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Writer's pictureSue Hooper-Lawrie

UPDATE August/September 2024

September Speaker & AGM

Our Fifth AGM took place on 5 September 2024 with 78 members attending and 1 new

member joining, a warm welcome to you.


The Business Part of the meeting was carried out first and we are delighted to have John

Hayston join us as our Chair and Sue Hooper Lawrie as our Groups Co-Ordinator. I thank all

of you who took part in the nomination and voting process, either online or by post and the

Executive Committee looks forward to settling into a new year of the Culm Valley u3a.


After a short break, our speaker, Bruni Frampton of The Woodland Trust (WT) gave us a talk

about the work of the Woodland Trust and Yonder Oak Wood, their new flagship project in Devon. There were many questions raised from our members which she answered informatively.


The Executive Committee meets on 25 September 2024 for their first meeting of the new

team, so if there is anything you want the Committee to discuss, please let me know by email

cvu3abussec@gmail.com by 16 September 2024.


For a full list of Committee Members and their contact details please visit the website

culmvalleyu3a.org. This will be updated as soon as possible.

Thank you and see you all soon.


Can you help with the Speaker Programme?

I've been putting Culm Valley's Speaker Programme together since 2023 and intend to do it for one more year, after which I want to hand the role of Speaker Coordinator over to someone else.  Before me the role was undertaken by Carol Mitchell when our u3a started in 2019, followed by Sue Hooper-Lawrie who then handed over to me.  This passing of the baton allows different members to bring their own ideas to the content of the monthly speaker schedule and a different style in introducing each speaker at our monthly meetings.


The Speaker Coordinator does not sit on the Executive Committee and is not a Trustee of Culm Valley u3a.   It's a great job, not a difficult one, but I'm looking for someone to come on board as soon as possible to work with me on completing the 2025 programme which I've already got a list of possible speakers for, and to take over from me for 2026.  By then I'll have done three years and think it will be time to give someone else a go!  Having another person involved will also give cover at meetings when I'm away and give the audience a different face and voice at the front on these occasions.


If you think you might be interested, please get back to me and we can arrange to meet and discuss further without commitment on your part unless you say 'yes'.

Many thanks, Gill Sole


October Speaker

Dr Todd Gray - Strumpets and Ninnycocks

Making his second visit to our u3a by popular request, the exalted historian Todd Gray will inform and entertain us in a particular aspect of the 16th Century's way of life.

Insults tell us much about society and offer a fascinating insight into Devon five centuries ago.  He's examined a range of original documents to show how Devonians deployed a range of words and terms to ridicule, mock and demean their friends, family and neighbours. Low intelligence, dishonesty, witchcraft, disease and most of all, illicit sex, were at the heart of how people in Devon were insulted. Men were treated differently than women, those in authority had particular scorn, and physical insults were commonly deployed. This study provides a fresh way to understand Devon in the time of Raleigh and Drake. 


According to Dr Gray our talk (and the book on which it's based) are not for those who are easily offended! So please brace up for what I'm sure will be an eye-opening and sometimes hilarious afternoon's talk.

News from the Interest Groups

From the Groups Co-ordinator(s)

Two for the price of one!

The role of Groups Co-ordinator will be shared between Sue Hooper-Lawrie and Yvonne Doherty. The only difference being that as the "elected" member of the partnership Sue will be a member of the committee and attend the committee meetings.

Sue and Yvonne will share the responsibilities of the Groups Co-ordinator role and members can contact either of us to discuss anything to do with Interest Groups.

Our emails are: -


For more photographs of Interest Group activity please go to the individual groups page under Interest Groups.


Behind the Scenes Group

We organise day or half day visits to places of interest locally and within the Southwest.  We run about six trips a year which in the past have included Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, Shepton Mallet Prison, Taunton Racecourse plus distilleries, a vineyard, cider farm, a glass blower's studio and many more.

We arrange coaches for longer trips but for more local one’s people make their own travel arrangements. All future Behind the Scenes visits will be open to all our u3a members and the details of each trip will be announced a couple of months in advance.

We are currently working on two more trips for this year, a day trip to Bath for their Christmas Market and a morning visit to the Exeter Energy Recovery Facility on Marsh Barton Industrial Estate. More details of both will be announced by email shortly at which time we will take names on a first come basis.

We look forward to seeing our regular Behind the Scenes trippers as well as members from across Culm Valley u3a on these outings and the full programme of trips we're currently working on for 2025.

