Christmas Roundup 2025

 

The two-page short version of the Wigney Christmas Newsletter 2025 can be found here.

We are still very much enjoying life in Devon, and Mike has embraced retirement by keeping active and busy with ringing and singing.  As well as being tower captain at Bovey he is the Branch ringing co-ordinator (basically the master but can't get up all the towers!) and training rep.  He organises two or three quarter peal days a month, always with a pub lunch, and there are plenty of ringers around who are now retired from work, and can ring on weekdays, who seem keen to participate. There are also four tower outings a year to be organised.

In May he organised the annual Intrepid canal boat trip - the intention had been to boat to Macclesfield but once again plans had to be constantly amended and revised. Last year's plans had been affected by sand bars, overrunning winter maintenance, flooding and broken lock gates. This year they were thwarted by breaches on the Bridgewater Canal and the Macclesfield canal plus closure of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal forcing several complete re-writes of the itinerary. Last year was too much water, this year too little, so when the canal was closed between Middlewich and Stoke, they took the long diversion via Nantwich and then back via Wolverhampton. Despite all this, and rather less ringing than usual, they had an excellent tour with good weather and scored 8 QPs.

In July he organised the towers (and lunch venues) for the Barnes Summer Trip - 5 days based in a hotel at Mundford (near Thetford) with 38 towers, 24 QP attempts (of which 20 were scored) plus general ringing.  Many of the tower timings overlap in order to fit as many as possible into the day, and getting between the towers in the time allowed is always something of a challenge!  Peter, Mike and I rang a handbell quarter in the hotel garden to bring the total for the week to 21. I don't do the ringing - I do most of the driving - and I usually sit in the churchyards with my cross stitch or other sewing.  I missed Monica this year - for the last two or three years we would sit in the churchyards chatting and listening to the ringing as she didn't want to ring very much, and she was always around for company at mealtimes.  

I come well equipped for sitting in the churchyards!

We always eat well at lunchtime!

There's often not much room for the wheelchair when not ringing!

See here for full photo album

Mike also organised the Guild handbell day - which we hosted at our house this year.  It felt quite bizarre as I had been attending this annual event for several years as a visitor on my regular trips to Bovey from London, and now we were hosting it!  Mike organised everyone into three groups and we reconvened in the kitchen for drinks/lunch after each hour's session for the groups to be reorganised.  It went very well and we had lots of favourable comments afterwards from the learners.

In September he organised a QP week based in a cottage in Jacobstowe, Cornwall for a group of friends who enjoy ringing quarter peals.  Over 30 towers and 28 QPs scored.

When not ringing Mike has been handy around the home and garden.  He constructed a completely new shed door, replaced all the planks in the platform attached and painted the whole shed (you can see the tiny bit at the top which I was supposed to paint because it was out of reach - I still haven't done it!).

He stripped many layers of paint from an old iron bench we were given and repainted it.  It looks rather smart now.

Mike has also been busy in the garden and in particular has done a huge amount of weeding – the wheelchair is often to be seen abandoned on the lawn while he can be found under a bush waging war on bindweed and the like.  He often has a jigsaw on the go, and does several Guardian crosswords online most days. Last year’s pressure sore finally healed in March – but in August another one broke out and is still ongoing, although improving .  In July he got a new car on the Motability scheme – a Ford Kuga Hybrid. Ford no longer do an estate car so we chose the Kuga which seemed big enough to get the handbike in - a comfortable ride but an SUV so much higher for Mike to get into. Unfortunately, a month after getting the car he hit a cow as he was coming home across the moor in the dark and damaged the wing and headlight unit.  It went in to be fixed just before the Cornwall trip - Motability provided a hire car but the hand controls were extremely dodgy - just two sticks attached to the pedals which moved in all directions and could be dropped completely. The lack of reliable control made the driving between towers somewhat hairy - and reversing into the steep drive of the cottage virtually impossible. We were both very pleased when we got the proper car back.  Mike is still playing the organ at Bovey church and now also occasionally at Lustleigh - where we we have rigged up a platform balanced on piles of kneelers!  He has also been roped in to accompany the Bovey Scout and Guide Gang Show (on a keyboard) in 2026 - rehearsals start in January.

As for me, well my main ringing activities are on handbells - a regular fortnightly peal attempt plus ringing with Mike and whoever we can find to make up a band. I do ring tower bells for service if needed and go to the Bovey practice - we are trying to teach the whole band how to plain hunt without any other experienced method ringers there - but I avoid tower bells if I can otherwise.

