Grand Opening of Cherry Sweet's Kitchen!
Reporter: Flower Hannaford

Dozens of ponies gathered in the middle of the High Street to witness the opening of Cherry Sweet Branston's new state-of-the-art Kitchen, which was constructed as part of an effort to improve local buisnesses. The event was attended by several celebrities and Bluebell Standish, our Member of Pony Board, and was open for all ages. There were free food tastings, and each baby pony was given a giant double-chocolate-chip cookie! Cherry Sweet herself is very happy with her new kitchen, and says that it has greatly imporved her baking.

New members have been Flooding in with more expected soon, and finally we have reached the grand total of 157! The official 150th member is Baby Stockings (the Rice Krispies Christmas Pony). We are aiming for a total of 200 members by May 7th 2000, but if things keep going quite this well we may make it to 250. The other "milestone ponies" in the North East Herd's long existance are the 1st, Tulip (MorningGlory) Replh (ME!), 50th, Shady Carey (UK version), and 100th, Sherry (Bubbles) Carey.

Ponies Prepare for Christmas Festivities!
Reporter: Pearl Dashwood

The Christmas lights have been hung all along the streets, and Christmas trees can be seen in every window, yes, it's that time of year again! A huge tree, paid for by the NEHH Seasonal Events budget, has been placed a short distance from Herd grounds, and all the ponies have donated some decorations for it, it truly is a marvelous sight. Plans have also been made for a Charity Bake-in at Cherry Swee Branston's new Kitchen, a grand Party on Christmas Eve, and if it snows this year a Snowpony Contest too! See the Chronicle's next issue in January for reports on all these events.

Book Craze Sweeps Herd!
Reporter: Skyflier Carey

The library bookshelves are somewhat emptier than usual, and bookshops are having to order in huge quantities, since December was declared Herd Book Month in an effort to get ponies to spend more money on books at Christmas and less on chocolates. Some ponies are even learning other languages so they aren't restricted to reading only in English! Whether this will stop on January 1st is not clear, however it is thought that many ponies will have a greater interest in Literature than they did before.

Fashion
by Clover Leygrave and Flower Hannaford

It's time to drag out those winter woolies! Scarves are very "in" at the moment as they are not only practical but good to look at too. Other essentials this month are hats, cardigans and fleeces, and the humble ribbon has suddenly become very popular.

Announcements
Compiled by Posey Burbage

Marriages

Sebastion (Halfnote) and Gypsy Carey (Check back soon to see wedding photographs!)

Oakwood Watts and Beachball Arden

Junior News
by Glow Willougby

We've all been hard at work making gingerbread decorations for our Christmas trees! Some of the adult ponies taught us how to blow eggs to make pretty egg decorations, and of course now there is not one single egg that Blossy and Confetti have left alone, there are yolks everywhere... Meanwhile we have had Many new arrivals, the number of babies has doubled! They are all settling in nicely, and the rare Pearlized Baby Moondreamer will be here sometime after Christmas, she will be made very welcome of course, andwe hope to get her sister Pearlized Baby Glory here too.

Herd Member of the Month **Special Double Edition!!**
by Magical Notes Griffiths

Name: "Spaniel" Bowtie Charles Eleanor Napier
Age: 24
Pony Type: Earth
Proffesion: Pianist, Jockey, Singer, Actress...
Married: To Tuneful Carey
Other:

Name: Skyflier Louis Carey
Age: 25
Pony Type: Unicorn
Proffesion: Artist
Married: To Niamh (Gusty) Murphy
Other:
Next Month: Ellis (BrightGlow) McKenzie

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! In the near future this section should have Photos of the featured pony!

Utterly Flutter!
by the Flutter Ponies

YumYum, the very last flutter we need, will be here in less than a month! And with her wings! Plus we have 1 more wing, a right one, if anyone reading this has a left wing please contact us! Of course now we've been forgotten and Unicorns are the ones that are being frantically collected, but we're sure we will be remembered as the first completed breed in the Herd.

Nurse Peachy's Pony Care
by Peachy Standish

This Month: A step-by-step clean up of Princess Tiffany! (also known as Pearl Dashwood...)

The Pony In Question: Pearl came to us extremely dirty with an untidy mane. Here's how we fixed her up!

First of all we took a nail-brush (a toothbrush works better but we didn't have a spare one at the time) and put just a little mint toothpaste (we used Sensodyne Flouride but on white ponies any mint toothpaste (DO NOT use this on scented ponies unless you want them to smell of mint!) which has bicarbonate of soda in it will make them a little whiter) and water on it. The we scrubbed really hard (careful round the symbols, toothpaste is an abraisive!) until she was sparkling white.

Next we dampened down her mane and rubbed conditioner into it, and combed it through before washing it out, this can help frizz a little bit. Of course it needs washing out very thoroughly or the hair would become sticky.

Then she was left alone over night for her mane to dry naturally (hair-dryers are not good for ponies), and voila! One much improved Pearl!

Next Month: Mane Replacements!

End Note: The Herd's Theatre Company News
by Tuneful F. Carey, Directer of the Company and Lead Actor

Finally we managed to get through a whole play without losing the book! "The Importance Of Being Ernest" was staged for 2 months in the summer, and is due to start again for the Christmas season. What we wll do next is anyone's guess, look for that other book I guess!

Next Month on Dream Meadows!

Photographs of the Herd, Cherry Sweet makes Scottish Ginger Cake, and much more!!
Out in January (hopefully!)

Email me at: <olivia@wardrobe.dircon.co.uk>