Choice Magazine for Gosport & Lee on the Solent - July2026 edition
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Can you handle the heat?
You have two opportunities to visit Shore Leave Haslar this month!
The first is their monthly open morning, where you can browse crafts, plants, and delicious produce grown on site. Enjoy homemade cake and a cup of tea, take a wander, soak up the calm atmosphere, and see the fantastic work the veterans and volunteers do.
The second is the Chilli Festival! Around 160 chilli plants have been grown, with 28 different varieties ranging from mild to seriously hot.
At the festival, you’ll also find local beekeepers and voluntary organisations showcasing their work. There will be plenty of opportunities to buy chilli preserves, oils, and homemade cakes with a spicy twist.
If Wimbledon has inspired you to pick up a racket, check out the advert opposite for your local tennis club.
There are lots of events happening this month and next. The Sunset Festival is all about the music, while this year’s Summer in Lee will feature an exciting air display. Have you heard about the Stubbington Ark Summer Fete? You’ll find details of these events and many more inside.
Do you have diabetes, or know someone living with it? The Solent Diabetes Group is holding an information and wellbeing day packed with
WELCOME TO JULY
advice and support. It’s a great opportunity to learn about the latest developments in diabetes care, receive nutrition guidance, and connect with healthcare professionals, fellow members, and volunteers. All the details are inside.
It’s all about honeysuckle in Rita’s article this month. Did you know it has been used to make walking sticks and was traditionally grown for good luck? It’s a fascinating read, as always, and you’ll find it on page 14.
Need a dress altered? How about your boiler serviced? Do your feet need fixing or your face need filling? I have advertisers inside who can help with all these things and more. Plus, there are some great offers too! Please let them know you found them in Choice Magazine.
The Walking Rugby Team are continuing their fundraising this month for vital life-saving defibrillators. They’ll be staging a unique lifeboat pull at Stokes Bay. They’d love your support! All the details are inside.
Are you a local business looking for more customers? Book an advert in my next edition - I’d love to help, and you’ll love my circulation figures and prices!
Have a lovely July, everyone!
Alverstoke Village Podiatry
I’ve gone for a savoury recipe this month! I make this without fail every week - it’s delicious, light, and satisfying, making it the perfect summer meal.
Prep 20 mins
Serves 4
Ingredients:
• 1 x 400g tins chickpeas & 1 x 570g jar Queen chickpeas, drained (or 2 x 400g tin chickpeas)
• 1 heaped tsp ras el hanout ( if you don’t have it, try a mixture of ground cinnamon, cumin, and smoked paprika or chilli powder).
• 1 unwaxed orange
• Olive oil
• 240g block halloumi
• 3 tbsp tahini
• 250g purple sprouting or Tenderstem broccoli
• 1 large handful pumpkin seeds
• Seeds from 1 pomegranate
• 1 small bunch parsley, leaves picked
• 1 heaped tsp honey, to serve
• 4 flatbreads, to serve
ROASTED CHICKPEAS WITH BROCCOLI & HALLOUMI
Method
Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/ 425F/gas 7. Spread the chickpeas on a large roasting tray, sprinkle with the ras el hanout, the zest and juice of half the orange (grate the remaining zest into a bowl), drizzle with olive oil and season. Roast for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, score the top of the halloumi block with 5mm-deep criss-crosses, or cut into 1cm cubes, then set aside. In a bowl or jar, mix the tahini, remaining orange zest and juice, and a tablespoon of olive oil – if your tahini is thick, it might need a really good stir.
Once the chickpeas have had 10 minutes, take them out of the oven and turn on the grill. Add the halloumi, broccoli and pumpkin seeds to the tray, toss everything together, so it is all coated in the orangey spiced oil, then put under the grill for 10 minutes, until the halloumi is golden, the broccoli spears are softened and the florets are crisp.
Sprinkle over the pomegranate seeds and parsley, drizzle over the tahini mix then drizzle the halloumi with honey. Serve with flatbreads.
Recipe by Anna Jones annajones.co.uk
Honeysuckle is a familiar plant to all of us, perhaps under its other common name, woodbine. The native wild honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum, has grown in woodland and wild hedges for hundreds of years, so it is ideal to have it in Crescent Garden, where all the plants grown there must have been in Britain before 1850. It grows best in conditions which mimic its native habitat; that is, its roots in shade and the stems in sun. It will grow in almost any soil, but prefers fairly free draining humus rich soil for its deep roots to develop fully. The plant has no tendrils to help it to climb, but its stems readily wind themselves clockwise around any support available. One obvious honeysuckle in Crescent Garden is under the old tulip tree where it winds itself across the ground and up the perennial wallflowers and other plants its stem tips reach. There is also a lovely patch of it a short distance along terrace walk climbing among the bay trees, just as it would in its natural woodland or hedgerow environment.
