JULY 2012 ISSUE Number 108

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CHAIRMAN’S COMMENTS

(He calls them ramblings!)

Dear Friends,

Following our recent local (national)

event, the Olympic Torch being borne

by our local hero Shirley Waller must

be one event many of us are unlikely

to see again in our lifetime. I think all

of Market Deeping turned out on the

morning of 4th July to watch this event.

However where we were standing all we saw of her was

her sitting in the coach. We therefore ended up watching

it on the TV and the website like many others. In

addition, Shirley and her fellow torch bearer Brian

Holditch (who lives in Deeping but carried the torch in

Peterborough) brought their torches to St Guthlac’s

Church on Sunday morning and received a blessing.

Other local news was the award to two volunteer First

Aiders, Peter Ward and Dave Book. They were both

awarded The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for their

loyal service as members of the Deepings Lives First

Reponders Group. Each of them have been volunteering

for more than five years. We offer them our

congratulations and although not members of our

organisation yet, we hope they will join us when they

retire.

Best wishes

ROD SLOANE

Chairman

U3A MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

FOR 2012/13

Thank you to all those who have already sent in their

renewals. Please collect your new badge from the

Newsletter table if it has not been delivered to you.

The renewal form was attached to the June Newsletter

so please renew as soon as possible. Forms and cheques

or cash should be either sent by post to me or handed in

at the monthly meeting (in an envelope please).

A big thank you to Liz Noble for printing all the new

cards and to Garth Perry who has the unenviable task of

listing all the cheques to pay in to the bank.

JANICE COSHAM

Membership Secretary

WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS

Jacqueline Hilton from Langtoft,

Linda Hill from Deeping St James

and Neil Mackenzie from Market

Deeping.

The Deepings’ Third Age Group

NEWSLETTER

(Visit our Web site)

OLYMPIC TORCH COMES TO DEEPING

Our member, Shirley Waller, with the Olympic Torch on Market

Deeping Bridge at 8.10am on

Wednesday 4th July. Many thanks to John Bloomfield, David Wilson,

Ann Thornthwaite, David Scott

and Peter Jackson, all of whom sent me pictures. Sorry it wasn’t

possible to use more of them.

ANN

Programme of Speakers

16 July ROAD CRAFT by Malcolm Nichols, Institute of Advanced

Motorists (at DEEPINGS SCHOOL)

20 August THE MAP WHICH CHANGED TH E

WORLD by Garth Perry (at DEEPINGS

SCHOOL)

17 September TO SERVE THEM ALL THE DAY by

Brian Jones (Venue to be advised.)

Committee Members 2011/2012

Rod Sloane Chairman

Audrey Allen Secretary

Garth Perry Treasurer Janice Cosham Membership Secretary

Liz Noble Group Coordinator

John Bloomfield Speaker Finder Kath Allen

Jennie Sharman

Jim Pringle Lyall Seale Co-opted (Publicity)

Flo Sykes Co-opted

Ann Holmes Newsletter Editor

David Scott Contact through website Webmaster

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GROUP NEWS

The Guitar Group will be closing for the

“summer”, back in September we hope.

Anyone interested in joining please contact Ken Moore.

The Torch has now passed through our midst and by the time you

get this St Swithin’s Day too, and it still keeps raining! However all

seems to be very quiet regarding groups but if you have any ideas

for a new one please contact me in the usual way.

LIZ NOBLE

Group Co-ordinator

U3A HISTORY GROUP

A most

interesting visit

took place on

Wednesday 20th.

June. 31 members

of the History

group had a

guided tour of

Peterborough

Museum which

was led by Stuart

Orme.

The Museum has

recently been partly re-furbished and has been sympathetically

restored to its original style. There is too much to tell in this report

but Stuart was inspirational in the delivery of his tour. He gave

interesting facts that were wrapped in anecdotes and humour. He

brought the ancient artefacts to life with comparison of modern

times. His description of the height of the original owner of an

ancient shield and scabbard and the resulting wear and tear on the

latter object was particularly amusing.

