What a change from last week! The weather here in Ross-on-Wye has gone from very wet to extremely cold and I find this quite interesting because we are about due for a cold winter. I seem to remember the deep snow of 1982 starting with a serious fog and frost in November with the temperature plummeting to minus 27 Celsius. It has not become anywhere near that cold yet this year but I would not be the least bit surprised to see some heavy snow soon. With bad winters in 1947, 1962/3, 1982/3, a cold one seems logical in 2005/6.

The 'Brass Monkey' saying, by the way has nothing to do with primates with high pitched voices. The device on which cannon balls were stored on board ship was called the 'Brass Monkey'. On a cold day, the metals would contract at differing rates and the balls would fall off, hence the phrase, 'cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey'.

Children at Goodrich School are helping to build a school in Burundi, Africa and are buying the bricks by donating money to attend after school clubs and purchasing Burundi Bears. Burundi Bears, which the children can be seen holding in the photo are knitted by parents and people in the local community and are sold for £1.00 each which is enough to buy four bricks. Since September last, a thousand bricks have been purchased.

The project began with Danni Ward, Jamie Nesaratnam and Adam Smith running a Bring and Buy stall. The charity involved with the Burundi project is 'Monmouth Facilitaid'. All of the money collected goes straight to Burundi, with nothing taken out, even for administration.

In the photographs are Danni Ward, Adam Smith, Jamie Nesaratnam, Matt Mcleod, Lewis Tyler, Charlotte Heath, Gracie Lathan, Charlotte Burnes, Jasmine Rollinson and Kellen Jenkins.