4th October 2020 - no workday

Keeping in touch - edition 7

Dear All

I hope this email finds you well.  I wanted to let you know that this will be my last edition of KIT as we have had some invitations to start back volunteering.  Obviously if it all changes again I will be back in touch with edition 8!

Our first workday back was last Sunday at Styal.  We had a fabulous turn out of 11 volunteers. I would have typed this email last week but I was very busy with work and then away on holiday, therefore the workday was rather hastily arranged and actually a little bit of a trial to see if people would be want to be back.  It seems the answer is Yes so .... I'm trying to get workdays sorted for the rest of the year, but with currently only three properties coming back to me to say they would like us it's going to be a bit of a challenge and a little repetitive.  I apologise [Editor - no need to, Ally!]

There will be no work day this coming Sunday 4th October.

I have some workdays that are confirmed already but I would like to get a couple more confirmed before publishing them.  Other workdays may have to be organised on a week by week basis so please bear with me.  If you have not heard anything by the Friday before then assume there is no workday that week or if you have anyone's number just text them to ask them.

Last time I emailed the quiz I gave you was London Distances.  Answers in Red

“For each of the following, can you name which of the two options is closest to London as the crow flies?” 

1.  The North Pole or the Equator?  The North Pole (2,668 v 3,547 miles)

2.  Stonehenge or the White Cliffs of Dover?  The White Cliffs of Dover (63 v 75 miles)
3.  Niagara Falls or Victoria Falls?  Niagara Falls (3,562 v 5,049 miles)
4.  Blackpool Tower or the Eiffel Tower?  Blackpool Tower (202 v 212 miles)
5.  Land's End or the Angel of the North?  The Angel of the North (244 v 263 miles)
6.  Mount Everest or Mount Kilimanjaro?  Mount Kilimanjaro (4,366 v 4,610 miles)
7.  North Korea or South Africa?  North Korea (5,355 v 5,842 miles)
8.  Edinburgh or Belfast?  Belfast (322 v 332 miles)
9.  New York City or New Delhi?  New York City (3,461 v 4,171 miles) 
10. Australia's Christmas Island or Chile's Easter Island?  Australia’s Christmas Island (7,463 v 8,476 miles)

Who got ten out of ten?

I wasn't able to give you a recipe last time as my oven was broken.  You will be please to know I had a new oven fitted this morning and although I have not had time to bake today I'm sending you a recipe I tried during lockdown whilst staying with my parents:

Spinach and Cheese Muffins - Savoury cake ... a first for me.  Here is the recipe should you wish to try them - makes 12 to 14.

30g/2 tablespoons of butter

0.5 small red onion finely chopped - I used half a white onion

360g/2.5 cups of plain/all-purpose flour

2.5 teaspoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper

250g/2 cups of grated cheddar cheese

220ml/1 cup of whole milk - I used semi skimmed

1 egg

130g/4oz baby spinach leaves

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C (325F) Gas 3

2. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat then cook the onion til soft. Set aside

3. Put the flour, baking powder, cayenne and cheese into a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix the milk and egg together, then slowly pour into the flower mixture and beat with a handheld electric whisk until all the ingredients are well mixed. Stir in the onion and spinach with a wooden spoon until evenly dispersed - for this part it was all in the electric mixer and worked fine

4. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 mins or until deep golden and muffin bounces back when touched. A skewer inserted in the centre should come our clean.

5. Leave the muffins to cool slightly in the tray before turning out on to a wire rack to cool completely

As summer turns to autumn these are very nice with some soup when the weather is slightly chillier outside.

And so for the last time;

I love hearing about and seeing what you have been up to so if you would like us to feature something that you have been up to you can still send us a quick email so we can let the group know.  This could include pictures from your daily routine or that socially distanced picnic in the park, glorious goings on in your garden, brilliant bakes you think we should try or what about that awesome fact you just found out that left you wandering around your house dumbstruck!

We also wanted you to still feel part of a group in these strange times so have put together a WhatsApp group for all of us to keep in touch.  If you would like to be part of this then please send us your mobile number so we can add you to the group.  Just to let you know although KIT is coming to an end the WhatsApp group is not and so you are still able to join and see what we get upto when not MNTVing.  This includes brilliant bakes, wonderful wanders, glorious gardens and vast views.

