We have an exciting Group Competition planned for 2025’s Summer Show!
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Notes for Sunday 19 January 2025
Dear friends,
A belated happy new year to you all!
The picture today is of a statue in Fauske, Norway that marks the arctic circle. Dik and I spend a very happy week in Norway, playing in the snow and celebrating a big-0 birthday of one of my nieces.
This morning I circulated a message on Facebook: ‘You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. That is how prayer works.’
God bless,
Dineke van den Bogerd
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Newsletter for January 12, 2025
Dear Friends,
How are you all holding up in the cold weather? I hope you are all well and warm. Dineke and I managed to pick just this week for a holiday. However, it isn’t warm here either. I’m writing this from the north of Norway, just above the arctic circle. As chance would have it, the temperature here is the same as in the Capel area.
Tomorrow there’s a special Cafe Church, combined with Okewood and Forest Hill. We hope to see you there.
Warm greetings from Valnesfjord, Norway
Dik
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January Garden Tips
Garden Notes for January 2025.
After the haze of all the Christmas and New Year jollifications, the good gardener starts to look ahead. Even though the garden is asleep, it is surprising just how soon it starts to burst with life. So, think about what was successful last year and what might be a good idea to experiment with this year. How about growing a blend of salad leaves, like the ones seen in every supermarket. They can be grown, with a little bit of heat to start them off, in the early spring, don’t take up much room and are very healthy.
This is the time of year when houseplants are most appreciated. Azaleas, cineraria and cyclamen will all help to cheer things up. Do not over water, and most of these plants like cool conditions.
When your seeds arrive from the supplier keep them in a cool dry place until required. Protect pea seeds in particular because mice love them, and they have already got into our garden shed where they have started on anything that they can reach. Remember paper is no barrier to sharp teeth, and makes lovely nesting material.
Rhubarb can be forced using an upturned bucket or tub. This should be covered with garden fleece to keep off any frost. Another tip is to slice off a bit of the main root, leave it exposed for 2 or 3 frosts and then pot it up and move it into a cool greenhouse. This will make it start to produce some tender sticks of rhubarb for you to enjoy in March.
When seed potatoes arrive, keep them in a frost-free place and stand the tubers, eye-end uppermost, in shallow boxes. If you can get large egg trays these are ideal for keeping the tubers upright and just separated to prevent any infection spreading.
Remember, even if we do get a few mild days towards the end of the month that any seeds that are sown need a constant temperature to start them off, at least 8 to 10 degrees Centigrade, so do not be tempted to sow outdoors, as temperatures drop well below these levels at night time, even when it is mild.
To get the best onions for the Summer Show (Saturday August 16 2025, this year – make a note!) apart from starting the first sowings this month, you should give a good dressing of wood ash on the site of the bed that you will use, since they really like potash. For the keen gardener, sow your onion seeds as early as possible in good compost on a propagator to get them started.
Towards the middle of the month, start to make preparations for taking chrysanthemum cuttings. If you have a cold frame make sure it is ready and make up the necessary soil. A good mixture is two parts loam, one part peat, and one part sand to ensure good drainage. Any pots or boxes should be cleaned and the chrysanthemum stools brought in to start them growing sturdy cuttings.
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Notes for Sunday 5 January 2025
Dear friends,
Last Friday I spent a glorious couple of hours on the coast. The sea air and sunshine were very welcome after the dull weather in December. It is quite wonderful how a different environment can conjure up a different outlook on life. It doesn’t have to be the beach or the weather. It can just as easily be a visit of a friend, a book or a craft that can give that lift and a new perspective. We just have to recognise it when it presents itself.
Happy new year and God bless,
Dineke van den Bogerd
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Issue 89 January 2025
Happy New Year to all our Readers!
Good plans for the New Year
‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart.’ – Jeremiah 29: 11-13
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Notes for Sunday 29 December 2024
Dear friends,
Last week we had a small fire to dry the chimney before sweeping it.
We hardly ever light a fire these days because we are all too aware that as a means of heating it’s very inefficient: 80% goes out through the flue to heat the great outdoors. Also wood fires have emissions that are not very environmentally friendly and we do have after all a most wonderful heatpump system. This time of year though, when we know the days are lengthening but we don’t quite see it yet, we indulge ourselves once or twice and enjoy a real fire in the grate.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you can soon experience the longer days of spring.
God bless,
Dineke van den Bogerd
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Notes for Sunday 22 December 2024
Dear friends,
Today is the shortest day of the year and a star shining in the darkness seemed a good way to mark the hope of Advent. On this last Sunday before Christmas I would like to take the opportunity to wish you a good time and remember that Christmas has value only when followed by Good Friday and Easter.
God bless,
Dineke van den Bogerd
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Notes for Sunday 15 December 2024
Dear friends,
It’s the third Sunday of Advent already.
I decided to give you a picture of one of the rooms in the hotel/museum we stayed in when we were in Paris last month. The building is Banksy themed and this particular room was all about boat migrants. It made quite an impression through it’s simple but significant details. Let us follow Jesus’ teaching of welcoming the stranger who knocks on our door, looking for shelter.
Also we hope with them that when the time comes they can move on and be reunited with their loved ones back home as may now be the case for so many Syrians who fled the terror of the Assad regime and its war against his own people.
God bless,
Dineke van den Bogerd
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Notes for Sunday 8 December 2024
Dear friends,
This year is the first I have used an Advent calendar (see picture). It has come as a bit of a surprise to me how it focusses the mind on the anticipation of the real Christmas. It serves as a meditation aid, a way to contemplate the imminent coming of Christ, the light of the world, in our darkness.
I hope that we all experience some of that in our busy lives of shopping and prepping for the family get-together, travelling and frivolous, enjoyable pre-Christmas activities. Let us not forget all, far and near, who feel the darkness more than we do and may we be generous with our time and and money.
God bless,
Dineke van den Bogerd
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