Hereford & Worcester Fire & Rescue Service are looking for on call firefighters (retained duty system) across the Herefordshire and Worcestershire counties.
The job requires you to live or work within five minutes of a call and all recruits must be 18 or over. Currently there are vacancies for on call firefighters in Herefordshire & Worcestershire, including at Hereford, Bewdley, Tenbury Wells, Leominster, Leintwardine, Kington, Eardisley, Ewyas Harold, Fownhope, Kingsland and Peterchurch.

Trainee firefighters receive an annual retainer of £2,090 plus extra pay for attending call outs, and when fully trained can earn up to £8,000 a year. The service is looking to recruit enthusiastic men and women from all walks of life, with common sense, compassion, sensitivity, discretion and diplomacy in the role of firefighter.

Rob Ball, Station Manager said “On call firefighters are in need throughout our two counties and these awareness sessions are a wonderful opportunity to find out more about the work of the on call firefighter and our service in general. The role of on call firefighter is challenging and extremely rewarding and they provide a vital service for the community.

To apply you will need to attend one of the awareness sessions at Hereford Fire Station on Monday February 8, at 7pm or on February 23, at 7pm, Bewdley Fire Station on February 10 at 7.00pm or Tenbury Fire Station on February 16 at 6.30pm.

A Community Owned Renewable
Energy Project for Leominster
Exciting plans are afoot to provide Leominster with its own community owned and operated power plant producing renewable energy.

‘Project LeAD’ (Leominster Anaerobic Digester) aims to create an Anaerobic Digester suitable for processing biomass from agriculture such as grass and grass silage, food processing waste, cider-making waste, and food waste from schools, hospitals, pubs and restaurants, thus producing biogas.

The biogas will be used to produce electricity and also heat (as hot water) through a Combined Heat and Power scheme (CHP), which could be piped to Leominster’s hospital, schools and leisure centre, reducing their heating bills and lowering the town’s carbon footprint. The biogas could also power a local bus service.

Electricity will be sold to the National Grid, especially valuable as it is from a renewable energy source.

The only by-products of the process are a liquid fertiliser and a soil improver which can be used by local farmers, gardeners and allotment holders.

Other benefits include: a community project that will encourage co-operative action within the local community, an ethical and local
opportunity for investment, a reduction of carbon emissions, and a community fund for local projects.

LeAD is being developed as a Towards Transition Leominster project and will be a community co-operative: local people will own and operate the plant. We are working closely with Energy4All who have set up 7 successful renewable energy co-ops around the country. Members of the co-op can invest in the plant and will receive interest on their investment: we aim to do better than a savings account over time. There are also significant tax incentives for some investors.

If we can bring 1,000 local people together, as stakeholders, we can negotiate a better tariff from one of the renewable energy suppliers. This would mean a 10 -15% reduction in members’ electricity bills.

We are holding a public meeting to explain more about this exciting project on Thursday, 28th January, 7.30pm at The Royal Oak, Leominster.
If you would like to become a shareholder, a feedstock supplier, or would like more information, please come to the meeting or contact one of the following:

Jay Abrahams This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (technical)
Philippa Roberts This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Planning)
Felicity Norman This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Community)

Setting your Challenges for 2010
As we begin this month in 2010, have we kept to our new year’s resolutions and good intentions?
I have always had a desire to run in the London Marathon since watching it on TV some years ago.
Yes this is the year of setting Challenges; I am now training for the 2010 Virgin London Marathon.
I have chosen to raise money for Children in Crisis, established in 1993 in the UK to give children in some of the world’s poorest countries the education they need to help transform their lives.
With reading this Article I am hoping to stir up some enthusiasm for you to challenge yourselves and making a difference in your life and someone else.
As I have clearly set out my goal for this year, I would also hope that you could support me in my endeavour, I have set up an online email link to donate to this worthy Charity.
I wish you all the very best in your Challenges and goals this year.
Regards
Matthew Farrell

Links for online donations
www.justgiving.com In Sponsor a friend put in Matthew Farrell and you will arrive on my page.

Also Canon Pyon Post Office ask for Details for sponsor form.

My email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Matthew Farrell of Farrells Decor, Canon Pyon.

Local to Leominster wishes everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year for 2010.

Our new special will be Pear and Blackberry Ice Cream, which we made for the first time last year, and which proved very popular. The Blackberries are grown by Haygrove Fruit Farm, just outside Ledbury. The Pears are from an orchard on the other side of Ledbury. Our October Special will be Apple with Cider Brandy Ice Cream, made with apples grown apples by Simon on his small holding, and Herefordshire Cider Brandy produced by King Offa’s distillery in Hereford. This will be available from next week.10/10/09

Just Rachels

Our August Special is Plum, Cinnamon and Amaretto Ice Cream, made with local Early Rivers Plums grown just outside Newent at Castle Fruit Farm by Chrissy Bentley and her husband. This is a regular seasonal special, and always popular. Delicious served with a Plum and Almond Crumble

To make the Crumble: Make the crumble mix, using a 125g Flour, 80g Butter and 50g Demerara Sugar and 50g Ground or Chopped Almonds. Mix in the ood processor, or with your fingertips until the mixture resembles crumbs. Stone 500g of local plums (variety of your choice) and place in an ovenproof dish. Scatter with sugar if required. sprinkle the crumble mix all over the top, then place in the oven for 30 mins 350 degrees F/180 degrees C/ Gas Mark 4. Serve hot with Plum Cinnamon and Amaretto Ice Cream!.

