CLUB NEWS

Chetnole and Leigh Garden Club

The club’s Christmas 2021 meeting was different this year to comply with the current regulations – not too much mixing and mingling, masks for all and plenty of fresh air circulating for the evening. We all wrapped up warmly, donned something festive and only removed our masks to eat a mince pie or two and to toast each other with delicious mulled wine. Then we settled down to watch a most enjoyable seasonal demonstration given by Helen Stickland and her talented team from The Black Shed in Sherborne. They are situated at Blackmarsh Farm, on the A30 just east of Sherborne and are always very welcoming and helpful. They showed us how to make different Christmas displays including a beautiful wreath, a dried flower arrangement (which Helen assured us will last for years) and two different posies which would grace any Christmas table. Helen explained how much of the material used during the evening was grown at The Black Shed. Many flowers are dried during different stages of their growth with amazing results (try drying foxgloves after the flowers have fallen – the result is lovely) and giving a wonderful mixture of colours and textures to use in different ways.

After the demonstrations were over, Helen very generously gave the finished items as raffle prizes. As you can see in the photo the winners were quite delighted with them.

Happy New Year to everyone.

First meeting of 2022

We gathered in Chetnole Village Hall to listen to Emily Utgren talk about Remarkable Trees at Stourhead. The doors and windows were open to allow the air to flow and we were all decked out in coats, scarves and face masks. Despite the restrictions there was a healthy turnout and it was good to see fellow members catching up with each other and eagerly awaiting the Speaker to begin her talk.

Emily introduced herself with a wide smile, a ready laugh and enthusiasm for her subject brimming over. On the screen behind her was an unusual picture of a firefighter in full kit in front of a raging fire, which she jokingly said was there to warm us up. We soon found out that it was Emily herself in one of her other roles as a firefighter with Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service.

Emily came over from Sweden 16 years ago to learn all she could about gardening. After time spent in Rosemoor, Wisley and Bedgebury Pinetum she realised her passion lay in trees and she was fortunate to be given her first job at Stourhead where she spent the next 15 years.

The history of Stourhead and how each generation of the Hoare family had shaped the garden into what we see today became her particular interest and she explained that it is easy to see which part of the garden was created by which of the Hoares over seven generations, as different plants became accessible through plant hunters around the world. Emily showed us trees which had been grown from seed, collected by Sir Richard Colt Hoare in the late 18th to the early 19th century. He hated the many fir trees which colonised the estate and began replacing them with beeches, acers, oaks, tulip trees and limes because of their spring and autumn colours.

One of the remarkable trees that Emily treasures is a sweet chestnut which is dying after 300 years. But, as its heartwood rots and turns to compost, another stem has risen from within and become woody and is growing as a new tree, genetically identical to the old tree. So, it seems the same tree has resurrected itself and may go on forever in the same way. This had Emily in a fever of excitement!

We will look at Stourhead in a different light the next time we visit but how wonderful it would be to have Emily as a guide with her extensive knowledge and enthusiasm to show us round.

Morag Orchard

Leigh WI

In November, Mike Spencer came to talk to us about Iceland. He had visited Iceland twice, once on a cruise in 2016 and then he did a 50 mile inland charity trek in aid of St Margaret’s Hospice a couple of years ago. He described Iceland as a land of ‘ice, fire and fjords’. Iceland was formed from two plates, the Eurasian and the North American. It has a small coastal strip where all the inhabitants live and the population is the same size as Islington! It has the oldest parliament in the word and a fifth of the country is covered in permanent ice.

There is a rich wildlife – arctic terns, puffins, dolphins, humpback whales, so therefore lots of whale watching. However, since 2017 NO whales have been caught and they do not eat whale meat. The only farming is on the green strips around the edge of the island and small settlements at the side of the fjords. Icelandics are very proud of their horses and are not allowed to import horses back into their country if they are sent abroad.

All energy is geothermal, which heats the many greenhouses where they grow tomatoes and cucumbers; it also gives their homes underfloor heating. The capital, Reykjavik, is an attractive safe capital with a stunning concert hall and a church called ‘The Sky Rocket’. The second city is Akureyri, on the north of the island, which has the northernmost 18 hole golf course. Tourism is the modern industry for Iceland; there is no rail system and Road Number 1 goes all round the island.

Volcanic activity has been since the 1970s. A major eruption took place in 1973, spilling lava into the town of Vestmannaeyjar, an important fishing centre. Most of the 5,000 residents had to be evacuated and about one third of the town was destroyed. Small eruptions have followed since but, in March 2010, Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted, sending wandering ash plumes into the skies that disrupted air traffic for days across northern and central Europe.

Although Mike enjoyed his cruise, he found his six day trek across the mountains the most fascinating. There was no need for bottled water as they could drink water straight from the streams. He loved the beautiful desolation of the country and, although the weather was extremely changeable, found the whole trip exhilarating. He finished his talk with an amusing story of how they had to cross a river and, in order not to get their trousers wet, he carried a lady, he had never met before, over the river in his underpants! Needs must!

In December we went to The Grange at Oborne for a very enjoyable Christmas lunch and we are grateful to those who organised this for us all. We all did a lateral flow in the morning, so we felt safe!

Our next meeting on Tuesday 22 February at 2.30pm is by Arminal DareBrown on “The Mayflower Marriage”. All our welcome.

Anne Reason

Save the date

Leigh WI is holding its Special Spring Sale on Saturday 2 April, from 2.00–4.00pm, at Leigh Village Hall.

There will be plants, tea, coffee, cakes, tombola gifts, books etc.

Chetnole Chuckers

The 2021 Petanque season is done and dusted and members look forward to getting back to normal this year. A total of 22 attended the Club’s annual dinner at the Chetnole Inn when all cares were cast aside for a few hours of much needed conviviality. The evening included the presentation of trophies to the the winners of the 2021 club competitions providing much (unintended) hilarity due to the bumbling incompetence of the presenter (mea culpa) – will I ever live it down?

The unreliability of others, in this case BBC weather forecasters, caused the lastminute postponement of our Boxing Day Boules lunchtime picnic. Too late, rain and overcast skies changed dramatically into a sunny afternoon, rendering postponement completely unnecessary.

In the event our picnic took place on 2 January when, after a fine morning and as 14 members gathered by the bouladrome to enjoy mulled wine and finger food, the heavens opened – Murphy’s Law struck yet again. Needless 45