So much for community - excluded!

[Rosendula]

Rant alert! Rant alert!

Oooh! Do you know?
This morning I set out all my early seed potatoes for chitting. Because they are in a place that receives some direct sunshine, I thought I'd cover them lightly with newspaper. Well I don't buy newspapers, do I? Then I realised it's Friday - the day we get the local free paper. Perfect timing or what?

Through the letterbox it pops, and I think to myself I'll have a flick through it before I make 'proper' use of it. And there!!!! And there was a passage about an event held last Sunday at the local community orchard. A pagan Wassail event, apparently open to all. Who these "all" are I don't know because I certainly wasn't invited. And the community orchard is on the allotment site where I have my allotment. And I am a 'friend' of the orchard, paying the whole £2 last summer in order to support the orchard, for which I was allowed to pick 2kg of apples for my own use, and happily I went along with my carrier bag on the 28th September only to be told that I wasn't allowed in half of the orchard because those apples can only be picked in October, so I had to stay in the other half where there were none but a scabby few left! Oh, I could go back another time if I wanted, I was told, but the 2 or 3 hours it was open in October I knew I was going to be busy.

Chuntering away to myself I flicked forcefully on through the paper only to find the same event was mentioned again - with full colour pictures!!!! And, the reporter said he was invited. Oh, bloody charming. Invite a reporter, but don't invite me, who not only is a paying tenant of the allotments and a paid up member of the allotment association but is also a paid up 'friend' of the orchard.

So now, if I cover my spuds with that paper, I'm going to feel as angry, rejected, upset and excluded as I do now.

*sighs*
I suppose I could use all the leaflets that came with it and laugh at the prices of the vegetables advertised in them. That might help.

[Green Aura]

That was really rude of them, whoever they are. I hate rudeness.

[MuddyWitch]

Awwww, Rosendula

You can come & pick apples in my little orchard (two apple trees & two plum trees) & join us in a Wassail too if you like.

& we don't charge!!!

MW

[snapdragon]

awww thats not very nice is it? I often feel excluded when I read about things in the local free paper - they never seem to advertise them in advance -

To be even handed though I'm willing to bet that they invited the local reporter so that they would do an article in Advance of the Event - but that was possibly in a teeny tiny column and not very obvious.

[Millymollymandy]

That's really horrid - I'd be feeling really sad and left out too. Big hugs.

[Berti]

you are absolutely right in your feelings and ranting.......
are you going to tell the owners of the allotment site what you think of them, make you pay and then not inviting you in on the event.......
I would, for sure

berti

[JulieSherris]

Oh, Rosie - that's awful

Do these folks have meetings at all? (Apart from this, of course)
If so, maybe you could suggest someone start a notice board, or a small newsletter or something, so that EVERY member is informed of the goings on..... It's selfish of these folk to think that they would use a group for 'the elite'... which it sounds like they are doing, indeed.

I'd certainly talk to someone about it though - and make sure you let them know how disgruntled you're feeling - you might not be the only one, either!

Julie x

[Rosendula]

Thanks everyone The paper published a phone number of the woman who organized the event, so it was very tempting to ring her straight away and tell her my thoughts. I decided to have a rant and a sleep first, though, so that I could tell her calmly how I have been made to feel rather than sounding like a crazy woman. If someone rang me and started shouting at me it wouldn't make me want to invite them in the future.

Julie, I agree about the notice board, but we already have them and nothing was posted. There is one outside the allotment 'shop' and that has had the same notices in for several months. There are also boards on the gates to the site, and nothing has been on there either. I really feel that the orchard is there for an exclusive little group who need to occasionally get the money from outsiders in order to keep the acre+ of land it's on.

The orchard was set up when allotments became unpopular, and was a great way to keep the land in use and prevent it being sold off by the Council. Now there is a waiting list for allotments, so if the orchard is for a small exclusive group, I think it would be better turned over to people on the waiting list. That would be far more inclusive and in a spirit of community.

I'll ring her today and find out what she has to say for herself. Not before my second cup of coffee though, or I'll be croaking down the phone at her.

[oldfella]

We have a different problem here, all the associations in our village send us their get together programmes at the beginning of the year in the Mayors letter then at every meeting after that they give you another leaflet with the date and programme and then send someone to remind you about a week before the day. Which is fine, and is the reason that I know all the young children in the village cos I feel guilty if, after all their work at inviting me to their do,s I don't turn up, but at my age I get queer looks at the P.T.A. meetings, the new Mums Aerobics class, and the Hang gliding club, mind you I draw the line at Bungee Jumping for the over 80s as I am to young.


Keep smiling Rosie don't let them get you down cos your turn will come

[JulieSherris]

Good luck with the phone call then, Rosie - if there is already a notice board then, ask her WHO is responsible for updating it...

I'd pin them down & make them see that success comes from efficient communication.

Let us know how you get on... and don't croak too much

[prison break fan]

Rants make you feel so much better don't they? I think it stops you doing something in haste that you might regret later. We don't have a free newspaper here, but the parish magazine is always so late in being delivered that most of the village events are over! pbf

[Rosendula]

I rang her. I politely said I'd seen the piece in the free paper and asked where the events are advertised as I would have like to have gone. She said it was a small advert in the local pay-for paper, which I don't get and therefore didn't see, and she pointed out that they can't afford to do a huge advertising campaign, which I understand. However, I pointed out to her that I am a tenant of the allotments and a friend of the orchard and couldn't they have put up a notice and sent emails? I think she answered a bit too quickly because she said that's exactly what they did! Well I keep a regular check on the notice boards and haven't seen any adverts and told her that, which she had no answer for. As for the emails, she said she has half of the database and another lady has the other half and I must be on the other lady's database and she can't understand why that lady didn't send me an email. Hmmm. Anyway, she's taken my email address and is going to contact the other woman. I feel like I was fobbed off a bit. We'll see if I start getting any information from them.

She also told me that there's a video on youtube. I've watched it and it seems it even got on TV. I can't believe I didn't know anything about it. Behind my allotment there is a ditch, and the orchard is on the other side of the ditch. They did some dancing in the street, just outside the gates. I was there on the afternoon of the event - obviously at a slightly different time (apparently it lasted about an hour), and saw absolutely no signs of it. Watching the video, I didn't recognize anyone in it at all.

Not sure what I'm feeling or what my thoughts are now

[Odsox]

Well, you can take heart Rosendula that you are VERY welcomed here on 'ish and in no way excluded from anything.
It's good to know who your friends are.

[Millymollymandy]

We have a different problem here, all the associations in our village send us their get together programmes at the beginning of the year in the Mayors letter then at every meeting after that they give you another leaflet with the date and programme and then send someone to remind you about a week before the day. Which is fine, and is the reason that I know all the young children in the village cos I feel guilty if, after all their work at inviting me to their do,s I don't turn up, but at my age I get queer looks at the P.T.A. meetings, the new Mums Aerobics class, and the Hang gliding club, mind you I draw the line at Bungee Jumping for the over 80s as I am to young.

We get that newsletter several times a year but the only things mentioned are endless bals (dances) for all the various associations which you couldn't drag me to if my life depended on it.

What nobody has ever mentioned is that there is a firework display over the village lake every 14 July only we didn't know that until a neighbour told us last year! One day we stumbled across a vide grenier in our village and that had never been advertised either! There's supposed to be an invite for all newcomers every year to meet the other newcomers and the maire but we never got invited to that either.

[mybarnconversion]

... I wasn't allowed in half of the orchard because those apples can only be picked in October ...

Apply school-child logic next time and scrump them - I find that applying 'Just William' morals to life often helps ... ;)