Debenham Library Update February 2021

See www.suffolklibraries.co.uk/coronavirus for the latest details

From 15 February libraries will reopen for Select and Collect service and reservations so that people can request and pick up items from their library.

There will be no rush to bring items back as loan periods will again be extended and charges suspended. Browsing inside libraries and the use of computers will remain unavailable for the time being. The mobile library services and home library service will also remain suspended for now.

As always our plans are dependent on any changes in infection rates or government guidance.

At Debenham the garden outside the library has been receiving attention, and we have planted primulas in the letters SRH cut in the grass beside the drive. We hope they will still be there when you visit, despite the snow and cold!

For free audiobooks, ebooks, films and other services, use your library card at  www.suffolklibraries.co.uk. There are also podcasts and videos available on the YouTube channel www.youtube.com/user/SuffolkLibraries.

  • Book ahead to use a computer: phone or email the library; or just turn up. Printing, faxing and photocopying are also available.
  •   We have reintroduced charges for overdue items. This will only apply to items borrowed on or after Monday 5 October which are due back on 2 November onwards. Library loan periods will remain at four weeks.
  •   We have also reintroduced charges for DVDs.

School corner, Debenham IP14 6PL (next to the Primary School). Opening hours:

Tuesday:     0930 am – 1300 pm        Wednesday : 1500  – 1930 pm

Saturday:     0900 am – 1300 pm        Sunday:         1200 – 1600 pm

Tel: 01728 861940      www.suffolklibraries.co.uk/visit/locations-and-times/debenham-library
Facebook: @DebenhamLibraryFriends          Email: debenham.library@suffolklibraries.co.uk

Dan Poulter February 2021

Content from Dr Dan Poulter MP                                                         01 February 2021

Having been contacted by a number of parents and schools concerned about the disparity of higher needs education funding here in Suffolk compared to our neighbouring counties, I have urged the Education Secretary to urgently review Suffolk’s funding allocation and to level up education funding for our children and young people. 

I share the concerns of parents and schools and I am growing increasingly concerned that without a meaningful injection of cash, many of Suffolk’s children risk losing out on their fair share.  We already know that Suffolk is facing a substantial increase in the number of children and young people in need of additional support, yet rates for special school places in the county are significantly below those of our neighbours.

Suffolk children and Suffolk schools deserve better and at the very least, a level playing field.  The current funding allocation is not right and nor is it fair and this is why I have written to the Secretary of State setting out the case for Suffolk and requesting that his Department levels up Suffolk’s SEND funding to secure a fairer future for our brilliant children and young people.

Although our schools currently remain closed under the current restrictions, I have been heartened to hear of the innovative examples of home learning, both from parents and our teachers.  That said, home learning cannot take the place of being in class for face to face teaching and I remain hopeful that our schools can begin to return in early March.

Ahead of our schools returning, the Government continues to make great progress with the vaccination programme and I am continuing to press the case with the Vaccination Minister and local health leaders to make sure that Suffolk residents are invited to receive their vaccine just as soon as is practicably possible. 

As more and more of us receive the vaccine, light is very definitely at the end of the tunnel with many millions of people having being vaccinated across the country.  This is a fantastic achievement and my thanks go to all who have been involved in co-ordinating the herculean effort of rolling out the vaccination programme. 

We still have some way to go and cannot rest on our laurels, so it remains vital that we all continue to play our part in helping to stop the spread of COVID.  We mustn’t drop our guard now when we have come so far and the end goal is in sight.  The single most important action we can all take is to follow the guidance to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.

Notes from The Cart track

NOTES FROM THE CART TRACK   January 13th 2021

The first ten days of the new decade has given us a little frost, rain, fog and sunshine but no gales yet.  At least leaving the European Union has not removed the variable British weather that we know and love!  As one who did not want to leave, I must say that I am very relieved that even a poor deal has been struck and we must now all forget what has been in the past and make the best of what is to come.  Some of the changes will be to our advantage, some will not.  It seems that leisure travel will be messier which may result in more people staying in the UK.  I hope that will not mean that our Suffolk roads will become much busier.  A brief Sunday trip to North Norfolk, in our motor home last July, was so dire because of congestion on the narrow lanes, that Stonham Aspal seemed the best place around for leisure activities.  It would appear that the quantity of folks walking, cycling, running and riding the footpaths on the farm since last March would indicate that others have the same idea.

Since the last notes, the only work done on the land has been to mark out the cover crops ready for spraying off before spring sowing and to drill our neighbours ex-sugar beet land with wheat.  Conditions have been too wet to sow our two fields at Crowfield with oats.  If the land remains saturated  for the next month, that plan will have to be abandoned and beans put in instead.  Spraying off the cover crops will be a challenge.  They have grown very well through the wet warm autumn to the extent that, had the mixture been one we could harvest in some way, we would be highly delighted.  We now have to spray them with a hefty dose of round-up which needs a dry leaf to stick to.  Rather difficult to achieve with the very lush phacelia shielding the rye underneath.  Dry days in February tend to be accompanied by strong wind.  Not ideal spraying weather.