The Museum was once a hospital and the top floor was set out as

the operating theatre. This was authentic as it had, amongst others,

the sound effects of the saw being used to amputate limbs.. Thank

goodness for today’s medicine. If you get chance, go and spend a

morning at the Museum. An additional bonus is there is a lovely

Café.

Report by SANDRA JONES Photo: ALISTAIR SMITH

Group Leaders ELIZABETH PARKINSON / SANDRA JONES

U3A ANTIQUES AND COLLECTABLES GROUP

Only seven of us braved the wind and rain to

attend the Stamford Antiques Fair in the

Meadows. Once we were inside the main

marquee we had a vast array of different types

of stands to peruse, and some of us found

something to buy. We didn't stay too long because of the weather

but enjoyed our morning out.

The next meeting is our trip to Cambridge to visit the Fitzwilliam

Museum. Please be at the Deepings Community Centre by 09.55

am on Wednesday July 25th.

Group Leaders: IRENE BEEKEN / PAM PENDRY

U3A “BOOKWORMS” READING GROUP

‘Keeping the World Away’ by Margaret Forster

A well written story about a small, pleasant painting and

how it touches the lives of it’s six women owners over the 20th

century.

We all enjoyed this book and considered it a good read.

Report by HAZEL MACVITIE

Group Leader: ANN THORNTHWAITE

U3A NATURAL HISTORY GROUP

Swaddywell Pits proved to "bee" a big hit,

with so many Bee Orchids (pictured) and

other varieties!

We were met by three members of the

Langdyke Trust which owns the reserve,

and Jean Stowe showed us the flora and the geology of the place. A

really delightful spot and well worth further visits. If ever you are

near Swaddywell, go and have a look while the orchids are out -

lovely !

Next month, July 26th, meet at 10am at Frampton Marshes. Full

details at the monthly meeting.

ALISTAIR SMITH

Group Leader

U3A CRAFT GROUP 1

We started our meeting this

month by celebrating Sheila’s

her 80th birthday with flowers

and a cake, and later in the

afternoon we toasted her good health with a nice glass of wine.

This month we undertook the intricate craft of Tatting.

There are two methods of Tatting, one using a bobbin/shuttle the

other using a needle. For the first part of our session we tried the

bobbin method and rapidly realised that it would be an advantage to

be ambidextrous. We then moved on to the needle method, which

we all preferred and everyone managed to master the basic stitch

using this method. Although we are continuing with the needle

method next month, we do plan to have another crack with the

bobbins at some point.

Please note : Next months meeting will Tuesday 24th at Ann’s

house.

JULIE MANCEY

Group Contact

U3A JAZZ, SWING AND BIG BAND GROUP

Wednesday 27th June, eight members met

at the home of Jennie Sharman and listened

to various artists playing Jazz, Swing and

Big Band music.

Among the tracks heard was Dippermouth

Blues and Catchy Monkey featuring great

trumpet playing by Peter Rudeford, then followed I Cover The

Waterfront and Darktown Strutters Ball – all by John Softley’s Just

The Job Jazz Band. We heard Ronnie Findon playing clarinet and

tenor and alto sax. Next came tracks by John Elmer on vibraphone,

followed by The Pasadena Roof Orchestra with John Watson

featured on drums for The Golden Wedding. The Late Night Album

featured Artie Shaw’s Stardust, and then Maxine Sullivan with John

Kirby Orchestra playing St Louis Blues. We heard tracks from

Colin Bryant’s Hot Rhythm Orchestra and the morning then came to

a close with tracks from The Number One Jazz Album 2004 and

featured Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Louis Armstrong and

Quincey Jones.

Members were asked if they could identify the female artist singing

You Sent Me Flying taken from the 2004 Jazz Album and Peter

correctly identified Amy Whitehouse.

