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Panacea Newsletter 15

The Autumn term saw new faces appear at Panacea as Callum and Ben L joined the gang. Callum's interest in old tools,books and wartime memorabilia led to many challenging projects. He has made a new handle for a saw, made a box for a whetstone, made a steam powered boat and currently is learning how to bind a book. Paddy worked on a variety of projects with a very successful solar powered buggy giving plenty of interest. Sadly it was felt that as Paddy had settled into the routine of his new school the time had come for him to move away from Panacea. So at the end of term we said goodbye to him after 18months of weekly visits here. We were sad to see him go as we had such fun with Paddy and his teasing. Barkis misses him as Paddy used to try and sneak in to the plot without Barkis hearing him. This was rarely successful!!

Ben M has had a creative time too mainly with the sewing machine. Having discovered the joys of sewing he made a Larry, beanbag puppet, and then got on with a disco LED light, and other Christmas projects. He has enjoyed discussions at brunch about various games and has a good listener and equally enthusiastic player in Bob our handyman. Ben L also arrived on the scene at the start of the term and has been very involved our on the plot, helping with the chickens, sorting Barkis out and working outside when the weather has allowed. Apart from that he has shown a huge amount of patience and determination working on creative projects and made a brilliant solar powered helicopter out of copper wire. He had to solder the joints carefully and accurate measurements were vital.

Christina has had her first term at secondary school and is getting used to the new regime. She is a very organised person and this is helping her considerably as she moves around the school with her books and equipment. It is good to see her develop into such a lovely young lady and she works so hard. So the term came to an end and then suddenly things started to happen as the weather fronts decided to throw high winds and heavy rain at us all! On 24th December, yes Christmas Eve, we had an alert on our phones telling us that we were in a flood alert for our Laleham Reach. After Christmas the river level continued to rise until we went into full flood warning. By January 6th the water was into our plot and by the 9th we were completely under water with it flowing out of our gate and down the path. Reluctantly we had to move from Panacea to the workshop as Barkis could not walk along the walkway because of the cross current.

After a week the river level had dropped sufficiently for us to move back onboard with Barkis and the big cleanup started. The river leaves silt behind which takes time to shift. The chickens having had a week upstairs in the chicken house, were able to get outside and make the most of the garden as it slowly emerged from under the water. Having seen no waterfowl for about two weeks we were pleased to see cormorants, mallards and grebes back along the Reach. Sadly, once our Aylsesburys were able to make it back, there were only four out of the five- Blanche had disappeared in the floods.My lovely Blanche. Now in the middle of January, normality is within reach, providing we do not get more wild weather. Lindsay@Panacea

Dated: 2011-07-16 and Updated: 0000-00-00