Somerset Apple

14/06/2025

⚠️ Important update from Wild Futures ⚠️

To protect the future of Wild Futures and the monkeys in our care, we’ve taken the very difficult but necessary decision to put Murrayton House, our sanctuary’s home for the past 60 years, on the market.

This is a vital step towards safeguarding our charity’s future and to give us time to protect what matters most - the monkeys in our care, our mission, and the values we stand for. We have carefully and thoroughly explored and exhausted all other options, with responsibility to the animals in our care and the mission of our charity at the forefront of all our decisions.

We know this news may be upsetting, and it is a very serious and worrying time for us all. It is a necessary step that gives us the best possible chance to secure the long-term future of Wild Futures and the monkeys we care for.

We are seeking a buyer who shares our vision, someone who understands the importance of our work and is willing to collaborate with us on a long-term solution that allows Wild Futures to continue.

This is a deeply emotional moment for us all, but we remain focused, hopeful and determined. The sanctuary team is here every day, putting the monkeys first, just as we always have. We are doing everything in our power to find a future where Wild Futures can grow stronger. We are continuing forward with hope that the right opportunity will come, one that allows us to either stay in our current home or move with the dignity and support we need to create a new one.

Now, more than ever, we need your support. Every donation, every fundraising effort, and every message of encouragement gives us the time and flexibility to plan wisely and act in the best interests of the monkeys. Your belief in our work is a lifeline.

👉 Click here to donate

Established in 1964, Wild Futures has nearly 60 years of expert experience in primate welfare and caring for rescued monkeys. However, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic along with the emerging cost of living crisis means that The Monkey Sanctuary is on the brink of closure with the future of the m...

10/03/2025

Statement from Facebook

We are devastated to share that our National Therapy Assessment Centre in Bridgwater was vandalised over the weekend. Paint was thrown across the Retail Centre car park, office windows, and one of our vehicles. Glass was shattered, creating a dangerous environment for visitors, especially children with disabilities and additional needs that we work so hard to support.

This senseless act has taken up valuable staff time - time that should be spent helping children reach their potential. All the funds we raise are carefully used to provide our vital services, and now we must divert valuable resources to repair the damage caused.

The police have been informed, and we have clear CCTV footage of those responsible, which will be provided to them. The individuals who did this would have been covered in paint themselves. If anyone has further information, we urge you to come forward.

Times are already difficult for us as a charity and the families we support and acts like this make it even harder for us to continue our work.

If you feel able to support us in any way – whether through donations, spreading the word, we would be deeply grateful.

Thank you to everyone who walks alongside us on our journey to support children with disabilities and additional needs to reach their potential.

Contact us via [email protected]
To donate, please visit www.brainwave.org.uk/fundraise-for-us/make-a-donation/

Together, we will rise above this. 🎈

Brainwave are grateful of every donation. Each donation makes a valuable contribution to our work and enables us to support more children with disabilities.

25/10/2024

Facebook is awash with adverts for non-Royal British Legion (RBL) badges for Remembrance Day.

Most of them make no mention of donating proceeds to charity.

In other words, they are profiteering from Remembrance Day. Please boycott them.

On the other hand, the RBL is a charity that supports former services personnel. Buy your poppies and badges from them: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialPoppyLegion

Official Page of the Royal British Legion. We are dedicated to supporting the Armed Forces Community

08/10/2024

Do you know how to report a person sleeping rough in the rain? ⛺️

If you want to help someone you’ve seen sleeping rough, but don’t know what to do, StreetLink is the best way to take action ➡️ https://thestreetlink.org.uk/

Streetlink is a way to share the location of someone so they can get support from homelessness services like us. 💙

Welcome to StreetLink. Make an alert if you've seen someone sleeping rough, or if you're sleeping rough and want to find out about local support services.

02/10/2024

I love this one

19/09/2024

Author, poet and good friend Andrew Stephen has agreed to write regular blogs for the Hickathrift Press FB page - starting today with three compelling book reviews.

Check them out here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559759611097

The Hickathrift Press is a publishing cottage (it's much too small to be a publishing house) run by veteran publishing professional Dave Phillips.

Here we will tell you all about our brilliant books as well as exciting new titles in the pipeline.

12/09/2024

Couldn't resist this one. Here's one from ten million pensioners you've robbed of their £300 winter fuel allowance. Please SHARE.

04/07/2024

This is going to surprise a lot of people. I have a confession to make...

I've taken the plunge. There was no point in fighting the inevitable. After all, electric is the future.

So I've just taken delivery of an electric-powered Hyundai. Just waiting for it charge up before I put it through its paces.

Photos to follow...

01/07/2024

Much of the meadows around Wadenhoe are a blaze of purple from the beautiful cranesbill (wild geranium). Hard to believe that some gardeners kill it off as a "w**d".

18/06/2024

Britain's Pompeii: A Village Lost in Time is a fascinating BBC documentary in which the lovely Dr Alice Roberts explains what's going on in the archaeological dig at Must Farm, near Whittlesey - the remains of a 3000-year-old Bronze Age settlement in the Fens.

