Mountfield

HARVEST FESTIVAL: All is safely gathered in — or soon will be. The Harvest Festival at All Saints Mountfield will this year take place on Sunday October 4th at 10.00 am followed by Harvest Hospitality. Gifts of fruit, eggs, flowers and vegetables would be most welcome, likewise packeted foods such as cereals, sugar, tea or coffee, can be left in the church on Friday 2nd October so they can be arranged to decorate the church. Afterwards, all produce will be donated to the St Nicholas charity in St Leonards who do such very practical good with local children and families. (Thanks to our Church Correspondent, Jackie Spriggs.)

MOUNTFIELD FAMILY BONFIRE: No, we haven’t completely given up on summer yet but we just want everyone to get this date in the diaries now so that family and friends can be booked for the occasion. The Mountfield Family Bonfire will be held this year on Friday October 30th. It will be the usual format: gates open at 6.00, BBQ and refreshments available. As ever, the Mountfield bonfire night is fully family-friendly with its early kick off, no daunting crowds, no pubs or alcohol, and so on. That’s why its reputation is growing across an ever wider area with families coming up from Hastings, for example.

CHILDREN’S CHRISTMAS PARTY: More forward planning. Further details nearer the time but another important date to put in the diary now to avoid disappointment is that the Children’s Christmas Party will be on Saturday December 12th.

TREASURE HUNT: Our Racing Correspondent, Chris Holden reports: “Last Saturday afternoon, ten teams took to the local lanes once again for the 2015 Mountfield Club Treasure Hunt. Some tricky clues really got us thinking and, as we made our way around the route, we met other teams going in the opposite direction more than once and we went wrong a couple of times ourselves. Many thanks to the Last family members for taking the time and trouble to set us a great challenge. ur team was Sue O’Sullivan driver, myself navigator, and George the dog as clue spotter. George was bewildered when we had to spot what the dog was playing with on a cottage sign near Woods Corner. He couldn’t believe what he saw and said he thought that the dog must be mad to be playing with a hedgehog! Our main rivals were Barry O’Sullivan, my husband Nick and Carly our dog (who was just along for the ride). They beat us last year but this year we gained our revenge taking prize money for first place with them coming in a very close second (well three quarters of a mile behind actually, Barry). That makes it one all boys, see you next time. We all enjoyed a drink and a ploughman’s back at the club and a chat with the other teams, mostly about the number of bolts on the church door, and the raffle raised over £70 in aid of St Michael’s Hospice. If you weren’t there you missed a lot of fun.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES: We had an interesting email this week from Alex MacPhee who lives at 1, Mountfield Villas, next to the phone box. He wrote: “Has anyone thought why so many satnav-led lorries have been turning into New Cut? There used to be a proper international road sign on the southbound A2100 directing them straight on, and I wondered why it had been removed. It was only the other day, when I was in the passenger seat rather than driving, that I noticed the sign was still there but almost invisible, due to its surface being covered in moss and the deep shade from the tunnel of trees. A few minutes with soapy water and a sponge has made a difference as can be seen, both pictures taken with automatic flash.” The pictures were quite dramatic: in the first, the sign is literally invisible in the gloom and in the second it clearly point HGVs straight ahead. Thanks to Alex for his simple but effective act — we think it’d called Sud’s Law. Oh, and does anyone know the Lithuanian for “Turn your sat-nav off”?

MOUNTFIELD RIDE/WALK: A final reminder that tomorrow, Saturday September 19th, is the date for the Mountfield Ride/Walk. If you are walking or riding, at least one of your Village Voices will be marshalling. And even if you aren’t walking or riding, why not pop along for a natter. All proceeds to Mountfield Church.

CONTACT: As ever, if you have anything for the Village Voice, we can be contacted on 880614 or via [email protected].

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