MARLOW BOTTOM

BURFORD'S term has ended and there are several travel matters to report on, including several sets of thanks and farewells.

Helen Bridgeman has been running "go for gold" since it started, and she will be replaced by Hillary Hunt, with a team supporting Hillary helping out with the many tasks involved in running this initiative. Mary Nash would like to thank Helen publicly, and welcome Hillary and the new team.

A big thank you also goes to the Year 6 stampers who have been an enormous help to the parent volunteers on "go for gold". Some have helped every week, no matter what the weather, and their commitment has been much appreciated. Burford wishes them all the best in their new schools, and also looks forward to some new pupil stampers in September.

ZUBEYDE O'LEARY has been running Burford's crocodile project for most of this year, but she is moving to Ireland in the summer, so her role will be taken over by Helen North. Thanks go to Zubeyde for stepping in when help was needed, and welcome to Helen.

FOOTSTEPS has been run by Juliette Last, but she stepped down, and her role has been taken over by Angela Batten. Thanks to Juliette for running the initiative over several years, and to Angela for taking it over this year.

FINALLY, the school had a team of 2Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSOs) this year, two are in year 6 so they will be moving on. Thanks to them for their enthusiasm, and hopefully there will be replacements from the current year 5 to be busy JRSOs from September, helping all pupils learn more about road safety.

PERHAPS I can take the opportunity to add a public thank you to Mary Nash as Burford's travel coordinator. Her work is not always that obvious, unless you bump into a crocodile, but it is important to all parts of the community. Apart from encouraging the healthy and socially valuable aspects of walking to school for the children, her efforts do much to ease the traffic problems for the rest of us, perhaps with no direct association with school.

JUSTICE has long since been a word with great significance in this valley. On Monday, July 18, Anne Justice said a sad farewell to her Brownies in Marlow Bottom when she retired from her Brownie pack after more than 20 years. Anne joined the pack on February 22 1983 and became Brown Owl on October 1 1987, a position she has held until this week, all this time working with 2nd Marlow Bottom Brownies. A party was held with Brownies, fellow Guiders and parents. Tawny Owl and now firm friend, Sue Saunders Miller, estimated that during those years more than 200 girls had passed through their pack, and some were now young women with daughters of their own. Anne Justice remembered fondly the many pack holidays she had led over the period since gaining her pack holiday licence in April 1988, and she had even attended the weddings of two former Brownies.

Anne, pictured elsewhere in this issue at her celebration evening, was entertained by her Brownies performing an alphabetic tribute to their much loved Brown Owl, and she cut a cake to mark the occasion. She was presented with a blue crystal bowl from the District and presents from her pack. She was also presented with a "thank you" badge to mark her new role as the first President of Marlow Bottom Guiding District. ne's husband Ray was also presented with a thank you badge to mark his retirement as a Scouter and for his unfailing support of Anne and the Brownie pack over the years.

As they say, the end of an era, but it was a glorious one.

HEDGING your bets is what one reader brought to my attention recently. Apparently, among the various small ads in shop windows in the valley, her attention was attracted by a pair that may not have been entirely unrelated. One offered a marriage guidance service, while the other had secondhand wedding dresses for sale. The contact telephone number was the same. Is this what is meant by a comprehensive service?

POTTY POST came up with a good one recently. I imagine several residents got the same double glazing offer that expires on September 31. I thought of taking them up on it, but on the only date I have available, February 29, 2006 WILF is Burford School's walking mascot, so Mary Nash and her school transport colleagues decided to update him by asking Key Stage 1 pupils to colour him in. They had over 70 excellent entries, and two winners were chosen by the Junior Road Safety Officers, along with 12 runners up.

The winners are: Stephanie Howey (RN) and Mary Pustula (2Ca), and the runners up are Fraser Brown, Charlotte Fisher, Conor Kipping, Anna Duncan, Laura Martinez-Williams, Sky Broadhurst, Hannah Kelly, Calum Brown, Robert Massie, James Moore, Adnaan Jhetam, and Lizzie Harper. Well done everyone.

WHATEVER happened to those promises back in May, when the forecasters said we were about to experience the hottest, driest, longest, most wearying summer in many a long decade? True, there was one fairly hot week and it's been frustratingly dry, but yesterday I heard that temperatures would only reach the high 50s in some parts. Believe me it's going to be a warm and sunny weekend, specially for the Rebellion open days, 11am to 5pm, tomorrow and Sunday.