This month we were treated to an illustrated talk by Revd. Jacqui Horton entitled …

“A Journey Round Iona” She gave us the history if the island along with how the islanders develop the island and its abbey with volunteers, which she did for two years back in the beginning of this decade, then returned last year to see the developments which we were shown with her images of then and now.

April Meeting 2024

This month Adam Clark came and gave us a talk about Bees, he keeps bees in Saham Toney and Ashill.

He told us how a hive is constructed and passed round some examples. He went on to tell us how the bees work and the different types of bee in each hive, and how the queen lays her eggs and the workers then seal the eggs in their cells. He went on to tell us about the year of a beekeeper, and the bees’ activities throughout the year. He told us of how the bees collecting the nectar inform the others of where the best pollen is by doing a dance in a figure of eight, the distance is depicted in the size of the eight and the direction from the hive using the sun in relation to the hive entrance. The hive entrance is also guarded by other bees to stop other insects, like wasps coming into the hive.

He ended by giving out some leaflets, showing the year and which plants produced the best pollen at which time of year and a leaflet telling us about trees useful to bees.

A very interesting and informative meeting.

This month we were treated to a talk about hearing dogs for the deaf by Veronica Colley along with her dog Logan.

Veronica laid a blanket in the corner which Logan then laid on and slept. Veronica then told us first about herself and her hearing difficulties and how the dogs helped.

She had learnt to lipread, this was very helpful in having a conversation,

But if she was at home alone and the doorbell rang, she would not hear it, but Logan would, and would come to her get her attention and head for the door, checking she was following him to the door. She also uses a kitchen timer for reminders of various things she needs to do at certain times, again Logan will come and get her attention and head off to the timer, again checking she has followed him.

She gave a member of the audience a Fire Alarm to be activated when she indicated, whilst telling us of how it would work. When the alarm was set off Logan awoke from his snooze on the rug, came up to Veronica, nudged her with his nose indicating an urgent exit.

When the dogs reach the age of 9 years a new dog is introduced first to check the two dogs get on OK, if so the two work together and the new dog slowly takes over the roll of “Hearing Dog” and the original one becomes a pet.

This was a very informative talk along with some practical demonstrations.