The Latin genus name, Lonicera, comes from Adam Lonicer, a Renaissance botanist who wrote about the plant. The common English name, honeysuckle, has been used for centuries because of the abundant sweet edible nectar produced by the flower. In the past (and perhaps they still do) country children would suck the sweet ‘honey’ from the bottom of the tube like flower. The abundant nectar combined with a powerful perfume attracts a large number of animals. The perfume is at its strongest at night and attracts moths to pollinate the flowers. If you are particularly lucky, you might see the dramatic looking Elephant Hawk Moth. Honeysuckle has been called “a wild life hotel”. Not only moths at night, but bees and butterflies during the day enjoy the abundant sugary food. The large number of insects around
Crescent Garden
IN JULY
the plants attracts bats. New shoots attract blackfly which feed blue tits, lace wings and ladybirds. A large mass of honeysuckle can provide nest sites for birds and food and shelter for small mammals like dormice, which will nibble at the flowers and use the bark of well developed stems to make their nests. Slow worms have also been seen amongst our honeysuckle. In the autumn the red berries provide food for birds and squirrels, though they are mildly poisonous to humans. Despite the berries being poisonous, the flowers can be consumed, by adding sugar and boiling the flowers in water to make a thick honeysuckle syrup to pour over ice cream or pancakes. It is also suggested that the blossoms could be steeped in cream overnight and the resulting fragrant cream be added to your breakfast coffee. It is believed that there is an antioxidant content which has an antiinflammatory effect and can help relieve arthritis and support the immune system. There is no scientific support for these claims.
As with so many plants that have been in Britain for a long time, there is a considerable mythology connected with honeysuckle. It was once thought that having it growing round a home’s entrance would bring good luck and stop evil spirits from entering. In Victorian times, however, young girls were forbidden to bring honeysuckle into the house as it was thought that the strong perfume would make them have suggestive dreams! The lower stems of old honeysuckle plants have been used to create interesting twisted walking sticks where the living plant wound round its supporting branches. The strongly fibrous younger stems have also been used in the past for binding things together and creating textiles.
Continued on page 20.
HVR GARAGES
With 3 sites in the local area, all of our Garages are high ranking members of ‘The Good Garage Scheme’ and ‘Checkatrade’. Our Garages
MOTs | Servicing | Repairs
All Makes and Models catered for.
Solent Airport MOTs, Unit il1-3, Illustrious Daedalus Park, Daedalus Drive, Lee on the Solent PO13 9FX
Specialists in VW’s, we also cover many other makes and models in the full or part conversion of camper vans, kombi vans and caddy’s. We manufacture and design custom built camper interiors for Volkswagens and other makes.
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CARS AND VANS ALWAYS IN STOCK FOR SALE!
Specialising in transporters and small low mileage cars. (The cars are ideal for first time drivers.)
I am loving my garden right now! I’ve been picking strawberries for breakfast, sweet peas every few days and watching my runner beans trail through my olive tree. My neighbur calls my garden bohemium, I thinks it’s his polite word for wild! I’ve got to keep him sweet as he’s on watering duty whenever I’m away!
Around the garden
• Pinch out annuals
• Prune lavender
• Prune wisteria
• Pick sweet pea flowers every few days, and remove seed pods to prolong flowering
• Plant autumn bulbs
• Feed and deadhead roses
• Sow biennials for blooms next year
• Keep mowing lawns regularly, but raise the cutting height to leave the grass longer during dry weather
Continued from page 14.
Lonicera is a very large genus with various species growing in many different countries. There is another Lonicera in Crescent Garden, L. fragrantissima. This is a small shrub one of which is growing part way along terrace walk and the other, larger one, is just inside the far eastern gate of the garden. At this time of the year these two bushes do not look very interesting, but they produce small but beautifully scented flowers in mid winter.
In the Garden
DURING JULY
In the greenhouse and on the veg patch
• Pinch off the growing tips of squash and courgette to encourage branching, and water regularly
• Keep pinching out side shoots of cordon varieties of tomato and make sure the tops are pinched
• Last sowing of French beans
• Continue to sow lettuce, oriental leaves, maincrop carrots, spring onions, spinach, beetroot and peas
• Prune out raspberry canes
• Sow a last batch of peas and dwarf beans before mid-July for an autumn crop
• Sow small batches of fast-maturing salad leaves, rocket and radishes every few weeks for continuous pickings
• Pick courgettes before they become marrows
So, although a common wild plant, it could be ideal for using in your own garden to cover an unsightly fence or shed, as long as it is given some support to wind round. You could, of course, choose a modern variety with larger more dramatic flowers, which we could not use in the Regency planting in Crescent Garden. So look around and find what you really like.