Many sugar beet growers this year had the worst crops they have grown for many seasons.  Partly due to unfavourable weather conditions but also to the ban on neonicotinoid seed dressings which were used to protect the crop from aphid attack.  Aphids carry a virus which infects the plant with ‘sugar beet yellows’.  Many crops this year were badly affected and the sugar content was anything up to 25% less.  In some cases crops could have become unprofitable which in a high value crop like beet is very serious both to British Sugar ad the grower.  So neonics are being allowed again for one year but with stringent rules.  If a grower uses a neonic seed dressing on beet no flowering crop, such as beans, peas, linseed or a bird/pollinator mix can be grown for two year and no rape for 3 years on that field.  The powers that be are obviously not going to allow us to protect our rape crops in this way.   I have to say that I am very concerned about being pushed into using several doses of a kill all pyrethroid insecticide to try and protect the rape. This does not feel like sustainable farming.  Let’s hope that a better way can be found to grow a good safe oil producing crop for the UK

David Tydeman

Stonham Aspal Church

…… in line with Government instructions

OUR CHURCH BUILDINGS ARE CLOSED

except for Private Prayer, but the church community continues to flourish….on line….

ROTA OF SERVICES FOR FEBRUARY 2021 

ALL THE SERVICES ARE BENEFICE SERVICES ON ZOOM.

CHURCH BUILDINGS ARE OPEN FOR PRIVATE PRAYER ONLY.

To attend Zoom services please email reader.ruthdennigan@gmail.com at least 2 days beforehand and Ruth will send you an email with the link. You can ask for the link for just one service, or to be added to her list and receive the link for all future Zoom services.

Wednesday 3 February

 9.00amOnline ZoomMorning Prayer 

Friday 5 February

 6.30pmOnline ZoomEvening Prayer 

Sunday 7 February: 2nd Sunday before Lent

G9.30am  Online Zoom  Morning Worship  Proverbs 8. 1, 22-31 Colossians 1. 15-20 John1. 1-14

Wednesday 10 February

 9.00amOnline ZoomMorning Prayer 

Friday 12 February

 6.30pmOnline ZoomEvening Prayer 

Sunday 14 February: Sunday before Lent

G9.30am  Online Zoom  Morning Worship Kagera2 Kings 2. 1-12 2 Corinthians 4. 3-6 Mark 9. 2-9

Wednesday 17 February: Ash Wednesday

P7.00pmOnline ZoomReflective ServiceIsaiah 58. 1-12 2 Corinthians 5. 20b-6.10 John 8. 1-11

Friday 19 February

 6.30pmOnline ZoomEvening Prayer 

Sunday 21 February: Lent 1

P9.30am  Online Zoom  Morning Worship  Genesis 9. 8-17 1 Peter 3. 18-22 Mark 1. 9-15

Tuesday 23 February

 7.30pmOnline ZoomLent Group 

Wednesday 24 February

 9.00am 10.00amOnline Zoom Online ZoomMorning Prayer Lent Group 

Friday 26 February

 6.30pmOnline ZoomCompline 

Sunday 28 February: Lent 2

P9.30am  Online Zoom  Morning Worship  Genesis 17. 1-7, 15-16 Romans 4. 13-25 Mark 8. 31-38  

These services are correct at the time of going to press but there may be some changes.

Please check on the weekly notice sheet.

CHURCHES OPEN FOR PRIVATE PRAYER ONLY

Coddenham:           Thursdays 8am – 5pm

Creeting St Mary:    Sundays 2pm-4pm

Creeting St Peter:    Sundays 10am-3pm

Crowfield:               Sundays 10am-4pm

Earl Stonham:      Sundays 12pm-4pm

Gosbeck:                Wednesdays and Sundays 9am-6pm

Hemingstone:         Every day

Stonham Aspal:       Sundays 10am-4pm

FROM THE RECTORY – A BEAUTIFUL DAY

It has been a wonderful day.  White frost glistened in the golden sunlight.  Trees, dripping melting ice, stood boldly against a clear wintry-blue sky.  Birds busied themselves, no doubt making the most of the sun’s warmth after a miserable few days.  Although the thermometer read zero, there was a feeling of warmth in the sunlit air.  As we took our regulation walk, the beauty of it all lifted our spirits, and the spirits of all who we met on our travels.

