Remembering Covid
Several villagers got Covid recently, none badly. Vaccination works. In conversation, everyone harks back to 2020 and their faded memories insist we followed the rules. My recollection is that we stretched them – a village of elderly anarchists. I loved the innovation. The Village Inn closed which meant the end of morning papers. A 6:30am run to Chiseldon (for exercise) got the paper-round back again. Often it was the only time elderly villagers had a conversation outside their home. And then there was Zoom – a first for most of us. The Wine Group had monthly sessions on Zoom. Six wines were re-distributed in “clinical conditions” into six numbered bottles which were left outside the houses. It worked, and we continued to imbibe. We catered for drinkers with a running problem. The local running group organised sessions from the Village Inn car park. Six people were allowed to meet in a bubble. Every ten minutes a bubble would arrive and head out on a pre-marked trail. There was also the serious side. Villagers shopped for seniors and had phone sessions with people who couldn’t leave their homes. The Surgery used Zoom to diagnose illnesses and volunteers delivered prescriptions. One old boy compared it to the Blitz. Our good luck was to live beside so many paths in Liddington. It was touching to watch people pat Rocky, as if they yearned for the physical contact. It was a period when we couldn’t see family. Zoom helped but what I took away was the importance of village friendships as a local family substitute. The real victims were the children. The damage to children lacking contact with playmates is now recognised. I’ve seen it with my own grandchildren. It was also tough for teenagers and young adults who missed out on dating and fooling around. There’s a lot there that’s not discussed. Maybe we’re not ready to collect everyone’s story on Covid as a historical record for the village web site, but we should. Here are a few lines from a Covid poem: I don’t know why the blue bird sang but her song soared where bells once rang, over empty pews, doors closed, the blue masks like stop signs, over the days of repetitive tasks.
Gordon Wilson
I served on the Liddington Parish Council twenty years ago when Gordon Wilson was chair. It was fun and frustrating – until the latter got the better of me. The fun was the Parish Plan. We’d an inaugural public meeting. I invited the pub landlord at that time to speak for ten minutes on why the pub should be named the Village Inn when villagers weren’t welcome. He opted out of speaking but when he saw the negative feedback from villagers he relented, allowed children in, removed “reserved” on every table, and opened a shop that sold morning papers. It was a good result for the landlord and the village. I collected feedback from the teenagers for the Plan. We made a short movie, “Waiting for Gordo,” a nod to Samuel Beckett’s play. The teenagers were great, now adults themselves and they still talk about it. Frustration at getting things done in a timely manner is the lot of parish councillors. I admire them for their patience, more patience than I have. At one meeting we discussed flooding on Purley Road. Letters were exchanged with Swindon Borough. Nothing happened, twice. Irritated, Gordon, Sid Bishop and I met at the flood with picks and shovels. We dug a trench in an hour and that was the end of the it. The Liddington logo was designed by Gordon and I got a poem out of it. It’s a tribute to Gordon for years of being chair and for his public service. Maurice Spillane As with all things Possible The stained glass window, the one you made yourself of Liddington Hill, sits on the off-side of your house like a surprise, reflecting the hill into our quiet village. I turned my car there one night, watched the light inside compete with the foraging moon, the solace of a private view. Your vision of course, your persistence, hewn by fingers that imagined colour on a drawing board within the randomness of black tracks and forged a collection of memories from coloured glass into a pastoral parallax.
David Lomax
The former chair of the Liddington Parish Council, David Lomax spent over 15 years on the Parish Council. It’s important to celebrate those who serve in our village – parish council, church committee, village hall. We depend on our volunteers. David has made his mark in several places around the village. The Phone Box for example. He and Geoff Hale in their dark and grey work suits would often be seen converting the old box to a place for a defibrillator and decorating it. He also brought us the Elephant. I loved the elephant. Unfortunately, when Joel and Vanetta Joffe left, the elephant went to a new home. The poem is called “The Footpath by the Jubilee Gardens.” David was the master designer and creator of that path. Maurice Spillane A path is never a straight line. It is living art, as a sculptor might see it, buried like a shadow in a boulder or a trunk of wood. His aim is to chip here and there to release the image into the quietness, where the pace is slower, each step a tai ’chi move in a slow, slow lane. Today, the oyster-shell edging by the spinney is safe and unsafe, a confusion of crab apples like billiard balls under your shoe, a rabbit hole and one overhead branch to challenge you, thorns like snakes from the field to deter you. This is a path for a slow lingering stroll. The old iron fencing is warped by curious cattle, wet noses agog who leaned in from Mike’s Field, but there is purchase to stare, and stare again, view the scarp by St. Andrew’s spire and tower, the grass and crops like waves across the drift, the family of roe watching you watching them, and sweep your eyes to where the kite and the buzzard reenact an aerial battle. The world is spinning around this refuge, passing time, time passing, the pretence that we’re in slow motion while everything is in a flux of change. I’ve never passed another on this path. Maybe it needs a signpost, a testament to village service while he’s still about, something simple, like “David’s Path.”
