The 5 Villages Youth Group in Compton Dando were treated to a surprise when they went pond dipping and bug hunting at Elm Farm, Burnett, with Philippa Paget. She had trapped some moths the night before for them to see: Emerald, Elephant Hawk, Peppered and Peach Stone to mention a few. The kids and adults alike were thrilled.

Then it was off to the pond to do a bit of dipping and we were lucky enough to find lots of baby newts, quite a few water louses and leeches and some water beetles.

Not satisfied with that, the group all went off on a bug hunt, chanting words from the Going on a Bear Hunt book – ‘we can’t go over it, we can’t go under it, oh no we’ve got to go through it’ as we went through the long grass hunting for crickets, grasshoppers, beetles and more moths.

Thank you to Philippa, a great time was had by all. See everyone again in September.

Thank you very much from the Fete Team to those who helped out at the fete on Saturday, which was tough work in the heat.Predictably we struggled with numbers given the unfortunate clash with the football, so thanks also to those who came out to support on the day, bringing friends and family, plus people who couldn’t make it but kindly donated cakes and so on. Everyone who attended was having a great time.The figures are still being finalised, but I’m pleased to say profit looks still to be well in excess of £2500.As normal will be shared between the church, hall and community association in order to fund other village activities. Thanks again from the fete team!

Jenny got people making Christmas decorations from her bottle tops and fabric, Eileen showed her amazing felted creations: the Green Man being a real tour de force, but also letting people have a go themselves.  Alice seemed surrounded by knitters and crocheters as well as Sarah quilting instead of working in her flower garden.  Pauline was making cards and Carolyn worked on her amazing whacky paintings.  Linda, Jenny and I all brought our spinning wheels and June is keen to learn next year.  Maggie had fun making covered buttons and everyone enjoyed the home made soups and bread with their lunch.  We had several other visitors who came to see what everyone was doing and the day finished with tea and cake donated by a couple of the villagers.

Thank you everyone for a lovely day. Next dates: Sat 27 Jan, Tue 12 Feb

This was a successful night financially as well as socially. We made £430.76 in total for CDCA funds, excluding the hire of the hall [£28]. A big thank you to Mabel Prescott for fetching our supper – a vital role, and we are sorry that she had to wait so long [due to a staff absence]. Winning team: Pfaffing Ladies, please note, that we would like the trophy back in time for next year’s quiz!! Alice and Alison hope that you enjoyed the depth and breadth of the topics and the challenges that some rounds gave us all!

Thank you to everyone who attended the barn dance on Saturday. It was a fantastic night enjoyed by all and we raised a grand total of around £1400 towards the new pitch and necessary equipment – great result.

Particular thanks go to Lynda and Tony for hosting and there was some enthusiastic talk of not leaving it so long before the next one!

The latest 5 Villages Youth Group meeting was a huge success – because everyone loves cakes! The kids formed two teams who made different recipes – one a sponge recipe and the other a donut recipe – for our Cake Pop machines.

It was difficult to be patient whilst the cakes cooked and even harder to wait for them to cool down enough to decorate with icing and sprinkles – but the wait was worth it!! All the cakes disappeared in a flash.

Mabel Prescott, one of the organisers, said: “There were a lot of sticky fingers and a few harassed parents at the end, but it was such fun.”