A very Merry Christmas to all Gazette readers!

One of the innumerable joys of Herefordshire lies in all the amazing community organisations and groups that knit the county together.

For the fifth year running, last Saturday was Small Business Saturday: a great opportunity to highlight the quality of our small local businesses, and encourage everyone to get behind them.

After the weighty constitutional issues tackled in my last column, it is a delight to return this week to local issues, and sing the praises of local citizens. 

I am constantly amazed by the generosity of many Herefordians.

Video of opening of GB Electrical and Building Services in Hereford.

Readers, this is normally a gentle and well-meaning, indeed positively herbivorous, column; a column which, at the Editor’s behest, busies itself with the joys or no of Ross-on-Wye and South Herefordshire, and rarely ventures into the murky waters of National Politics.

It has been said that Herefordshire is one of the UK’s best-kept secrets, and often I wish it wasn’t:  that more people around the country knew about this magical place and visited it, to enjoy the landscape, shin up the hills and chomp happily on our stunning local produce.

Greetings! I hope Gazette readers had a restful summer, and enjoyed the good weather while we had it. When the sun is shining in Herefordshire, it doesn't get much better than that.