Newsletter No 87 April 2020 Learn, Laugh and Live!
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SWANLEY AND DISTRICT Charity No T1155593 Newsletter No 87 April 2020 Learn, Laugh and Live! Hello everyone, In this Issue ……….. The sun is shining, the spring flowers are blossoming and here News from the Groups 2 - 9 we are in a most peculiar, slightly unreal situation. When normally we would be out and about looking forward to enjoying David’s Quiz 8 the warmer weather and meeting friends, we are confined to barracks! Social & Membership 10 We have to make the best of things and keep busy as much as we can. I have great plans to clear my wardrobes, empty untidy Contact List 11 drawers, sort the garage, etc. Boring though, so after all that activity I plan to watch all those boxed sets my sons keep buying Groups Timetable 12 me. Some were bought more than eight years ago and I have never got around to seeing them. 24, a ‘must see’ apparently; ( Date of entries for next Gregory Peck, Jack Lemmon, Robert de Niro, Humphrey Bogart newsletter THURSDAY 23rd and John Wayne films. What a treat in store! A glass of wine, April ) See page 11 some chocolates and life will seem ok! Then there’s all the phone calls to friends around the country that somehow get put off, or remembered in the middle of the night and vowed to do the next day. Now I will have time to catch up with everyone. If you haven’t already done so you can sign up to the u3a newsletter with news of groups around the country and on the site members are being asked to keep a diary on personal thoughts and reflections as an important living history record. If you are interested go to [email protected] If Leaders wish to carry on with remote interest groups you will find technical help with Zoom or other chat apps. Perhaps a painting or photo competition or a photo of the day? A rotating phone tree could help to check up on members who aren’t in good health, who need shopping or just a chat. If you know of someone without computer access to the newsletter, perhaps a copy could be printed off and put through their letter box?? Just some suggestions which I am sure you have already thought of, so apologies if I sound patronising. I don’t mean to be! Peter is producing the newsletter every month and I know members are sending articles in, so thank you for that. In May our wonderful editor is producing a special newsletter; something to look forward to. If you are alone it’s sometimes hard to keep spirits up, but we are all old and wise enough to know this will pass, as all things do. The important thing is to obey the Government directives, to stay healthy and tell younger people to for goodness sake, distance themselves! We will meet again, hopefully in a few months and enjoy living, laughing and learning again. Keep safe. Sandra Treloar Group News During these strange and difficult days, how can our study/interest group members stay in touch with each other? Clearly, our usual meetings cannot take place at the present time. Perhaps the use of email communication can help us? The Creative Writing group has already developed an online method of sharing written work and delivering feedback (Well done, Penny!). The London History group has similar plans for a shared project to be undertaken in our own homes. Can your group find a way for members to stay connected? With some creativity, imagination and email technology much can be achieved. In order to combat the feeling of isolation, let’s see what we can do! John Baker For a laugh look out for me in this issue ! - 1 - News from the Groups Gardening Group It was with great gusto and with a spring in my step I organised this year’s Gardening Group planning meeting. The hall was booked, key pick up arranged, even talked my wife Anne into baking some of her delicious cakes. Contacted my members and invited them along with new ideas for the new year. I even managed to get hold of the latest National Garden Scheme book covering Kent ! The meeting went very well, we decided on where we would go throughout the year and getting excited at the prospect of seeing this year’s plants and gardens. We thoroughly enjoyed Anne’s cakes all washed down with tea and coffee. So we all made our merry way home safe in the knowledge everything was in hand for another fantastic year. Then, oh dear, Boris came into view, keep away from each other only two can meet up together and thus our plans were all ended. But never mind, we all have our own gardens and it’s Spring, it’s sowing time and of course time to enjoy some lovely flowers ! Hopefully our plans for a few months time may still be okay ! Been trying to raise this in my potting shed, hopefully it works Peter Cudd Art & Craft Group At the February meeting the group made these delightful cards. ( Photo courtesy of Pat Buss ) - 2 - Antiques and collectables At a recent meeting the group once again found some lovely things to show and talk about. Tim started us off with an old print of Rougemont Castle in Exeter. The original engraving was done in 1772, and depicts the Norman Gatehouse to the castle, which was built in 1068 following the rebellion against William the Conquerer. Around the time of this engraving, all the castle buildings were demolished to make way for a new court building. The gatehouse remained, and is still there today. Tim also brought along a silver groat which is around 700 years old. It depicts Edward III (1327-77) who appeared on the groat from 1351. The edges of the coin have been ‘nibbled’ for the precious silver. The monetary value when minted was 4 silver pence. John speaks some German and has obtained some letters from the war years which he has begun to translate. One of them, dated May 1946 is a poignant message from a young woman called Paula Mikesch, from Austria, to her father Gunter, who was in a prisoner of war camp. She sends him best wishes from the family, thanking him for his recent correspondence but expresses her concern that he had not received any of the post they had sent to him. Paula hopes that he will stay healthy and that he will be back home with them before too long. The letter is stamped by the official censor. Anna cared for an old gentleman until his recent death at the age of 95. He had no surviving relatives, lived in the same house for many years and was a bit of a hoarder. Anna is currently sorting through all his possessions and thousands of records. Today she brought along a 1970s mirror featuring Snoopy the beagle belonging to Charlie Brown, from Charles M Schulz cartoon Peanuts. The cartoon first appeared in the USA in 1948 and was syndicated to many newspapers across the world. Snoopy was present from 1950 and was a good natured and loyal dog, prone to imagining a fantasy life – for example, in combat against the Red Baron. He was often accompanied by a small yellow bird called Woodstock. Snoopy was a popular icon in America, and the Apollo 10 lunar module was named after him, with Charlie Brown as the command module. The Chinese willow pattern clearly influenced the blue and white Staffordshire meat plate owned by Penny. The plate has the traditional pavilion, willow tree, and water garden, and refers to the love story of the daughter of the mandarin who fell in love with a poor man. Her father locked her in a tower to prevent her running away but she is rescued by her lover and escapes by boat. Dave brought along several beer Stein (stone) that he had collected on th travels abroad. These drinking vessels originated in the 14 century in Germany and were originally made of stoneware. Later, wood, glass and ceramic Steins were made. They traditionally have pewter lids with thumb levers which were thought to prevent diseased flies from falling in. The decorations on the Stein often depicted scenes of life or geographic locations. They were usually made to contain half a litre or a whole litre of beer. Dave has a Stein from the Black Forest in Germany and another from Prague which depicts the skyline of the city. They are very decorative and are still popular tourist pieces, particularly around the time of the annual Oktoberfest. Gill Baker - 3 - Birdwatching - from the Birds Point of View ?? -Perhaps! Report March 2020 Elmley NNR Elmley, Isle of Sheppey On Wednesday 18th March there was consternation amongst the many species of the bird community; both residents and seasonal migrants enjoying the estuary facilities. Apart from the hustle and bustle of nest building; laying of eggs; weed dabbling; grub hunting; worm pulling and the normal fracas over nothing at all really! It was otherwise very quiet and empty – due to an unusual lack of the sub-species of homo sapiens commonly known as Twitchers! What on Earth is going on! Was the big question on the Bird communities #twitter-feed? Nothing like this had been experienced before in the Annals of Birdlore! Not even in the ancient #primordial-tweets passed down through the generations by #starling-kind – keepers of the sounds emitted by #human-kinda-twitchy as the subspecies was referred to in the birding community.