The July meeting is Wednesday 25th July at the home of Barbara

and Peter Baylis.

JENNIE SHARMAN

Group Leader .

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U3A TEN PIN BOWLING GROUP

Earlier on this year in commemoration of the Queens Silver Jubilee

Grantham U3A issued a challenge to Sleaford, Bourne and Deeping

to a Ten Pin Bowling Match. July 27th was the due date to play the

Final at Grantham, so six of us drove there and duly played. The

outcome was that Gratham won by 52 points. Our team played very

well with Godfrey being the highest scorer with 155. As we

enjoyed ourselves so much we are thinking of making this a annual

event.

DAVID LUNN / LILIAN SMITH

Group Leaders

U3A GOOD FOOD GROUP

Recipes by Nigella Lawson was the theme of

the meeting of the Good Food Group on

Monday 2nd July. We welcomed one

prospective member, and we had varied dishes

including a lamb curry, an all in one pot

chicken casserole, marinated salmon, and

barbecued ribs, followed by baked summer

fruit.

We all agreed that we loved Nigella's attitude to food, although

sometimes her instinctive way of cooking led to rather erratic

quantities. Next meeting is to be Vegetarian recipes, on Monday 6th

August at 12.30 Visitors and prospective members always welcome

to join us.

KATHLEEN TANNER

Group Leader

U3A “PACERS” WALKING GROUP

We had decided to go ahead with our walk

this month, despite it being on the same day

as the Olympic Torch would be going

through Deeping. As it happened, the torch

event was over very early and so – luckily – was the rain that

accompanied it! As a result, we had a walk in warm and pretty

nearly dry conditions, if cloudy and dull.

Eleven of us left the Coachhouse and crossed to the footpath

alongside the bridge to follow the Welland along a winding and

pleasant footpath, obligingly mowed recently for us. It took us

along the river and under the A15 (where, oddly, the graffitti under

the bridge exhorted us to ‘never give up’!) Apart from one very

muddy few yards the path was firm going despite all the recent rain

and we followed it over the fields until it met Mill Road at Maxey.

A little drizzle went with us for a while along the road but stopped

and the sun came out briefly as we took a dash across the A15 to the

old closed road back to the bridge and to a very pleasant lunch at

the Coachhouse. We were amazed to find that we’d walked about

five miles on what proved to be a very enjoyable day.

LIZ WATERLAND

Group Leader

U3A MONDAY WALKING GROUP

Twenty five of us met at

The Chequered Skipper,

Ashton’ near Oundle on

a wet, damp and drizzly

morning. We set off

towards Polebrook on

road, bridleway,

eventually turning off

onto grass footpath.

Numerous stiles, gates

and kissing gates entertained us along the way. At Polebrook we

crossed the brook ( "bruc" being the olde word.) all 2ft width of it!!

We then proceeded through high wet grass to the bridleway leading to

Armston.

The track to Armston was a gentle slope, once there we followed the

footpath towards Barnwell. This led us to an interesting deep ditch

( but at least it was devoid of water-- thanks goodness). Although it

would not have mattered as we were wet anyhow. We had to pull

people up the opposite side and my right arm is now inches longer.

We walked through Barnwell crossing the A605 and followed the

Nene Way towards Oundle. On reaching the Mill we crossed over

onto the Nene Way and followed the river to the weir crossing. Here

we decided to follow the river only to discover after 3/4 mile there

was no way through. (A Steve Hanson shortcut that failed).

As a consequence we had to walk back to the weirs and cross over

skirting the south of Oundle and back towards the River Nene. Finally

we reached a bridge that would take us back to Ashton. So the 7.5

mile walk ended up as nearly 9 miles; although we were wet and tired

we were in good spirits

Nineteen of us then stayed and enjoyed a good meal at the Chequered

Skipper. The moral is to "recee" all the walk and not forget some of

the map !!! For details of future walks see Brian’s report below.

