Welcome to winter and a quotation from Marie Huston: “The gardening season officially begins on January 1st and ends on December 31st”. So, if like me, you fortunately have a garden, you still have a few more weeks to finish your autumn clearing. Good luck with that! Even with help, we are still waiting for decent weather that will allow our lush green meadow to be transformed into a lawn – in December? Mmmmmm! read more

In line with many other local clubs and societies, and following Government guidelines, Retford Men’s Probus Club stopped holding their meetings in March this year. Lockdown one was introduced and despite being unable to meet, the club committee made a point of contacting members with news, views and updates. read more

Here we are in December after a very strange year. The limited bowing regime has continued and, thanks to Match Secretary Trevor Lewis’s efforts, there have been seven knockout competitions which culminated in finals on 11th and 12th October. This marked the end of the season, such as it was. On Tuesday 14th October a good band of volunteers turned out to lift, clean and store the ditch mats and generally tidy up for the winter. read more

We have had the most peculiar year. I will probably be the first chairman of Retford U3A who in his first year will never hold a ‘live’ meeting.  I am not totally convinced there will be a meeting in my second year either. We will be holding our second electronic AGM next March, and there is no guarantee we will be back to normal by March 2022. What a thought! read more

Zoom technology allows members of the Rotary Club of Retford to have regular contact with each other. It is more than half a year since members were able to meet face-to-face. Zoom also helps the charitable work of the club, meaning that this can continue albeit without the normal marvellous support of the public now that fundraising events cannot take place. If you can still help, please contact the club through www.retfordrotary.net. read more

Recently, the Inner Wheel Club of Retford were able see their efforts of the lockdown months delivered to the National Police Aid Convoy (NPAC), ready for filling the container due for Malawi in Africa, departing in November. The donations consisted of six bags of clothing for boys and girls aged from two to four years, gathered from grandchildren and elsewhere, as well as newly sewn, knitted or crocheted items numbering 60 cot sheets, 50 small and large baby blankets, 50 baby hats and 50 toddler hats, 50 baby sets and 50 pairs of bootees. read more

Has lockdown resulted in you eating more, sitting down all day and an increase in your drinking? We should not be hard on ourselves because this year has been unpredictable. But now is an important time to act and become fitter and healthier than ever before! Your Health Your Way (YHYW) are here to help that. read more

Much as we’d all like to hear some good news as Christmas approaches, there seems to be very little of it on the horizon. Always, as we think things are about to improve, they seem to take a turn for the worse again and although the Wednesday (Memory) Group has done its best to keep contact with members by holding small, informal gatherings in gardens when it was allowed, they are no longer able to do that. read more

Everybody, we are told, has a book inside them and everybody at some time or other has a frustrated writer inside them trying to get out. So, what do you do after retirement? In my case I decided to write a series of 10 books.
I was brought up in Hertfordshire and in the 1950s we had two of the major aircraft manufacturers in the country only a few miles away from where I lived. read more

Do you know someone who likes to walk or perhaps is looking to take up a new hobby? Why not give them a Ramblers Gift Membership for Christmas? Ramblers membership gives access to hundreds of led walks, not only in the local area but across the whole of Britain. read more