Jobs at Tesco's Hornsea (21st Nov 2011)
     

Missing Cat (20st Nov 2011)
   
Can any one help locate our cat Pepita who was last seen of Wednesday 16th November, she has never gone missing before. She is a long haired domestic tabby with a white belly and socks, she is 16 months old and has a very bushy tale which most people seem to remark on. She is microchipped which would relate her to us. We live on Cowden Lane and it is impossible for us to search everywhere, so if anyone can help with any kind of information we would be most grateful. 
Pepita has turned up alive and well, thank you to everyone who kept there eyes open for her.
    
Photo Competition (9th Nov 2011)

I have already had some good autumn photos, but it is always nice to have some more to remind me of home. So I am offering a meal for two and a drink each in The Falcon for best photo of Autumn or Winter from now until 24th Dec, by which time I will be back in the village. You can enter only one photo, but you can change it if you wish, but they must have been taken in Withernwick. Also, even though I won't always know, I do want photos that are taken this year. As with the last competition I organised, I will ask a member of the Kuwait English School art department to judge the photos so that I don't submit to any bias.

The Death of Avice May Brown (8th Nov 2011)
   

    
The Great Hatfield Crafty Villagers (1st Nov 2011)
   

   
Wind Farm Construction to Begin Spring 2012 (31st Oct 2011)
  

Tractor Run 2011 (24th Oct 2011)
  

On a cold but dry Sunday 23rd October took place the 2011 tractor run.It started at the Falcon with pie and peas which went down very well, then the tractors set off at 10.45am heading off for Sproatley, Humbleton, Aldbrough and back to Withernwick. On return to the Falcon there was a charity auction, including a football signed by the Hull City team, which was a great success. All the money raised will go to Scope. Click here to see photos of the event.

   
The Death of David Cherry (6th October 2011)
    
It is sad to report the death of former village resident David Cherry, aged 69. He was born in the village in 1942 and lived here until the mid 1960's. I'm sure many of you will remember him or maybe even his grandmother Mrs Cherry (click here to see a photo of her) who lived in the old cottages on High Street. David's parents were John and Mary Cherry (click here to see a photo of Mary) and lived in the last cottage of Mill Row (nearest the school). He was a very active youngster, a very good athlete and actor (click here to see him in a village play). When he left the village he became a public health inspector in local government and lived in Lincolnshire. Unfortuantely we do not know the wherabouts of any of his family.
    
The Falcon in the Hull Daily Mail (25th September 2011)
   
The Falcon has indeed gone from strength to strength since its restoration two years ago. A sure symbol of this is a glowing review of the Falcon's food in Saturday's (24th Sept) Hull Daily Mail, click here to read the review. (Just in case the link doesn't work, I'm sure Hull Daily Mail won't mind that I've copied the review - click here).

Energy Surveys in Withernwick (23rd September 2011)

On Thursday 22nd Sept, an observant villager noticed a woman acting suspiciously and asked her what she was doing. It seems she was doing a preliminary survey for a more detailed geophysical survey (which apparently does not require planning permission) looking for oil and gas. As if we have not had enough with gas caverns and wind turbines, we now also get drilling platforms which would be much more obtrusive than the other two. It is early days yet but it will be worth keeping an eye on this situation. Click here to read an article from "This is Hull and East Riding" which describes similar activities around Walkington and Skidby.

Jim Harry (14th September 2011)

Sadly over the weekend of the 10/11th Sept Jim Harry died. He had lived in Holderness House, High Street for many years. He has been a very active member of the village and was for many years a member of the parish council. He was also a keen gardener as many who visited his garden during the 2004 Open Garden Day will remember. Our deepest sympathy goes out to his family. His funeral took place on Friday 23rd Sept at St Alban's.

Village Fete 2011 (27th June 2011)

Well the weather could not have been better (some might have argued it could have been cooler!), it was, by a long way, the hottest day of the year (30 deg C +). It was well attended and everyone who did turn up had a great time, the highlight was Park Rose birds of prey who put on a fantastic display, but all the volunteers worked extremely hard, especially given the excessive heat.
The fete raised a record amount of money and so £600 will be given to charity. 
There are unclaimed raffle prizes, click here to find out if you have won and how to claim.
Due to various circumstances it will be a couple of weeks before photos of the fete appear.