I am very much enjoying expanding my crafting skills beyond cross stitch, although this mainly involves watching YouTube videos and buying all the fabric and equipment rather than much in the way of making anything yet.  I went on a three-day free motion embroidery course at the local sewing shop, where I made a picture of a pheasant, which I later turned into a cover for my sewing machine.  

I finished a tapestry the convent had given me to finish off and made it into a zipped cushion cover - which I then gave back to them for their Summer sale.

I made a lined zipped pouch - very pleased with this as I have never been confident about using a sewing machine, and have certainly never made anything useful.  Just used it for mending or making simple curtains.  I blame it on school - I never got confident about using a sewing machine and was still making an apron when everyone else had progressed to lined coats with revered collars!  

I am also getting back into crochet and have done some throws and blankets and branched out into mosaic crochet.

But of course my main love is cross stitch.  I picked up this kit of peonies in the local charity shop and couldn't put it down until it was finished I enjoyed it so much.

While Mike was in Cornwall I went for a three-day "catch up" break to Bridport with friends Maryanne and Mary.  We stayed in a lovely hotel and each day went for a walk in the morning, had a pub lunch, an afternoon of tourism and then dinner in a delightful Mediterranean restaurant in Bridport.  It was a delightful way to have a proper catch up.  We visited the Swan Sanctuary at Abbotsbury and had a guided tour of Maperton House, the residence of the Earl of Sandwich. We walked up to the top of Golden Cap on the South West Coastal Path, and for miles along Chesil beach from Bridport to the National Trust cafe at Hive, with the impressive Jurassic cliffs towering above us.

summit of Golden Cap

See photo album here

Bruce – has improved in sociability a lot and most of our walks on the moor are off lead – although he blows hot and cold about whether he wants to go for a walk at all – often digging his heels in as soon as we set off.  He is now visually impaired due to cataracts starting, and rather deaf. I started him on medication for arthritic pain relief early on in the year which seemed to improve things a bit – especially if we went out in the afternoon (definitely not a morning boy!). He has recently been diagnosed with a heart murmur (defective valve) and now has even more medication to take and I have to be careful not to over exert him but still keep him fit.  Unfortunately my fitness is taking a bit of a dive as we only go for occasional short walks on the moor these days. He stays with our friends Lee and Emma when we are away and enjoys having a sleepover with his doggy mates.  Really he loves nothing more than to lie on my lap all day asleep!

Family – we completed on a bungalow at the bottom of our road in January and my sister moved into it in the middle of February.  She has made it very comfortable and is very glad to have made the move from London. We have never lived close to each other before and it is nice to be able to pop down for a coffee now and again with Bruce - in fact he veers off towards the front door whenever we walk past as he knows he will get a treat if we go in.  

Lorraine is also planning to move down here in the new year and is about to complete on the purchase of a house in Chudleigh, about 4 miles away.  She did a charity walk this year in the Brecon Beacons - Amanda and I did a walk from Bovey up to Hay Tor with her as part of her training.  It was uphill all the way and about three and a half miles.  We didn't actually go up to the top of Hay Tor itself, but veered off to The Moorland Hotel for a spot of lunch and recuperation - having positioned a car up there earlier. 

We all went to Butlins at Bognor Regis for 4 days during May half term (Mike was on Intrepid) and had the usual fun and frolics. 

Full photo album here

Everyone congregated in Bovey for a week in August – John stayed with Carolyn and Leanne and family stayed in an AirBnB just outside Bovey - a beautiful location but not very convenient for the shops without a car! It had a lovely garden which the boys enjoyed.  Unfortunately a pane of glass got broken in the summerhouse.  The owner was very nice about it and gratefully accepted our offer of fixing it to save him a long journey to come and do it himself - another little job for Mike!

We went to Crealy adventure park twice - you get a free second visit within 7 days of buying the initial tickets.  We had lovely weather.  Mike came along for the second visit and even managed to get on one of the rides with Aidan and Harry!

and of course we went out for a family meal at The Moorland - and remembered Dad on his birthday

Holidays - in February we attended the Roving Ringers Reunion weekend which was based in a hotel in Bradford on Avon, with ringing at some of our old haunts in Somerset like Midsomer Norton and finishing with a day of ringing in Bath.  

