Chairmans Chat 2026

Hello all Country Linkers,

It seems that Spring has come in with a bang in North Oxfordshire, with local temperatures reaching 23 degrees. Most of the yellow daffodils and Tête-à-Tête have gone over, with the paler narcissus now coming in to full flower. A canna lily, aubretia, and tulips are also all ready to open while the blossom is falling from the trees with the strong winds.

The corn crops, which have all had their second top dressing, seem to be racing away, As Daisy and I walk around the fields the paths, which were muddy and slippery a couple of weeks ago, have all dried out in the hot weather. We have shut off a small field for an extra hay crop this year, after the shortages over this winter, and due to the drought last summer.. This crop is really getting away even though it is almost organic.

I found an old hand sprayer while tidying a shed, which was still half full and the weeds were starting to show in the future hay crop. I decided to give it a try and spot sprayed the thistles, docks, and any other serious weeds which were showing through on one part of the field. After 10 days, and the weeds showing no discomfort, I used a newer sprayer on another part of the field. While waiting to see how this worked two weeks or more had passed since I had started and I noticed that all the weeds I had sprayed first of all were dying. It had just taken a little longer and I can finish off the old container.

I was pondering modern medicine and the state of the NHS recently. I had started to walk the Cotswold Way in 2022, along with another member, to raise money for charity - The Stroke Association. I never finished it and still have 10 miles or so to go. I'm determined to finish this walk before the National Weekend at the end of May. My daughter had a TIA just after her 21st birthday while on a university placement. This brings me on to a Radio 4 programme about a heart surgeon who had decided, before he was 8 years old, to become one himself. From a humble beginning he had become one of this country's leading heart specialists. When he started only 30% of heart patients survived surgery. He took the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford from low down in the rankings to the 2nd in this country, My daughter's TIA was caused by a hole in the heart which she ignored by taking warfarin and running the London Marathon - TWICE - along with several other half marathons.

The JR started pressing her to have cardiac surgery while she was pregnant. She delayed until this year and was put on the waiting list. Due to a cancellation, she was asked to go in the following week. I took her in at 8.00 am and dropped her off. At 3.00 pm I had a phone call asking me to pick her up. I was thinking the op must have been postponed but no - it had been done! It took only 30 minutes or so to complete. I can only praise the surgeon and the NHS.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at the National Weekend in May, and at the AGM. Don't forget to bring your cheque books with you as I will finish that walk and be after some sponsorship money.

Dick Stephens - Chairman

Hello all Country Linkers,

I have recently returned from Ayrshire where I joined Ayrshire Country Link for their 40th Anniversary celebrations. I set off with warnings of snow in the Highlands and Eastern Counties. I'm not going that way, I thought. When my card didn't work at the toll I thought Things Can Only Get Better - to be met with torrential rain and 1" snow as I travelled through Staffordshire. Anyway, I had an excellent weekend, meeting people from all over Scotland, including Alex from the Borders. Alex knows an old friend of mine who lives near Lockerbie and who I called in to see on the way home.

I must thank Jessie for organising the event, Jim Grey for the toast, and Tom and Sheila for the musical entertainment after the dinner. After breakfast with Drew and Caroline, and 6 other people who joined us. I stopped off for coffee and cake, as well as a brief tour, with Jimmy and Kirsteen before setting off home from Stewarton. My thanks go to Jimmy and Kirsteen for their hospitality.

On arriving home, it seemed to have been a very dry weekend while I was away; with the snowdrops, celandines, hellebores, and crocus going over, and the tete-a-tete in flower. The rest of the narcissus are lagging behind and are, perhaps, a little late.

After mentioning the mild winter, I have been contacted by an old friend and member who checks his rain gauge every day. He helps on two big estates with gauges, and informs me this has been the wettest winter in fifty years. This probably explains why I haven't had to fill the sheep water troughs since mid-October until today. The arable crops on my daily walks seem to be getting away with fertiliser being applied all around the area. An early spring seems to be here with daytime temperatures climbing, and a lot of blossom in the hedgerows.

I recently hear that the Banbury Christmas Tractor Run had raised a record breaking sum of more than £100.000 for the hospice in my village. It seems an incredible sum in these times, so congratulations to all the farmers, and many others, who gave up their time, effort, and tractors to put it on.

On my trips up and down the country - from the hills on the M74, the hill sheep in North Yorkshire and Cumbria, to the flatlands of East Anglia, and the South West counties of Cornwall and Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucester, back to the Midlands counties - one topic always comes up in conversation at Country Link meetings and at the markets.

Many years ago, when I was a student at the largest Technical College in the UK, long since shrunk to a fraction of its former self, to make way for more Graduate courses, student debt, and media studies perhaps, one of our lecturers was telling us of our engineering past and the future that awaits us, where we will lead the world in engineering and technology. I pondered this going back to adjusting and lubricating mechanical equipment that was patented in Kansas in 1891, while we waited for Swedish common control equipment to be fitted. As I go past a new road bridge being erected over the future HS2 line about halfway done - a tad behind its 2022 completion date perhaps. I am pondering this still. China didn't have a motorway when I was at that lecture and now has more miles of motorway than any other country. The topic that always comes up is "Why can't we fix potholes in this country?"