Do you have important legal documents in place to protect your interests and make life easier for you and your family, whatever the future brings?
If you have received a diagnosis of dementia, or are concerned about becoming ill and unable to cope with paying your bills, wouldn’t it be helpful for a family member to be able to step in and deal with your finances? If your family member needed to make decisions for you, instead of just acting on your instructions, they would need your formal written authority to do this.
Formal authority can be given by creating a Lasting Power of Attorney. This document will allow your family member to take over managing your money, either temporarily or long term.
You can also create a Lasting Power of Attorney which allows your family member to make decisions for you about medical treatment, if you are unable for any reason to make your own decisions. This is not the same as an Advance Decision, which is a document which sets out your decision to refuse medical treatment in the future, under specific conditions.
If you are caring for an elderly relative, or are likely to be doing so in the future, a Lasting Power of Attorney will mean that you can provide the support your relative needs and access services on their behalf, without the difficulties, stress and resistance you would otherwise encounter.
Having a Will gives you peace of mind that your money, property and personal possessions will be going to the people you have chosen to benefit. An out of date Will can cause problems within the family or mean that a chosen beneficiary receives nothing.
If you have any unanswered questions about Wills or Lasting Powers of Attorney, Christine will be pleased to help, so do please get in touch for a free, no obligation, chat.
Call Christine Davies Solicitor on 07860 772274 or email: christine@winterbornelegal.co.uk
Christine is a Fully Accredited Member of Solicitors for the Elderly and a Dementia Friend. Christine will visit you in your own home and aims to provide a warm personal touch to every meeting.
Christine Davies Solicitor
Local Events
SHORE LEAVE HASLAR MEMORIAL GARDEN
Wednesday 8th July 11am-2pm.
Crafts, plants, produce for sale. Homemade cake and drinks. Walk around the peaceful garden. Please park in main Haslar site. Free entry. Donations gratefully accepted.
FRIENDS OF STANLEY PARK LITTER PICK
Litter pick first Sunday of the month 10-11am Meet in car park at rear of The Alverbank Hotel. Free car parking if you join us in a car, also pickers, gloves etc.
COFFEE MORNING
Alverstoke Parish Centre 10.30am-12noon. Every fourth Tuesday of the month. £4 for coffee/tea & cake. Book stall and raffle. All proceeds towards Regeneration Project.
CATS PROTECTION - JULY
18th. 9.30am-4pm. Asda, Gosport Branded giveaways, items for sale. Cat care advice. 4th. 10am-2pm. Elson Library Summer Bazaar
Merchandise on sale, including cat-themed items and pet accessories.
FRIENDS OF ST MARK’S CHURCHYARD OPEN DAY
Saturday 11th July 2-5pm
St Mark’s Road, Alverstoke
Tea, coffee, cake and refreshments on sale to all who come to visit. Come and see how this beautiful place is being cared for by our expanding gang of volunteers.
ADVERTISE YOUR EVENT
Visit gosportchoice.com and head to the ‘submit an event’ button from the menu.
Local Events
GOSPORT WI 22nd July 6.30pm. Methodist Church, Stoke Road, Gosport Gosport WI meet 4th Wednesday of the month. Come along, get involved, and discover just how much you’ll enjoy being part of our lively WI group.
STOKES BAY WI
Meet 3rd Tuesday of the month. St Mary’s Parish Centre, Alverstoke. 10am-12noon. Our motto is ‘Inspiring Friendship and Fun’. We enjoy companionship and laughter in our meetings, outings, special events and interest groups. Find us on Facebook and www.stokesbaywi.co.uk
THE LEE HUB 14 High Street, Lee-on-the-Solent Monday to Friday from 09:30 to 16:30 Saturdays from 10:00 to 13:30 see a range of delicious homemade cakes available and is an ideal opportunity to catch up with friends. Volunteers keep the Hub running. If you have a spare morning or afternoon and would like to volunteer for 3.5 hours a week, please visit the Hub for more information and a chat. www.leehub.co.uk. Phone: 02392 551047.
GOSPORT JAZZ CLUB - JULY
Gosport Rugby Club, Dolphin Cres, Gosport 1st - Paula Jackman's Jazz Masters 15th - No band - Club AGM 29th July - The Big Easy G/NM £12. Book by previous Monday. gjcreserve@gmail.com or 02392429302. Further details on gosportjazz.org.uk or Facebook.
