The Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust is urging all romantics to think twice before giving their loved one a bunch of imported cut flowers this Valentine’s Day. Instead it suggests giving one of the trust’s Living Bouquets. Rather than wilting in a vase, this special gift will help to protect and restore the beautiful living wildflower hay meadows found locally in the Yorkshire Dales and Forest of Bowland - including this one near Pen-y-ghent, which was caught on camera by the trust’s David Sharrod. Tanya St Pierre, the trust’s hay time project officer, said: “Who can resist beautiful flowers? Give a Living Bouquet and enjoy flowers for a lifetime by helping us to save our precious wildflower meadows. These vibrant habitats are teaming with up to 120 species of wildflowers and grasses per field, and are home to many rare species of wildlife; plants like the Globeflower and endangered animals like the brown hare. They also provide a vital habitat for bumblebees and other important pollinators.” Priced at £25, a Living Bouquet gift pack includes a personalised commemorative certificate and gift card, a pack of wildflower seeds sustainably sourced from northern England, a guide to one of the best wildflower meadow walks in the Yorkshire Dales and information about hay meadows. To order, call 015242 51002 or visit ydmt.org/LivingBouquet Where does the time go? It is already February - and that means Settle Parish Church is preparing for its annual snowdrop festival. This year’s event will take place next weekend, February 21 and 22, and everyone is invited to go along and view the carpet of snowdrops in the churchyard and enjoy cakes and a cup of tea (or coffee) in the church. Doors will be open between 11am and 3pm and all proceeds will go to the Aspire and Renew appeal.

The chance to win a three-month subscription to Settle’s Courtyard Dairy Monthly Cheese Club is on offer to anyone who can think of a name for a brand-new goats’ cheese. Over the past six months The Courtyard Dairy’s affineur (French for a specialist in cheese-making) Andy Swinscoe has been working closely with cheese-maker Haydn Roberts to develop a brand new, soft, unpasteurised goats’ cheese. It’s available now on the counter at The Courtyard Dairy, and it’s said to be delicious. But for the life of them, Andy and Haydn can’t think of a name that does it justice. Currently referring to it as “The Cheese with No Name”, they are looking to call it something a bit more appropriate. So submit your suggestion for an appropriate name and, should your suggestion be chosen as the one that works best, not only will you get to ‘name that cheese’, but you’ll also receive a complimentary three-month subscription to The Courtyard Dairy Monthly Cheese Club (delivered direct to your door). The “Cheese with No Name” is light and fresh, with a soft creaminess and a delicate, herby finish. Made by Haydn in Worcester using fresh goats’ milk, it is based on a French cheese recipe. Haydn delivers this cheese to The Courtyard Dairy after about a week, when it is stable, then it is ‘hastened’ and dried slightly by Andy before being matured by him for three to four weeks until it ‘breaks down’, allowing the rich flavours to show and the texture to develop, without being too overpoweringly ‘goaty’. Find out more about the cheese on The Courtyard Dairy’s website, tinyurl.com/name-that-cheese Your entry should be emailed to andy@thecourtyarddairy.co.uk or handed in at the shop in Settle before April 30. Entry is free, and you can enter as many times as you wish. Remember to put your name, home address and email address on your entry. The winning entry will be selected by Andy and Haydn on May 10 and the winner will be notified by email.

You can expect a few fishermen’s tales at Country Harvest when “The Codfather” makes a guest appearance at a special food night next Thursday, February 19. Piscatorial entrepreneur Chris Neve will launch the evening which is a joint venture between the Ingleton shop and deli-cafe and Claughton pub The Fenwick Arms, part of the Neve family’s burgeoning Seafood Pub Company (SPC) stable. As well as Mr Neve’s talk, there will also be a cookery demonstration by SPC executive chef Antony Shirley, followed by a two-course fish supper. Country Harvest marketing manager Gillian Cowburn tells me: “We’ve held foodie nights in the past and they’ve been extremely successful so we jumped at the chance to work with The Fenwick. We are also planning to host a game cookery evening in conjunction with the pub in October.” Tickets for the Fabulous Fish Night cost £20 and there will also be a chance to win a three-course dinner for two at The Fenwick, with proceeds going to the Ingleton Splash Zone.

A Silsden school is taking part in a UK-wide challenge to help transform the lives of deaf children. Aire View Infant School has registered for the sign2sing initiative. Pupils are challenged to sing a song and perform it in sign language at the same time. Money raised from the initiative goes to the charity SignHealth. Spokesman Steve Powell said: “The proceeds make a real difference to deaf children and enable us to provide essential services and projects to help deaf adults.” Last year, 144,503 people took part and tens of thousands of pounds were raised. For further details, visit sign2sing.org.uk Skipton MP Julian Smith has shown he’s all heart. He attended a British Heart Foundation event at Westminster aimed at supporting the protection of lifesaving research. He joined eight-year-old heart patient Emily Sullivan, pictured above, for a science lesson, focusing on the importance of funding for medical research. “Charities like the British Heart Foundation rely on investment from government to pay for the indirect costs of research – such as lighting, electricity and heating for laboratories,” said Mr Smith. “Currently the science budget is ring-fenced and the Government pays 26p for indirect costs for every £1 spent by charities directly on medical research. Charities are an essential part of the UK medical research environment and I am proud that the Government has protected the science budget. If we are to prevent and treat devastating conditions like cardiovascular disease we need continued investment in pioneering research, and for as long as I am in Parliament that is something I will fight for.”

Settle’s Victoria Hall has a worldwide following. It has just revealed that its January newsletter was viewed by 699 individual recipients, who opened it on 1,356 occasions. Not surprisingly, most of the recipients (571 to be precise) were in the United Kingdom. But there were also 111 people in the United States, five in Japan, four in both Spain and Norway, two in Germany and one apiece in Turkey and Canada.