August 2009 News and Views
News & Members' Contributions from Countryside Connection Village
The response has been so wonderful since I began sharing excerpts from our members' monthly newsletters! After enjoying this month's issue, you will be able to read all of those from the past year that you might have missed by accessing the individual links. July 2009 News and Views June 2009 News and Views May 2009 News and Views April 2009 News and Views March 2009 News and Views February 2009 News and Views January 2009 News and Views December 2008 News and Views November 2008 News and Views October 2008 News and Views September 2008 News and Views and August 2008 News and Views. I will continue to provide access to future issues in the same way so that you will not miss any of the news from our village. To enable you to enjoy past news and members' contributions from our Countryside Connection Village please simply click on the link to the appropriate month each time you visit our site.
Please Note : As one of our members, Artist Linda Leonard Hughes from Maine advised in our February 2008 issue, you will be wise to prepare a pot of your favourite brew before beginning so that you can sit back, relax and enjoy all of the exciting news as well as the latest adventures and offerings our members have shared.
I hope you will enjoy the excerpts from our Members' Newsletter. If you have a small business in Britain or America that you would like to see featured on our site and enjoy the full benefits of membership in our unique networking community, please send me an email and I will be delighted to make contact with you and answer all of your questions. Send your request to enquiries@countrysideconnection.com ~ I look forward to hearing from you, Heléne
Dear Visitors to Countryside Connection Village
Our weather certainly has not been the ‘summer of intense heat and sunshine’ that was promised by forecasters back in April. However, it is not only here in Britain that most of the country has been inundated by rain for months on end. My youngest brother, Jason, who lives in Southern California , spent part of his summer holidays travelling to visit family and friends. He began his journey in Boston and the surrounding area visiting my niece and our brother (“Mr VP”). He wrote about the wonderful time he was having despite almost constant rain and cold weather. Next stop Holland to spend time with close friends. Yet again, he described a perfect but very cold and wet visit. He arrived at Leeds/Bradford Airport on a day that had been filled with sunshine, unfortunately by the time his flight arrived in the evening, he was grateful for the extra jackets we always keep in the car. Our time together was, as always, too short, but we managed to see a great deal in between and during the downpours. He briefly interrupted his time here to meet up with a friend from California who was in Dublin . It was his first time in Ireland and he fell in love with the southern region, yet again in wet and very cold weather and appreciative of the added protection of another heavy layer of clothing. He returned for another few days and this time we were blessed with more warmth than rain, although the rain was never far away. I share this to show that here in Britain we are not alone in having endured cold and wet weather the past two months. With more of the same predicted for August, the need to move forward with plans despite the damp and cold are vital to our sense of well being. The flowers are in full bloom, the grass and surrounding countryside are certainly lush and green as a result of the rain! These are at least a few of the things we can be grateful for as we think of one family prominently featured in a recent newspaper and on the news who were in their tent in the Lake District standing in a flooded campsite watching the swans and ducks sail by just outside the open flap.
I will share, in a full feature next month, what my summer has been like. A holiday has certainly not been involved. I have been incredibly busy working alongside Alan creating our new rural business which will function under our Countryside Connection umbrella!
American Artist, Linda Leonard Hughes wrote to share her latest news and then again after discovering the new addition of our Once Upon a Pine Page to say she loved our wonderful products. I am constantly reminded how fortunate I am to have so many supportive villagers who take every opportunity to show their caring and appreciation for our community as well as everyone’s individual endeavours.
Dear Heléne,
I thought I would send along a bit of news! I will be at the Kennebunkport River Club on the weekend of the 8th of August to show and sell paintings. It is a beautiful spot on the ocean and usually Mrs Bush comes through to look at paintings! I am looking forward to it and have another friend that will be there also. Hope all is well and that you are enjoying the summer! It goes by all too fast! I am sending warmest thoughts to you and your family.
Best Wishes, Linda Leonard Hughes
PS I am sending along a summer scene I thought you might enjoy!
Dear Heléne,
Good luck with your new venture! What wonderful Products! I hope you and Alan do well! Please keep me up to date with your new business.
Your Friend Always, Linda Leonard Hughes
Jackie Miller is back from Zambia and this month’s contribution, the text and the images are as inspiring as they always are. So many of our members are involved in such diverse and amazing activities at the same they are running successful businesses. Please take time to share yours with us as we are all interested and anxious to know what is going on with everyone else. Working from home as most of us are the sharing of experiences and feelings about all aspects of our lives are always of mutual benefit. I hope you will take time to share yours with all of us.
Here is this month’s feature from Jackie ~ with great appreciation, as always!
I can’t believe I’ve been back from Zambia for six weeks, I’ve been so busy since my return that I’ve been very remiss in sharing my experience in order that the wonderful book bus experience www.thebookbus.org continues stay live in our collective memories.
In terms of highlights I think Cowboy Cliff’s Community School in Livingstone has to be an experience which has changed my view of “mission statements” forever. Yes all enlightened companies have one, but in my experience, I still work part-time for a large public organisation, they are never worth the paper they are written on.
Cowboy Cliff is the exception to the rule. Undaunted by poverty, the terminal illness of his wife, and lack of a formal higher education himself, this man has created the most inspiring community school which has 90 pupils. His “mission statement”, simply hand written and pinned to the wall of his small office at the school, says he will be building another classroom before the end of 2009, in order that he can take children to the educational level considered to be secondary in this country.
No mean feat for somebody, who started four years ago when his wife died of Aids, to attempt to teach his son to read. He had no public funding or grants, his school has been built on the proceeds of his own cycle hire company, Cowboy Cliff’s which takes tourists around the Victoria Falls area in Livingstone.
If I owned a cowboy hat I’d take it off to him, his achievement and that of his wonderfully inspiring teachers, has to be seen to be believed. Each Friday as a volunteers on the book bus we arrived at the school to a boisterous welcome from the 90 children, all keen to listen to the stories the “M’zungu”, Zambian for English people, had to share with them all.
As you can see from the pictures the children were happy and eager to share their laughter and fun with us Msungu’s. Best of all for a person as obsessed as myself about Christmas, one child proudly sported a Christmas sweater for the photo shoot. If I was lucky enough to be a pupil at Cowboy Cliff’s I too would think it was Christmas every day.
Apologies for the untimely reference to Christmas, I’ve possibly beaten the supermarkets, hope nobody has found 2009 Christmas cards on sale. Anyway enjoy the summer and remember supporting and helping other people always helps to put the sunshine back into our lives. The long range weather forecasters may have lied to us in England but as a community let’s stay looking on the bright side.
Hoping you will find time to share with us. Until we are next in touch, always, Heléne