Until next time

Keep safe and well

Ally

On behalf of your MNTV Committee

First workday since Lockdown - Styal 27/9/20 - planting wildflower plugs

What a glorious day for our first outing since March, after a cool start it was a really warm day for late September.

Firstly a big thank you to Colin and Vicky for having us back.  It was so good to see old friends again and to welcome 2 new members.

After a socially distanced briefing on revised procedures due to Covid 19 Vicky explained today's task.

Prior to lockdown Quarry Bank asked the prison inmates at Styal if they could sow several hundred trays of wildflower seeds which they cultivated until handing back for planting just as lockdown took hold.

Between then and now these trays have been fed and watered and, when time allowed, planted.  So today we split over 3 areas of the car park and drive and planted as many as we possibly could.  It is just a pity we will have to wait until next year for the fruition of our labours.

During the day we were visited by several frogs and over lunch 2 magpies, one of which got rather too close for Christine who has a fear of birds!

Once again thanks to Colin and his team and to the 11 who turned out today.

Roll on the next workday😊

(Text and majority of photo's by worksite leader, Christine)

Keeping in touch - edition 6

Hi All

As summer turns to sutumn and the days get shorter and cooler I really should start thinking about next year's programme, but as I have yet to hear when we will be back volunteering I'm hesitant to start planning a programme yet.  On Friday I should have been getting on the train to join you for our September in the Lakes weekend at High Wray, but alas with it not happening this year I gave my annual leave for it back to work and after five months away I'll be welcoming visitors to the National War Museum in Edinburgh Castle instead.  The museum reopened on Wednesday - my day off.  Back to some sort of normality I guess.  Although there has been no Edinburgh Festival this year there are still plenty of people around.  Are they tourists?  I don't know - I guess I will find out tomorrow.  Below is group shot from the very wet workday we had the last time we travelled to High Wray in 2018 for our Chrismas weekend.

When I emailed last time I gave you an update about what I knew then.  And now?  I know no more so I thought I would email you again to check in with everyone, particularly those like myself who are back either in the office or at work and those who have never stopped.  Don't forget to look after yourselves.  For those just returning to work or the office it can be a bit of a shock to the system.  I haven't seen 6.30am in a loooooong time.  If you have time for a bit of a walk, cycle or to do some gardening during your day then get out there and enjoy the great outdoors, hopefully in the sunshine.  For those still furloughed keep your chins up - you'll be back before you know it.

Many National Trust properties have opened up again and with them come vast swathes of countryside that can be explored and as volunteers we are bound to know of the hidden gems and magical places that no one else knows about to kick back and listen to the birds sing, take a picnic or just read a book.  The photos below although on workdays demonstrate just that.

On some of my walks during lockdown I would see no one because as residents, a bit like volunteers, we know those places hidden away from all the day trippers and holiday makers.

MNTV have worked very hard over the 2019-2020 season which came to a close unceremoniously on 15th March for workdays and 23rd March for the Committee just short of the year end. The group managed 293 workdays with a total of 1706.25 hours and the committee added 245 hours to that total, with this included the group put 1951.25 away. 20 people achieved their 50 hours and should have got volunteer cards unfortunately with so many staff on furlough we have yet to receive and don't think we will for this year so please keep using last years for those who have yet to receive one for the first time we apologise we are trying our best to get hold of some. For those unsure if they received a 50 hour card here's the list: Adrian P, Ally H, Andy S, Andy H, Christine B, Christine H, Daniel B, David J, Jean M, Jenny P, Martin M, Matt S, Mick S, Neil B, Pip F, Sarah C, Sue B, Tim O, Tricia T and Victor R. I'm sure you will join myself and the rest of the committee in saying Congratulations! For those thinking you might be due a Long Service Award please bear with us as we wait for confirmation of these.

In Edition 2 of Keeping in touch I told you that "the AGM is nearly upon us and no you won't need to leave the house AGM is coming to you, Daniel will be in touch in a week or so with all the paper work, if you have any questions that you think the group would like a discussion over then please let us know, or if you have any questions yourself before or after the AGM then you know where we are. and please don't forget to fill in any paper work and to pay your subs as they are due too." Unfortunately this hasn't taken place yet, we realised shortly afterwards that the accounts needed auditing and with not being able to leave the house except for exceptional circumstances we are awaiting for these to be done. However we do feel that we need one as it is meant to be yearly so Daniel hopes to be in touch with you soon with all the paper work.

