OUR meeting on Tuesday, February 3, was held as usual in St. Matthew’s Church Hall, Cainscross which was nice and cosy inside, despite quite a chilly evening.

Apologies were sent by Patsy Williams and Dot Brunning, but it was good to see some other members returned after the Christmas break.

A thank you was given to Val Dalby for her lovely spring-like table flowers and she, in turn, thanked us for the Get Well card we had recently sent her.

After ‘Jerusalem’, it was onto the business with a Delegates ticket for the Annual Council Meeting to be held in March in Cheltenham given to Rowena Eccles, who once again is kindly attending on our behalf.

More correspondence was discussed and details of the forthcoming Centenary Baton Celebrations announced with President Doreen displaying the super Banner she has hand made for us which will form part of the procession from Frocester, passing through The Stanleys and Stonehouse and onto Ebley Mill, where some of us hope to meet up at the Café on Sunday, March 22.

The Treasurer gave us her update and some more subscriptions were taken.

After this, it was on with the first talk of the year by Mr Roger Umpelby and his ‘Savagery & Sex in the garden’.

Roger is a renowned Entomologist and showed us some wonderful slides depicting what a lot of our bugs, beetles and butterflies get up to in our gardens and other open spaces.

These invertebrates ranged from ‘the good, the bad and the definitely ugly’! but all were very interesting to learn about and Roger is a good clear speaker with a wealth of knowledge on the subject.

We finished with refreshments, the raffle and the monthly competition winners for a ‘Valentine’s Card’ being awarded as:-

First - Mary Jarrett

Second - Tina Hewgill

Third - Mandy Sutton

Our next meeting, to start as usual at 7.15pm on Tuesday, March 3, at St. Matthew’s Church Hall, will feature Mr Barry Harrison and his talk on ‘Lionel Hook’ a local engineering company, which is sure to be informative.

The monthly competition will be for ’A home made scarf’.

Following this, we look forward to Member’s night on Tuesday, April 7, when we plan a Cheese & Wine evening, including entertainment in the form of a quiz or two.

We always have a raffle, good sales table and refreshments available.

Visitors/new members are always welcome to join us, although booking would be needed for the April meeting.

Call 01453 762812 for more details.