Dobbies, the garden centre chain has recently announced that it is to start selling hens at fifteen of its garden centres. Dobbies argue that this is a logical step for them, as they have witnessed a major upturn in sales of fruit, vegetable & herb plants and seeds over the past year. For example, In May, the chain saw a 27% increase in sales of grow-your own fruit and vegetables compared with the same month last year.

How practical is it to keep hens in a suburban garden?

Winchmore Hill residents Andrew and Simon have kept hens for the past five months, Dot, Sky and Beau, who have laid eggs for them nearly every day.  Here’s what they have to say:

The preparation
You do need to do your research and ideally get advice from someone who knows.  Fox proofing is essential - don't worry if you have neighbourhood foxes as long as your coop and run are secure.  If you want to have totally free range hens in London then we are afraid you will simply be feeding the foxes with free chicken.

The good
They are such friendly creatures.  As long as you feed them you are their friend for life. We love watching them roam around, turning over the compost heap or having a long and leisurely dust bath.They are cheap to feed, and really appreciate kitchen scraps.The eggs DO taste and look better than supermarket ones.

The bad
When one of ours (Beau) got ill and then died (due to a stuck egg) we were understandably upset. Also learning about (and preventing) the various chicken problems can be a little mind boggling (red spider mite, liver flukes, worms and all manner of parasites) but once you have made your mind up to be as organic as possible the routine becomes easy.

The ugly
There is a surprising amount of poo which can be quite smelly (it is however fantastic for compost!!)

 We got ours from Thorne's nursery (in Hertfordshire) who do provide a good amount of post sales help.

If anyone is thinking of joining in this new ‘Good Life’ trend, I’m sure N21’s own chicken experts will be happy
to offer their advice and maybe a free sample, after all the proof is in the eating!

The Co-op has just released a report entitled ‘Co-operative streets: Neighbours in the UK, described as “the most comprehensive piece of research into the UK's neighbours”.

The report concludes that the UK is less than half as neighbourly in 2010 than it was 28 years ago in 1982.

How do they reach this conclusion? On the whole the findings make pretty depressing reading:

*  Typically we know the names of just seven people in our neighbourhood, compared with 13 in 1982. London has the lowest score, on average we only know the names of 5.5 neighbours, (allowing for the statistical half a neighbour) and 11% of the representative sample of Londoners do not know the names of any of their neighbours. However, Londoners come out on top in having the highest number of close friends – they just don’t happen to be neighbours!

*  In 1982 59% of the sample said that at least one of their neighbours often calls in for a chat, compared with only 22% in 2010.

*  The majority of us speak to neighbours less than once a week and the number of people watering plants, looking after pets or holding a spare key for neighbours has fallen by around a half.

*  The number of people saying that they have problems with their neighbours rose from 22% to 44%.

On a more positive note, a significant number of people claimed that they try to keep an eye on someone in the neighbourhood who is elderly or disabled, borne out by the answers given by people who were widowed, separated or divorced. The number of people taking in parcels for neighbours has also increased – it’s all that online shopping!

Yet, it would be wrong to take the figures at face value without thinking about how society has changed over this time, with many more women in paid work than three decades ago and more adults of all ages living alone.  Working only part-time means you typically know two more neighbours and are more likely to be involved in your local community.

One interesting finding was that having children results in having more neighbours BUT less close friends! The analysis shows that statistically, after the first child, you lose half a close friend for every extra child you have.

Ed Mayo, of the Co-op concluded “people are having less contact with those who live in the area, unless they are proactive and go out to engage with people. There is not the bedrock of the garden fence to fall back on.... People seem to have a wider circle of acquaintances and shallow friendships, particularly online, which cuts down the number to whom they feel really close”.

The Co-Op study also draws on other pieces of research, to quote “there is a growing body of evidence that if we get on better with those who live around us, then we are happier and healthier ourselves” Also, the more people get to know their neighbours, the lower the levels of crime in the area.
If you would like to read the report go to http://www.thereisanalternative.coop/streets

It is likely that many more people living in N21 would like to know more neighbours but don’t have the time or the opportunity to do so. Read about The Big Lunch, the neighbourhood initiative started by Tim Smit of the Eden Project here.  July 18th is The Big Lunch day, sadly we don’t have any Big Lunches organised in Winchmore Hill for this year, but we have high hopes for next year.

There are other new neighbourhood initiatives underway to encourage people to get to know their neighbours. The Highlands Village Residents Association Campaign Committee is putting out a leaflet and survey to find out whether people living in Highlands Village are interested in joined a Residents Association.  Further details will be posted on n21online shortly.

How many of you have ever visited the Woodcroft Wildspace, the award winning environmental haven bang right in the middle of Winchmore Hill?

