Falmer

CONCERTS: I am looking forward to the start of the new year’s concerts. The first one, Calliope, features flautist Clare Beesley and accordion player Pete Churchill. The concert is on the Sunday February 3 at 5.30pm.

BIRDS: We have had some jays coming to our bird feeders recently, their bright colour and raucous cries liven up the garden no end and they don’t seem to have put off the smaller birds as we have plenty of blue tits, chaffinches and even woodpeckers.

MAINTENANCE: Balfour Beatty have been helping Falmer with maintenance jobs, as a service to offset the commotion caused by all the building at University of Sussex. Their most recent project has been to cut back low branches and clear the leaves in the cemetery. They did a wonderful job and collected the leaves in bags. When they tried to carry them, the leaves were so waterlogged that they were too heavy to lift, fortunately local farmer Eric Huxham came to the rescue and has taken them away. We are immensely grateful to the volunteers and Fiona Gush in particular for organising all the work they are doing for the village.

TRAFFIC CONE: Talking of maintenance you may have noticed a cone on the pavement in Mill Street. It is there to cover the hole where the lid of an inspection hole is missing. The council have been informed via a multiple choice form online. I am not sure how satisfactory that will be, I may phone them as well.

CHURCH SERVICES: We are still in our interregnum at St Laurence Church and enjoying an interesting variety of vicars coming to conduct our services. Last Sunday we had the wonderful Revd. Mary Samuel, next Sunday we look forward to welcoming Revd Shirley Ford to lead us at our 10am service.