Ross Junior Colts football team have been very busy lately, trying to raise funds to enable the entire team to go on tour in Woolacombe, Devon in May this year. One of the many fund-raising events was a quiz, which was held at The White Lion Inn on Thursday 15th February. The pub was packed out with quizzers, including a few of the pub's regular Sunday night quiz teams who were keen to help the kids on their way. Landlady, Jacqui Newman hosted the quiz, which was great fun. A raffle was also held and the event raised £220 towards the funds.

Ross Junior Colts target was initially £1,000, however, after the quiz and various other events they have managed to raise nearly £1,600 by way of bag packing at Morrison's, delivery of Sky TV leaflets and personal donations. There are still a couple of activities to go including a car boot sale and two of the parents are running in the Reading half marathon in April. The extra funds will enable the team to enjoy a Christmas party.

Paul Chapman, spokesman for Ross Junior Colts would like to thank everybody for their kindness and generosity to their cause.

My sincere apologies to Ross Macmillan Group for my not turning up at your AGM, which was held in the Conservative Club on Monday evening, after having accepted invitations from two separate members.

I had the event in my computer diary but not the written version and my computer crashed on Saturday. That along with a frantically busy Monday and Tuesday preparing this week's news, Monday morning with the film set in Newent and the thought of Tuesday in Cheltenham with Matt for his chemo, I have to admit that I completely forgot. I woke up at 5:00 am on Tuesday morning and thought, 'oops' (or words to that effect)!

Sorry. It was not intentional.

Congratulations to Major Emery of Fonteine Court, who celebrated his 89th Birthday with a dinner with friends at Ross Conservative Club on Sunday.

Local company, Values Based Leadership Ltd (VBL), has recently relocated to new premises. Now based at Sterling House, 17 Church Street, Ross-on-Wye, the move was necessary to accommodate the growth of the business.

VBL was established in 2001 by Directors John Frost and Simon Hollington. They have since been joined by two further Directors: Linda John and Robin Ancrum, and two administrative staff: Claire Margrett and Pam Watters. In addition, VBL has an extensive network of associates across the UK who work with the team on a project basis.

VBL works with companies and organizations nationally and locally creating and running training programmes that improve business performance. Its particular strengths are in individual leadership development, team effectiveness and culture change. VBL also works as a strategic partner with companies of all sizes providing induction training, executive coaching and facilitation on issues which range from mergers and acquisitions to succession planning.

Further information about the company may be obtained by visiting its website: www.valuesbasedleadership.co.uk or by telephoning them on 0870 609 1129.

This week's nature watch photos were taken from immediately outside my office. I have an eco-pond just outside the door. It is not a natural pond, I dug it myself about four years ago but it seems to work. At the moment, as I open the office door the water literally boils with frogs diving for cover and at night, their orgies are so loud that can be heard whilst Tina and I lay in bed.

The photos below were taken early on Tuesday evening, 20th February whilst I was final stage editing this week's Wyenot News and show just a small cluster of the masses of spawn in the pond.

Last week I showed the 'Business as Usual' photographs I took at John Kyrle High School last Thursday in the snow. When the school called me to take photos of the snowman competition, I was elsewhere and could not get there until later and by the time I did get there, the snowmen had begun to melt, so I photographed two of the classes instead.

Ben Abbott, one of the school's English teachers has since sent in these pictures of the competition and other school snow scenes. It looks like both staff and students enjoyed the day!

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