Tag: #LoveYourNeighbours

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A big Harvest Thank You to the 1st Ash Vale Beavers!

The Ash Villages Food Parcels Project team would like to say a big THANK YOU to the lovely 1st Ash Vale Beavers! We are super grateful for all your wonderful donations, which filled up the donation boxes at St Mary’s on Tuesday.

All these things that you donated will go out in the Food Bank parcels next week, and make a big difference to local families in need of a bit of help at this time.

It was great fun visiting you too, and we discovered that you are all very good at Kims Game! You remembered lots of the things we had in the food parcel box. I wonder if your friends in the Monday group will enjoy this game too?

Thank you too for the beautiful Harvest pictures. We will be sure to display them as part of the Harvest decorations at St Mary’s. The church is celebrating Harvest Festival on Sunday 6th Otober this year, all welcome at the 10:30 service, and we will have refreshments afterwards. Those of you who like to get creative are welcome to come and help decorate the church on the Saturday morning too, it’s lots of fun! See you there.

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Neighbourly Reflections

Before lockdown I was very much challenged by a talk at church about how we can love our neighbours; and in fact asking whether we even know any of them. We were asked if we took note of who moved in and if we welcomed people into the street. Jesus was big on telling people to love their neighbour, but I’ve never really looked at it terms of the people in my street – I’ve always seen my neighbour as relating to the people I work with, the parents of my children’s friends etc, because I spend time with those people. We don’t tend to have connections with neighbours other than living next door and sharing a hedge/fence! So the challenge was a good one …. and then lockdown happened!

We have lived in our current house for 24 years and in Ash Vale for 34 years since our marriage. We know our immediate neighbours but have not spoken to many of the others in the street for most of that time – even though there have been comings and goings along the road over the years. I guess the reason I have always used is that our street has only got houses on one side of the road – we can’t look in neighbours’ windows and be nosy! And it makes things a little less easy to connect with those we live side by side with. When we went into lockdown, to my shame I did not dash along to all the neighbours and check that they were all OK – I have followed the isolation rules as was demanded because we have an elderly relative that we have ‘bubbled’ with and so we were not involved with other community initiatives during lockdown. Covid has thrown us all onto a new horizon; giving us new ways of looking at our locality; making us re-evaluate how we work and how we connect with friends and our neighbours. We did become acquainted with one or two via a nod and a ‘Hello!’ as we walked past on our way to pick up shopping from the Village, but that’s about as far as it went.

As the restrictions started to lift in April and May, we started to think outwards again and realised that over lockdown there had been three houses in our little patch alone that had sold and now had new people settling in. Having two sons who also moved during lockdown I appreciate just how difficult a thing it has been for people to move and find out about a locality in these times of restrictions. So things had to change – I no longer wanted to be an ostrich. The best way I know of connecting with people is through food, so we decided to hold a cream tea in the garden which we could do within the restrictions. We hand delivered invitations and invited all the neighbours in the small section of street near our home – about 10 invites in all – and waited. Even though we had left it really late to invite people, we got responses almost straight away and had about 8 families accept the invitation. I was very pleased. The day we chose to host our cream tea was one of the hottest in the late Spring which meant that we could all gather in our shady garden and drink tea, prosecco, wine and eat scones to our hearts content; but more importantly it connected all the households who came together. People were initially hesitant, but by the time the afternoon ended everyone knew who each other was  and which house they lived in. It was the first event of what I hope will be a continuing trend – how can we progress this? How can we really be neighbours to our neighbours?

How have you connected with your neighbours this last 18 months? I would love to know other peoples’ experiences – I want to pick up creative ways to be a good neighbour – to do what Jesus told me to do.

By Jackie Scott

Do you have a story about how you got to know your neighbours, or people being neighbourly? The Parishioner would love to hear from you. parishioner@ash-vale.org.uk

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Help is at hand! Useful numbers

Here are some of the useful numbers you may need if you need support in Ash Vale. If you think we are missing a number please let us know.

Local Churches:

St Mary’s, Ash Vale – 07863 311165 (Parish Administrator’s Mobile)

The Chapel, Ash Vale –  07730 609446 (Project Manager’s Mobile)

St Peter’s, Ash – 01252 331161

Holy Angels, Ash – 01252 321422

St Paul’s, Tongham – 01252 782790

Local help and support during the Covid-19 crisis:

Ash, Ash Vale & Ash Green Coronavirus Support group (volunteers doing shopping & prescription runs & emergency food parcels)  – 07843 489796

Ash Parish Council – 01252 328 287

Ash Citizens Advice  –  01252 315569 or 01252 314711

Ash Vale Health Centre – 01252 317551 (Out of hours phone 111, in an emergency dial 999)

Guildford Borough Council Covid-19 Community Helpline – 01483 444400

Community Wellbeing Team – 07769 642053 / 07901 513652

Safe & Settled Team  – 01483 444476 for those needing help at home on arriving back from hospital or needing some help to manage at home.

If you need to talk to someone : national helplines

Samaritans (24/7 service) – 116 123 or text SHOUT 85258

National Domestic Abuse Helpline – 0808 2000 247    www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk/ (run by Refuge)
The Men’s Advice Line, for male domestic abuse survivors – 0808 801 0327
The Mix, free information/support for under 25s in the UK – 0808 808 4994
National LGBT+ Domestic Abuse Helpline – 0800 999 5428

PAPYRUS—Young suicide prevention society,  0800 068 4141

Childline for children 0800 1111

Alcoholics Anonymous—0800 917 7650 (24/7)

Narcotics Anonymous—0300 999 1212

Cruse Bereavement Care— 0808 808 1677

Contacting The Parishioner:

Call Alex (Ed) 07730 609446 in the first instance and she will put you in touch with the right volunteer. parishioner@ash-vale.org.uk

Donations: Did you know? You can now ’give a little’ online to support St Mary’s Church and all the work we do. We very much need and appreciate your support in these difficult times. https://givealittle.co/campaigns/e912dae4-3af1-4453-99dc-0330f32faf15 Thank you!

