Hillside Parishes Magazine

From the Registers

Funerals.  

27th August. St Felix. Mary Edwards, 85. A West Riding lass who was housekeeper for the Ford family for a good number of years, and a faithful attender at St.Felix when she lived in the Village.

16th August. St.Mary Leake. Dick Harden, after a long struggle since a stroke 18 months ago. 12th Lancers and S.B.S. during the War. He farmed in Australia and “retired” to Over Silton where he was churchwarden, and where he is buried. Our best wishes to Sue and their extended family.

October 2003 - Harvest Time

The exercise of our faith is like good manners. We show to God, our Father, expression of thanks and praise (acknowledgement of his power and glory), and we say with meaning our apologies and concerns for others and ourselves. Lent, and approaching Advent, focus on the apology and confession. Easter and Christmas home in on the celebration and mystery, and harvest, now that it is with us, proclaims our thanksgiving for God's providence - tempered with a concern for those who do not have enough.

The future of farming has definite security in the assessment that the world needs food and that the world can provide enough. For the individual farmer the horizons are not so clear. The average age of farm owners is 59 - though this may have something to do with death duties, in this country, or divorce settlements where each partner is entitled to half of the whole estate for better or for worse. The statistics then get harsher: 80% of food produced by 20% of the workforce. An astonishing amount of subsidy for everyone else except the person not getting it. What is not organic farming and the fact that those who have registered as such in this country are already elbowed aside by foreign imports of so-called "organic produce" that in turn is meant to be better than the usual produce. The clamp that the big suppliers have on prices means that the initial producer gets a very small part of the final price because, in this country, food has to be clean and convenient - so we seem to pay the person that scrubs it more than the grower! 

Over the years that I have been here the numbers coming to Harvest Festivals have shrunk. Perhaps this has much to do with the fact that few people want to, or can be bothered to, or have the time to, or have the garden to grow their own. Our local Shows still have produce sections, and strong entries, so the effort is still made! One statistic that came out is how those countries that are still labour intensive on the food production (i.e. the individual holdings are a lot smaller) seem to produce better food and certainly have better cuisine and are happier for it. Perhaps more should return to the land instead of becoming townies!

 Anything that helps us to understand God better must be taken more seriously. From my own experience of farming and working the land, there is a greater feeling of God's providence and our dependence on Him. There is something not only comforting about fruits in their due season, but also a better diet is to be had by eating what is in season. Strawberries all the year round soon begin to pall and damson

cobbler on a cold day takes some beating! Finding fresh fruit and veg.is not always so easy. The supermarkets buy in bulk but, having worked in Covent Garden years ago, they buy too soon! They achieve a uniformity of product which never ripens! One melon we kept for 6 weeks-plus before it was ripe enough to eat - and you could taste decay close to the skin. Some avocados make good cannon balls (conkers? Ed.!) long after their sell-by dates. We fare better at the market stalls where produce is bought in lesser quantity - and therefore nearer its "use-by" date, so to speak. Farmers, too, have taken to the market so as to cut out middlemen - as the second Monday in Thirsk Market reveals. 

Before 1914, 30% of produce was food and fodder for the transport system - cart-horses etc. Before all fossil fuel is consumed, more of our produce will be convertible into fuel - diesel from rape and alcohol from beet. This statistic alone reminds us of our dependence upon God and the need for our stewardship. It is our stewardship that is a mark of sharing God's creation and learning from it. The more who are involved, therefore, the greater the number of those who might deepen their spirituality. It is not just "the Good Life" sort of thing, but the reality of a working relationship with God. Jesus may not have been a vineyard owner, and often crowds came from the town, but He used in His teaching images from working the land that spoke volumes and made sense …….. 

Our Harvest Thanks are about good manners, making sense, and keeping in touch. Best Wishes,

YORK MINSTER. I have Entry Pass cards for those parishioners wanting one. Please apply at Vicarage. T.H.

JOINT OPEN P.C.C. - 16th October - Likely Agenda. Update on Diocesan and Deanery Funding, c/o Dr Angela Summerfield. Video for York Diocese, "Restoring Hope".

CYSTIC FIBROSIS - Great North Run, 21st September. I didn't manage to get round to everyone, but, to those who did contribute to the above, a fantastic sum of around £1000 was raised. This was in sponsorship of our son Mark, who completed the run in 2 hours 27 minutes, in aid of the daughter, Ella, of a friend of his. Thank you all for your support of a wonderful day! Joy and Tony Davies.

Lady Chatterley's Lover The following review of this book appeared in the American magazine Field and Stream: Although written many years ago, Lady Chatterley's Lover has just been reissued by The Grove Press, and this pictorial ac-count of the day-to-day life of an English gamekeeper is full of considerable interest to outdoor minded readers. This is because it contains many passages on pheasant-raising, the apprehending of poachers, ways to control vermin, and other chores and duties of the professional gamekeeper. Unfortunately one is obliged to wade through many passages of extraneous material in order to discover and savour those sidelights on the management of a Midlands shooting estate. In this reviewer's opinion the book cannot take the place of J.R.Miller's Practical Gamekeeping. Ibid.

The magazine of the parishes of Boltby, Borrowby, Cowesby, Felixkirk, Kepwick, Kirby Knowle, Knayton, Leake and "The Siltons". Also circulated in Upsall C.P., Thirlby C.P. and Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe.
The Vicar in charge is Rev.Toddy Hoare,
at The Vicarage, Moor Road, Knayton, THIRSK, YO7 4AZ Telephone: 01845 537277. 
Contributions always welcome, but deadlines need to be met. 20 October 2003 for August
Editor Curtiss Cottage, South Kilvington, Thirsk 01845 - 522739