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Meeting 16.4..2007
Mr G Barter will lecture on 'Seeds and Propagation'
Not a very exciting title for Aprils lecture, I thought, but
from such an academically gifted gentleman, one would be bound
to learn something of value and behold - a brilliant
lecturer who enlivened his outpouring of knowledge with many
humorous asides and anecdotes, in a most engaging manner.
Dormant seeds are apparently rather lazy individuals, extremely
shy and choosy about their time of emergence. Everything
has to be just right or they won't bother. Exact
periods of cold, heat, damp and light are required in different
proportions by different species. Daphnes are particularly
hesitant about breaking their dormancy, which explains their
expense in garden centres. Mr Barter then emphasised
that consequently using the glove compartment of your car
as a storage facility for seeds was not necessarily the ideal
place for them.
Genetic strains have been selected by mankind over thousands
of years, for vigour yield and disease resistance it appears
that the EEC are at last about to acknowledge this, by allowing
old varieties of crops to be utilised as they all have qualities
which might save a species for our future use. If there is
a future, as seeds depend upon pollination and bees are suffering
at the moment, not only from the varoa mite, but also from
a mystery disease which is proving fatal to whole hives.
But we still have flies.
Joan
Wilkins
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ELSTEAD
AFTERNOON WI. MEETING - 3rd
MAY 2007
President
Anne Moon started the meeting by giving the good news that
a number of members had had operations but were now progressing
well, and gave them all our good wishes. The disappointing
news was that the planned trip to Denman College Open Day
would not now be going ahead as it was oversubscribed. But
we had many other activities planned for the next few months
for members to enjoy, including a coffee-tasting morning
in May, fashion evening at Shere in June and a jacket potato
lunch in July. 10 members had attended the Farnham Group
meeting on Tuesday and been entertained by a delightful
troupe of irish dancers aged from 6 to 16.
The May meeting is when WIs discuss the resolutions for
consideration at the AGM. This year there was only one,
on stopping the closure of community hospitals. Betty Moxon
pointed out that this was not about the RSCH - which we
were all concerned about but community hospitals like Farnham
and Milford. Although the Government and PCT policy was
to support community hospitals, money pressures meant that
they could be vulnerable to closure, and at least one in
Surrey was currently closed because there were not funds
to run it. There was a lively discussion where members expressed
their strong support for their local hospitals but were
concerned about what else may be lost because of lack of
money. The resolution was approved unanimously.
After the raffle the members enjoyed the usual excellent
tea and completed a fiendish quiz based around fruits and
vegetables.
The next meeting will be the cream tea afternoon at Trossachs,
Thursley Road. Members were reminded to bring a chair if
possible and to park at the end of Woolfords Lane.
Betty
Moxon
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