Over the past decade this five acre former disused sports ground has been transformed into a local nature reserve, providing a natural habitat to a growing number of species. The project was kickstarted by former Winchmore Hill Councillor Martin Prescott, who conceived the idea of turning a site which never worked as a sports recreation field (because of problems with flooding) into a nature reserve. Martin cajoled council officials into putting together a feasibility plan for the site and then brought in local residents who have picked up the baton and the 'Friends of Woodcroft' was born, now led by local resident Bob Ladell and an enthusiastic band of Friends of Woodcroft volunteers.

In 2011 the long term future of the site was secured and whilst a proportion of the site is being sold off for housing, Woodcroft Wildspace is wildspace, not a park, for everyone to enjoy. It is a place where people can come and enjoy some quiet tme, it is so6emwhere that parents, carers and schools can bring their children to learn about nature - insects, birds, small mammals, pond life, plants and trees in a natural habitat. This is especially beneficial for those who do not have the luxury of their own garden. Everyone is invited to come along and both help the series of projects we have in action as well as to see the wildspace.ional Lottery, 

Whilst funding has been secured from Enfield Council and the National Lottery, the management of Woodcroft Wildspace and its growing role as an educational resource, is largely dependent on volunteers.

Woodcroft Wildspace is open to the public throughout the week. Volunteers can normally be found working on the site on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, from 10am to 1pm. Here is our latest site plan

 Spring 2014 sees the final topping out of our well, many hours of hard,dirty and sometimes dangerous work.

With the help of volunteers, including residents, schools, local community groups and our corporate Give and Gain, team building days, we have slowly turned the site from a disused sports ground into a wildspace, with a range of habitats. Our wetland area ponds and boggy area are home to frogs, and newts; whilst insects abound, stag beetles. Our orchard, has 83 trees, with over 30 varieties which are cropping well. 

Here are some of our Give and Gain volunteers. Under this excellent Business in The Community programme, volunteers from dozens of companies have spent the day with use, helping in teams to help us achieve some of our larger projects such as bigging our wildlife ponds. If your company would like to participate in this rather unusual but highly worthwhile away day please get in contact, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 Woodcroft Wildspace is a great place for children, here are just a few of our younger visitors. Children are never to young to start to understand the importance of the natural world and Woodcroft Wildspace provides learning opportunities for children of all ages; right across the curriculum. A number of nearby primary and secondary schools are regular visitors, whilst Duke of Edinburgh Award participants have helped us to create hedges and dig our ponds. Our apiary building also serves as a class room and we are keen to raise funds to extend our range of classroom facilities.

We have hosted a number of open days, picnics and community events at Woodcroft and we are looking forward to our Woodcroft Wildspace Family Fun Day on Sunday July 13th 2014. Here are some pictures of some of our past open days. 

Our bees are recovering from three difficult winters, but we are now hopeful that our new colony is thriving. This is an important project for us, and it is a great place to teach children just how important bees are to our natural environment. 

 Woodcroft Wildspace is a haven for many species, here are just a few of our residents. 

As well as our wells, 2014 will be the first session for our new sensory gardens, which you see taking shape here and our new outside gym.

On the Woodcroft Wildspace website you can follow the transformation of the Woodcroft Sports Ground, shown below, to Woodcroft Wildspace; starting with three years of complex negotiations with Enfield Council to secure
the lease.  Whilst the site is still under development it is being transformed into managed woodland, with a range of tree species, some of them self seeded; a wetland with a newly created wildlife pond, dug by the volunteers and a
meadow area.

2009 was a big year in the short history of the project, with a Big Dig Day, in partnership with BBC Breathing Places and Blue Peter and the opening of the Woodcroft Apiary, the planting of bee friendly plants and the first batch of Woodcroft Honey and Woodcroft Beeswax. Use this link to see pictures of the event on the website, here

Sadly, security gates have had to be erected, because of vandalism and antisocial behaviour on the site, including irresponsible dog owners, but please come and see us, we always welcome new volunteers. 

Woodcroft Wildspace is registered charity and more volunteers and money are still needed to secure the long term future of the project.
 
You can help secure the long term future of the project by becoming a Friend of Woodcroft Wildspace for a mere £10 a year, £15 for couples and households.

Woodcroft Wildspace is open from 9am to 5.30pm or sometimes later from April to September. Opening times vary during the rest of the year, depending on the weather.

Volunteers work on the site on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday mornings from 10am to 1pm

If you wish to visit as a group, please call 020 8819 1662 ahead of your visit. It is fantastic example of what can be achieved when local residents, community groups and businesses pull together.

http://www.woodcroft.org.uk/

The first Friday evening of the month is the night when the Cherry Pickers Investment Club get together.

The club formed three years ago comprises a dozen people living around Winchmore Hill and Southgate, including three couples. Two people have left to be replaced by two more during the life of the club.