New Parish Council Line-up (12th June 2011)
    
At its Annual General Meeting earlier this month, Withernwick Parish Council elected a new chair, Tony Crook and a new Vice-chair Norman Wilkie; both were returned unopposed. The new council consists of five members with Dawn Dickinson and Daryll Carr joining the Chair and Vice-chair as uncontested nominations and the appointment on the night of Elaine Grove as a co-opted member. The council will be seeking to advertise the four vacant seats shortly. The meeting was opened by the retiring chair Pat Page and completed by the new chair. The council recored its thanks to Pat for her work on the council over the last 18 years and wished her well for the future.
    
The agenda for the night, in addition to the traditional confirmation of the new membership details, was a very busy one with the clerk Mr P L Wilson presenting annual accounts for the year ended 31st March 2011. These showed the very healthy financial position the Council is in with year-end reserves of £13000 and no debts. The council will be debating how best to use threse resources for the benefit of the village.
   
Computer Virus Alert (17th May 2011)

Emails are being sent with Osama Bin-Laden as the subject. The email has an attachment (shown by a paper clip next to the massage title) which claims to be a photo of Osama Bin-Laden. Do not open the attachment as it will wipe your hard drive, indeed if you get an email that is anything about Osama Bin-Laden, simply delete it. As yet, no anti-virus programs can detect or kill this virus. It is always best not to open any suspicious emails, the most common ones I get (my email is very public) are off banks or delivery firms such as UPS, they have an attachment which contains a virus; banks and delivery companies will never send out emails with attachments, if you get such an email (even off your bank), delete it.
    
Dry Weather (4th May 2011)

I do keep an eye on the weather in the village, it is very boring here usually, hot and sunny. In Withernwick it doesn't seem to have rained since the beginning of March or maybe earlier (maybe someone can tell me). It is a geographical fact that the East Coast of England is the dryest bit of the UK, but this is the third (or fourth) year running that March, April and May have been almost free of rain, so there seems to be some kind of pattern forming. So maybe we will have to get used to our lawns drying up at this time of the year, and sadly or happily (whichever you think) we may also have to get used to a wetter time in June, July and August (don't forget that the floods of 2007 were in June - click here). But, of course, UK weather is notoriously unreliable, so in all probability, my hypothetical pattern will continue no more!

New Village Community Association Committee (2nd May 2011)

At the Village Community Association AGM a new committee was elected, it is constituted as follows:

Chairman: Mike Soper
Vice Chair: Jo Arnett
Secretary/Treasurer: Sue Voase
Other members: Julia Beevers, Val Harrison and Carol Wilkie.

Website Hacked Into (20th April 2011)

I had noticed some strange hits to the website over the last week or so, but I do get what I call spurious hits now and again, so I didn't think much of it but there were getting rather a lot. Also Google seemed to be going through it a lot and indeed it was Google that notified me that the website had been hacked into and infected by what is called Malware.  It did not effect the website as you would have seen it, what happened was that someone had added extra pages that were not linked to the 'good' part of the website. These pages were porongraphic and were only accessed by people searching for pornographic content which then threw up links that were 'attached' to our website. 
As you can imagine, I was not happy and came up with a few choice words and phrases for the sad lowlife who maliciously hacked into the website. I have since traced the culprit to Holland, to my knowledge I have not recently upset any Dutch people, so I suspect this was an entirely random attack. I have spent a few days, in a rather angry and upset state, I sure my temper did no harm to any poor unsuspecting students!
I do have to thank the company that host the website, Just Host, for promptly and efficiently removing the offending pages and from now on I will keep a close eye on the hits, I will now recognise and dubious hits.
   
Norah Spencer (12th Feb 2011)

It is with great sadness that we have to report the death of Norah Spencer. She was a great servant of the village who was an enthusiastic member of St Alban's congregation and always helped in all of the churches activities. She will also be well remembered for her annual plant sales in support of St Alban's. She was a very keen and skillful gardener as she showed on both Open Garden days and with the many plants she raised for her sales. Although she as not been well for some time, it is still a very sad occasion and our thoughts go out to Bev and family. Click here to see a photo taken in Sept 1995.

Kuwait Celebrates 50/20 (3rd Feb 2011)

The weekend of the 25th/26th Feb 2011 is a very special time for the people of Kuwait. These dates are for the celebration of National Day when it became independent from the UK (it was only a protectorate) and Liberation Day when it was liberated from Saddam Hussain's Iraqi forces. This year is very special as it is 50 years since Kuwait became an independent country and 20 years since the liberation from the Iraqis (yes it is 20 years since the First Gulf War!). There are already flags, bunting and fairy lights everywhere, and on that weekend the locals will have a party to end all parties; we will just have to keep out of the way and let them get on with it.