On the 28 April, Sarah Godowksi became a grandmother for the first time. Her son Tommy and his partner Cat, who live just outside Barcelona, had a little boy called Oliver. On the very same day Sara Manisty became a Great Aunt (again), when her niece Clare had a baby boy too.
Gill Spencer was approached in March by Tiggywinkles the animal sanctuary in Haddenham, to release 5 adult male and female hedgehogs in the garden at Park Farm House. The aim is for them to spread, breed and populate Waterstock, which Tiggywinkles considers is a safe environment for them. Fingers crossed! So, if you would like to help them all to survive, Gill asks if you could put some food out for them at night, especially in the autumn when they need to reach a certain weight to get through the long winter. They especially like cat food or hedgehog pellets which can be bought at most pet shops and garden centres. Don’t forget water too during the hot weather. Gill is sure they’ll love their
new home in Waterstock.
Speaking of cat food, for a couple of days, we had an unknown black cat with a pink collar at the Mill, hiding under any cars that happened to be parked there. Although we left food out, it quite naturally left us for the vastly more cat-savvy Edward de Rivera, who welcomed her in, naming her Miss Whitesox.
There she stayed for 3 weeks in Edward’s kitchen before Edward and Gill Spencer took her to Medivet, which found that Miss Whitesox had been microchipped. They contacted the family, who were overjoyed and came and collected her. She had been missing a month. All ended happily.
Despite the presence of cats, Edward’s efforts to attract more unusual birds to his garden are going from strength to strength. He reports having between 10 and 20 goldfinches and 8 green finches visiting each day. He feeds them on nyger seeds and sunflower seeds. He also has two great spotted woodpeckers and a plethora of robins, blackbirds male and female, long tailed tits, wrens, collared doves and pied wagtails.
We have had a tragic wagtail incident recently at the Mill. Grey Wagtails nest each year in cracks in the mill walls, and so it has been this year, in a crack in the river wall close to the wooden footbridge to our front door. All was going well, with 5 chicks being regularly fed by mum and dad, when a magpie raided the nest making several visits, each time flying away with a poor chick, and finally pulling the nest out of the crack to double-check there was nothing left to pillage. The poor parents kept on coming back to the nest for two days. However, there should be time for a second try. Let’s hope.
Andy Peters, Waterstock’s figurehead carver in residence, has published his new book, “Ships Figureheads: Famous Carving Families” and held a book launch at Waterperry. Andy has done a massive amount of research, and the result is a fabulous book, full of illustrations, which I can thoroughly recommend. Alas, Andy and Lilian Shaw are soon to leave us, moving into a house in Ickford—located conveniently close to The Rising Sun. We wish them all the best.
Waterperry Opera Festival returns this year with performances from August 8th-17th 2025. For adults there will be ravishing performances including Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Handel’s Semele and the Diary of Ann Frank by Juliana Hall. For children, there will be two events: (1) The Hundred Acre Craft Workshops: Craft magical moments with Winnie-the-Pooh and (2) Winnie-The-Pooh’s Songbook-- both are perfect for grandparents with grandchildren to entertain. Do go if you can.
Still no white smoke from the Planning Inspectorate on its Decision on the Greystoke Appeal.
