened by the way that the closure across the country was handled by the Post Office management. A token period of 'consultation' excited a lot of reaction from communities such as ours, but produced absolutely no change. Most irksome, at the precise time that the Post Office was neutering one of its finest accomplishments, it chose to run a press campaign for its guaranteed delivery services, stressing that successful companies were the ones that looked after their customers!
We should perhaps not be surprised: the PO has form in this area. This was the brilliantly sensitive organisation that decided that 'Post Office' and 'Royal Mail', being accurate and understandable descriptions of what they actually did, should be replaced by the impenetrable 'Consignia'. Customers of what was once Norwich Union and is now becoming Aviva (what?) can only watch in dread.
Meanwhile, we still have one of these (see right). But not for much longer. After a suitable period of 'consultation', this will be removed as well!
We do still have access to postal services in the village, however -- provided you only want them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, between 1100 and 1200, and the weather allows. The new mobile service calls at these times. If you glance to the left, to our index panel, you'll see that we've added that as a new entry. You'll find a description, not only of the mobile post office, but also details of the travelling library service.
Remember that you don't have to read these pages now. You can wait until you've completed the home page and then use our THIS MONTH button to visit all the new pages in sequence.
THE ART OF NORDELPH
Regular visitors to the website will remember Richard Giles, once of this parish but now living in Bad Homburg, Germany. Click on his name above to be taken to his page of reminiscence. Therein, he refers to a painting of High Street that hangs in his office.
We can now reproduce the painting, from the 1980s, thanks to Richard. The present-day view is shown below: it has to be a Winter view, because as soon as these trees are in leaf, the view vanishes. Taken during the February (very) cold snap, this shows Well Creek frozen.
The picture will live permanently in our 'Picture Galleries', accessed through the index panel on the left.
Richard was also entertained by our article in the last update on computer translation of our previous home page. He also spotted an error -- well 'infelicity' really -- that we'd missed. Being a language with more concern for (grammatical) gender than English, German offers a masculine and feminine form of 'parish clerk'. We can only apologise to Ron Stannard that the automatic translation picked the wrong one!
POTTERING ABOUT
These delightful pieces of pottery were created in the latest local business to make use of our free facility to publicise any local enterprise. Bodgers Farm Pottery doesn't simply make and sell pottery -- it also offers tuition and the hire of its facilities. Some more details and a link to the pottery website are accessible by clicking the link above. Among the things you'll discover through diligent pursuit of these leads is just what (or who) a 'bodger' is.
And Bodgers Farm makes use of another of our website's facilities as well. It also offers accommodation, and is now listed in our Where to stay section. We're more than happy to provide free space for any business that is either based in, or useful to, members of our community. Simply request a listing: info@nordelph.org.
FEN FOOD
Now that we're back on track with updates to the website, we've also resumed our journey through the delights of the food that's grown locally. Under 'Fen Food', you'll find the latest entry -- Brussels sprouts. You'll also discover the rather bland reason why they're so called!
FAVOURITE IMAGES
This photograph, is stunningly impresive at full size, as you can see for yourself on the latest favourite image page. It comes with a useful message for digital photographers, only briefly discussed on that page. Peter Cox, webmaster of the Welney web site (www.welney.org.uk) submitted the photograph after experimenting with interchangeable lenses from an earlier, non-digital camera. We're hoping to persuade him to do a fuller write up to add to our digital photography tutorials.
PARISH NEWSLETTER
Those living in the village, rather than accessing it through the web site, have been able to do so through the excellent parish newsletter that should be delivered to every home. Now those of you that aren't local can also get a sight of this. At present, we only have the second issue (from Easter 2008) available but we hope to add to the collection. As well as the link above, you can access the newsletters from the Parish Council page.
Don't forget that you can visit all the pages mentioned above (except for those like the Welney site that do not form part of the Nordelph site) by repeatedly clicking on the 'THIS MONTH button.
THIS MONTH
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