Walk leader and report STEVE "Shortcut" HANSON

And now Brian’s contribution—I realise this is an extremely long

report this month Steve part is so amusing and Brian’s so

informative I couldn’t see where to cut it so please bear with me on

this occasion. ANN

The next meeting of the Monday Walking Group will take place on

6th August 2012. Those wishing to attend should be at the Fox and

Hounds at Castle Bytham at 9.45 for a 10am start. There is parking

available at the pub but if you could car share it would ease the

pressure on space. The walk itself will be around the local Bytham

area and will take in the Yew Tree Walk at Clipsham and the castle

mound in Castle Bytham itself. We expect to cover about five miles.

For those not familiar with the area the easiest means of approach is

to follow the A15 north towards Bourne and turn left in Thurlby.

Follow the road through Manton and Witham on the Hill to Little

Bytham and follow the signs to Castle Bytham thereafter. We

suggest you allow around 30 minutes for your journey. We are

anticipating a warm, dry and sunny morning. If you are wishing to

attend this walk please let Chris and Chas Ferguson know, if possible

by FRIDAY 3rd August.

We also have an all day walk in Norfolk planned for Wednesday,

22nd August led by Peter Jackson, more details will be available at

the August walk.

BRIAN THORNTHWAITE

Group Leader

U3A SUNDAY LUNCH GROUP

The next Sunday Lunch will be at The Red Lion,

West Deeping, on Sunday, 29 July. Please

contact Tony Semple or Michael Griffiths or add your name to the

list at the meeting on Monday, 16 July, to make a reservation

Pic by David Scott

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U3A CRAFT GROUP 2

Heather Bumfrey produced her usual sterling

ideas for interesting cards despite slightly

temperamental equipment and the finished

products were delightful. She has further

ideas for July, so please bring the usual basic equipment.

Meeting as usual, 2pm.

LIZ NOBLE

Group Leader

U3A SCIENCE GROUP

At our last meeting we examined the life and

inventions of Sir Henry Bessemer.

Our next meeting, to be hosted by David Macvitie,

will hear about the recovery of a crashed wartime bomber. The

meeting will start at 2pm.

GARTH PERRY / DAVID SCOTT

Group Leaders

U3A MONDAY READING GROUP

This month we read ‘The Interpretation of Murder’

by Jed Rubenfeld. The author is Professor of Law at

Yale with an impressive list of legal credentials, a

research thesis on Freud and training in the theatre;

all of which accounts for the brilliant plotting and

background of this complex and fascinating book.

Everyone in the group enjoyed the combination of fictional murder

mystery, with enticing red herrings and plot twists, and fact based

recreation of the visit of Freud and Jung to New York in 1909.

Tightly interwoven with these the author adds in psychological

motivations, his own interpretation of Hamlet, the building of New

York’s skyscraper skyline and the Manhattan Bridge and a cast of

intriguing characters. One of the cast is a young detective who we

felt deserved a series of books of his own, while the others ranged

from the factual (the Mayor of New York of the period for instance)

to the bizarre and twisted fictional protagonists.

We felt we would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who

loves a complex and brilliantly crafted thriller, packed with interest

and skilfully written.

Our next meeting is on 13th August at Anne Jones’ house.

LIZ WATERLAND

Group Leader

U3A DISCUSSION GROUP

23rd July The topic is Welfare Benefits.

Everyone to contribute.

13th August The topic is To whom do antiquities belong?

Leader is Kathleen.

The Discussion Group has space for more members. This is a very

lively light-hearted group in which individual members are able to

express their own views and opinions freely and have a joke. We

meet on the 2nd and 4th Monday mornings of the month at 11.00

am. Why not give us a try sometime!!

JOY ELLIMAN

(Temporary Leader now IAN TANNER)

ON BEHALF OF EVERYONE, MANY THANKS JOY FOR ALL

YOUR HARD WORK OVER THE YEARS WITH THIS GROUP.

