Newsletter from your Chairman April 2022
Hi everyone,
I was pleased to see many of you at the March meeting with Jonathan Allbut talking on ‘Gardening in a modern environment’. His view on the way we should change the management of our garden areas was about taking into account sustainability, and his illustrated talk was a thought provoking presentation! I have to confess that I still like to see a daisy free lawn rather than having a small meadow at the back of our house. It reminded me of when I started teaching gardening in the 60’s, then called Rural Studies, and one of the tasks detailed in a text book for teachers suggested a whole class activity to clear daisies in a school lawn. It involved equipping them with a dinner fork each, organising them into a line and then, on hands and knees, covering the lawn area using the dinner fork to dig out the daisy plants! No mention of selective weedkillers in that book!
Spring has certainly arrived. Having moved my tulips last year I was hoping they would thrive from the move and they certainly have!
This month our guest speaker Geoffrey Mead will be talking on ‘Landscapes of the South East’. Covid restrictions and lockdown procedures made us look to things closer to home and we have some beautiful landscapes here in the South East. I am looking forward to his talk. Put Wednesday 27th April in your diary, 2pm at Crockham Hill Hall.
As you know we are always looking for ‘new blood’ to join our committee. I am delighted to inform you all that we have two new members who would like to join our committee. Maggie Buckingham will be taking over from Lynn Swift as New members co-ordinator. Maureen Young will be taking over from Molly Ward as organiser of the speakers for our monthly meetings. I am asking both to be co-opted onto the committee until their official ratification at the AGM in July. If you have been at a meeting where you found the speaker inspirational Maureen would love to hear from you. Kent u3a are currently updating a list of speakers that individual branches, like ours, across Kent are recommending. We have sent in our 3 chosen good speakers based on your feedback. Also if there is a particular topic that you would like to be covered by a speaker, please let us know.
Are you a new member of our u3a? You may have a hobby, interest or specialism that you would like to share. How about starting up a group to share that knowledge? Talk to Brian Swift, our groups organiser, who will help you set up your new group.
At the moment we have 185 paid up members and some of you may receive an email from our treasurer if we haven’t received your subs for 2021/2022. Some may have moved away and some may have just forgotten – we are trying to bring our membership records up to date after the break due to the covid infection and lockdowns.
So, to conclude, I look forward to seeing many of you on Wednesday 27th April and, once again, take care, stay safe and keep healthy!
Best wishes
Mike Collins
Chairman
Email [email protected]
PS – 3 more Spring images including an intimate photo of a tulip
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