The 2009 Shobdon Food Festival was another great success. We again entertained thousands of visitors across the two days at an event that is widely being thought of as a culinary must-see! People were able to sample and buy from over a hundred of the region’s finest food and drink producers and craftspeople. For two days the sights, sounds and smells of Herefordshire filled the air as the smell of the sizzling spicy sausages mingled with the subtle aromas of the organic herbs and the live music was somehow enhanced by the therapeutic clanging of the blacksmith’s hammer and the hypnotic chugging of the vintage vehicle engines.

The weekend began with a sporting theme and an audience with England cricketer Graeme Hick and continued with a 1940’s night that went with a real swing thanks to ‘The Hereford Big Band’. As ever though, the main focus was the quality of fresh produce on show from organic breads, Welsh cheeses, preserves, speciality coffees, strawberries, local meats, beer, wines, ciders and liqueurs to antipasti, smoked produce, patisserie, crepes and ice cream.

A huge thank you to all the volunteers who helped both before and over the weekend itself. We simply couldn’t run an even of that magnitude without you, but we always need more people. Now is the time to get in touch if you would like to be involved next year.

Most importantly, we raised £4,500 for a variety of local charities and good causes which was an fantastic effort.

If you would like to see photographs of this year’s festival, visit the website at Click on the ‘History’ section at the top of the page and have a look at the 2009 gallery.

Our July special is Eton Mess Ice Cream - with local fresh raspberries, chunks of crispy meringue and whisky. A lovely seasonal ice cream, with the taste of early summer! Serve with fresh local raspberries, either just as they are, or press them through a sieve, sweeten to taste (icing sugar dissolves easily) then serve the fresh raspberry sauce in a pretty jug for your guests to pour over their ice cream.
Just Rachels.

Whatever happened to the tea-time of my childhood? For my brothers and me, It was the greatest time of the day. In those civilised schooldays,dinner-time’ (no fancy ‘lunch’ for us working-class Northerners) lasted two hours, so school didn’t finish until 4-4.30, when we rushed home, ravenous, for tea. at 5. With seven children, a bus-driver’s wage didn’t allow for anything fancy for tea during the week, just lots of bread-and-butter and jam. My poor mother was hardly back to the bread-board before the first plateful had vanished and my greedy brothers were calling for more. And it was always butter – my mother would have no truck with margarine, ‘maggie-ann’ in the
Merseyside vernacular. We would have had no difficulty in telling Stork from butter!
Sunday tea-time was very different, the highlight of the week. Unusually for that era, my father did the baking on Sunday, producing buns, sandwich cake and our favourites, Cocoa Krispies, made with Rice Krispies, cocoa, sugar and butter. First though, we had tinned fruit and ‘evap.’ – called ‘cream’ by pretentious neighbours. I loved fruit and evap.(and still do) but for some strange disciplinary reason, bread-and-butter had to be eaten with it, spoiling the effect for me. and I have never combined them since.
Returning home very late one day, I explained to my distraught parents
that I’d had to take shelter from an escaped tiger near Tranmere Rovers
football ground (true, strange as it may seem) My younger brothers were totally unimpressed by this thrilling saga but their envy was loudly proclaimed by my account of the tea that I’d had earlier, at an affluent school-friend’s before my adventure.
“Cor, chocolate biscuits! And a whole glassful of milk! It’s not fair, our Nance gets all the treats,just because she’s the only girl!”
The most delicious tea-times I remember were at Castle Cliffe in Hereford, once the Bridewell. If Con, the owner, befriended you, tea-time was a standing invitation – and what a tea! That archetypal English delicacy, cucumber sandwiches, or perhaps thin bread-and-butter and home-made jam, followed by scones with jam and cream, gingerbread, Victoria sponge and the richest of chocolate cakes. The tea,of course, was Earl Grey in delicate china teacups. This, plus Con’s gentle conversation, against a view of the river through wide windows, glows in my memory as the perfect tea-time.
So what has happened to tea-time? For many children, it seems to be a
packet-snack or two, just a stop-gap between school and supper on a tray in front of the television. What a delight they are missing!

Throughout the year, I have always provided food for the birds that flock to my garden but was unaware until recently how vital this is owing to conditions which have affected natural food supplies. Apparently, at this time of year, with fledglings still needing to be fed, garden birds are having to work twice as hard to find food, and I am doing my best to provide it.
Somerfleld often have marked-down loaves and other suitable items and
Wholefoods of Leominster stock excellent food mixes in various amounts at very reasonable prices, so feeding the birds need not break the bank.
Three times a day, I put out bread and seeds at several location in my
garden and I’m rewarded immediately by the spectacle of many different kinds of birds descending upon them. Especially popular is a treat that my grandsons, when young, named ‘bird pudding’: discarded containers into which margarine, or other cheap spread, is melted and into which seeds are then been thoroughly mixed.
Believe me, the pleasure that the birds give me is well worth the
additions to my budget – perhaps later I can harvest the legacy of last year’s spilled seed: a ripening crop of wheat, barley and various other unidentified items near the hanging-feeder …