Gill Sole, Moira Wood and Paula Longden Your Behind-the-Scenes Organisers


Genealogy Group

The Genealogy Group met on the 11th September at Cullompton Library. The group have been working together on approaches to researching ancestors prior to the advent of the modern census in 1841. We have developed several useful reference guides on the History of Mortgages, Parish Records, Manorial Records and Court Rolls, the Census and using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

 Stephen Dyer the u3a Genealogy Subject advisor mentions AI in his September Newsletter and the impact it is likely to have on Genealogy research; one exciting prospect is the conversion of handwriting into searchable text including Latin and older forms of English. I am sure this will be a game changer when researching old documents.

 If you are interested in joining the Genealogy Group just pop along to The Hayridge Centre Cullompton Library on the 2nd Wednesday of each month. The meeting time is usually 10:30 until 12:30am.


Gardening

The gardening group meet at Willand Health & community centre, opposite the village hall.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday, 24th September, from 2pm to 3,30pm.The speaker will be Janet East, who will talk on The Trials 7 Tribulations of Running a Small Rural Farm & a B&B.

If you wish to attend the meetind email michelle crocker, the Group Contact, michellecrocker5@gmail.com as soon as possible please.

Art in Action

 Art in Action have been busy as usual, see results below paintings that we have produced in August. We had a trip to Tiverton Art Society Art Exhibition & Topsham Art Society Exhibition plus the display at CVu3a AGM meeting. It's all good fun.


For more photos from Art in Action please see their web page


Walkers - Culmstock Beacon, August 

The morning started grey and windy, but 10 walkers set off eager to go to one of my favourite spots - Culmstock Beacon.  Slowly uphill to the Beacon hut where we were rewarded with views towards Dartmoor then around the gallops admiring the lovely colours of Heather and gorse and red berries covering the Rowan trees.  Brief look at Butterfly reserve then down on the boardwalk to a quiet lane.  We turned into the fields at Pithayne with the sun shining and no wind so decided to picnic here.  2 more fields to cross before arriving at Pitt Farm where some of his very old machinery was on show. A good 5 miles enjoyed by all.  Mo Kennard

Information, Technology & Computer Group

MODERN TECHNOLOGY – BEWILDERING, CONFUSING OR JUST FRUSTRATING

Are you confident in your use of the latest technology?

  • Do you know when to use your left or right mouse buttons?

  • Can you create folders, organise your photos and drag and drop files?

  • Does it fill you with dread and confusion

  • Can you make phone calls or video calls on your phone – for free?

O r would you just like to know how to do things better?

  • Do you know how to use ‘shortcuts?

  • Does your desktop have lots of unnecessary icons?

If you answered “YES” or “MAYBE” to any of the above questions, you are not alone.

In fact, you are probably in the majority.

Many people feel the same about the constantly changing world of today’s technology. Regrettably, it is becoming more and more part of daily life. How many times do we hear ‘apply online’ or ‘check-out the details on our webpage’ or even ‘only available online’.

--- FEAR NOT! ---

From Wednesday 18 September to Wednesday 4 December, the ITCG will run a ‘Back to Basics’ course to help you overcome some of these challenges. The aim will be to help you feel more at home with computers and smart phones, know how to get the best out of them and feel safe when using them.

If you have any questions or want to know more – ask Andy ‘Google’ Arnold at the ITCG ‘Help Desk’.


Petanque

We currently have about two dozen players of both genders. Some prefer to meet in the morning and others in the afternoon. We continue to gather and play the year around, meeting at 11.00 a.m. for two hours, then again in the afternoon for a further two hours. We currently start at 14:00p.m. for the after-lunch session; this may possibly change with the ending of British Summer Time, at the end of October, but that has yet to be decided between our group’s players. Watch this space!

Whatever the season, we intend to continue to meet weekly to enjoy playing this simple game and enjoy the company of our amazing fellow u3a members, who all believe we benefit from the gentle exercise, social interaction and fresh air, relaxing experience! We always welcome new players and have spare boules at hand, so please pop along on a Friday to join in the FUN! No fee payable for using the terrain, but we each usually make a small personal donation of £1 per day, towards the continuing upkeep costs of these marvellous premises.


Colour Pencil Group

The Colour Pencil Group got underway on 2nd September, with 13 of us meeting at The Willand Rovers Football Club, Club House to talk and play with coloured pencils! We are looking forward to the group developing with members becoming more and more confident with shading, blending, layering and colour mixing as well as enjoying using coloured pencil as a fabulous art medium.