At the beginning of July Mike went on the Roving Ringers tour to the Peak District based at farm accommodation in Waterhouses, near Leek while Bruce and I had a cottage in a small village above the Manifold Valley called Grindon - a beautiful remote location. Mike stayed in the cottage for the first evening - and even completed a jigsaw! We knew that the hills would be too long and high for Mike to be able to do all the tour - so Bruce and I went over each morning and took him to the first tower, and then we transported the chair between towers, joined the group for a packed lunch in a pub garden and took Mike back to the accommodation at the end of the day.  This wasn't quite the relaxed cottage holiday I had planned but it worked.  It wasn't just Mike who found the hills too daunting - some of the slower cyclists were struggling and near to tears on the first day and they too adopted the same strategy when they realised they could drive to the first tower, cycle round the towers and then back to the first one to drive back - although several fit and hardy souls did all the cycling and made it to all the towers - including Peter and Catherine on a tandem having recently announced they are expecting! Anne and Sam also came for a few days, staying in a hotel nearby, and we drove round together and visited some tea shops while waiting for the cyclists to turn up.

See photo album here

We went to see The Fisherman’s Friends in the Ham Marquee at Sidmouth - a pre-festival concert the night before the Sidmouth Folk Festival week started - a brilliant evening and thoroughly enjoyable.  Probably sea shantied out by the end though!

and to watch Somerset play cricket at Taunton - we have been meaning to do this for ages.  We had a lovely day.  The weather was fantastic - sunny but luckily there was enough cloud going over to stop us getting sun stroke as there was no shade.  We were in the disabled area which was very close to the pitch and had a great view.  It was only the second day but the match was almost over by the end of play, and was decided the following morning, so we definitely chose the best day to go.

The SRCY Triennial dinner was held at Merton College, Oxford and we stayed overnight in Mike's alma mater Magdalen College.  Mike's room was a lavish suite of two rooms - including a huge four poster bed posing something of a challenge to get in and out of.  

We got to Oxford early enough to enjoy a stroll around the college and grounds - and it was a short walk to Merton for the dinner, which was preceded by an organ recital in the Chapel by a member of the Society. There were drinks in a marquee on the college lawn followed by the dinner in the Great Hall - reminiscent of Harry Potter!

Anne and Sam came to visit us in October for 10 days and we made good use of our National Trust cards to visit Killerton, Buckland Abbey and Dartington Hall (not NT). We saw James Cary in his stand-up theology show, God the Bible and Everything in 60 Minutes, at Bovey church -  an amusing, but also thought provoking, romp through the whole Bible, in one hour, with jokes and a big screen. 

We both still sing with Exeter Bach Choir - this year was the 30^th Anniversary of the choir and we performed Bach's B Minor Mass in Exeter Cathedral in March. The Summer concert was titled The Making of the Mass and consisted of Cantatas which Bach had used for the B Minor, with a narrative.  This was Jonny’s last concert with us as MD - a new conductor started in September.  I had been singing tenor for about three years (following a voice assessment) but I snuck back into the altos when the new conductor started as I feel more comfortable there even though I can't reach the high notes. The first concert with him went well (CP Bach Magnificat and Purcell Ode to St Cecilia) although I felt the choir was not yet as good as it had been under Jonny.  Early days though.  

Mike is also still singing with The Collati Singers - a chamber choir who usually perform their concerts at Buckfast Abbey. 

We had Choral Evensong at Bovey church for the first time in 30 years in November – it was well attended (much to the surprise of the vicar!) and comments afterwards were favourable. Hopefully it will become a regular event.  I’ve stopped singing with the church choir on a monthly basis because I now go to the service at Lustleigh with Mike, which I prefer and I can help with the ringing. 

Last month I drove to Lincolnshire to attend the funeral of my last remaining Aunt, Jean - a lovely lady with a wicked sense of humour. It was a five hour drive each way without stopping.  I took Bruce with me and stayed in the pub where the wake was being held - as did my brother and my niece, Lorraine.  Although a sad occasion it was really lovely to catch up with parts of the family I hadn't seen in years, and some I had never even met.  I didn't even recognise my cousin who passed me going in to the pub for breakfast on the first day and then I found her hugging my brother!  We had a really enjoyable afternoon talking and catching up and now we have a WhatsApp group!

Aunty Jean's daughter, Ann, drove over an hour from her home to come back to the pub to have breakfast with us the following day.

That just about sums up our year.  The Cheese Advent Calendar has been started and the ringing dinners and events are getting into full swing for Christmas.  Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a peaceful and happy New Year.