Welcome to issue 24, Its Springtime and by the time you read this the clocks will have gone forward.  The gardens and hedgerows are sprouting blossom and new shoots and all is well. We've just got to hang on a few more weeks and hope the dreaded C19 clears off. We might soon get to meet up again, oh a coffee, warm sunshine and good company.  Can't wait!!

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We are very pleased with how our membership is steadily growing and wish to thank everyone who has joined us already. But we would really like more of you to join. You can sign up via our website or fill in the last page of our leaflet and you can join for free. By joining, you will be giving us permission to keep your information, then when we have anything special to invite you to, we can get in touch personally. Members will be offered priority places on any excursions, and discounts if applicable. Plus, our members get a say in how Northants Parkinson’s People is run and how we prioritise our support. Here is a link to the join up page: 

UCL Queens Square Institute of Neurology are currently recruiting participants into various open trials to include investigating treatments for hallucinations in Parkinson’s.


They want to find out whether Ondansetron, an anti-sickness medication already in use, will be effective. If you experience visual hallucinations and would like to get involve you can find out more by following this link:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ion/research/centres/movement-disorders-centre/research/clinical-trials#TOPHaT
or email your local study nurse Angelina Manoharan – [email protected]
To look at other research trials from UCL follow this link:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ion/research/centres/movement-disorders-centre/research

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Virtual Pub Quiz   Every 1st Saturday of the month. (next one is 3th Apr 11:00 am) Zoom in with the in-crowd. Several rounds of General Knowledge, Music and Pictures. A bit of a social at the end. Join our Zoom Meeting.  

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89019085203?pwd=dmxkcTh0M0JvQWJYS2xuRVZ5bENZZz09 

Meeting ID: 890 1908 5203   Passcode: 822330

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I think we can all agree it is scary to have fallen and often falls which result in injuries can sadly cause much more difficulty in the long run with lost mobility and frailty. It is really important to keep active and strong and be mindful of any balance issues. Parkinson’s does affect balance and does slow down reaction times to correct balance problems.
It is a very good idea to have an alarm installed, particularly if you live alone and there are various organisations which provide this service. Usually all that is needed is a landline and a quick additional installation of the safety equipment.  Read more or enquire: 

I love the month of April with its dazzling displays of tree blossom and the emergence of tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and all manner of delightful sweet-scented flowers.    Plants, Shrubs and trees are all sprouting new shoots and newly sown seed is germinating.  There are a few bees buzzing around too.   This all heralds the approach of summer.   However, first of all, let’s enjoy the wonderful springtime!
A few jobs to be done in the garden.
Time to mow your lawn. Choose a time when there has been no rain for a day or two. Set the mower to the highest cut and give it a whiz over. Next aerate it by sticking a garden fork into the lawn at intervals about a foot apart. Then sprinkle with blood fish and bone but follow the makers instructions as to the amount to use. Too much will not help the grass at all.   
I have now set my seed potatoes in bags. Filled the bag about a third full with a mixture of compost and a small amount of blood, fish and bone (any fertiliser will do). Place the potatoes on top of the soil with the largest ‘eye’ facing upwards and gently cover with about six inches more of compost and then water.  After about three weeks you will see new leaves poking through the surface and then all you do is put another six-inch layer of compost on top to cover. Repeat this as and when the leaves poke through until the bag is full. If, by chance, a frost is forecast just scrunch up some bubble wrap and place inside the bag on the top. Then remove when temperatures rise a little. By the way any old container will do to grow potatoes in as long as there are drainage holes in the bottom!   Remember to water the bags if no rain is forecast for a while.  

      

Have you set any sweet peas yet? I set some last November and a second batch in February. The difference between the two sowings is remarkable as you will see from the photographs. The November plants have now been planted into their final pot with copper tape around the top (to deter slugs) and a few twigs to start them climbing. They are in the cold greenhouse at the moment but go outside every day to harden them off.  Then around Easter weekend they will be put into their permanent place with a large metal obelisk over them. Sweet peas are half hardy and can withstand quite low temperatures. When mine go outside if a frost is fore-cast I just wrap a piece of bubble wrap around them overnight. The variety I have grown this year is called ‘Here Come the Girls’.  A highly scented combination of varieties with girl’s names.

   

Finally some of you may remember the ‘bulb burgers’  I created in pots for spring 2020. At the end March/ beginning April 2020 when the flowers had died off, I dried and saved the bulbs and replanted them last October with pansies. They have produced a lovely display again and I highly recommend that you try this for a lovely spring display

    

 

As I sat pondering on life, as one does at my age, I was brought back to Earth with a phone call from my great grand-daughter LEXII ( 8 going on 18). "Mum says, have you still got a cheque book". This followed by the inevitable "Granddad what's a cheque book?". 
That started the grey cells working, I thought, what was a cheque book?  Ostensibly, it is a promissory note to honour a payment of money when the note is presented to a bank. At that level it is as good as a banknote (i.e. paper money). If you read a bank note it states that the "Bank of England promises to pay the bearer ".
On reflection, I thought that it used to mean a lot more than that. I remember as a boy that someone who had a cheque book, also meant they had a bank account. Now in those far distant days, not many working men had a bank account, for a start you were mostly paid weekly in cash. Unlike today where most are paid monthly direct to your bank account. So back in my childhood someone with a bank account and a cheque book inferred some level of 'middle class' on them. 


