After just two terms of learning to play violin or cello by the Suzuki Method with Barrie Moore, all of Year One at Brampton Abbotts gave a concert to the whole school on Thursday, 19th July. The children demonstrated how to take the violin from the rest position to its playing position under the chin, and played several pieces using up to three fingers on all four strings. They swapped around, with one child bowing the instrument which was held and fingered by another.

'Each child learns at their own pace,' said Barrie Moore. 'There is no rivalry; we all come together to make music and some will learn faster than others. You have all come a long way in the short time we have been together and I have great hopes for the future.'

Robin Symonds, director of Ross Live! who have sponsored the programme, said: 'It has been hugely rewarding to see how you have all taken to this. These first two terms have shown that you wanted it and that it was needed. Without this, we would never be able to raise funding for the future, but now I am confident we shall be able to carry on with the programme next year and, I hope, beyond.'

Parental involvement is an important element in the Suzuki Method and five Brampton Abbotts mums are learning alongside their children. The project has been funded to date by the Fred Bulmer Foundation and Ross Live! as part of its outreach programme to schools and young people.

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Friday, 20th July 2007 was a date long ago engraved in our daughter's mind. This was the day she left primary school AND the day new Harry Potter book came out!! The date is now engraved on a lot more people's minds for an entirely different reason, as being the date that the rain simply didn't stop and the waters rose.

We'd promised our daughter that, if she could stay up until midnight, she could go into Ross to WH Smiths and collect her Harry Potter book then. Against our expectations, she was still wide-eyed and bushy-tailed at 11.30pm and so off we went into town to queue in the rain.

With our daughter now clutching her precious book and holding tight onto her purple 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' balloon, we walked back down Broad Street to where we had parked the car.

A car pulled up alongside us and a chap wound his window down to ask us if we knew anywhere where they could spend the night. They had been stuck on the M5 for over 5 hours, trying to get home from Cornwall to Scotland and had been directed down the M50 by the emergency services only to find that Ross was the end of the road with all suitable routes out of the town flooded.

They had been told that 'Ross Leisure Centre' was open and so we drove, with them following, to two places we thought might fit this bill but neither was open. In the end, as it was past 1am, we invited them home with us. At least it was warm and dry! So a family of four, two of them small children, spent the night in our conservatory on our sofa bed and on camping beds.

The next morning, they talked about the lack of information from the emergency services and the very scary moment that they had been directed to drive through the opened central reservation and into the torrent of water flowing along the M5. The advice they had been given was not to stop and to keep their revs. up!! At the end of the M50 they had been told to head for 'Ross Leisure Centre' but were not given any actual directions or landmarks etc. They arrived in Ross to find the town in darkness and we had been the first people they had spotted.

Earlier that evening, we had set out to try and 'rescue' some of our staff stuck in a factory in Ledbury, only to find the road flooded at Much Marcle. As we drove back to Ross we were astonished to see drivers coming up towards the 'Travellers Rest' roundabout and simply being directed away from the M50. Inevitably, they were then heading up towards Much Marcle, hoping to join the M50 after Ledbury. The police seemed to be unaware that the road at Much Marcle was flooded.

Maybe what is needed is a Community Plan for situations such as this. Some sort of plan that everyone knows about or knows where they can ring for advice. A designated building needs to be opened and signposted, so that residents can volunteer to help and drivers know where to go.

Although we were able to do 'our bit' we felt awful that Ross didn't appear to have a community centre open and that, if there was, as residents here, we didn't know where to direct this family to. Maybe we can open a discussion about this and either make existing plans clearer and more widely known or come up with a plan for such eventualities?

Children between the ages of four and twelve visited Ross Library on Monday, meeting with an armadillo, a meerkat and even a skunk! The event was so popular that several sessions had to be arranged.

I went along to one of the afternoon 'encounters' where Stephen met with a meercat, Hannah and Ethan held a skunk and Grace, an armadillo. Our friend, the now world famous Amy King was also there and met up with two owls, 'Little' and 'Snowy'

'Animal Encounters' was taken to Ross Library by Trevor Hill, who comes from between Tenbury Wells and Bromyard (two very flooded areas) and is currently visiting Herefordshire Libraries as part of the 'Big Wild Read' programme of events.

Best wishes to Vanessa Taylor who celebrated her 21st birthday on Tuesday 24th July. 'Wyenot News' was previously informed by Vanessa's parents that she was in for a big surprise at her birthday party which was held at The Plough Inn, Overross on Saturday evening.

Totally oblivious to what was in store, Vanessa danced away to the great music of Double Barrel with mum Vicky and family friend Julie, when she was suddenly confronted by a fireman. We cannot print what Vanessa actually said once she realized that this particular 'fireman' was about to take all of his clothes off, but we can tell you that she certainly was surprised to say the least.

Once Vanessa had recovered from the shock, she seemed to really enjoy the 'entertainment' that her parents had organized for her and judging from the cat calls from other quarters, so did everyone else.

A special auction was held at the Vine Tree Inn on Saturday and many people kindly donated lots to be auctioned off. The auction was held to boost funds for a hydrotherapy pool to be installed at Barrs Court School. The organizers of this event have also raised money with a skittles night and one of the pub's regulars invited lots of people along to a barbecue, charging them for the privilege. Unfortunately I was unable to stay for the whole auction but will hopefully be able to publish the sum raised in next week's issue of Wyenot News.

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