Exploring Art Styles

So far, we have explored Abstract, Avante Garde, Bauhaus, Conceptual, Contemporary, Cubism, De Stijl and Expressionism art styles, with members creating an artwork based on each style.

The journey has been interesting, quirky and at times both socially and politically orientated as artist used their art to comment on and challenge social injustice and challenge political dogma.

We have explored the Nazi fear of Bauhaus and the movement which decided that it was the concept, which was actually art, rather than the finished artwork! We have discovered the reality of Cubism and the lines and block primary colours of De Stijl!

Some to still be explored are Impressionism, Naive, Renaissance and Surrealism Art, and I have no doubt we will find more to enjoy and learn.


Draw It!

We start back on Thursday 26th September with an en plein air at Hembury Fort, weather permitting. After that our sessions will be indoors back at the John Tallack Centre in Cullompton. You are very welcome to join us, if you enjoy drawing. If you want to know more, please drop Sue and email at shlawrieu3a@gmail.com


Jazz & Music Appreciation

Here is a reminder for readers that our Live Jazz Music Appreciation interest group members will be making their way, on the third Wednesday in September, to the spacious Magelake Pavilions in Uffculme for an evening with the “Men Behaving Tradly” jazz Quartet. New members will be most welcome to join regular attendee to enjoy the opportunity of listening to these talented musicians on stage. Best to phone organiser, Jane Mullholland in advance on 07799014173, to reserve seats for this live performance.

NB: Entry requires a cash only payment of £10. Car parking is FREE! - Hope to see some of our readers on Wednesday 18th September! Keep on Jazzin!


Quilting

Well, we ended our season in July for the summer break and some quilters finished off their quilts to be ready in time for the CVU3A September Meeting & Exhibition.  Some very complimentary comments were made about the work put in and the achievements made, which is all so very encouraging.  Lin would like to convey her thanks to all who agreed to display their quilts and for the help in displaying them on the day. You can see some pics of the quilts on display below.

We are now back in session for the Autumn Season.

For our November 19th session, we have invited quilter speaker Liz Musselwhite to Willand.  Liz will be talking about her quilting, after which we will do a small hand sewn workshop.

If you would like to know a bit more about Liz and what she does, her website is https://www.harvestmoonquilting.com/ 

We have 5 spare places available for this session, at a cost of £10 each, which is payable on signing up -  there will be refreshments available too.  Please contact Lin on Impish4me@gmail.com to sign up.  The session will run from 9:15 to 12:30.  


Perhaps this might be an opportunity for you to learn a little about quilting and have a little dabble, before committing to join the group on a regular basis? 

The group is run by Lin Arnold and we meet on the first and third Tuesday of the month, 

-  9.30 to 12.30 in the Committee Room at Willand Village Hall. Anyone wanting more information can contact Lin on Impish4me@gmail.com or talk to her, directly, at the monthly meetings.


Craft

We hope that you all enjoyed seeing the fruits of our labours at the AGM in 2023. I think

even the Craft Group were impressed with what we had all achieved. A very impressive show

at this year’s AGM from all our creative Interest Groups.

Our new term started on 5 September, and we did all feel like it was the first day back at

school, catching up with news, sharpening our pencils and welcoming Patricia to the group

for the first time. We hope she enjoys all the activities Lin has planned for this session.


Our first Craft covering two weeks, and new to most of us, is Thread Pictures. The patterns all looked so innocent until we came to trying to execute the instructions. Not to be outdone we soldiered on with Lin’s expert guidance and we were very happy with our results. More to come next session and I am sure Christmas Cards will be being created over the next few weeks. Lorna




Quiz Group

There have been two quizzes held since my last report, this is because we have commenced two weekly meetings commencing on the 6 September, these extra quizzes will run through to the end of March 2025,The first of the quizzes held on the 16 August included questions on Words and Abbreviations, the 1990,s, UK History and a picture round where teams were asked to name, from the pictures provided, Only Fools and Horses characters. The theme for team names was Summer and it was the Picnic Boxes who were the winners on the day, well done to the Shell Seekers, Wellies and Umbrellas, 99ers and Traffic Jam whose scores were all very close. The second of the quizzes run by Jean and Paula certainly provided some really interesting and testing questions for the teams including, Mythology, Meaning of Words, Queens and Kings (mistresses), Movies, Nature and UK National Parks. the theme for the team names was Back-to School, with team names On Detention, The Dunces and finally Schools out forever who were the winning team. Best wishes, Linda




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