News from around the clubs - September 10

Cooden Afternoon Millennium Townswomen's Guild

FOLLOWING the August break, our chairman Mrs K Murphy welcomed back 50 members and visitors to our September.

During August Mrs Murphy hosted our garden party on a very rainy day. Despite the weather, the party was great fun and raised 245 for our chosen charity for this year, the Alzheimer's Research Trust (ART).

Our speakers, Josie and Miranda, fund-raising managers for the ART, gave an interesting and thought-provoking talk on this devastating disease, a type of dementia.

The Trust is Britain's leading dementia research charity, funding vital work to find an effective solution. It gets no funding from the government and relies on donations to maintain its crucial research.

Our chairman thanked the speakers for their visit and Kaye presented them with a cheque for 500, representing monies raised by the Guild since February.

An arts and crafts afternoon will be held at St Augustine's Hall on Monday, September 13, featuring demonstrations and a chance for visitors to try there own skills.

Bexhill Downs are having a full day event on Friday, October 29 to include a hot lunch with wine, tea and a quiz. Tickets are available through Mrs Keen and we hope to raise a team for the quiz.

There will be an autumn fair on October 16 at Sackville Road Methodist Church where local Guilds will be represented. Please add your support.

We will be needing a new treasurer in February next year as our present treasurer is retiring.

An outing is planned before Christmas to a garden centre at Poll Hill, near Sevenoaks, with a visit to a hobby centre en route. The visit to Glyndebourne for a Christmas concert on December 12 has been well supported.

We look forward to seeing members old and new at our next meeting on Wednesday, October 6 at 2pm.

Bexhill Philatelic Society

OUR first meeting of the new season will be on Tuesday, September 28. Our new venue is St Andrew's Church Hall, Wickham Avenue, Bexhill. For more information please telephone 01424 731845.

Little Common Photographic Club

A TRIP to the Bluebell Railway and Sheffield Park Gardens was enjoyed by five members on July 21 and provided opportunities for taking photographs for forthcoming club trophy competitions, including Flowers for slides and Water for prints.

Three weeks later, poor weather broke just in time to deliver a beautifully sunny and hot afternoon for the club's annual garden party. Hosted by June and John Larkin, it was attended by 10 members and four guests.

With changes to digital format, the club has included a couple of digital image projection competitions for this season. There are vacancies for a digital secretary and a programme secretary.

An open evening on Monday September 13 at 7.45pm marks the start of the 2010/11 season, to feature 10 to 15 minute presentations of slides and prints on any subject which members are asked to bring along.

The meeting, in the main hall at Little Common Community Centre, Shepherds Close, will also introduce club activities and welcome prospective new members.

Annual subscriptions are now 29, plus the LCCA fee of 3, and tea or coffee will cost 35p. For further information about the club, contact chairman John Larkin on 01424 842364.

Bexhill Artists' Workspace

Bexhill Artists' Workspace AGM was held last week. A large number of members heard the chairman, Mr Terry Carter, report on an excellent year - two high standard exhibitions, very successful workshops in the winter, good weather for the outdoor drawing sessions this summer, a lot of interest in the Open Studios demonstrations held at Bexhill Museum every Sunday and several new members joining to take part in the life drawing sessions held in the summer.

Terry had announced his resignation as chairman and explained that Maggie Carpenter wished to give up being secretary. He was delighted to say that there were nominations for all the vacancies on the committee with several members sharing the work of secretary.

The nominations were duly seconded and the members elected Maggie Carpenter as chairman, Chas Couldrick as treasurer, Elaine Crate as minutes and correspondence secretary, Penny Hobson as membership secretary, Janet Woolf as exhibition secretary, helped by Madeleine Day, Gill Streater to run the workshops, Dorothy Webb to continue to edit the newsletter, Eleanor Harding to continue to produce our leaflets and update the website, Stacey Sangster to take on publicity and Barbara Mullen to liaise between the membership secretary and the committee. Doreen and Terry Carter volunteered to remain on the committee. Val Tidiman and Jean Parkins volunteered to organise refreshments, Val for workshops and Jean for exhibitions.

The members also very gladly endorsed the proposal of the committee that Terry Carter should be the president of the group and he was happy to accept the position.

As his last task as chairman he spoke of his sadness at the death of long-time member Anne Enefer and that the committee had decided to present an award each year, to be called the Anne Enefer Award to the member (not on the committee) deemed to have made a special contribution to BAW.

Unfortunately the chosen winner this year could not be present but he was happy to announce that the award was to Philipa Coughlan for her tireless work behind the scenes with publicity, catering and liaising with Surestart.

Highwoods Preservation Society

WHAT'S about in September:

It will be interesting to see what effect the unseasonable wet and cold August has on autumn.