DARREN HARRIS
07504 980212
Darren Harris is a skilled, reliable and professional carpenter and joiner based in Gosport offering a wide range of carpentry services for your home or business. The options are pretty endless but to give you an idea of the most popular services a list is below:
■ door hanging
■ door frames
■ picture rails
■ flooring
■ skirting
■ bespoke fitted wardrobes
■ painting and decorating
■ bespoke fitted cupboards
gosportcarpenter.co.uk
■ bannisters
■ internal and external doors
■ bespoke furniture
■ windows
darren@gosportcarpenter.co.uk
HIDDEN TREASURES HIDDEN TREASURES
51-53 HIGH STREET LEE ON THE SOLENT
We urgently require your broken and unwanted gold, jewellery and antiques. Any amount, any condition- top CASH prices paid!
WANTED gold - silver - jewellery of all kinds medals (any militaria) - cuff links - studs - tie pins pocket watches - wrist watches antiques - moorcroft - clarice cliff - old postcards
WANTED - rolex, breitling, omega etc
Please call in to see us. Monday - Saturday 10am-6pm. Alternatively, call to arrange a home appointment
TELEPHONE: 023 9255 3428 MOBILE: 07767 304495
Walking Rugby Team Plan Lifeboat Pull
On Saturday 25th July, Gosport & Fareham Walking Rugby will continue their fundraising to buy and install vital life-saving defibrillators across the two towns.
From 9am to midday, the team will flex their aging muscles to stage a unique lifeboat pull on the field adjacent to the GAFIRS station on Stokes Bay.
This will be followed by a celebration to be held at Gosport & Fareham rugby club where the undoubted highlight of the afternoon will be a 3 p.m. performance from local singing legends ScrimShanker Shanty. All are welcome to join the fun at the Pavilion in Gosport Park.
The club is doubly delighted that both the Mayor of Gosport, Councillor Kirsten Bradley and the Mayor of Fareham, Councillor Tina Ellis will be present to support the event, which represents the latest step towards a fundraising target of £10,000.
The team’s Dying For A Defib initiative has already funded three local defibrillators, installed and publicly accessible at all times.
The men and women from Walking Rugby will be out in force to accept all donations to the fundplease look out for the club’s famous blue and gold shirts.
Donations can also be made at any time via the Just Giving web page, which explains the events that led to this initiative as well as giving full details of this exciting day.
Help us reach or even better, smash our 10k target, for 24/7 Defibs in the Gosport & Fareham community.
The walking rugby team meet at Gosport and Fareham Rugby club, Dolphin Crescent, Gosport on Tuesdays at 6:30pm and Saturdays 10am
gosportrugby.club
The walking rugby team
Monday 31st August
Local Events
MONTHLY QUIZ - POWDER MONKEY TAP HOUSE
7pm Last Thursday of the month. Priddy’s Hard, Heritage Way, Gosport. Round up your team for the chance to win a cash prize! Book ahead to avoid missing out. Max 6 per team. £2 pp. Call 023 9252 3970 to book.
Come along and enjoy a wonderful selection of home-baked cakes, jams, and chutneys
STUBBINGTON STITCH AND KNIT GROUP
Meet Fridays 2-4pm Foster Room, next to Holyrood Church. We make garments and craft items to sell at our sales, to raise funds for the local Hampshire charities. Our next sales:
1th July 9.30am-12pm Stubbington Library
25th July 10am-12noon. St. Columba's Church Hilson Drive
Cash only please. For info Chris 07970 826044.
We would also like to thanks all those who have kindly donated materials for us to turn into all the things we sell. What would we do without you! Donations can be left at the Library when open or Friday afternoons at the Foster room.
TUESDAYS 7-9pm Wednesday 9.30am-12noon
Paul Parker
Douglas (left) and Paul (right) are well known in the local area, having shared similar career paths and a work ethic spanning more than 20 years in the industry.
This exciting collaboration brings together a strong foundation of local knowledge, allowing us to assist and support our local community with professionalism, dedication and care.
Thank you for your continued support and loyalty ‐ we look forward to helping you with your next move.
Gosport & Alverstoke: 02392 529889 Lee on the Solent: 02392 551199
£499,995
4 BED DET ON SUPERB PLOT. DOUBLE GARAGE. SOME UPDATING REQUIRED. CONSERVATORY. NO CHAIN.
£510,000 SUPERBLY PRESENTED. EXTENDED 3/4 BEDS. STUDY/4TH BEDROOM. ORP & GARAGE. We are delighted to welcome
£545,000 EXTENDED 4 BED DET. CLOSE TO SEAFRONT & GOLF COURSE. NO CHAIN. GARAGE & OUTBUILDINGS.