We are a properly formed club, with a constitution, Chairman and Treasurer who is responsible for transacting our deals. We use a model constitution taken from a manual called "Proshare Investment Clubs", which runs the National Register of Investment Clubs). Our deals are transacted through The Share Centre, which caters for small investment clubs such as ours in terms of buying and selling and providing information and market analysis.

We each put in £25 a month into our investment fund, a grand total of £300 of new money to invest. Our portfolio is small, so that we don’t incur too many dealing charges and currently we have shares in eleven companies and we review our portfolio every month.

Each Investment Club member takes responsibility for a sector, researching potential investment opportunities as well as the overall performance of the sector.  Our investment strategy isn’t sophisticated, we tend to look for shares that are currently trading at a lower price, but have potential to rise, also companies with good dividend records – buy low and sell high is the theory. We try to get out of a stock at the high point, before it starts to fall, thus taking a profit, not necessarily at the top of the market.

We read the financial press for investment advice on Buys, Sells and Holds and can check out the performance of companies on the Share Centre website. We aren’t experts (although we do have one stockbroker in our Club) but very soon looking at charts, talking about high, lows, PE ratios, yields and dividends becomes second nature, although the knowledge and expertise (of most of us) is wafer thin!

We hold a mix of blue chips and emerging companies, in the last year we have been more conservative and some months we have held cash and not spent our kitty. So how have we done? The last month has been difficult, some of our blue chips have been weaker, but we are up overall, over the longer timescale. We have had some disasters and our star performer was actually a stock we bought by mistake, because someone misspelt the name!

It’s fun, sociable, usually fuelled by a few bottles of red wine and is a great way of investing a small amount of money, but not a great way to get rich. Apparently around 40% of investment clubs are based in pubs and true to form, the Cherry Pickers began life in the Cherry Tree on Southgate Green! Is hobby investing, but it has been rewarding in other ways, getting to know new people and becoming (a little) more knowledgeable about the workings of the Stock Market (which still appears to me to be another form of gambling!).

There’s plenty of information on the Internet about how to set up an investment club, The Share Centre and ProShare manage the portfolios of hundreds of small investment clubs like The Cherry Pickers.  ProShare even offers an investment club ‘dating service’ to put people looking to join an investment club in touch with each other in the same area.

Alternatively you could always advertise for potential members on n21online.com.

Join in on an upward trend, although we won't be linking to the FTSE just yet.

http://www.share.com/

http://www.proshareclubs.co.uk/

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cgt/investment_clubsfaqs.htm

The Oxfam shop in Green Lanes is run by Gill Smith, who has been involved with the shop for 30 years and as volunteer manager for the past ten years. The shop is staffed by a team of 30, some of whom have been
helping out for over forty years.

This small shop is totally reliant on local donations, as it is too small to offer Oxfam Trading ranges and made a whopping £66,887 for Oxfam partners in 2009. 

Gill would like to say a BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO DONATES AND SHOPS AT WINCHMORE HILL OXFAM.

Nothing that gets donated is ever wasted. If the stock isn't sold in two weeks, it is passed to other shops in East London and from there, any residual stock is sent to Oxfam's Waste Saver Depot oin Huddersfield, where
it is resorted. Some items such as blankets will be sold cheaply at festivals, which other stuff will be recycled and
upcycled, to be reprocessed into other materials.

Whilst Gill and her team are very grateful for all donations, please donate not dump!  No electricals can be sold, bric-a-brac and books always sells well and clothes should be wearable, not stained or beyond wear.

Over the years Oxfam in Winchmore Hill has sold some valuable, some interesting and in some instances highly desirable items. The trend for vintage fashion has brought younger people into the shop and yes Gill does get
the occasional pair of Jimmy Choos!

Volunteers are always needed, Oxfam participates in the Youth Action Volunteering Scheme in Enfield (YAVE) and the Duke of Edinburgh scheme also offers work experience placements. There are lots of different jobs to be done and if you are creative you might get a chance to dress the windows, which are always beautifully themed.

For all you budding Mary Portas' why not spare a few hours to join our local Oxfam team!

If you don't believe that the words Oxfam and Vintage Fashion go together, have a look at the Oxfam website

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/content/secondhandstore/fashion/vintage/default.html

Have you noticed the electric vehicle charging points which have been installed in Sainsbury’s car park? 

At the moment they are only being made available for Sainsbury’s own delivery vehicles. Currently Sainsbury's home delivery vans run on diesel, although the new electrical fleet is due to take over in June.

When can expect that recharging points will shortly become available for the use of Sainsbury’s customers? No date has been fixed yet according to Sainsbury's. Customer car recharging is already available at 11 Sainsbury’s stores across London, although our nearest Sainsbury’s charging point is the Islington store. It is a free service and to quote Sainsbury's commercial director "This will turn London into an electric vehicle super-highway. Electric vehicles create less noise and help keep the city's air clean."