ANN

GARDENING 4 PETALS & PRODUCE

On 19th June a small group of us visited the beautiful garden of Tim

Meakin at Outwell. The weather was glorious (unusual for this

summer) and we were able to wander around his amazing garden.

There were some changes from our last visit two years ago, but

generally the garden still has the same feel about it with lots of little

planting features hidden along side the many meandering pathways.

We were treated to refreshments on the vine patio and at the end we

all selected plants to buy at very modest prices.

Our next meeting is the coach trip to Blenheim and Oxford on 19th

July and our August one will be the Bean Tasting on 21st at 11.30

am.

EDDIE ADAMS

Group Leader

U3A FAMILY HISTORY GROUP

Today we had a general meeting and we

discussed what we had been doing over the past month. Some of the

group were distracted by the tennis but most had done some work. A

couple of the group had spent time tidying their files and putting

things into order. That is a must with this hobby. It’s all too easy to

collect information then get it all muddled up and then not be able to

make sense out of the remaining mess.

We discussed the pros and cons of some of the web sites and at our

next meeting we will be looking at some of the sites in greater detail.

Information is increasing day on day and it pays to keep looking all

the time. A few of the group are having a one to one so that they can

address the problems they have.

I was recommended a book a while ago, The Blood Detective by

Dan Waddell. I downloaded it to my Kindle so unfortunately can’t

loan it out, but, for someone interested in family history and

detective novels it’s a must!

Brian brought our attention to the fact that The Oddfellows will be

putting on a display of historical documents at the Oddfellows Hall

over the August Bank Holiday (26th-27th). For anyone who have

local connections it will be worth a trip to see what they have.

Our next meeting will be on 13th August, same time, same place.We

would be more than pleased to welcome any new members who

would like to either start or enhance their family history. Anyone

interested in joining our group or just having a chat about what we

do, please give me a call.

PEG TORRANCE

Group Leader

IMPORTANT REQUEST

Volunteers required to serve coffee and tea at monthly meetings.

No expertise required just the ability to add hot water to coffee

granules and tea bags! If you quality please add your name to the

list at the “Boards” table.

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U3A GARDENING GROUP 3 For our June meeting we

took advantage of the

National Garden Scheme

and visited a garden at

Greatford Mill, owned by

Mr and Mrs D Lygo. The

lovely garden is half an acre

overlooking St Thomas'

church. It has the original

water wheel and unfenced

mill pond, and is most

interesting the way the

old water mill is made a

feature in the garden, and

the plants are taken right

down to the River

Glen. We were

pleasantly rewarded with

a fantastic garden full of

beautiful plants and

wonderful colour, with a

formal parterre garden of fruit and vegetables. Several members of the

group attended, and it was an ideal time to sit and talk about the garden

over a nice piece of cake and a welcomed cup of tea. We entered a

Duck race but unfortunately none of us won. There was a wonderful

selection of plants for sale at a reasonable cost. It was a most enjoyable

sunny afternoon and well worth another visit next year. Our thanks go

to Josie for arranging the visit.

At the next meeting on 24th July at 10.30 am we join Freda at her

Cabin by the River Nene for our Summer gathering. Directions:

Please follow the road to Orton Mere just off the Parkway Bridge. Park

in the Car Park at the end of the road just before the railway crossing,

and Freda will meet us all there.

JANICE WILSON

Group Leader

U3A WEDNESDAY GARDENING GROUP

This morning we met at Dot's house in Langtoft for our

Carrot tasting session. Unfortunately some of us had had

more success than others. Dot had made sausage and

mash to go with our carrots. We tried six different

varieties with the winner by quite a long way being

Nantes Early, followed by Bangor and then Nigel. They were judged

mainly on flavour as the colour of them, being young, was just about

the same. The other types we tried were Chanteney, Ideal Baby Carrots

and Amsterdam. Dot also provided us with some very tasty deserts and

our thanks go to her for her generous hospitality.

