Gardening Group

Last month’s meeting was a talk from the NGS online about Kiftsgate, a garden in the Cotswolds that has been nurtured and looked after by three generations of ladies from the same family.  Each generation has respected the ideas and plans of the previous incumbents but have also developed and added their own ideas and interests.  It looks well worth a visit if you are in that part of the country and can be found quite close to Hidcote gardens.

This month’s meeting will be a talk entitled “A Blue Garden”, and surprisingly there are a large number of blue flowers to be found.  There will also be a plant swap at this meeting, so if you have any you want to share or are interested in adding to your own plot, please come along at the usual time and place, all are welcome.  

We will also be taking names and monies for our next trip, in May, to Packwood House in Warwickshire.

Anne

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Weekenders Group

In March we enjoyed two, well attended, Broomhill meals arranged to celebrate the birthdays of Kay, Margaret (Whilde), Pam and Eunice.

The Easter weekend saw us at Keycraft sorting out seasonal plants for the garden while the York Designer shopping outlet proved very tempting on the 6th of April.

A group of us were intrigued by a talk offered at the Djanogly, Lakeside Arts Centre on the 9th of April, this related to the lives of women during the miners’ strikes of the 1980s. The stories were collected as part of the research being carried out by the speaker, Dr Lisa McKenzie.

Lindsay Smith

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National Trust

We have recruited a considerable number of new members for 2024 including some who are newly joined u3a members.

We have had to make some changes to the 2024 programme of visits and some members have asked if I could again list the venues that we are visiting.

The programme is :

Monday 15th of April – Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire.

Tuesday 23rd of April – Snowshill, Gloucestershire.

Wednesday 22nd  of May – Gunby Estate, Lincolnshire.

Thursday  20th of June – Tatton Park, Cheshire.

Monday  22nd of July – Belton House, Lincolnshire.

Monday 19th of August – Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire.

Wednesday 25th of September – Erdigg, near Wrexham.

Thursday  24th of October –   Nunnington Hall, Yorkshire.

The April visits are fully booked and we have added a smaller 22 seater coach to our usual coach for the visit to Snowshill.

Reports of the April visits will appear in the May Newsletter and on this website.                                                             

Barrie

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Short Walks

Our walk on Thursday March 21st involved a tram ride to Nottingham Midland Station followed by an interesting 4 mile walk starting along the canal by the courthouses before reaching the River Trent opposite the City Ground.

En route we paid a visit to the Memorial Gardens with its fountains and imposing statue of Queen Victoria. Our progress was along the river and the Meadows area.

It was good to see some old and new faces on the walk and our thanks to Phil and Liz Attenborough for organising and leading the route.

The group posing in the Memorial Gardens

Our next walk is on Thursday, April 18th. Details to be confirmed.

David Rose

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Science

At our March meeting, on Friday 15th, Terry Hill told the tale of seven not so famous scientists who unfortunately met untimely deaths caused by their inventions or discoveries.

One of the seven was Sabin Arnold von Sochocky (1883 to 1928).  He used the discovery of radium by Pierre and Marie Curie to invent radium luminescent paint in 1908.

 Radium paint was widely used for 40 years on the faces of watches, compasses, and aircraft instruments, so they could be read in the dark. Radium is a radiological hazard, emitting gamma rays that can penetrate a glass watch dial and into human tissue. 

He died at the age of 44 from radiation poisoning.

This was followed by an introduction to Rainforests and their importance to our ecosystem.

Friday April 19th is our visit to Oxford for the Science Museums.   No meeting at John Godber Centre.

David Rose

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