I was gardening in my veg plot the other day and dug up my remaining carrots. Because I am not a good gardener I had accidentally fertilised the carrot bed prior to planting. As a result my remaining carrots were very funny shapes. I took some photos on my new (ish) mobile phone of the deformed specimens and discovered that my mobile has a puritanical streak and suffers from veggie-ism. It censored my carrots … see left!
The following day I was with the dogs up the woods in the rain, when I came across some wonderful fungi. I took photos of them and on returning home checked the photos to find they had been censored as well. I would show you one of these but the camera took such an objection to these fungi it later deleted them and they are no longer available to view. Does anyone else have a moralistic, anti-veg camera?
Mandi Simons
CHRISTMAS DINNER: The Christmas lunch at Quainton Railway Centre on Tuesday 17th December, 12-5pm, list is fast filling up with less than 10 places left!
There will be a lunch which includes a turkey dinner, or several roasts or salmon and a choice of puds. The cost £30 each which is inclusive of food and entertainment. Sign up very soon if you wish to join us. Payment is now due. Contact Carol Theobald by email or telephone or pay at the meeting.
MONEY MATTERS: Meetings for the next few months are:
November 7th Absolute Insurance – Bespoke service v Internet comparison sites; December 5th Faulkners Lettings – Buy to Let – bet you think it’s not for you!
All meetings at 2.30pm in The Chapel, W. Turville on the first Thursday of the month.
Carol Johnson
HISTORIC BUILDINGS:
Friday November 29th. Guided Tour of St. Albans Abbey and visit to German Market. Departure : Chandos : 10.00am , Village Shops 10.05am. Cost £15.50p.
Please pay at October Meeting, Cheques to. “Weston Turville U3A (Travel)”. Cost to include Coach, Tour & Drivers Gratuity.Please note a waiting List is in operation. Contact Ceinwyne Jones or Eileen Langford for information.
EXTREME VISITS:
STREET ART: 30 Sept – The group effortlessly blended in with other customers at the Big Chill Bar and were then guided around the Street Art of East London by Ben Slow, an accomplished artist in his own right (worth Googling).
Street Art has come a long way since Banksy made us all aware of the art form. (The temporary nature of Street Art is such that there is none of Banksy’s work left in evidence in the area.
Low res photos from the trip are now loaded onto the Gallery section of the website, really worth a look. https://testsite.wtu3a.org.uk/gallery/extreme-visits/street-art/
SKID PAN 6 November – Goodwood. Now Full! UPDATE! The Coach leaves WT shops at 07:25 and top of Marroway (bus stop outside 12) at 07:30. £60 drivers, £15 spectators, payment now due.
IL ARRIVERA le 21 novembre – At Twist in Wendover. Frivolous study of rapidly fermented Gamay grapes that have been raced to England in the morning, together with food from Beaujolais. Travel can also be arranged (add your postcode to the signup form). Not for Wine snobs. We have now about filled Twist, only a few places available. £20/head, payment now due. Details at https://testsite.wtu3a.org.uk/notices/extreme-visits-programme/#more-3046
LOCK PICKING 4 December. Update – Postponed, Chris Dangerfield unable to make date more details to follow. Details at https://testsite.wtu3a.org.uk/notices/extreme-visits-programme/#more-3046
SUSHI MAKING: 14 January – Event already fully booked!
KRAV MAGA: 14 February. The ultimate self-defence, the instructor isn’t even fazed at the thought of students with new hips and arthritis. Tring Dojo. £10.00/head
Contact Adrian Randall for further information.
LOCAL HISTORY: A reminder that the next meeting of the Local History Group is next Tuesday 22nd October at 10:30am in the Chapel Meeting Room. The talk is by Ed Grimsdale from the Buckingham Goal on “Bucks and the Drovers”. The cost is £3 per head as usual. Hope to see you all there.
Glynn White
GARDEN VISITS: Please see the letter from John Cowling (below) re his retirement from leading this group. A big thank you required from all of us for the popular and successful group. Thank you John.
Gaynor Edwards has taken over the running of the group and I am informed that she has sorted out all of next year’s visits already (there’s keen!). Full details will be published in the newsletter as I get them but very soon the whole year’s activity will be viewable on the WTU3A website in the diary. You have no excuses….
CRAFTS: The next craft meeting is on Wednesday 13th November 10am at the Chapel. Please note start time! There is a change from the published activity due to the popularity of making Christmas tree bauble beaded decorations last month (say it slowly and it will make sense!); we will be doing some more in November.
Pat Housego has now taken over the running of this group from Vivian Howell and she can be contacted at crafts@wtu3a.org.uk. Vivian is still actively involved with the group but is taking a well-earned rest.
BRIDGE: A new bridge group has started up to cater for the waiting lists we had for the other bridge groups. This one meets on a Monday afternoon and has some vacancies. Please contact David Coleman for further information.
TRADESMAN LIST: Over the past years several people have requested a trusted trademan register and I have always been reluctant because they only work if they are maintained and updated. The trading standards run a similar scheme as do ‘Which’ magazine (free at the library).
However Diana Richmond has recently made a suggestion which may work. ‘Suppose you told me about the wonderful plumber you had found – I would ask if you would give his name and details to another U3A member who wanted a plumber. We don’t actually give out the names of the tradeperson but put our members in touch with the person who recommended them. We could soon build up a list. We are not saying that they are infallible – only that we have found them competent for the job they did for us.
I would be happy to run it. People would ‘phone me to get the name of the relevant U3A person (and would also contact me with the name of the plumber, painter etc that they recommend).’ Please contact Diana Richmond on 01296 489812 or email diana@richx2izus.plus.com if you would be interested in this scheme.
LETTER FROM JOHN COWLING:
We had a very enjoyable trip to Batsford Arboretum yesterday despite the colour not being quite what we all hoped for. This was due to the season running two/two three weeks late all year. Nevertheless Batsford was a lovely place to be and there was plenty to see. We were so lucky to have very mild weather and at times the sun was warm.
This was my last organised trip and I now hand over the reins of Garden Visits group leader to Gaynor Edwards who, with the help of others on her team is going to arrange very interesting trips for 2014. I mentioned to those on the trip yesterday that the first trip will during March and will be a visit to the Snowdrops at Magnolia House between Woburn and Bourn End, so please look out for the information.
I have really enjoyed organising trips over the past 4 years and looking back these have numbered 24 in total, plus a couple of years when we ran the round robin visits to members gardens. In this time we also enjoyed 13 speakers and two Christmas Quizzes and one Christmas lunch at Frosts Garden Centre. Hilary and I have enjoyed them all, although those which took place in pouring rain and freezing cold, which seemed the norm last year, were testing! This year we have been really fortunate and I don’t remember seeing much rain.
When David Coleman presented me with cards and a present from the garden group, just before we left for Batsford yesterday, I was almost struck speechless; an unusual state for me! My thanks to all of you for your kind words and super gift of a generous garden voucher. This will be put to excellent use. My thanks to David and Margaret for organising the task of getting the card signed, goodness knows how they managed to get so many signatures.
Finally, thank you all for supporting the Garden Visits group. With best regards and see you on the next trip.
John