For those of you who are interested, the group received an email through "myvolunteering" on 25th August with a message from Hilary McGrady - Director General of the National Trust, with the starter message attached.

"We wanted to get in touch with you, as a number of you will have seen the articles that have appeared in the media about the Trust over the weekend.  For those of you who are not aware, an internal document, written to provoke discussion and thoughts for our Reset programme, was leaked to The Times newspaper.  Since then there has been a lot of press interest and inaccurate information published.  We wanted to contact you directly about this so that you can hear from Hilary personally on what is, and isn’t, true."

Please click https://vimeo.com/451444129 to access the video, the password for this video is TRUST – please enter it when prompted.

As I started typing this yesterday Jenny P posted some of her volunteer activity on our whatsapp group.  Jenny has been doing some volunteering with the Canal and River Trust.  Do let us know of any volunteering you get up to whilst we wait for news of when we will be back.

Last time I got in touch I sent you a quiz of first line of children's books and I know you are waiting on tenter hooks for the answers so here goes:

First Lines of Children’s Books Quiz 

“Can you name 10 well-known children’s books from their opening lines?” 

1.  Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe 
2.  A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood. The Gruffalo 
3.  'Where's Papa going with that axe?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. Charlotte's Web 
4.  Dennis was different. The Boy in the Dress 
5.  Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (The Wizard of Oz) 
6.  It was Mrs. May who first told me about them. The Borrowers 
7.  The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play, so we sat in the house all that cold, cold wet day. The Cat in the Hat 
8.  The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. Wind in the Willows 
9.  The pretty little Swiss town of Mayenfield lies at the foot of a mountain range, whose grim rigged peaks tower high above the valley below. Heidi 
10.  Sophie couldn't sleep. The BFG

How many did you get right?

Get your thinking caps on as this time, I give you, London Distances.

“For each of the following, can you name which of the two options is closest to London as the crow flies?” 

1. The North Pole or the Equator? 
2. Stonehenge or the White Cliffs of Dover? 
3. Niagara Falls or Victoria Falls? 
4. Blackpool Tower or the Eiffel Tower? 
5. Land's End or the Angel of the North? 
6. Mount Everest or Mount Kilimanjaro? 
7. North Korea or South Africa? 
8. Edinburgh or Belfast? 
9. New York City or New Delhi? 
10. Australia's Christmas Island or Chile's Easter Island?

Good Luck!

I have no recipes of cake to show you or for my colleagues this week as my oven is broken! :-(

I love hearing about and seeing what you have been up to so if you would like us to feature something that you have been up to, do send us a quick email so we can let the group know. This could include pictures from your daily routine or that socially distanced picnic in the park, glorious goings on in your garden, brilliant bakes you think we should try, what about that awesome fact you just found out that left you wandering around your house dumbstruck.

We also wanted you to still feel part of a group in these strange times, so have put together a WhatsApp Group for all of us to keep in touch.  If you would like to be part of this then please send us your mobile number so we can add you to the group.

Until next time

Keep safe and well

Ally

On behalf of your MNTV Commitee

Keeping in touch - edition 5

Hi All, I hope this email finds you well and enjoying the summer, is it sunny with you all, it absolutely threw it down this morning here in Dunbar but the sun is making an appearance at the moment and it's lovely and warm. I was looking through all the pictures I have taken whilst being furloughed and it amazes me that the first few weeks worth of pictures I'm in my big waterproof with my hat and gloves and slowly I've shed the layers and my accessories and now it's my sunglasses and shirt sleeves.

My apologies for not being in touch sooner, I had wanted to wait until I had some better news but as the UK slowly finds it's way back from the old norm to the new norm, I wanted to bring you up to speed as to what I know about when we maybe returning to volunteering. 

Tomorrow we should be at Hardcastle Crags (picture taken from this time last year), but alas we will not be. Craig Best who is the  West Yorkshire Operations Manager and is based at Hardcastle Crags sends us very detailed emails about what is going on at the properties he looks after.  These include Marsden Moor and Hardcastle Crags.  He emailed earlier this month and I've taken an extract from it for you to read: "I do understand that many volunteers would like to return.  We are not yet in a position to return back to normal volunteering.  My staff team still remains as a skeleton team with many staff undertaking a range of tasks rather than their normal roles.  We are not yet able to support large teams of volunteers and there are many volunteer roles that are not needed yet i.e. volunteer rangers or house volunteers."