Currently there are only around 5,000 electric cars in the UK, and Sainsbury’s Environmental Affairs manager Jack Cunningham has said that the aim of the initiative was to cater for existing customers known to use electric cars, rather than attract more business from environmentally-friendly shoppers; “We believe longer term that this kind of technology is going to be very important, so it's important for us to start providing it at this early stage."

So do we have any electric cars in N21?






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Grace Church is the newest church in London N21. It was set up in January 2007, by a group of Anglicans from Christ Church Cockfosters, to serve the Highlands Village Community.

Grace Church is a modern church, it is not rooted in a consecrated building, but meets at 10.30 on Sunday mornings at Highlands School.

The Church has a website, nothing too unusual in that, most of our local churches now have an Internet presence. However, on the website you can listen to and download sermons from previous Grace Church services, prepared by Reverend Andy Wandsworth and other members of the congregation.

Andy is on a mission to reach out to the local community, to connect with people with no religious affiliation or links with a local church. The website uses audio and video to engage the site visitor and Andy is fully aware of the power of the Internet as a communications tool.

As more of us use catch-up services such as podcasts, BBC iplayer et al, to listen and view media at our convenience, this would seem a natural evolution for other local churches, so that they are no longer just preaching to the converted.

http://www.gracechurchhighlands.co.uk/

  


Being sociable and active is good for a person's health and well-being; scientists are now saying that it can even protect against memory loss and the effects of ageing. Studies have even shown that when people feel part of a close knit group they are less likely to have a heart attack or suffer from stress, than people who are socially isolated.

According to Professor Alex Haslam of the University of Exeter, "we are social animals who live and have evolved to live in social groups. Membership of groups, from football teams to book clubs and voluntary societies gives us a sense of social identity".

A study of 650 stroke patients over five years found that those who were part of a close-knit social group were significantly less likely to suffer from a second life-threatening problem.  According to Professor Haslam, social isolation can double the risks of many life threatening conditions.

Another good reason to get out and enjoy the amazing array of activities we have in N21, start off by exploring this website!

Making A Difference – Locally is a new charity that has been launched to help independently-run local stores to add value in their communities through donations to local charities or good causes - such as local football teams, hospices or one of a thousand charities that run throughout the UK.

According to the website, The scheme is truly local, to quote "as money will be raised by local stores over time through the sale of specific products in their stores. The store owner then choses the beneficiary for the money and a donation is paid to the charity or cause by the Making A Difference – Locally Charity.

Local stores are at the heart of communities, ideally placed to provide their customers with a personal and friendly service during their shopping trip. The Making A Difference – Locally charity will help them further cement their position in the community – YOUR community - and reward it for the support it has given over the years.

Over 2,000 stores nationwide are participating in Making A Difference - Locally - all of which display the Making A Difference logo"

Our major supermarkets already make donations to local organisations and charities, this is an initiative that helps the independent shop keeper also demonstrate their commitment to the local area.

Lets support our local convenience stores so that in turn they may be in a position to donate through the Making A Difference Locally initiative.


http://www.makingadifferencelocally.com/home
       
                             

Over the past five years we have seen a growing number of new businesses emerge which allow people to rent something which is either too expensive for them to buy or something they don’t use very often or for very long. The basic principal isn’t new, we stay in hotels where we are renting a room for a period of time, we rent cars, hire tools and equipment when we need them. However, the idea can be applied to all sorts of goods and the concept is very green.

Here are some examples of this fractional ownership trend:

Urban car clubs, such as streetcar, are one step up from conventional car rental are designed primarily for people who only occasionally use a car, perhaps because they live in Central London or can’t justify the cost of running a car. Subscription is growing, you can literally rent a car for an hour and of course the concept is very green.

Whilst some of these new businesses are also green because they are reducing consumption, a number are enabling people to rent status products such as designer dresses and handbags. To quote  “Why spend all that money on one bag when you could have a new bag every month - or even every week? A designer bag on your arm turns you into that A-list fashionista you deserve to be and lets you feel like a million dollars every day”.

You can rent baby clothes on the same principal, an idea pioneered by a German company, Lütte-Leihen, so that once babies grow out of a size, the set can be exchanged for the next size up, free of charge. Perhaps the wackiest shared ownership idea again comes from California - FLEXPETZ is a shared dog ownership concept that provides members with access to a dogs for a few hours or days, compatible with their members’ individual lifestyles and circumstances.

And greenest of all is this new Christmas tree rental service, starting up in Los Angeles, www.livingchristmas.com, which suppliers rooted trees in pots, which will be picked up after Christmas, nurtures them until next Christmas. A good idea, although perhaps the company is going to have a seaonality problem, but maybe it could do summer rental as well.


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