British shorthair cat Sir Monty Esq is the subject of a new online business in Bagshot. Kristy Goncalves tells us more and invites us to read his blog The Regal Whisker Chronicles
Meet Sir Monty Esquire, a British shorthair of impeccable lineage who together with his devoted cat parents Kristy and Andre, is bringing his adventures to life.
His whimsical blog aims to entertain, inspire and uplift while helping to better the lives of his fellow animals through support for the RSPCA, which holds a special place in our hearts.
Monty started becoming ill four years ago and ever since we have been back and forth to the vets trying to get his health back on track. If we had known that vet bills could be so expensive and accumulate so quickly, we would have had better insurance cover and so with this experience behind us, the idea of the business took shape.
Originally we wanted to launch our own charity that could help people who found themselves in our position, whether it be financial or just offering good advice. We soon found starting a charity was far more complicated than we envisioned, and that maybe that wouldn’t be our starting point.
We then decided to open an online store featuring a blog of Monty’s journey and his daily escapades. This way we can still help other pet owners by sharing our experience, but also give a proportion of the proceeds from sales of the apparel and merchandise to the RSPCA. Let Monty explain…
“Our store boasts unique AI generated designs based on yours truly and curated primarily by my cat parents into stylish and one of a kind items for your delight. With every subscription, every like, and every share of our blog or purchase from our store, a portion of our proceeds will be donated to the RSPCA. Together, we aspire to make a meaningful impact, ensuring that animals, both regal and humble, receive the care and protection they deserve.”
We will be selling merchandise and apparel such as hoodies, T-shirts, hats, phone cases, tote bags, calenders, cards, posters, mugs and later on we will venture into selling pet toys, treats, pet clothes etc
Win!
We would like to offer Round & About readers the chance to win a hoodie, 2024 calendar and a mug with Sir Monty featured on the designs. To be in with a chance simply enter via our app. Find out more.
Subscribe to the blog to receive a 15 per cent discount on purchases from the online store, simply quote code Round&About.
To find out more about Sir Monty Esq and shop the merchandise to support the RSPCA, click here.
Stacey Black, founder of Wandering Wild Yoga, East Meon, has tips for staying relaxed over the festive period and tells us more about her new yoga walks and classes
As a busy mum of three, I understand how making space for self-care is hard especially over the festive season. But spending just 10 minutes a day practising these three simple techniques could make all the difference.
Gratitude Journal: Start your day by jotting down three things you are grateful for.
Mindful Breathing: Sit in a comfortable position with your spine long, close your eyes and bring your awareness to your breath. Start to observe your breath, watching the subtle movements as you inhale and exhale, notice the qualities of your breath, does your breath feel slow or quick, does it feel smooth or jagged, notice how the ribs expand on the inhale and contract back with the exhale.
After a few rounds, gently start to deepen and lengthen your breath, engaging your diaphragm and using your lungs more fully. Sit for a few minutes breathing this way, letting your exhale be slightly longer than your inhale, this helps calm the body and nervous system.
Yoga Pose: Legs up the wall pose (Viparita Karani): Lying with your legs up the wall makes a difference to your mental and physical health. It activates the parasympathetic nervous system by slowing the breath and letting the body know it is safe to relax. It also relieves aching muscles and joints whilst also supporting your lymphatic and glymphatic system.
Set a timer between 5 and 20 minutes. To go into the posture, sit sideways on to the wall, manoeuvre yourself around so that your back is on the floor and your legs are up the wall. Once in position focus on your breath, take slow deep breath (as detailed above). When you are ready to come out cuddle your knees to your chest and roll on to one side.
Please note: this posture is not suitable during pregnancy, if you suffer from glaucoma or have untreated high blood pressure.
Make yoga a New Year resolution
Yoga is a transformational practice and benefits the mind, body and spirit. My journey began with a local yoga class, it was then I decided that I wanted to share this ancient practice with others.
I have now been teaching for 12 years and offer a range of classes including hatha yoga, chair yoga, restorative yoga, Mindful Wanders (outdoor yoga combined with mindful walking) and sound baths. My plan for 2024 is to focus on Yoga for Cancer with holistic yoga programmes for individuals and groups.
For more information about my classes please click here.
Wandering Wild Yoga is offering a free taster session for two people in 2024. To win this experience click here.
Nine up and coming designers are competing to win Jacobs the Jewellers annual competition as they search to boost their future careers
Coming into their 75 year anniversary, Jacobs the Jewellers are hosting their annual Emerging Designers competition.