This is also true in the Lakes, as you may remember I informed you in the last edition that our weekend in the Lakes has been cancelled.  When the High Wray Basecamp Ranger got in touch to inform of this cancellation she told me she was not yet back at the basecamp and was working out of the Coniston office doing car park duty, litter picking and toilet cleaning.

Matt North, Lead Ranger for the Dark Peak had this to say when I emailed him about our most recent workday we were supposed to have at Hayfield in July: "Iain is also furloughed along with Mark and I have no idea when he and other team members are returning.  As a result the ranger team is very short on the ground at the moment and only able to manage safety and security issues in the Dark Peak.  In combination with the lack of people to support you, as you point out we are having to work to current Government guidelines, although these are currently relaxing almost on a weekly basis.  Please contact me about the August date closer to the time and I can let you know if anything has changed.  I certainly hope so as we have a big list of jobs we need to catch up on."   With a big list of jobs to do let's hope we can go back there sooner rather than later.

Picture taken when the group was last at Hayfield on 15th March 2020:

I thought this next extract from Craig Best was important for you to read too as I feel it sums up how the decision making process within the Trust and its properties is being made: “Before I go I wanted to assure you that I am considering how we bring back volunteers almost on a daily basis and when it is either safe to do so or when volunteer roles are needed we will be in touch on an individual basis.  Clearly some roles are just not needed for the moment and we are restricted to small numbers of volunteers largely down to the fact I do not have many staff to support.”

When I asked Chris at Lyme earlier this month for a confirmation of a replacement workday he came back to me saying that although he couldn't confirm it he wanted to let me know that "We have just brought back our first volunteers to Lyme yesterday and they are only doing tasks which are solitary, e.g. litter picking and boundary checks.  We will see how this goes with a view to hopefully opening up some other volunteering opportunities as soon as we can.  Despite not having volunteer groups in at the moment I am thinking of jobs which can still be carried out safely with social distancing measures in place.  The group will hopefully be pleased to know that Rhodi cut and burn is one of the tasks that I think we could do very safely 😊."  I think this task will please a lot of our members!

I had wanted to bring you better news than this but I'm really sorry I couldn't.  Some of our volunteers do still volunteer at properties including Styal and Lyme and some have looked elsewhere for small group and even solitary volunteering opportunities.  If any of them want to let us know what they have been up to on site then please email us to let us know.  I think it will be a while before we will be back volunteering.

For fun, in this edition I'm sending you a recipe.  It's a favourite of mine: Picnic Slice

2oz Butter

4oz Caster Sugar

1 Egg Beaten

2oz Sultanas

2oz Glace Cherries

4oz Desiccated Coconut

6oz Bar of Chocolate

Make this recipe Gluten Free by checking the chocolate is Gluten Free I used Lindt 70% Choc

1) Melt Choc and pour into shallow baking tin let it set

2) Cream Butter and Sugar, Add beaten Egg and stir in remaining ingredients

3) Spread evenly other set Choc, Bake until lightly brown for about 15 - 20 mins on Fan 150C

4) Remove from oven, leave for 5 mins cut into slices leave until cold

For those looking to tax your brains a bit here are some fun questions from the local quiz master here in Dunbar.  Answers will of course follow :-)

First Lines of Children’s Books Quiz

“Can you name 10 well-known children’s books from their opening lines?”

1.  Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy.

2.  A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood.

3.  'Where's Papa going with that axe?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.

4.  Dennis was different.

5.  Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife.

6.  It was Mrs. May who first told me about them.

7.  The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play, so we sat in the house all that cold, cold wet day.

8.  The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home.

9.  The pretty little Swiss town of Mayenfield lies at the foot of a mountain range, whose grim rigged peaks tower high above the valley below.

10.  Sophie couldn't sleep.

I love hearing about and seeing what you have been up to so if you would like us to feature something that you have been up to, do send us a quick email so we can let the group know.  This could include pictures from your daily routine or that socially distanced picnic in the park, glorious goings on in your garden, brilliant bakes you think we should try or what about that awesome fact you just found out that left you wandering around your house dumbstruck.

We also wanted you to still feel part of a group in these strange times, so, we have to put together a WhatsApp Group for all of us to keep in touch.  If you would like to be part of this then please send us your mobile number so we can add you to the group.

