Join the national effort and sign up for the NHS COVID-19 vaccine research registry. Be part of the fightback against the virus by volunteering to be contacted by researchers to take part in COVID-19 vaccine research.
There are a number of vaccines being identified, but only large-scale studies can give researchers the information needed about how effective they are.
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is working with the NHS and aims to recruit as many people as possible onto the registry, which will allow people to be put in touch with the vaccine studies in the coming months.
Researchers are looking for people from all backgrounds, ages and parts of the UK – including both people with or without existing health conditions – to take part in vaccine studies, to make sure that any vaccines developed will work for everyone.
The service is available to anyone aged 18 or over, living in the UK. There is no obligation to join in any study, if you are contacted. But by taking part, you could help researchers find vaccines to protect us all more quickly – which in turn could help the NHS and save lives.
Sandgate Library will be closed from noon today (3/11/2020) for browsing until the end of “lockdown” on 3rd December.
However, alongside 12 other libraries in the County we are retaining our ‘click and collect’ service throughout the announced lockdown.
Please contact us during normal library opening hours on 07552 810271 or email us on Sandgate.library@kent.gov.uk to arrange for books and a collection on a Tuesday or Thursday morning.
As we are heading into November & with shorter and cooler days now our bees are safely beginning to cluster for warmth in their hives. We have been seeing the last of the Ivy flowers and with temperatures now below 18 DegC the start of the winter formation ensues with a loose cluster of bees which gets tighter as the temps drop further. They behave like penguins in the Antarctic & switch positions to ensure that the outside layer of bees do not get too cold.
Bees use their indirect flight muscles to generate heat in the depth of winter and so the reliance in available food stores to survive. The average colony can consume over 20kG of honey stores during the winter and so Chris & I have been checking on the colonies and supplying syrup for the bees to convert into their winter larder. Lifting the corner of the hive to gauge the weight is called hefting and to assess the available internal honey stores and the need to feed. If any more food is needed, then baker’s fondant or wetted sugar can be placed for the Dec/Jan period.
The beekeeper will not open the hives for routine inspections right around to March next year and so to preserve the heat within the hive.
The brood in the colony will be decreasing as the queen reduces her egg-laying to the point whereby there will be no brood to be fed by the end of November. The curve below is a useful reference to the volume of adult bees throughout the year in comparison to available brood which can be seen to drop off at the end of November leaving the winter workforce to live through the winter period until the next March, when the first of the new season bees will be hatched.
The hives are also prepared externally for potential green woodpecker attacks through the hive wall and with reduced entrances with mouse guards to avoid the temptation of mice looking for a winter home! They must also be well anchored from the Channel gales that we are likely to endure.
The winter period is a time for the beekeeper to look ahead to training needs & the participation in several Zoom Beekeeping informative sessions, cleaning and also the preparation of equipment & hardware in readiness for the 2021 season & hopefully a happy & safe one at that.
With thanks & regards from Chris & Ray – The SAGA Beekeeping Team.
How very timely that we should receive news from Kent County Council about Kent’s Plan Bee with an invitation to the official launch online. This is a virtual summit to discuss the council’s action plan for pollinators to reverse ‘serious declines in forage and habitat which harms them and us’. Please take a look at the information on the poster shown below in the photographs, for information on how you can register for this important, free summit.
Not much movement from the bees in the garden this week, and not much from the gardeners either, thwarted by wind and rain. According to a local rain gauge, we have had 230.4 mm of rain in October; apparently the average rainfall for this month is around 60mm. We usually complain about the lack of water, but certainly not this month as it seems we have had more than our fair share!
What’s next?
Tidy the space around the new composting area
If it stops raining, finish wood treatment on compost bins
Sow last of the broad beans and few last peas
Continue to fish leaves out of the pond and leave on the side for wildlife to get back in pond!
Continue to tidy space ready for the big compost spread.