This exciting event features nine fledging designers from Bishophead Educational Trust, all hoping to kick start their careers.
This competition combines both a virtual show with an instore experience to showcase the talents and help boost the designers’ fledging careers.
Each designer has been challenged with the task of making a piece for each of the two categories: a piece of jewellery and an object, which are to be judged between now and Wednesday 2nd August. Everyone is welcomed to vote for the pieces both online and instore. To participate in this, either visit the store at 25 King Street in Reading or vote online at: Jewellery: Bishopsland Designers.
Adam Jacobs, Partner, Jacobs the Jewellers said: “To think nine years ago we started working with Bishopsland; the time has flown by and my compliments to both the gang and their tutors! Seeing this year’s high standard work is both inspiring and gratifying – we look forward to seeing how the public vote and sharing with everyone. As ever, thanks to our co-presenting partners – they’ve amazing supporters.”
Angela Cork, Principal of Bishopsland Educational Trust added: “We are thrilled to be showcasing the next generation of Bishopsland’s silversmiths and jewellers work at Jacobs the Jewellers. This is the ninth year in which we have collaborated on this initiative, and it is an important part of our annual programme, and we remain thankful to Adam Jacobs, HS Walsh, and The Goldsmith’s Centre for their ongoing support for our makers and for our craft.”
The winners will be revealed on Thursday, 3rd August. The winners of each category are to win £250, and the runners up £100; with this great prize, winners can further boost their careers as designers. This money is granted for them to use at HS Walsh, a leading UK jewellery tool supplier, so they can buy a variety of different items to help them with their creations.
Well done to all the wildlife lovers who took part in the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) competition who snapped some beautiful sights at local nature reserves and green spaces and showed how nature can help our mental health
Winning entries include this stunning shot of a buzzard in flight, this pin-sharp picture of a tiny shield bug emerging from a garden flower and a portrait of a pensive kingfisher.
The winner of this year’s children’s category was eight-year-old Roly Lewis from Oxford. The North Hinksey Primary School pupil took his fantastic photo of a shield bug, poking its head out of a flower in his own front garden.
Roly said: “I wanted to enter the competition, so I took lots of wildlife pictures all spring and summer. I thought this photo was my best one because the blossom was a nice background, and the shield bug had an amazing colour and pattern. This made me look closely at shield bugs which are really amazing. My mum told me I had won when I came out of school, and I was so excited I jumped up and down. I really wanted to win but I thought there would be so many good photos that I wouldn’t.”
Children Winner – Roly Lewis (8) (Sheildbug)Children Runner Up – Hayden Denham (7) (Hummingbird Hawkmoth)
The Wildlife Trust restarted its popular photo competition this summer after a three-year break because of the pandemic. The charity, which manages more than 80 nature reserves across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, challenged everyone aged six and over to take fantastic photos of plants, animals and fungi at its sites, or to capture action for wildlife in their local area.
Roy McDonald took first place with his crystal-clear shot of a buzzard in mid-air at the Trust’s College Lake reserve near Tring. The 45-year-old former courier driver from Berkhamstead revealed after winning the contest that he has struggled with his mental health for some years, and that wildlife photography had helped. He said: “Nature helps me so much, it’s honest and calming and it doesn’t judge you, and just sometimes, if you are calm and patient, it will allow you to get up close into their world. I always take great pleasure when a creature trusts you enough to not scurry or fly away. But you don’t have to take photos: just being in nature and observing it can give you something to focus on.
“I had my encounter with a majestic buzzard on a cold and beautiful winter day. I had seconds to react once I spotted it, and just as my focus locked on, it spotted me and flew directly across my path. So close to me. I chose the first image of the sequence because it had the most amount of action and sense of place. It is by far and away the best shot of a buzzard I have ever managed. They have eluded me for years. I’m quite stunned and delighted to have won.”
Flora and fauna Winner (and overall winner) – Ray McDonald (buzzard in flight) taken at College LakeFlora and fauna Runner Up – Adrianna Bielobradek (Poppy seedhead) taken at Buckleberry Common)
As overall winner, Mr McDonald won a top-of-the-range Panasonic Lumix digital camera and a wildlife photography masterclass. As well as receiving a printed canvas of his picture and having it appear in BBOWT’s 2023 calendar.