Which is your favourite egg? I rather like this one! – Ed

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Sheep Trail List (send yours in today!) #AshValeSheepTrail

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who took part in the Sheep Trail! We had a lovely time and we hope you did too. 💕🐑 The trail is now closed, but let us know which was your favourite sheep, we have a little prize for them! 🙂 text 07730609446

Can you find all these sheep? Why not see if you can find them all this half term? We have also hidden 17 sheep in the Parishioner Magazine, you can pick up a paper copy of it at St Mary’s.

  • Boaz & Ruth – You will find us in Alder Close, Avondale
  • Lamby – looking out from a window upstairs, Vale Croft, Lysons Avenue, by Ash Vale train station roundabout.
  • Shawn Minerva gilderoy – 362 Vale Road
  • Joshua (blue) Alex (red) Lulu (cuddly sheep) – Coverack, Horseshoe Lane GU12 5LL 
  • Shaun – White Lodge, Wentworth crescent. (Private road part. The big old White House as you turn in) 
  • Sheep – 67 Wentworth crescent
  • Delores – 42 Wentworth Crescent, GU12 5LE 
  • Maisy and Lewis – 19 Wentworth Crescent
  • Stephanie the Sheep – 85 Prospect Road
  • Lamby – Vale Road (between Penrose Gardens & Firacre Rd)
  • Woody – You’ll find me if you walk along the canal towpath between The Swan and The Admiral, and look across the canal!
  • Cedric, Cecil & Cyril – 203 Vale Road (Cyril said it was too cold outside so he’s peering out the window). They told us an amazing story, apparently their distant relatives were there with the Shepherds and saw the Angels on THE Christmas Day! Wow!
  • St Mary’s Flock – St Mary’s Church
  • Fluff – 14 Wood Street
  • Herbie (the herbivore! 😁) – 24 Wood Street
  • Flower and Petal, And one printed picture quoting Psalm 29 – 56 Waverley Drive
  • Cuddle and Trouble – 52 Firacre Road, Ash Vale
  • Cedric – 155 Vale Road
  • Daisy, Minty, Minnie, Herdy 1,2&3 – 91 Vale Road (2 sheep on flower border right of drive. Daisy and Minty. One on Gate post. Minnie.3 in windows. Herdy1, 2 and 3)
  • Sandra & Larry– 81 Vale Road
  • Lamb Lamb – 71 Vale Road
  • Sheepy, Sheeply & Sheepish (knitted) Lucy lamb and friends (paper sheep), Jane, Goblin and Cutie (Cotten wool sheep) – 60 Vale Road
  • Strictly come Lambing! Lancaster Close
  • Freddie & Love – 11 Lancaster Close
  • Bramble – 19 Lancaster Close, Ash Vale
  • Sheepaboo and Morph – 42 Lancaster close
  • “Fluffy Wooly” and “Princess Sheep” – Gloster Close
    Shaun and Timmy – Comet Close
  • Celandine Sheep – Wey Close
  • Baart and Baarbara – 45 Vickers Road Ash Vale GU12 5SE
  • One lamb – 46 Vickers Road, GU12 5SE (upper window)
  • Ernest Sheepleton and crew! 22 Shackleton close
  • Fluffy, Steve, Snuggles & Max – 29 Cody Close, Ash Vale
  • Baaaaaa-bara – Ash Hill Road (Near the Phyllis Tuckwell Shop)
  • Stump House Sheep rocks in the covid snake: Rocky, Stella, Fluff and Lammy 
  • Baaaa-tholowmew – Ash Hill Road (near the Kia garage)
  • Mike’s Flock – Cobo, Beetons Avenue
  • Bob the sheep – Murrell Road
  • 2 sheep – Longacre 
  • Shaun & Dawn (beautifully made by the Chapel Craft group) – 1 Grove Villas,  Grove Road,  GU12 5BD #ChapelCraft (Wednesdays 8pm)
  • Timmy – Wharf Rd (look up, I’m above Bet Fred!)
  • Chapel Flock – The Chapel, Wharf Road
  • Bah – 11 Foxhurst Rd (aptly named by L aged 2 😍)
  • Valentine – Collins Gardens, Ash
  • Ramsey, Eugenie and Lambert!- 14 College Road, Ash
  • Shadow – 2 Potters Crescent GU12 6AY
  • Zara & Sam Sheep, South Lane, Ash
  • lots of sheep – 35 Wyke Avenue (2 crafted ones and some cuddly ones!)
  • Upcycled Sheep – 16 Lincoln close Ash Vale
  • Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom, Woodland and Yardley- White Lane, Ash Green (go past Hazel Road to find the Ramsbottom flock)
  • Susie and Geoffrey – Yankari, Hazel Road, Ash Green

Keep them coming – If you’ve got a sheep on display, send us it’s name and location and we will add them to the trail. 07730 609446. The more the merrier, we have all half term to enjoy the hunt for the lost sheep!

Share your photos online with the hashtag #AshValeSheepTrail and tell us who’s your favourite, or why not comment here? 

Stay safe and have fun everyone! 

Who’s your favourite sheep? Let us know! 💕

#AshValeSheepTrail #LostSheepTrail #LoveWhereWeLive #AshVale #Ash #AshGreen #HalfTermFun #SociallyDistancedFun #LoveYourNeighbours #Community