On a very warm sunny evening Mr and Mrs Barrrett Lennard conducted us through a tour of West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly via a collection of beautiful photographs.

We started in a Lutyens property looking across Dartmoor, a 1920 building with a garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll, a series of square flower beds. We then proceeded to St Ives where the Hotel looks down upon spectacular views of the harbour, then on to Zennor and westwards towards Penzance. Here the National Trust garden in such a mild climate has Camellias
everywhere.  A plants man's delight .

Mr and Mrs Barrett Lennard then took us to the Helicopter and over to St Marys, where the views were superb and daffodils grow in abundance.  We were shown slides of the Abbey Gardens Tresco where there is a magnificent sculpture of 3 children.  Again as the climate is so mild (gulf streams in summer) . Tree Ferns, Palm Trees, Gledisia and deep PinkGeraniums all grow it seems with little difficulty

On to St Martins where there are holiday cottages and an interesting museum concentrating on sea tales.  Over the years many ships have come to grief in the area , hence a nautical theme in the museum.

A most interesting evening which left us with 'I should like to visit feeling'.

Plant Sale on Saturday 17^th May in the URC hall 9.30 - 12.0.
Next meeting 9^th June 2008 when Mr Barter will give a talk entitled Pests and Diseases.

"We give praise to fair trade.  People make Joyce, a sugar farmer in Malawi, very happy when they buy our Kasinthula sugar."

Joyce and her family have access to electricity for the first time - thanks to the Fairtrade premium on sales of sugar.  "The fair trade programme is doing good things here," Joyce said, "the  village where I live has one borehole and receives electricity.  It is very exciting.  We never believed this would be possible!"

Sugar from Kasinthula is used in a range of Traidcraft products, including Geobars, FairBreak cookies, mini-eggs and cakes, so it is easy to make Joyce happy.

As well as buying sugar from Kasinthula, Traidcraft has helped to fund several training activities to help the farmers understand their business better.  Many of the farmers have very low levels of literacy and numeracy, so progress can be slow.  Further training will be needed.  Every time you buy Traidcraft products you contribute to this type of work.