This year’s contest had six new categories: flora and fauna; nature reserve landscapes; people in nature; children’s category (ages 6-12), teenagers (ages 13-19) and Team Wilder, for shots of action for nature in the community. Helen Touchard-Paxton, a mum who lives Buckinghamshire, won the Team Wilder category with a snap of a frog in a garden pond that she and her family dug during the coronavirus lockdown.
She said: “I believe this photo shows that you don’t need acres of land to create a successful wildlife area: if you are interested – no matter how small your space – just have a go and see what works. I don’t have high-end expensive equipment, and I have no idea how to use photo editing software – the photo is very much ‘as taken’. I was absolutely amazed to have won the Team Wilder category.”
Team Wilder Winner – Helen Touchard-Paxton (frog)Team Wilder Runner Up – Peter Massam (bug hotel)
The Trust received hundreds of entries, creating an extremely difficult job for this year’s judges. BBOWT communications officer Kate Titford, Trust magazine editor Ben Vanheems and professional photographer Steve Gozdz, who runs local nature safaris in Berkshire through his business GG Wildlife Experiences.
Teenagers Winner – Zachary Osbourne (14) Kingfisher Teenagers Runner Up – Lucy Colston (17) (marbled white on scabious)
Mr Vanheems said: “It’s been a really laborious process with lots of debate going on because we want to get it right, but the competition entrants haven’t exactly made it easy for us.”
People in Nature Winner – Petra Mohr (girl on decking) taken at Weston Turville ReserviorPeople in Nature Runner Up – Lorraine Clarke (man in hide) taken at College Lake
Mr Gozdz added: “What I was looking for was composition, good use of light – an action shot would have been fantastic. What we’ve found is something quite stunning. A real in-the-moment shot with perfect angles and perfect light, and actually something I would have been very happy to have taken myself. In fact, when I first saw it I was quite jealous.”
Landscape Winner – Charlotte Day (sunrise landscape) taken at Cholsey MarshLandscape Runner Up – John Kearns (Warburg trees) taken at Warburg
The trust is grateful to GG Wildlife Experiences, Panasonic and Chroma for sponsoring this year’s competition.
Berkeley Invites Community to Take Part in Photo Competition Celebrating Nature:
Award-winning local housebuilder Berkeley Homes has launched a photography and drawing competition open to all residents local to the Woodhurst Park development in Warfield for a chance to win a Polaroid instant camera.
The competition aims to celebrate landscapes and nature as the season changes, encouraging families to explore local nature trails and capture what they see.
The winners of the competition will win an Instax or Polaroid instant camera, which will be handed over at a prize ceremony at the Woodhurst Park Sales and Marketing Suite, where the best pictures will be on display for the public to see. Two runners up of each of the three age categories (11 years and under, 12 to 17 years and 18 years and over) will receive a £25 Amazon voucher.
Entries will remain open until Tuesday 16th November and should be submitted to [email protected]. Entries can also be submitted in person to the sales and marketing suite at Woodhurst Park, or on Instagram with the hashtag #StepIntoWHP and by tagging @berkeley_group.
Submissions will be judged by local photographer Karen Bennett and the Berkeley Homes Sales and Marketing Director.
Please note competition terms and conditions below:
The competition is only open to residents of the United Kingdom.
There is no entry fee or purchase necessary to enter this competition.
All entrants under 18 must have permission of a responsible adult over 18.
Only one entry will be accepted per person.
Closing date is the 16th November 2021, after this date no further entries to the competition will be permitted.
No responsibility can be accepted for entries not received for reasons out of our control.
Berkeley Homes reserves the right to cancel or amend the competition and these terms and conditions without notice, but any changes to the competition/offer will be notified to entrants as soon as possible by the promoter.
Berkeley Homes is not responsible for inaccurate prize/offer details supplied to entrants by any third party.
The prize is as stated no cash or other alternatives will be offered. Prizes are subject to availability and Berkeley Homes reserves the right to substitute any prize with another of equivalent value without giving notice.
Prizes are not transferable and cannot be resold.
Competition winners will be selected by Berkeley Homes from all entries received.
All entrants must be willing to provide full name, contact details and address and to have these details passed to the suppliers of the prizes.
Any competition winner agrees to the use of his/her name and image in any publicity material, including on the Berkeley Homes website and social media. Any personal data relating to the winner or any other entrants will be used solely in accordance with current data protection legislation and will not be disclosed to a third party without the entrant’s prior consent.
Entry into the competition gives Berkeley Homes permission to use submitted entries in any future promotional materials, on their website and on social media.
Entry into the competition will be deemed as acceptance of these terms and conditions.
