Januarys meeting , once we had donated our humble fivers for a whole year of membership opportunities, was a judicious admixture of mini lecture, quiz and raffle.

'Aloa Aloa'  Susan Holmes, released from her secretarial role, had enjoyed a week in Pretoria with likeminded devotees of the plant, in an effort to produce a comprehensive data base for future reference.  She had returned with stunning photographs of the mainly red and yellow flowered African succulents some of which secrete a sticky sap with skin- soothing  properties.

Caroline and Richard Poyntz Wright had also enjoyed a weeks holiday, travelling by a somewhat unorthodox route to East  Anglia via the well cared for Ryton organic garden near Coventry, and the Lake District ; thence to the well known gardens of Beth Chatto and the R H S Hyde Hall, neither of which quite came up to their expectations.  However the privately owned gardens  (from the Yellow Book) proved entrancing.  'Glen Shantry' near Chelmsford, was a delight and a distinct innovation from the 1800 hundreds, in a 'very flat Norfolk', was a descending succession of dammed lakes manually dug and landscaped at the surprisingly named 'Lake House'.

Brian Deavilles brilliant quiz, which everyone could attempt, was a simple arrangement of 10 assorted things , both common and unusual, to be named.  The winner gained a pot of luscious looking home made jam.

Next meeting 11^th. February 2008 will be Garden Festivals of Britain.