“It’s life, Gill, but not as we know it”

As it will have been impossible not to notice, our ‘Little Shop’ as it is often affectionately known, is not currently the shop we all knew and loved.  Gone is the usual question ‘morning, how can I help you?’ from someone behind the deli counter, gone is the sound of milk being frothed for a cappuccino, gone are the people sitting at the picnic tables eating croissants and drinking lattes, gone are our army of volunteers manning the till and gone is the warm and friendly atmosphere that envelops you as you push open the door and step inside.  But despite that, our Little Shop is still functioning, and remarkably even thriving, in these challenged times. 

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Well at least the weather changed, welcome rain for those well tended gardens, for those of us lucky enough to have them. Much else has stayed the same in these groundhog days, but at the same time life moves on.

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It was a beautiful morning for the Hambledon Garden-Bound Dawn Chorus Walk today and the cuckoo joined us from the wood behind Malthouse Lane – he doesn’t always! Perhaps he was treating us to try to make up for our not being able to be out walking together this year.

If you joined in too, then do let us know where and what you heard and we will put the results together and post them on the website.

Please email your list to Ruth Canham at [email protected]

Usually at this time of year Julie Steele would be organising the village’s annual dawn chorus walk which always involves an early morning meeting at the shop, a walk into Hambledon Hurst and then onto the common to appreciate the wonderful variety of birdsong and to note down the different birds contributing to the music.

Unfortunately, of course, this year the walk has had to be cancelled but we have a plan so that we don’t miss out entirely!

This Saturday, May 2nd, instead of meeting at the shop, we are suggesting that we all just wander out into our gardens at 5.30am (!) and spend an hour wrapped up warmly listening to the dawn chorus. If you would like to join in then please do and jot down the names of the different birds you hear during the hour, then email your list to Ruth Canham at [email protected] and we will post the results on the village website.

For anyone not feeling very confident in telling their birds apart, the RSPB has a very helpful birdsong App where you can listen to the songs of all British birds to help with identification. 

The May edition of Hambledon Parish Magazine will be hand-delivered to subscribers across the village this weekend.

A small team of volunteers will be out and about in their designated areas of Hambledon, so please look out for your magazine on your doorstep or in your letter box over the next few days. If you are a subscriber and do not receive your copy please contact Stewart Payne on 07831 393561.

Thank you to the volunteers, and to the editorial team of John Hindley and Jane Woolley who have put together a magazine packed full of interesting articles and information, much of it relevant to the current situation.

Until recently the magazine was also available at the village shop where it could be collected by those who had pre-paid, or bought over the counter. As this is not possible at the moment, all village subscribers will receive their copy at their doorstep.

A small number of copies will be left in the church porch beside a collection box and available for purchase at the usual cover price of 70p, first come, first served.

If you would like to subscribe to future issues, please contact Mary Parker on 01428 682545. A year’s subscription costs £7.50. By becoming a subscriber you are guaranteed a home-delivered copy and it helps the editors to manage the print run.

Back issues of the magazine, including an archive covering many decades, can be viewed on this website on the Parish Magazine page.

We have seen the some new, diverse entries to the photo competition – visit them here to view and vote!

A raffle held by the locally-based Village Spirit Collective to raise funds for the Community Foundation for Surrey’s Coronavirus Response Fund achieved a remarkable £1,108 – a fantastic result.

The raffle, with a prize of a bottle of hand-crafted gin made by the Collective, ended on Saturday evening with the draw shown live on Facebook. With just a few hours to go the total stood at £760 as Alpa Jasani Cox, from the Collective, posted a reminder of the draw.

“The Shop must be doing well” is often the cry from villagers I meet on my daily walk. Well we hope so, but in these strange times, how do we measure the success of the shop?

I can, and will, bore you with statistics on the shop business but, most importantly, every delivery we do to those isolating and every time we prevent an unnecessary trip from home is a success for the shop.

If you’d like more data on the shop keep reading.

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It’s amazing how quickly the unusual can become the norm. Just a few weeks ago we were welcoming all to the shop, for a natter, a coffee, a paper, a fishing license and even some to do a bit of shopping. Dogs got free biscuits; now we find ourselves occasionally barking at people to keep their distance as they approach the shop, for our safety and theirs. But we’re all adapting.

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