Table Top Sale: A reminder, that if you wish to book a table (cost £5) for the forthcoming Table Top Sale, then now is the time to contact Sarah Graham (755291). The sale will be held from 10am to 4pm at Lofthouse Village Hall (refreshments available) on Sunday, July 5.

Lofthouse School Fete: Sarah also reminds us that Lofthouse School will be holding its annual fete on Sunday, July 19 from 2-4pm. It's a popular local family event, with games, stalls, tombola, refreshments, ice-creams, all to be enjoyed to the entertaining sounds of the Lofthouse & Middlesmoor Silver Band. However, Sarah says "help is needed", so if you can offer any good quality toys, bric-a-brac, cakes or tombola prizes, then she would appreciate your support. Sarah's contact number is 755291. Thank you.

A Big Thank You!: Angela Raynerd expresses her "grateful thanks to all those who helped on Middlesmoor Bell Festival day, with the setting up of the hall and field beforehand and, of course, to everyone who supported the event on the day itself". The grand total of £700 was raised for St. Chad's Church funds.

Charity Run: Emma and Sarah Coates are busily preparing themselves for the two major runs they are about to take part in to raise money for charity. On the July 12, they will attempt the Great North 10k Run in Sunderland for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation (cancer charity) and then on the 20 September, they intend to participate in the famous Great North Run to raise money for Knaresborough Age Concern.

If you would like to support Emma and Sarah by sponsoring them, they would really appreciate it. Please contact them on 755217 or see Diane on her milk round.

Studfold Community Nature Project: Alan Croucher reports: "Sunday, June 14: Yet another gloriously sunny afternoon greeted us at Studfold. The main activities undertaken were hunting for insects and other small beasts by beating trees and bushes (although to the uninitiated I'm sure it appeared to be a strange ritual) and the identification of grasses in flower.

There didn't seem to be as many insects as we'd hoped and we were slightly surprised by our degrees of success with different species of tree. The widest variety of creatures came from hazel, and sycamore supplied the most insects (although they were mainly aphids), whilst alder and oak provided the fewest. I'm sure that the swallows were more successful hawking across the meadows than we were bashing the trees! Amongst the small creatures that we did find were two and ten-spot ladybirds, bird-cherry moth caterpillars, needleflies, snipe flies, soldier beetles and cucumber spiders. A few butterflies were on the wing and we saw painted lady, peacock, small and large whites and meadow brown.

The grass group were able to see differences between species flowering in improved meadow areas, pasture, low and high fields and damp, marshy areas.