Until next time

Keep safe and well 

Your MNTV Committee

Keeping in touch - edition 4

Hi All

As the UK heads into a 12th week of lock down, is that right, I've lost count of the weeks now? We hope you are all still doing well, getting out as much as possible even though the lovely weather which broke last week seems to be hanging around for a while.  May and its bank holidays have been and gone.  The group should be at Hardcastle Crags this Sunday but I'm sorry to have to tell you but we won't be out volunteering for a while.  I was hoping to be able to bring you better news alas I can't, nobody seems to be able to give me a date for anything.  Living here in Scotland we are a couple of weeks behind you all so I'm waiting patiently for any inkling that either I will be back at work or I'm able to send you some better news.

You will have received an email earlier this week that came through to us from Hardcastle Crags - who send us lots of information.  One point says that volunteers who have declared that they are under 70 and do not have any of the underlying health conditions as set out by the UK government and that they have completed the online ‘reopening safely’ training on myvolunteering will be able to get back to volunteering when invited back by the properties.  I don't know if we will all have to do this or just worksite leaders so please don't worry, once we know more we will of course let you know.

For a bit of fun, four years ago on this day we celebrated our 30th birthday.  Some of you were there, others of you hadn't even heard of our group at that stage but as we can't get out and about at the moment I'm sending you the link of our slideshow we showed on the day showing 30 Years of MNTV.  You might recognise a few friendly faces and your favourite property or two.  The production was put together by Matt and I'm sure his glamorous assistant Lisa was on hand to help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Vgiapo39Y&t=734s 

Here are a couple of pictures from the day:

I also thought you'd like to you know of a few of things happening at the moment within the group and the Trust.  Firstly, I wanted to let you know that the weekend we had planned in September to the Lakes has been cancelled.  I am in the middle of confirming a replacement workday for that day and I will try and reschedule the weekend for next year. 

Secondly, at the beginning of this month volunteer Jean sent us some behind the scenes pictures from her volunteering time at Styal.  She said: 1. Doesn't show very well but lower garden lawn is now a meadow; 2. New Cafe is ready, not really visible from outside the Upper Garden; and 3. Bank House farmhouse is down to its bare bricks.

Thank you very much for these pictures Jean.  It's nice to see what's going on whilst we are not there.

Thirdly, before the 2020 season got under way Lyme had its annual Volunteer Briefing.  I was recently looking on the myvolunteering website and found a couple of videos that they played to their volunteers and thought they might be of interest to you - but then again you may already know all of what is included.  I was able to find them on Youtube so here are the links for something a little bit different to watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=_PWqEwpv3YU&feature=emb_logo and to sum up the 2019 season 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=54&v=2sk9NnzejMI&feature=emb_logo

I love hearing about and seeing what you have been up to so if you would like us to feature something that you have been up to, do send us a quick email so we can let the group know.  This could include pictures from your daily routine or that socially distanced picnic in the park, glorious goings on in your garden, brilliant bakes you think we should try or what about that awesome fact you just found out that left you wandering around your house dumbstruck.

We also wanted you to still feel part of a group in these strange times, so we have put together a WhatsApp Group for all of us to keep in touch.  If you would like to be part of this then please send us your mobile number so we can add you to the group.

Until next time

Keep safe and well

Your MNTV Committee

Keeping in touch - edition 3

Hi everyone

As the UK heads into its eighth week of lockdown we hope you are all safe and well and keeping occupied with work and/or hobbies.

The National Trust has been working hard on plans to re-open its properties and welcome back visitors as soon as possible.  The email from Hilary McGrady (Director General) on Friday 7th May that we have forwarded to you gave details about this and included a video message to all volunteers.  We are eager of course to hear from all our local properties about when they might resume working with volunteer groups like ours.

You'll remember from the 'Keeping in touch - edition 2' email of 16 April, that we gave our safety glasses to Quality Care of Cheadle.  Well, since then Jenny, Tricia, Lisa and others (?) have made scrubs, gowns, visors and face masks for local NHS and care workers.  A brilliant effort by everyone!

We hope you have had a good bank holiday weekend last week.  Unusually, the bank holiday was at the start not the end as we celebrated the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe and remembered the fallen.  Some of us hung up bunting and had socially distanced street parties.

Finally, remember that we have a WhatsApp group for all of us to keep in touch during lockdown.  If you would like to be part of this then please send us your mobile number so we can add you to it.

Until next time

Keep safe and well

Your MNTV Committee