As summer slips away we are suddenly aware of cooler mornings when the dew highlights spider webs. At this time of the year we can get some idea of the huge number of spiders that are around.

While not all spider species weave webs those that do prefer prickly bushes and plants where there are lots of anchor points. Look out for them on holly and gorse. Compare the different forms and patterns made by different species.

Hedgehogs will be very busy eating as many slugs, worms and beetles as they can find, along with nuts and berries as they build up fat layers as food reserves for their hibernation.

Many berries are now mature. This harvest will used to good effect by many different species of wildlife. Squirrels will be burying acorns and other nuts to retrieve in later months. They also start to hoard food in their nests (called dreys) for the winter period. There are several dreys in the wood '“ they look like giant bird nests '“ and can be found toward the tops of trees. Rodents will also hoard nuts and berries for the harsher times ahead.

Birds also take their fill of the berry harvest. Sometimes you can find one bush whose berries seem to last longer than others around. This is usually a sign that a mistle thrush has "captured" the bush and vigorously chases all other birds off so they can gorge themselves on their special banquet.

Blackberries are also an important food source, not only for birds and mammals but many insects like to feed on the juice of ripe fruit. Butterflies are very fond of blackberries and this can be one of the best opportunities to see them in autumn. Don't forget that you should not pick blackberries after September 2 (Michaelmas) as that is when according to folklore the Devil spits on them!

Fungi are also becoming more common, but it remains to be seen how the dry year so far will affect them. Many birds and mammals eat certain species, which are poisonous to humans, but have no ill-effect on them.

Look for the dates of our fungi forays in the Bexhill Observer.

Hastings, Bexhill Organ and Keyboard Society

PLAYING the latest Wersi organ with a combination of expertise and youthful exuberance at Pebsham Primary School on August 26, Brett Wales made an instant impact on a near-capacity audience with favourites of varying kinds, from the traditional My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, via My Fair Lady's The Street Where You Live to Herb Alpert's Walk in the Black Forest.

A Roy Orbison love song was followed by memories of Glenn Miller, and later Joe Loss, with In the Mood. A Latin-American medley of bossa nova tunes ended with a swinging version of Amor, Amor.

What greater contrast could there be than with the following piece, the slow movement Andante from Mozart's Sonata No 21, known as the Elvira Madrigan theme, showing once again how incorporation in a scarcely-remembered movie can popularise classical music.

Johnny Cash's Big River contrasted with one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's lesser-known ballads, the first half ending with New York, New York with its finale's 'selling-point' semi-tone modulation into D flat.

Once in a While introduced a series of Russian melodies, their diversity demonstrating Brett's mastery of the keyboard, including a stirring Black Eyes and the Song of the Volga Boatmen.

Rock Around the Clock revived skiffle and Bill Haley's Comets as the selection of Strauss Walzes revived the glamour of Vienna Philharmonic's New Years' Day concerts, Artists' Life, Tales from the Vienna Woods, Vienna Blood ending with Roses from the South, the signature tune of Grand Hotel. (There's nostalgia for you.)

Bye bye Blues, Nobody Does it Better, ever associated with Shirley Bassey and The Spy who Loved Me, an Elvis memory, The Wonder of You. An impression of Fats Domino at the piano closed Brett's programme with the audience demanding more and being rewarded with Yankee Doodle Banjo.

In partnership with Chris Powell who was at Pebsham recently, Brett is hosting a series of residential organ weekends in the south later this year and early next. Details of this and of future organ concerts at Pebsham from chairman Peter Hathaway on 01424 214152.

MARRION WELLS

Bexhill and District CSMA Club

AT our club night on August 17 we were entertained to a talk on wild bird care given by Allan Roffey. This is a serious subject as so many species have almost disappeared or where numbers are greatly reduced. However Allan, while stressing the grave situation, gave us a very amusing talk. He is obviously a great lover of birds and a committed "twitcher" with a hide in his own small garden. He urged us all to help these delightful and entertaining creatures to survive and flourish by providing food and water for them in our gardens. By a large number of beautiful photographic slides he demonstrated the pleasures that it can bring. Allan was for some years based at Merriments gardens, but he now has his own business called Feathers, which is at Salehurst just off the A21.One gets the impression that the business part of his life is very much secondary to his love of birds.

Our lunch club meeting on August 3 was held at The White Hart at Netherfield where 18 of us enjoyed good food and lovely views over the surrounding countryside.

Forthcoming events are as follows:

At our club night on September 21 we will have a talk on The Driving Test given by a member of the Driving Standards Agency.

Our Christmas lunch club meeting will be held on December 7 at The Woolpack in Herstmonceux. Our Christmas dinner will be held on December 21 at the Cooden Beach Hotel.

For details on joining the club or any other query, please contact Tony Calton on 434496.