We also had a look round her garden with its full boarders, lawn

and veggie plot. Its suprising how many varieties of plants one could

find in her garden. A very pleasent morning was had by all. Our next

meeting is on August 8th at Shirley's house, where the theme is

a 'Fragrant Flower'. The meeting starts at 10 o'clock.

Report by AVRIL WILLIS

Group Leaders: JEAN FOSTER / ANGELA DORWARD

U3A THURSDAY WALKING GROUP

Twenty three

members enjoyed

a pleasant and

very sunny walk

from Dyke,

through

Cawthorpe and

around part

of Bourne

Woods before

returning

to The Wishing

Well for lunch.

Many thanks to Pat and Michael for leading the walk and organising the

lunch and bringing good weather as well.

U3A THURSDAY GARDENING GROUP We have had an unintentionally busy time since the last newsletter. As

June came to an end we had two unexpected treats. Firstly we enjoyed

coffee in Barbara Workman's impressive "easy care" garden. Not only

did we admire her expertise with plants but she had also arranged for the

sun to shine - quite a feat this Summer! From Barbara's it was a pleasant

walk over the river to Val and Paul Whiston's garden in Deeping

Gate. We had visited the garden earlier in the year and seen it in its

Springtime glory but Val was keen for us to see how it had

developed since then. This year she has planted fewer bedding plants in

favour of perennials and it was interesting to see her new herbaceous

borders and discuss her choice of plants all of which looked happy and

healthy in their new beds. As always Val and Paul were very

welcoming and we thank them for their time and advice.

The following week saw

us driving to Surfleet

Seas End to a

rearranged meeting with

broadcaster, journalist

and blogger Daphne

Ledward. She invited

us into her garden at

Little Thatch and we

were amazed to see so

many different plants in

such a small space. Her

garden was full! Daphne told us how she had developed the garden over

30 years from a very rough plot. She loves to buy new plants and there

were certainly many good specimens to be found. We drove on to

Daphne's "Patch", an altogether different project in the middle of the

Lincolnshire Fens. She explained her plans for this newer and more

spacious garden and proudly showed us the new wood she had

planted. We were then shown the large vegetable plot as well as "John's

shed"! We are very grateful to Daphne and John for so generously

providing us with refreshments and spending time with us in their

gardens.

Our next outing will be to Style Roses on Thursday 19th July, a visit

kindly arranged for us by Pat and Michael Moss. We meet at Style

Roses in Holbeach at 10 am. This visit is open to all U3A garden group

members but please ring me on the number below by Monday 16th July

if you would like to join us. Yet another visit this year will be, as

requested, to Tim Meakins's garden at Outwell near Wisbech. This will

be on the first Thursday in August and we look forward to Tim's tour of

his fascinating garden, hopefully on a sunny day! Please ring me on the

number below if you are unable to attend.

CHRIS FERGUSON

Group Leader 017783 344126

U3A WRITING FOR PLEASURE GROUP

The task for the July meeting of our Writing Group was

to write about an animal. This produced several

entertaining stories, mainly about cats, with one centred

on a donkey called Dobbin.

One or two of us had taken last month’s challenge instead, which was to

write a conversation between more than two people. Geoff managed to

write a whole short story around a conversation between three

people. We were very impressed!

Next month Jenny would like us all to write a piece on any subject in

exactly fifty words. She then plans to put our work into a larger

project. For those who want to write more than fifty words, a separate

subject for next time is ‘A Disaster’. Should make interesting listening!

JUDY ROBINSON

Group Leader 01778 343383

The next walk on 9 August will be led by Brian and Linda Watkins and

will be around the Pinchbeck and Surfleet area returning along the River

Glen. Please meet at The Ship, Northgate, Pinchbeck PE11 3SE at

9.45am for a 10am start, where we will also be having lunch. If you

wish to attend this walk, could you please phone or e-mail Brian and

Linda a day or two before .

GODFREY PARKES

Group Leader

Pic: Dave Scott