Words by Mick Rumens

Our Christmas Carols by Candlelight concert at Thaxted on December 17th, cancelled due to the blizzards the previous year, was an enormous success and very well received by a packed audience.

It was very much a party atmosphere with contributions from Harlow Chorus Academy, a Brass Quintet & Percussion, a recitation of a John Betjamin Christmas poem and our conductor, Alexander Chaplin showing off his keyboard skills duetting with our accompanist, Sue Graham- Smith, in a selection from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. With the audience enthusiastically joining in a number of the more familiar carols. A great evening was had by all!

BURGLARY WARNING FROM OUR PSCO’s

There has been a recent spate of burglaries in Harlow. In the majority of cases entry has been gained via UPVC front /back doors that have not been properly locked.

You may find the following tips helpful in making your property more secure.

• Keep doors locked even when you're at home. Use a 5-lever mortice deadlock or on UPVC units fully engage the multi- locking system. JUST PULLING THE HANDLE UP TO ENGAGE THE BOLTS IS NOT SUFFICIENT. YOU MUST ALSO LOCK THE DOOR WITH THE KEY. Contact the Crime Prevention officer or your local PCSO if you would like someone to call by and show you.
• Fit a door bar or chain and use it every time someone calls.
• Fit a cage or deflector over the letterbox, on the inside, to prevent thieves from accessing the inside handles from the outside.
• Keep windows locked, especially when you are out.

Shared by Christine Beetlestone

If you haven’t got time to stand making pancakes, this is an American version which goes in one pan or dish and is baked in the oven and is rather like a dessert Yorkshire pudding, served with Maple Syrup and berries there won’t be any leftovers. Just traditional fresh lemon juice and caster sugar is equally as good. This batter is also a very good pancake recipe.

And so we arrive at February and I have a confession to make ... You may think that I, Jethro, pen this piece on the day before it passes into your letter-box but sadly some while elapses from my writing my piece to your CM17 Connection dropping onto your doormat. As my fingers trip lithely over the keyboard we are in a spell of the mildest January weather we have experienced for over two decades. We have had some rain which is welcome but there have also been damaging high winds which have tested my Christmas weathervane thoroughly.

The mild weather has meant that plants which should have shed their leaves and gone to sleep still think it is Autumn while others, usually through pruning, have decided that spring is just round the corner and are setting their leaf buds. (Just look at those buds on the gooseberry bush in the photograph!) Help is at hand through a topical tip ... When frost has withered and killed leaf buds, leave them until a dry day when it is well above zero and then cut back each one to the next leaf node below. The bush will soon get back into kilter with the seasons.

A Happy New Year to you all. I hope 2012 is kind to us all.

January brings out the hoarder in me. I am particularly interested in cardboard tubes (from toilet and kitchen rolls); egg boxes; wire coat- hangers; jam jars and discarded ladies tights. I will also be searching for discarded 100mm down-pipes.

Cardboard Tubes make excellent seed planters for parsnips. Put compost in and plant two seeds in each tube. (Longer roll holders will have to be cut to toilet roll lengths.) Wait for germination and discard the weaker seedling. When the time comes to plant out, make a hole to accommodate 80% of the tube, and them firm in each one.

Words by Mick Rumens

By the time you read this, we will all be looking forward to the major events coming up in 2012 what with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the London Olympics and the European Football championships.

However, Harlow Chorus’s first special occasion of the New Year falls on Saturday 10th March at 8pm in Waltham Abbey Church when four major French composers will make up our programme. The principal works are Poulenc’s Gloria and Bizet’s Te Deum, for which the choir will be joined by two young soloists from the Royal Academy of Music. Renowned organist Paul Ayres will accompany, and also treat us to some solo pieces. The choir will also sing some smaller unaccompanied works by Durufle and Faure.

Old Harlow & Newhall PCSO Chrisie Goodman

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. I expect many of you received lots of great presents just a reminder not to leave all the discarded boxes, packaging that your new laptop, satnav, mobile phone, TV etc came in as this is a great advertisement to any prospective burglar.

At the beginning of December I assisted Schools Liaison Police Officer Lisa Shaw and Education Welfare Officers in conducting a truancy sweep in Harlow town centre. Any child that was of school age that was seen either alone or accompanied with parents was stopped and details taken as to why they were not in school. Most of those stopped were off due to sickness or hospital appointments just one pupil was escorted back to school. It is hoped that more of these truancy sweeps will be conducted through out the year.

Shared by Christine Beetlestone

Easy plain cooking after Christmas and it will serve 4 generously.

• 1lb minced beef
• 1 onion (6oz) chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped or mashed
• 1-3 green chillies* seeded and chopped finely
• Smoked Paprika*
• 8oz mushrooms sliced
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes Optional: 1 tin of red kidney beans, rinsed.
• 1 tbs tomato puree
• 3 Oxo cubes added to
• 11/2 pts boiling water (this is the right amount!)
• 8 oz macaroni
• 1/2 teasp salt and ground black pepper
• Just a dash of Worcester sauce
• 2 litre oven proof casserole dish or saucepan