Here are some simple tips to help them.

1. Link your garden with a Hedgehog Highway. Hedgehogs travel between1-2 km a night searching for food and a mate. Leaving a small gap in your fence the size of a CD case will let hedgehogs through but be too small for pets. BHPT/PTES sell snazzy little recyclable Hedgehog Highway signs, for a few pounds. Ask your neighbours to do the same!

2. Create a wild corner in your garden so they can snuffle around for insects.

3. Tidy up netting and litter which can trap hedgehogs due to their spines. Even rubber bands dropped by the postie can become embedded in their skin, causing a slow, painful death.

4. Put out food and water. You can supplement their diet with wet dog or cat food (preferably not fish based). No bread, milk or mealworms, which are all extremely bad for them. For those who are into simple DIY you can make a feeding station to stop other animals having a free supper - details on the BHPS website/YouTube

5. Stop using chemicals especially slug pellets. Hedgehogs are a gardener’s best friend as they eat slugs as well as many other beasties which would otherwise be devouring your prize flowers and vegetables.​

Robert

A lady contacted our church and asked us if we could help in any way to save hedgehogs, by giving you advice for your garden and puting up an "awwwe" picture.

Isn't he gorgeous?                                                                          They are an endangered species so let's help them.

​​​

YOU?

                                                               Gnome report - June 2026

 

      Welcome my fellow Worshippers to the June Gnome Report.
Summer already, the days getting longer, the rain getting warmer.
What can I say, poet and didn’t know it.
Hopefully you are all looking forward to a well-earned summer break,
But the work of the garden gnomes goes on.

What have we been getting up to on a Wednesday afternoon when no-one else is around. Well, it had been noted during Sunday Worship that one or two of our visiting Pulpit supply Ministers were having difficulty going up the steps onto the Chancel, even within our own Worship team, none of us are getting any younger and these struggles will come to us all.

So, the gnomes were tasked with looking at this issue to see if we could present a possible answer to the problem. We mused over the issue and came up with a possible answer. There are some steps onto the Chancel on the left side just in front of where 

the Computer desk is sited. We looked at the possibility of placing a small handrail on the wall at these steps for anyone requiring assistance up onto the Chancel.                               

The property convener put this suggestion to the Church Board, the Board approved this. This task was completed with the cost to the Church of £0.

Some components were donated to the Church, other pieces of wood and paint, the Church already possessed.

Job done, Zero cost.

It was also decided, given rising heating costs, to address the draught problem (howling gale) at the emergency exit.

For the princely sum of £15, this problem has been effectively dealt with.

If you remember, a few reports ago, I informed you that some of the windows down the side and at the front of the Church had wood that was rotten. This wood had been replaced with the help of a joiner friend of the gnomes. Due to poor weather this new wood still had to be sealed and then painted to preserve them for many years to come. This task is now being addressed and by the time you are reading this report, hopefully,
weather permitting, will have had a couple of coats of paint and will be completed.

The doors that provide direct access into the sanctuary at either side of the Church, the hooks that hold them open when required, were failing.
The necessary work needed to address this has been done, again, using products the Church already had in its possession, so, again, no cost to the Church.

During a routine check on the roof areas, it was noticed that some slates had been dislodged on the large hall roof. The Garden gnomes managed to replace these so no need to incur the cost of roofers at this stage.   

The gardens are still being attended to, grass cut, weeding being done to the front and rear gardens as required. The senior garden gnomes will be looking at any planting that may be needing to be done, and if funds allow, will address this.
Other normal garden gnome activities will be going on.

The clothing bank is continually monitored to ensure only the things that will bring the Church much needed funds are bagged appropriately, anything else is removed.

The battery box is monitored and emptied as necessary, the wee things that make our Church, an eco-friendly Church.

There will be other things the gnomes get up to that I’ve omitted, and while we’re doing it, there will be much laughter, which is normal for the gnomes during all these tasks.

If you wish to be involved in a lot of laughter, come along on a Wednesday afternoon at 1pm, you’ll be made very welcome. We all have skills, and the gnomes will find a use for yours, and who knows, with you working along with us, you and we may learn new skills.

Until the next report. Phil Jordan. (Junior Gnome).

    

 

 

  

    

    

Phil

George

The BOSS

Colin