The Oxfordshire branch of the British Driving Society held a Meet at Hook Norton Brewery on Sunday 27th July 2025. There was a good turnout both in terms of horses and spectators….
British Driving Society
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Tag Archives: pastime
Hook Norton Community Smallholding
A group of villagers got together a number years ago to raise pigs on a small plot off and rented to us by a village landowner.
Over the years it has gone from strength to strength. As with everything Covid-19 put paid to our activities in 2020 but we were able to source some weaners last year and they have been growing over the past few months. The batch we had this time around were Berkshires crossed with Gloucester Old Spots. Berkshires are a slow growing breed and we have had these pigs for longer than we anticipated. Normally we send them to slaughter in late autumn but as we got them later in the year we have had to keep them over the winter. However, they seem to be ready to go.
Walks around Hooky – Map
Work on the revised walks booklet is progressing and we hope to get it printed in August. Colour maps will be a feature. Here is a map showing all eight routes. All of them start at St Peter’s Church.
Woodworking – a new skill
I’ve already made two planters for the garden. Having found an unused set of wheels for my tool chest I thought I would make another that can be wheeled around. It is large enough to accommodate a grow bag if we decide not to fill it with plants.
I’ve been setting up my “workshop” before I make anything else. YouTube is great for getting ideas. In recent weeks I’ve made a table so that I can use my jigsaw inverted. As I bought a trim router table from the US my table can be used as a base for it too. Using battens and thumbscrews it makes a solid base. A circular saw track has also come out of the workshop. Now to look at YouTube again to see what I can make – a bird box is on the cards…
Garden Work
We have had a busy two days. Last week we had a delivery of bedding plants from Yarnton Garden Centre. They have now reopened and I went down on Sunday to buy more bedding plants. We have now potted them all up and these photos show some of our efforts. There are still more plants to come that we ordered online so we are not quite finished yet. Hopefully they will be with us in the next week or so. Then we can enjoy the garden save for grass cutting and the weeding which seems to be never ending at this time of year.
This post makes a change from the doom and gloom of our “lock down” experiences!
Today’s photo
Strictly speaking not a photo taken today but one on a recent foggy morning. Seeing the frost first thing today inspired me to upload this image which was taken in February.