Unfortunately, it gets off to a bad start when Dr Roberts describes the Must Farm site as "wedged between the M11 and an old quarry".

In fact it's over 30 miles from the M11. It's wedged between McCain's chip factory, the A605 and the Peterborough-Ely rail line.

That may sound pretty trivial, but dumb mistakes like that are the kiss of a death to a factual documentary. If they can get the location so spectacularly wrong, why should we trust what else they have to say?

It's sad to see the BBC's standards slipping so far.

12/06/2024

I'm delighted by the enthusiastic response to the latest book from the Hickathrift Press: Endless River - Poems of Andrew Stephen.

I was involved in the editing and design of the book, of which I'm very proud.

Marc Starling has written an excellent review and kindly given me permission to reprint it here . . .

I am very pleased to review Andrew’s latest book, an anthology of his poetry, written from boyhood to the present day. As explained in the Foreword, the collection stems from the happy rediscovery of a box file of long-forgotten poems, several of which have been re-worked, along with many new compositions.
Several of the poems will rekindle school-day memories, and Andrew is generous in acknowledging the influence of his English teachers. Both King’s Lynn and wider Norfolk feature widely, along with some of Andrew’s other passions, such as railways, travel, Cambridge United and country walks. Family is a frequent theme, celebrating love and fatherhood. Personally, I found ‘Alzheimer’s – A Case Study’, a tribute to his mother, heartrendingly poignant.
Inevitably for a long-serving teacher, we have poetry inspired by the world of education. Few of us who have experienced a tedious staff meeting or INSET day will be surprised by the poem ‘Meeting’. The pair of poems, ‘It’s My Heritage Too’ resonated for me, particularly the pleasure in realising, ‘my pupils imposed their youth on me’ – something with which I can gratefully empathise.
There is much wistfulness and melancholy here, reflections on lost loves and friendships, but always transcended by Andrew’s characteristic hopefulness and positivity. The realisation that the briefest of human encounters can remain with us for the rest of our lives is another experience I share.
In his foreword, Andrew describes the influence of T.S. Eliot, and this is evident in his style, particularly for me in the four Prologues with which the collection opens. As a musician, I find musicality in the rhythm and pulse of the poetry, including the occasional imperfect cadence – and that’s a compliment! Andrew has an ability to convey so much in one word or short phrase, to take the reader to a particular place or time, or to cause you to know well a human being you’ve never met. The book leads seamlessly to the final poem which gives it its title, and which leaves the reader thoughtful and enriched, ready to continue with life’s journey.
Andrew is fortunate in his editor, Dave Phillips, who has designed the book immaculately, with adeptly chosen photographs, apt quotations, and a perceptive Endpiece.
Buy the anthology, pour yourself a glass of whatever you enjoy, settle in a quiet corner, and indulge yourself with a little well-deserved tranquillity.
Marc Starling
June 2024
ENDLESS RIVER - Poems of Andrew Stephen is available in hardback, paperback and Kindle ebook on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Endless-River-Poems-Andrew-Stephen/dp/B0D54LPYXP/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3BMVQ1SXX2PTY&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.LWxDFvlD6yoIc4__gsFq8SjaQwdifhQfPC0YoNe4gblRTejvNbXGN8Ca1X25W5iOta9kYH07tVx-VmxKsAHV7yI_C_jj7MjE3C1xZp1d1NY.LHZ7AzsKGsaVabFxQr3Alu5C6yVN4oDyVvRCbyo1mSg&dib_tag=se&keywords=endless+river+andrew+stephen&qid=1718175480&sprefix=endless+river+a%2Caps%2C104&sr=8-1

10/06/2024

EXACTLY 30 years ago I was in the middle of the most extraordinary angling adventure. It began late morning on June 10th 1994 and ended the following morning, June 11th.

Fishing an Irish lough with my mate Graham Billing with artificial plug baits I hooked and boated the following succession of pike:

29 lb 1 oz
8 lb 12 oz
14 lb 12 oz
9 lb 12 oz
12 lb
26 lb 1 oz.

That sequence of fish included my personal-best pike (29-01). I also beat my long-standing lure-caught best (19 lb 1 oz from a small fen drain in December 1972) three times over.

This purple patch came during week-long trip to Ireland where we took only lure-fishing tackle. By coincidence, Graham's best pike of the trip also weighed exactly 29 lb 1 oz - but his was the longest and thinnest pike I've ever seen. It fell to a plug on a small river. Stupidly, neither us thought to measure its length but I'd say it was at least 48 inches - and more likely 50 inches. Look at the photo and see for yourself.

I've also included images of my 29 lb 1 oz, the 26 lb 1 oz (the blood was from a damaged gill raker) and my near-miss at 19 lb 12 oz.

I'll be telling the full story in a forthcoming issue of Martin Mumby's excellent Catch Cult magazine.