The history of the cheque goes back a long time. There is evidence of promissory notes or the equivalent in 'Roman' times, they were called 'pre-Syngrapha'. 
The use of the cheque as a draw-down of a sum of money held by a banker. In the 12th/13th century the best and most reliable holders (Bankers) of money or valuables, were the Jews, the Lombards (of north Italy) and the Knights Templar. 
The knights Templar were a Christian order of warrior monks , they were known as 'God's Holy Warriors'.  They were financed through various benefits and bequests from wealthy and royal individuals. By the mid 13th century, a wealthy organisation and stood as bankers for many people.
Now, in the times we are talking of; medieval, one wouldn't travel any great distance. Unless you were a wealthy personage, with a reasonable size retinue for protection.  If you were getting ready to set off on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, you would need a large sum of money. However, to carry a vast quantity of cash invites trouble, so what to do?   The answer was to go to the local Templar preceptory and deposit your sum of money with them. In return they would give you a receipt. This receipt was no ordinary receipt, as it was written in code.  For the period of history concerned it was a very complex code, and like the 'Enigma' codes of WW2,  it was codes within code.  It meant that armed with this receipt, you could travel through Europe, Byzantium and beyond.  At each place you stopped, you could pay by producing your receipt and on arriving at your destination, collect whatever you were owed. 
On reflection you would think that the Templar's would have gone on to greater things, however, by the mid 1300's the Templar's were finished. Mainly they were too successful in that they were owed vast, enormous sums of money from the nobility of Europe, the English crown, Scottish king and the Holy Roman Emperor.  Mainly Phillip IV king of France, reputedly by 1310, owed the Templars the equivalent of 75% of the annual income of France. So, with the connivance of the Pope (also in debt to them) declared the Templar Order to be heretical.  In the period 1305 - 1308 the Order were hunted down throughout Europe and the British Isles and with a series of executions and a great many 'burnings at the stake' it is thought that at least 98% of the Order perished. They never rose to prominence again, in fact the 'Papal Bull' that declared the order to be heretical is still in force.
The first example of a 'modern cheque' being issued was in February 1659 by Vanter's bank, it was made payable to a Mr. Delto for the sum of £400. 
I will wait for yet another call from LEXII to see what else I can unearth.  

From the 'history man'

'Chairman '  Doug  

            A woman brings a very limp duck into a veterinary surgeon. As she lays her beloved pet duck on the table, the vet puts his stethoscope to the bird’s chest and listens carefully.

    A moment later the vet shakes his head and says sadly, “I’m really sorry, but your duck, Cuddles, has passed away.“

     The woman becomes quite distressed and begins to cry.

    “Are you sure?” she says with tears flooding from her eyes.

    “Yes, I'm sorry but I am sure” the vet responds. “Your duck is definitely dead.“

     “But how can you be so sure?” the woman protests. “I mean, you haven’t done any testing on him or anything have you? Perhaps he’s just stunned or in a coma or something.”

    The vet rolls his eyes, then turns around and leaves the room and a few minutes later he returns with a black Labrador retriever.

    As the duck’s owner looks on in amazement, the Labrador stands on his hind legs, puts his front paws on the examination table and sniffs around the duck from top to bottom. He then looks up at the vet with sad eyes and shakes his head.

    The vet pats the dog on the head and takes it out of the room and a few minutes later the vet returns with a cat. The cat jumps on the table and delicately sniffs at the bird from its head to its feet. After a moment the cat looks up, shakes its head, meows softly and strolls out of the room.

    The vet looks at the woman and says, “Look, I am really very sorry, but as I said before, this is most definitely a duck that is no longer of this world. Your duck is dead."

    The vet then turns to his computer terminal, hits a few keys and produces a bill, which he hands to the woman.

    The duck’s owner, still in shock, looks at the bill and sees it is £150. “£150 just to tell me my duck is dead!” she shrieks with incredulity.

    The vet shrugs his shoulders and says, “I’m sorry but if you’d taken my word for it, the bill would have been just, £20. However, with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, it’s now £150.“

Maybe its an audio phenomenon, or just me being me. When I'm cooking next to the stove, or more precisely next to the extraction fan over the stove I can hear aeroplanes very clearly. So clearly I'm starting to identify them.
Let me explain, I have always been fascinated by flying. so its no accident that I joined the Royal Observer Corps (1979-1991) and although the ROC were exclusively tasked with Nuclear attack monitoring a good percentage of the Corp were 'old school' aircraft recognition experts and the RAF used to 'keep us sweet' with trips to RAF bases and for the lucky few, the odd flight.  So I can still visually identify a few aircraft and also audibly identify a few. O.K.  back to the kitchen... 
Most week days  at around 2 pm I can hear a distinctive throb, throb, throb of twin rotors.  (you will all have heard the very distinctive sound of a Chinook helicopter, It's TWIN blades compress the air between them to produce an unmistakable THROB)  but the sound I hear is from rotors that are faster.   An hour or so later I can hear the sound again.  So what is this mystery aircraft?  Its a US V22 Osprey.  And a pair go over Northampton twice a day, 5 times a week. They usually fly West and then later fly East.

Those twin lift rotors swivel round once the craft is at height so it performs more like a conventional aircraft (in terms of fuel consumption) The two that fly over every day are usually a lot higher than helicopters, I believe they fly high because if they have an engine failure and any significant cargo on board they need time to look for a crash site!!  They are not exactly a lead baloon on one engine, but pretty close if they are loaded.
So if you hear a throb, throb, throb its probably an Osprey. If you hear a THROB, THROB, THROB its probably a Chinook Helicopter. If you suddenly stop hearing a throb, throb, throb, hide under the kitchen table 

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