It is not only the sun which brings beauty and lifts the spirits.  In recent days a new neighbour has moved in.  Looking up from my desk one recent morning I saw on the drive, wings outstretched and with the sunlight catching on his rich brown coat, a kestrel; just a few yards from the study window.  Our seventh winter; and although we often see kestrels in the fields this is the first time that we have seen one in the Rectory garden.  He (or she we’re not sure which) has visited several times since then.  The kestrel is not the only new arrival.  Migrant blackbirds have arrived in force.  Every year in autumn, we gather windfall fruit around the base of our mighty pear tree.  There it gently ferments until the blackbirds arrive, then swiftly it vanishes.

Now all is quiet.  The mist has risen, the sky turns grey and the temperature is falling; night will soon be upon us.  The daily news remains gloomy, the depths of winter are probably still to come but everywhere we look; across the garden and in the fields around us, there are signs of new life.  One swallow may not a summer make (and the swallows are still many months away) but a day like today lifts the soul.   The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. (Psalm 24:1).  Thank God that he shares its’ beauty with us.

Rev Philip

February 2021

Notes from the cart track – January 2021

The first ten days of the new decade has given us a little frost, rain, fog and sunshine but no gales yet. At least leaving the European Union has not removed the variable British weather that we know and love! As one who did not want to leave, I must say that I am very relieved that even a poor deal has been struck and we must now all forget what has been in the past and make the best of what is to come. Some of the changes will be to our advantage, some will not. It seems that leisure travel will be messier which may result in more people staying in the UK. I hope that will not mean that our Suffolk roads will become much busier. A brief Sunday trip to North Norfolk, in our motor home last July, was so dire because of congestion on the narrow lanes, that Stonham Aspal seemed the best place around for leisure activities. It would appear that the quantity of folks walking, cycling, running and riding the footpaths on the farm since last March would indicate that others have the same idea.

Since the last notes, the only work done on the land has been to mark out the cover crops ready for spraying off before spring sowing and to drill our neighbours ex-sugar beet land with wheat. Conditions have been too wet to sow our two fields at Crowfield with oats. If the land remains saturated for the next month, that plan will have to be abandoned and beans put in instead. Spraying off the cover crops will be a challenge. They have grown very well through the wet warm autumn to the extent that, had the mixture been one we could harvest in some way, we would be highly delighted. We now have to spray them with a hefty dose of round-up which needs a dry leaf to stick to. Rather difficult to achieve with the very lush phacelia shielding the rye underneath. Dry days in February tend to be accompanied by strong wind. Not ideal spraying weather.
Many sugar beet growers this year had the worst crops they have grown for many seasons.

Partly due to unfavourable weather conditions but also to the ban on neonicotinoid seed dressings which were used to protect the crop from aphid attack. Aphids carry a virus which infects the plant with ‘sugar beet yellows’. Many crops this year were badly affected and the sugar content was anything up to 25% less. In some cases crops could have become unprofitable which in a high value crop like beet is very serious both to British Sugar ad the grower. So neonics are being allowed again for one year but with stringent rules. If a grower uses a neonic seed dressing on beet no flowering crop, such as beans, peas, linseed or a bird/pollinator mix can be grown for two year and no rape for 3 years on that field. The powers that be are obviously not going to allow us to protect our rape crops in this way. I have to say that I am very concerned about being pushed into using several doses of a kill all pyrethroid insecticide to try and protect the rape. This does not feel like sustainable farming.

Let’s hope that a better way can be found to grow a good safe oil producing crop for the UK
David Tydeman

Mickfield Evangelical Church January 2020

We’re all living in this same situation. We’re all trying to live our day-to-day lives. We’re all having to make difficult decisions. How does a Christian view what’s going on?

For what it’s worth here’s a few ways we approach the virus:

First up, we’re not surprised, but saddened. Sorry if that sounds glib. Or trite. It’s not meant to be. As Christian’s we believe that the world is fundamentally good. It’s God’s good creation. But it’s become a fallen and broken world. So, we know that we will experience illness, viruses, and sadness. And we are deeply moved and saddened by all that’s happening. It’s affected us personally in a variety of ways. Covid-19 is a particularly nasty virus. Perhaps you’ve felt that sense that this isn’t how life should be? That It’s just, not right? We’d agree. The world is not as it should be. It’s good, but broken. It’s beautiful, but disfigured. All at the same time.

Next, we’re not passive, but active. I hope. As Christian’s we can’t just say “oh well never mind”. The bible teaches us to take great care around human life. To love our neighbour. To take steps to protect other people. To care for the vulnerable and needy in our society. We applaud our emergency services, our NHS, carers, all sorts of key workers and frontline health care professionals and so on. They do a fantastic job. We have a number of NHS workers in our church. And other key workers. Jesus came into our world of sadness’s and illnesses and viruses and had compassion on people. He healed people. He spent time with people. As a church, we’re being cautious and careful regarding all the basics of social distancing, hygiene, ventilation and so on. Currently we’re open on a Sunday for a very short, 30min, small-scale outdoor service. All our other meetings are held on Zoom. This situation is evolving all the time. We may find ourselves closed again. And as individuals, like you, we’re doing what we can to help others.

