I have realized from the amount of people who telephone me to tell me off for 'not running their article' that some people do not realize that there is more than one page every week on 'Wyenot News'.

I hope that the new page index layout at the top will sort this problem.

I would also like to make it clear that articles on 'Wyenot News' are not necessarily arranged in order of importance factor i.e. major headline at the front. They are arranged so that I can split the photos as evenly as possible between pages, helping those who still do not have broadband.

As part of a long-standing link between Goodrich and Namutumba Parents' Primary School,. Uganda, Mr. James Mugenyi spent Tuesday, 12th June at Goodrich Primary School telling pupils about contrasting life in his African homeland.

Goodrich pupils and staff were transfixed, learning what money raised at the school is used for - a water bore construction and the purchase of additional land for pupils to play sport on are just two of the items recently acquired by the partnership. They also enjoyed seeing the wildlife that lives in and around the Ugandan settlement, including the 'Big Five'.

Continued . . .

Last Friday, Year Six pupils at Goodrich organized a most successful 'Bring & Buy' sale to raise funds for Natutumba. All 116 pupils at the school brought an item to sell; and, in return were allowed to wear non - school clothes for the day. Pupils, parents and staff were impressed by the organizational skills of Year Six and a phenomenal £190 was raised on the day.

Mr. Mugenyi was most grateful to accept this money on behalf of the pupils of Namutumba and everybody is excited about what the money will be used for.

Mr. Gareth Hughes, overall Project Co-ordinator from John Kyrle High School, was similarly impressed by Goodrich School's efforts and extended sincere thanks on behalf of everyone involved in Uganda.

'I feel so humble to see the efforts of all our pupils and school community making this annual occasion so memorable and worthwhile,' said Goodrich Headteacher, Tony Griffiths. 'It really is an honour to be associated with such goodwill.'

Margaret Bullimore, who was born in Ross 98 years ago and has lived in the town all of her life enjoyed listening to Ross Town Band at her first 'Bands in the Park' concert at the Bandstand on Sunday afternoon. Phil and Geraldine Kiss took Phil's aunt for an afternoon out and she really enjoyed herself, sitting with Mayor and Mayoress, Derek and Meryl Bedford in the hot sunshine.

There are plenty more 'Bands in the Park' concerts for Margaret and everybody else to enjoy over the coming weeks. Next week, the 'Metz Big Band' will be providing swing music for summer afternoon picnickers and details of all concerts can be found on the 'What's On?' page of 'Wyenot News'.

Due to another commitment with the Aston Ingham Open Gardens preview, I was unable to stay long at Sunday's performance but I did manage to record one tune with the video camera and that short film can be watched below.

Click the centre of the image, left to listen to Ross Town Band on Sunday afternoon.

Bands in the Park have been put on by Ross Town Council and will be continuing throughout the summer months.

This coming Sunday, the Metz Big Band will be providing the entertainment.

I was quite astounded by the feedback received following the short 'Accidental Photographer' film I ran. All of those who wrote to me liked it a lot. Thank you very much for that! (I guess there must have also been some who didn't like it but they did not write.) The most frequent comment I received however was disbelief that I do not consider myself a photographer.

My 'career' in photography is definitely 'accidental'. I didn't want to be a photographer. I only do it for 'Wyenot News'. I really wanted to be a lumberjack! Leaping from tree to tree as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia! The Giant Redwood! The Pine! ...

I'd chop down trees,
Eat my lunch,
Go to the lavatory!
On Wednesdays I'd go shopping -
and have buttered scones for tea . . .

Enough of that! Here's another film for you . . .

For those who enjoyed last week's 'Accidental Photographer' film, here is another. King Arthur's Cave was one of the first places I photographed for Wyenot, back in 2000 when the idea for a Ross Community web site first occurred to me. To this day the cave has remained one of my two favourite places in the whole world to hide when I want to escape from the pressures of life for a while. (The other is the cave at Three Cliffs Bay.)

King Arthur's Cave was occupied by Cro magnon man during the Upper Palaeolithic period but would have looked different from the way it looks now. In their wisdom, the Victorians excavated it using dynamite and so the front view has changed considerably. The bones of woolly mammoth and other large animals have been discovered in the cave, as have flint tools

The film contains photos of the cave, surrounding area and of modern day dwellers - bats, spiders and fungi . . .

[Windows Media, higher quality video and audio downloadable version. Right click and 'save target' 26.8Mbytes]

The music
'Palaeolithic Storm' is entirely my own composition which was also released on the 'I am the cat who walks by himself' album. It is more a 'romantic' than factual portrayal of the troglodyte existence. During the Upper Palaeolithic, the Doward, where King Arthur's Cave is located would have been covered by a glacier, rather than enjoy the warm and wet weather of a modern summer.

I recorded the thunder clap live, during the mother of all lightning bolts, which struck very close to my house. The birds and the bees were recorded in my garden, as were the mating cats (at 4:00 am). The caveman voices are my own voice, recorded and played backwards filtered through a pitch shifter. I played the drum manually, which caused awful cramp in my wrists as I am no drummer (no comment, please). The tune itself was played on a Roland Synthesizer.

Neither 'Windows Media' nor 'You Tube' codecs worked well in encoding the music for this video, so there is an MP3 version below. This still does not compare with the quality of the original CD quality 'Wave' file but on the MP3 version, the thunder crack and rain sounds at the end are pretty damned good if you want to give somebody a fright.

[MP3 version]

As a free additional benefit to those local businesses supporting Wyenot.com, every week Wyenot News chooses one local business at random to feature in the current issue of the weekly on-line news magazine.

John and Hilary Draper would like to welcome you to Broome Farm, their beautiful 300 year old farmhouse bed and breakfast establishment. Broome Farm is situated at Peterstow, just three and a half miles from the historic market town of Ross-on-Wye and is set in outstandingly beautiful and tranquil countryside. Broome Farm has been owned by Hilary's family for the last 70 years and is attached to her brother's cider farm where there are acres of orchards from which their home produced cider is made. . . .

For further information, click here to go to the Broome Farm page on Wyenot.com.

DO YOU HAVE A STORY FOR WYENOT NEWS?

If you have a local news item or story you can submit it here
or call Alan or Tina on 01989 763217

There is no charge for publishing either news items or What's On Events
This is a Free Service for the local community!

Wyenot News, 1, Hillview Road, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. HR9 7EY

If you would like to order prints from Wyenot News photographs, please click here.

Prints are only available for photographs taken by Wyenot News (Not of those which have been sent in by readers).

Prints of 'people' photographs are only available to those directly involved in the news event covered. i.e. I do not sell prints of people to the general public.