Pilates
Sarah Summers – Pilates Join our welcoming Pilates community, where everybody and their skill level is celebrated. Our expert instructor creates a supportive space for people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds to strengthen their core, improve flexibility, and find their inner balance. Classes are adaptable with plenty of modifications, so you can move at your own pace and honour your body’s needs. Monday Class- Mixed abilities, more challenging class, suitable for improvers. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday Class – Mixed ability class suitable for beginners and improvers
Tai Chi
Suitable for all ages and abilities At present there are 2 Tai Chi classes held on a Friday Morning, year-round, in Liddington Village Hall. 1st Class 9.30am – 11.00am 2nd Class 11.00am – 12.30pm If you are interested in trying Tai Chi, please contact the Teacher, Cyla Higley on 01672 512807 or via her website cyla@holistic-reflexology.co.uk Cyla will be able to tell you about any upcoming Beginners courses that are planned, either in Liddington or Marlborough, where she has another class on Thursday mornings. Liddington Fees: £3.00 a class, paid monthly The benefits of Tai Chi Tai Chi is a Chinese discipline which originated at least six centuries ago. It was developed as a way to improve health, but when speeded up it also becomes a form of self-defence. The form of Tai Chi I practise is also a form of moving meditation. As you need to stay focused for the twenty minutes it takes to perform a set, all thoughts of going to Waitrose afterwards get pushed aside. The moves aim to gently correct your posture and increase flexibility in your joints, especially your back. All your major muscles and ligaments are slowly stretched, making them more elastic. This means that practising Tai Chi can generally relieve muscle pain and improve your muscle tone. This combination can help to relieve back pain and improve your joints. Where there is increased muscle tone, improved bone strength and density will naturally follow, naturally helping to fend off osteoporosis. . There are also moves, with lovely names such as ‘Cockerel stands on one leg’, that are based on balancing. They help to strengthen your instep and improve your general stability. They also encourage greater weight bearing in the bones of your legs and stronger thigh muscles. We all have fun working together. Cyla.
Scottish Dancing
Beginners More Detail Want to have fun, get out of your comfort zone, stretch yourself? Scottish Country Dancing has it all. We love helping beginners because we were there ourselves. Just pitch up at a session with low, soft-soled shoes and loose comfortable clothing. We’ll have you dancing in no time. You’ll be all over the place at first, but you’ll be laughing within minutes, and we’ll be laughing with you. See it as flirting, flirting at speed: hand holding, bumping, getting your right and left mixed up. It’s a hoot! After a couple of lessons, you’ll be Lord or Lady of the Dance: I danced in the morningwhen the world was begun,and I danced in the moonand the stars and the sun . . . NEXT SESSION Thursday 19:45 until 22:00 in Liddington Village Hall. Your first session is free. £6 for future sessions. Couldn’t be easier. Bring a partner or come on your own. Scottish Country Dancing is all about mixing. CONTACTS If you’d like to have a chat first, email Lynda Hughes ldhughes2021@outlook.com and she’ll call you back. Our Website has more detail: http://www.wessex-scd.org.uk/liddington/index.php The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society (RSCDS) has its headquarters in Edinburgh https://www.rscds.org/Content.aspx Instructions and Diagrams for Steps, Sets and Figures http://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/ Resource for Scottish country dance and music: http://www.strathspey.org/ Click here to visit our Scottish Dancing web site https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7UoHY57df4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snuv9TeWGRY