Finally, perhaps most importantly, we’re not hopeless but hopeful. Personally, I have great confidence in the vaccine programme, and I hope that the lock-down and warmer weather will combine with this, alongside the valiant efforts of the NHS. And I hope the summer will bring better times. But I have a hope that isn’t built on my next holiday, or the NHS or the vaccine or even the total removal of Covid-19 from our lives. My hope is grounded in something much more secure. Something outside of all this. Something much more certain. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus. My solid foundation for life is this: that because he conquered death, I can have forever life. Ultimately that’s what gets me out of bed in the morning. That’s what’s getting me through this crisis. That’s something that nothing and no-one can take away. 

Rich T

Stonham Aspal Village Survey

Have your say!
Our Parish Survey is now available, please take a few moments to complete the survey, this will let the Parish Council know what is important to you.
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Village Facebook page name: Stonham Aspal Village, Suffolk
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Paper Copy
To request a paper copy, please email: sapc.clerk@yahoo.co.uk or call Alison on 07711019848.

FROM THE RECTORY – FEBRUARY 2021

From The Rectory – A Beautiful Day

It has been a wonderful day.  White frost glistened in the golden sunlight.  Trees, dripping melting ice, stood boldly against a clear wintry-blue sky.  Birds busied themselves, no doubt making the most of the sun’s warmth after a miserable few days.  Although the thermometer read zero, there was a feeling of warmth in the sunlit air.  As we took our regulation walk, the beauty of it all lifted our spirits, and the spirits of all who we met on our travels.

It is not only the sun which brings beauty and lifts the spirits.  In recent days a new neighbour has moved in.  Looking up from my desk one recent morning I saw on the drive, wings outstretched and with the sunlight catching on his rich brown coat, a kestrel; just a few yards from the study window.  Our seventh winter; and although we often see kestrels in the fields this is the first time that we have seen one in the Rectory garden.  He (or she we’re not sure which) has visited several times since then.  The kestrel is not the only new arrival.  Migrant blackbirds have arrived in force.  Every year in autumn, we gather windfall fruit around the base of our mighty pear tree.  There it gently ferments until the blackbirds arrive, then swiftly it vanishes.

Now all is quiet.  The mist has risen, the sky turns grey and the temperature is falling; night will soon be upon us.  The daily news remains gloomy, the depths of winter are probably still to come but everywhere we look; across the garden and in the fields around us, there are signs of new life.  One swallow may not a summer make (and the swallows are still many months away) but a day like today lifts the soul.   The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. (Psalm 24:1).  Thank God that he shares its’ beauty with us.

Rev Philip

February 2021

Dr Dan Poulter MP January 2021

02 January 2021

At the time of my writing, the Prime Minister has addressed the nation once more and we find ourselves living under further restrictions, with the current advice being to stay at home to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Whilst there is no doubt that in fighting the old variant of the virus, our collective efforts were working, but we now face the added challenge of the new strain of the virus, which is between 50% and 70% more transmissible. This new strain has led to a rapid surge in infections, hospital admissions and increased case rates across the country, including here in Suffolk.

If we are to protect our NHS and in turn, ourselves and our loved ones, we must all play our part and follow the guidance so that our NHS can focus on the herculean task of delivering the critical vaccination programme. It is the vaccination that will finally free us from this virus and the restrictions it brings to all our daily lives

Vaccinations have already begun here in Suffolk and I have been lobbying Ministers and Public Health colleagues to ensure that we have adequate site provision here in Central Suffolk and North Ipswich. Our public health team and NHS colleagues here in Suffolk are working tirelessly to deliver the vaccines as quickly and efficiently as possible, to those most in need and I would echo their plea to ask residents not to block phone lines to GP surgeries or hospitals enquiring about when the vaccine might be available – residents will be contacted directly, in turn, and invited to attend their nearest site for vaccination.

Whilst I and indeed, our Prime Minister, understand just how frustrating this latest lockdown is, it is vital that we all continue to take the necessary precautions to protect ourselves and those most vulnerable in our communities and to slow the spread of the virus.  Again, I would like to thank each and every one of you who are continuing to play your part and following the rules – we’re all in this together and the sooner we stick with it, the sooner we can start to return to normal.

It is vital that throughout lockdown, we continue to protect jobs and our local economy, and the Chancellor has unveiled further financial support for businesses and individuals.  Locally, the Suffolk Support and Advice Line can help with financial and employment advice – 0800 068 3131.  In addition, the Home But Not Alone free phoneline, supporting the most vulnerable in our communities is available via 0800 876 6926. Both lines are staffed from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

As your MP, I shall always work hard for the people of Central Suffolk and North Ipswich and if there is anything I can help with, please get in touch via www.drdanielpoulter.co.uk