Sandgate Parish Council will broadcast this meeting as a video on Facebook live at the time of the meeting itself on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pg/sandgatepc/ Comments made on the Facebook video during the meeting will not be monitored and are not a way of feeding back to the Council.
Members of the public can ask representations regarding an application. Any comments sent to clerk@sandgatepc.org.uk will be sent to all Councillors prior to the meeting and acknowledged by the meeting. If a member of the public would prefer to speak to the application (for up to three minutes) themselves, they can do so by emailing clerk@sandgatepc.org.uk at least 2 working days before the meeting asking to speak to Planning committee, specifying on which application. Members of the public joining a Council meeting to make a representation will be asked to follow the protocol athttps://sandgatepc.org.uk/public-speaking-at-online-meetings-of-sandgate-parish-council-protocol/
Sandgate Parish Council will broadcast this meeting as a video on Facebook live at the time of the meeting itself on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pg/sandgatepc/ Comments made on the Facebook video during the meeting will not be monitored and are not a way of feeding back to the Council.
Kent County Council has announced vouchers for food are available during half-term for families whose children are eligible for free school meals, so that no Kent child goes hungry.
The county’s families most in need will receive supermarket vouchers for each eligible child to ensure they are able to feed their children outside of term time.
A dedicated helpline has been set up and is now open so that Kent’s low-income families are able to quickly and easily access the help they need when they need it most, including during the school holidays. Families who apply will receive one voucher of £15 per child.
The announcement comes after KCC Leader Roger Gough pledged that no child should ever go hungry during school holidays, or at any time.
Anyone eligible for free school meals who needs extra financial support to help feed their children can now visit www.kent.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals or call the dedicated helpline on 03000 41 24 24. You have until next Monday 2nd November 5pm to apply.
Meanwhile, the KentTogether helpline remains open for any other Kent resident who needs support with food, collection of medication and prescriptions and other urgent needs during the pandemic, 24 hours a day. You can get help by visiting www.kent.gov.uk/kenttogether or calling 03000 41 92 92.
The clocks have gone back this Saturday. Daylight hours are reducing fast as time goes on, but there is an abundance of free food out there if you are a forager, and apparently this year is a ‘mast year’ which is a superabundance that occurs every five to ten years. The trees synchronise their most productive years, giving so much fruit and nuts that the animals can never eat them all, and there is the best chance for new saplings to establish themselves. Apparently this is an evolutionary tactic that happens with some insects and animals too. Nature is just amazing! We are inundated by sycamore seeds again this autumn and are doing our best to pick up as many of them as we can with the leaves, or in the spring we will have a forest starting to grow. We certainly had experience of that this year, and had to put the hoes to good use. If any of the saplings get a hold, the roots go down very deep.
Exciting news of this week is that we have had a delivery of a couple of bottles of beer from the local Hythe brewery Hop Fuzz made with the hops from the Hythe Hops scheme, and so contains some of our own grown hops. Both bottles were put into a lottery and were won by two of our gardeners, Julie and Rosie. In the photograph below of the two bottles, you can read on the label that the brew is made with Hythe hops from ‘a team of interested people from the local community who together, want to grow hops and turn them into beer’. Some of the proceeds also go towards supporting the local bumblebee conservation trust. More brews from Hop Fuzz and Docker breweries will be happening before Christmas, and will be appearing in bottles and cans somewhere near you.
Docker brewery made another delivery of spent hops to our compost bins this week, and very glad we are to have them. The smell coming from the bins was something wonderful for a change. We are investing in another stacked wooden compost bin so that we can continue to make even more ‘black gold’, the most important bit of the garden that nourishes all the fruit and vegetables.
Rain was very much the feature of this week, which completely washed out our Wednesday meeting and half of Saturday too. However we got broad beans and autumn peas sown, and the winter purslane got planted. Winter purslane or claytonia is very rich in vitamin c and prefers to grow in the winter months. We shall see if we like it enough to make it a regular feature.
What’s next?
Finish the wood treatment on the new and old compost bins
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
