Missing in action

A local landmark has disappeared from the Village Green. Did anybody see thepassing of the old red phone box? Is this a permanent loss? A sign of the times at BT gets rid of its last remaining uneconomic community focused facilities? The other box is still in place on the Oakington Road.

Where once the red phone box stood

Put Dry Drayton On The Map

Should we be making the effort to put Dry Drayton on the map?

There are a couple of things going on at the moment that we could be participating in.

Is anyone entering the draw to become a Plinther? Win a place and you can stand for an hour on the Fourth Plinth on Trafalgar Square and during your hour of fame you could advertise little old Dry Drayton – Centre of the Universe. Interested? You can find the links at www.plinthers.com

A plinther at 8am today 14 July 2009

The other great national opportunity is to take part in The Big Lunch on 19th July 2009 – the organisers hope to get all 61 million Britons outside for a great street party with their neighbours. Could we do that again? We did it for one of the Queen’s Jubilees. Or is once in a lifetime often enough for Dry Drayton Street Parties? Find out all about The Big Lunch at www.thebiglunch.com

It’s all over for another year

Dry Drayton Feast Week is over for another year. Superb weather for most of the week must surely have made this a Feast Week to remember. The webmaster was away in even sunnier climes and so missed all the fun. Would anyone be prepared to write up a few lines about the different events?

We are most grateful to Rob Howard for the photographs below of Feast Week Fete.

Dry Drayton, Madingley, Cambridge route

A campaign has been started to improve cycle facilities between Bar Hill, Dry Drayton, Madingley and Cambridge.

In the meantime something needs to be done to improve safety for cyclists on this route. Between Dry Drayton and Madingley and between Madingley and Cambridge there are several blind bends, poor road surfaces and crumbling road edges. On most occasions when driving along this route you can expect to encounter between 2 and 6 cyclists. Given the nature of the road, motorists need to leave a minimum of 6 feet between themselves and a cyclist when overtaking. So why is it that whenever you travel this route and drive at 40mph, a safe speed for the circumstances, there is always some clown wanting to overtake and drive at 60 mph?

Shouldn’t there be a clear 40mph speed limit on this route? Dry Drayton residents can help keep traffic speed down by driving at 40mph themselves.

Let’s hope the new campaign for the cycleway brings about the desired effect. Good luck to the campaign.

Second day of Village Open Gardens

The second day of the Village Open Gardens was a great success. Congratulations to the organisers and to all the friendly residents who opened their gardens. We are reliably informed that the weekend made over £1425 towards the Church restoration. Brilliant.

Foxgloves in a Dry Drayton garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a peaceful place to sit

Village Open Gardens

Day one of the open gardens was a great success – wonderful weather, interesting gardens, welcoming hosts – who could want for more. Today is likely to be the busier and hotter of the two days – and without competing with a cup final it’s sure to be a great success – well done to all the organisers.

Here are a few pictures to whet the appetite:

A peaceful garden in Pettitts Lane

Old Summer House - just waiting to be used

Dovecote

Easy feed poultry

Exciting things in the village?

There are two big dates for Dry Drayton coming up. On 30th and 31st May there will be open gardens in the village. We hope for and expect a good turn-out;  proceeds for the Church restoration. Next up is the 4th June ,7am to 10pm – the European and County Elections. Will it be worth opening the Village Hall for the poll? After a daily spectacle of politicians with their snouts in the trough, will villagers be turning out to vote for our political parties? And if people do turn up, will this be to put a cross or write a comment on their ballot papers?

An Exciting Summer Ahead

It looks like there will be an exciting summer ahead for Dry Drayton.

On 30th and 31st May there will be at least 25 gardens in the village open to the public. Dry Drayton goes on display to the rest of the world. This is a fantastic response – most village open garden events operate on around half this number of gardens – so expect this to be quite a draw, bringing people into the village from a distance around. The proceeds are for phase 2 of the church restoration, so please support neighbours who are already putting so much effort into making their gardens even more special this year. Let’s hope for good weather and a great turn-out.

We also have the outline programme for Feast Week in the Village Events, which looks packed with interest.

We are eager to learn what happened with the Village Plan discussed at yesterday’s Parish Council Meeting.

As if this isn’t enough – there is also the excitement of elections shortly for the County Council and the European Parliament – that is if anyone feels motivated to support any of our political parties this summer.

Art Ahead

Wow – Feast Week already. We are in for a real treat later this week as the Village Art Exhibition opens in the Church. The village artists have been painstakingly applying their watercolours and pastels over the last year in preparation for this wonderful event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But an even greater artistic treat lies ahead as two village artists open their studios to the public as a part of the Cambridge Open Studios month. Mike Westbrook and Pauline Bunyan have open studios on the 19th/20th and 26th/27th July. And just down the road – don’t miss Nigel Payne’s open studio in Madingley on 5th/6th and 12th/13th July. If you are not familiar with Cambridge Open Studios you are missing one of the best events of the summer. You can read all about it at www.cambridgeopenstudios.co.uk and visit the studios during the four weekends of July. Look out for the yellow flags

Grafitti On The Bridge

We have been alerted to the fact that the famous Blue Bridge over the A428 between Dry Drayton and Hardwick has been damaged with grafitti. The police are now aware, so would no doubt be interested if anyone sees further damage taking place or recognises any of the art work in the photo below. Unfortunately they probably won’t be interested to know which dog walker leaves the piles of dog excrement on the bridge, which, combined wiith the grafitti, start to make this one of the less attractive wonders of Dry Drayton.