As the days are drawing out and are getting warmer, perhaps now is the time to plan evening walks and visits for your group for the benefit of those who are unable do so in the middle of the day or at weekends. And above all, don't forget everybody, try to bring a friend along with you to an event.

Dick Stephens - Chairman

Hello all Country Linkers,

After recently telling a friend in the Languedoc region of France how mild our winter has been so far, it seems to have rained every day since. Every year on my daily walk during the winter I pass empty grass fields only a couple of fields away which might look better with my sheep grazing on them. There's about fifty acres or so. The main problem is the first two are level with the watercourse and flood most years, and have the only gate which also cuts off access to the higher ground beyond. The second, perhaps more important problem, is the sewage works a couple of fields upstream.

The sheep seem to be coping well with the wet weather. On a seemingly dry day we brought the sheep in to check them all for tags, condition, and hoof problems, and we got soaked doing it. As they say, 'no good deed goes unpunished'.

My daughter got me a ticket for LAMMA. at the NEC, as my son-in-law was on a stand. I later found out that I had to take her and my granddaughter along with me as well. I enjoyed a good afternoon there along with pushchair manoeuvring, an escaping child, and stops along the way. I was very surprised by how big the show was, never having been before, and I was happy to see some livestock equipment being shown. I had a coffee at Major the hedge-cutter firm, and told them I had spoken to a customer using one next door. I bumped into a few old friends and found out later that some Country Link members attended and had a good day out as well.

Torrential rain seems to be a constant in my days out this year, a planned visit to RHS Wisley with my camera turned into a lunch and shopping trip for plants and bulbs last week. I'm hoping my visit to Ayrshire for their 40th Anniversary Dinner later this month will be drier. I'm also planning to visit a very old friend who farms near Lockerbie during this trip. I've recently visited Warwickshire for a dinner and one of their planning meetings, a thriving club with lots of activities.

There is a very old ironstone causeway between two kissing gates, across a water meadow, near me which I walk across. It was put in very many years ago to keep you dry in floods. Probably due to leaf mould, global warming, and lack of maintenance it now lies below ground level and you get wet.

There is still time to book a place at the National Weekend in May, and I hope to see many of you there in Worcestershire. The national AGM will be held at this weekend and any nominations for the national committee need to be submitted by Friday 13th March 2026. The nomination forms are on the documents page of the website.

Dick Stephens - Chairman

Hello all Country Linkers,

A Happy New Year to Everyone.

I hope you have all had a good festive season, and enjoyed a Christmas Dinner or Dinner dance.

At Oxford I managed to get six former members to come along and meet up with old friends. I also went along to the Worcester dinner dance where everyone had a good time, dancing away until late. A few of us are off to an Adult Pantomime in Chipping Norton on Friday.

Well, the new year has brought in snow and freezing conditions for a lot of us, although much worse in Scotland and the Northern Counties I understand. Last night we had a thaw and the ground has gone from very hard to mush, and is very slippery underfoot. Do be careful on your walks and carry a stick, taught my granddaughter as you are never too young to learn. Walking Daisy today I saw a Red Kite for the first time this winter, then I disturbed a covey of partridge as well as a cock pheasant. I think they are a bit optimistic of an early spring. This reminded me to top-up the bird feeders in the garden. With a lot more snow on the way those of you with oil fired central heating do make sure your tank is topped up as my daughter ran out last year. I'm waiting for a chimney sweep due to a lack of planning here. I also had an Osprey hovering over the buildings one day, before you all say 'no way' this was a V22 Osprey VTOL, or a drone with the same configuration. Bad enough with the pair of Chinooks that sneaked up on me and Daisy last week.

I gave the sheep extra hay on Christmas Day, and again when it snowed, from my very limited supply along with extra hard feed. Sadly, I have not put the ewes to the ram this year, and due to the future loss of my hay field I'm just going to take them to market as they get fit. I will just purchase store lambs in the future.

So far as I can see as I travel around, and locally, the crops in the ground look an awful lot better than the disaster that was last year's harvest for most of us. Only time will tell. I need to get some fencing done on a three acre paddock, having relied on an electric one until now. When I first came here over twenty years ago none of the fields were stock proof, after a couple of years of haymaking on it all decided to stock fence most of it, only to find out that a lot of the wooden stakes I used rotted away very quickly. Some have been replaced three times and a lot more still need doing. So, I now have to decide whether to replace them with the same cheap ones, use creosoted ones, or something else. If I was younger I think I would splash out on concrete or oak posts. I have some concrete ones dotted about which have been since the nineteen twenties, and some oak ones that are rotting away after only seventy years or so.

I'm planning to go up to Ayrshire in February for their 40th Anniversary, and then down to Cornwall soon to pay them a visit. I will then fit in the Cheshire and Yorkshire groups when I can.

Finally, congratulations to long time stalwart of the committee Phil Charles for being awarded the BEM in the New Years Honours List.

Hope you all take care in the snow and winter weather in the next few weeks and are looking forward to an early spring.

Dick Stephens - Chairman