FALMOUTH - MONTHLY MEETINGS

U3A Carrick Group cover a wide ranging area, embracing both Truro and Falmouth centres. Since there is a lack of large meeting places within the district, the U3A determined a need to provide three separate locations for our monthly gatherings.

A monthly general meeting is held in Falmouth every third Wednesday morning at St Mary's Church Room, Killigrew Street, Falmouth (TR11 3PR), commencing at 10.00 for 10.30am start. Tea and Coffee is available from 10.00am. A list of future speakers follows below, all subject to confirmation. Jean Yeomans mans the Welcome Desk and welcomes newcomers!

Duncan Tribute is now managing Speaker Bookings for this venue (01872) 260792.

 

Recent Meeting Reports:

January 16th:

Doctor Ruth Osborn, a Volunteer Speaker for the National Trust.

We were offered offered a detailed slide presentation on the activities of The National Trust across Cornwall to a full house meeting at St Mary's Church Rooms. Whilst we are familiar with the number of Grand Houses in NT hands across the county, Dr Osborn put up a county map on which it was very obvious that the majority of the National Trust's activities across Cornwall was the care and maintenance of coastal land and public open spaces. Our speaker chose to major upon the needs of upkeep and care of this extensive land bank, rather than undertake a detailed review of the Grand Houses, with which perhaps we were more familiar.

Dr Osborn's presentation was on 35mm colour slides, many of which she had taken herself over the years. showing examples of the Trust's work across these many sites, included Bedruthan Steps, where maintenance and repair of the actual steps was a constant task against the west coast's weather elements. Also many cliff path sections used to be grazed by cattle and a policy of dropping this in the past had prompted greater efforts for pruning and cutting back overgrown areas. Not many of the audience were aware that the Trust maintained a modest herd of Shetland ponies, which were periodically moved around the county, to take care of the grazing of these cliff paths and fields, being more sure-footed than cattle.

The slides showed many of the bays and beaches, so well known to the locals around the coastal routes and Dr Osborn explained that a great deal of the Trust's resource was deployed in their constant upkeep. Some of the holiday rental properties were shown, including those in local gardens such as Trelissick, where the Trust looked after the grounds, but the house itself is still occupied by the Copeland family. We were also shown pictures of Anthony House, Cotehele, Lanhydrock, Trerice, and also Glendurgan Gardens, where we saw how the maze was maintained by their garden teams!

Duncan Tribute offered a vote of thanks at the conclusion of the presentation.

February 20th:

John Eatock - "Fact and Fiction about Counselling"

There was a good turnout at this month’s meeting held at St Mary’s Church Hall Falmouth. The speaker was John Eatock former lead Advisor for the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapy (BACP}.

With the aid of an illustrated presentation he went to great lengths to not only tell us what the job entailed but to dispel some of the myths associated with it. BACP is consulted by government bodies, professional bodies, funding organisations, teaching institutions and many others on important issues concerning counselling and psychotherapy.

Using a mental exercise involving the audience he showed how you could predict how some people think but that you could not read minds. It would appear that much of the method used by counsellors involves them getting to know their clients intimately and to meet the needs of those members of society where development and participation in society is impaired by mental, physical or social handicap or disability.

A difficult talk on which to give a full and coherent report but nonetheless enjoyed by the audience with Marion Tapp giving the Vote of Thanks.

20th March:

Stella O'Donnell - "Tights, Teeth and Television Screens"

This month’s meeting held as usual at St Mary’s Church Hall Falmouth was well attended by members wanting to hear an explanation of the talk entitled “Tights, Teeth and Television Screens” given by Stella O’Donnell. Stella is a member of Helston U3A and with the help of her husband, Steve, gave a very interesting talk about chemical compounds called polymers which are derived from carbon.

With a lot of detail about natural and man-made polymers she showed just how they are so essential to modern life. Her very fluent talk ranged from telling us about their use by Germans in the last war to make uniforms from natural polymers derived from stinging nettles to modern synthetics such as nylon and polyesters. From tights to tooth fillings, medical stitches to helping moisture retention in bread, non-stick saucepans to synthetic wood flooring the list is endless.

Stella finished by giving a view into the future with such things as roll-up TVs and self cleaning shirts. Even for non scientific people like myself her talk was very easy to understand and enjoyed by everyone. After a few questions Marion Tapp gave a well deserved vote of thanks.

17th April :

Although holidays and the start of the croquet season kept some away there was a good turnout to hear U3A member John Evans give a talk entitled “40 years before the mast”. Some were no doubt expecting a nautical talk of some sort but were pleasantly surprised to find out that John was recounting stories from his working lifetime as a teacher.

Originally wanting to be a barber, he was persuaded by his family to do a proper job so ended up training in London to be a chemistry teacher. He spent a large part of his career as a head teacher. It was very obvious from the outset that he was a ‘hands on’ teacher even doing what many headmasters do not do nowadays by insisting that he taught pupils at least two days a week rather than being an office desk man.

Teaching in many areas, he ended up in Cornwall and although retired still does a little unpaid teaching at Penryn College where his wife is head teacher. He recounted many amusing stories from the classroom including accidents in the chemistry class with CS gas and wearing a ‘Magic Plaster’ on the Isles of Scilly. Ask John to explain! There were a few questions at the end with Duncan Tribute giving the Vote of Thanks.

15th May:

There was a good turn-out at this month’s meeting held as usual at St Mary’s Church Hall, Falmouth with some no doubt hoping to hear some good news from weatherman John Notley. He gave an illustrated talk entitled ‘Weather Talk’. Originally in the Navy, he for the last few years has been the weatherman on BBC Radio Cornwall. With his Power Point presentation he gave a very comprehensive insight into all the information that is used to try and arrive at an accurate weather forecast for all the various interested parties.

John Notley

From satellites circling over the equator to land and sea stations the amount of info is amazing. John explained how the weather is made and affected by such diverse areas as sea temperature and land masses. Advance weather information is not only used by the general public but by many organisations such as, for example, supermarkets who will stock up with BBQ food etc when hot weather is forecast.

There was a lot to ponder on in his talk but at the end when questions were being asked he was unable to answer the all important question – ‘Will we have a good summer?’ Duncan Tribute gave the Vote of Thanks. (John Harris)

 

Forthcoming Meetings:

19th June:

At our next meeting, U3A member, John Barrett will give a talk entitled ‘Bee keeping in Cornwall’.

 

 

For all activities, please check our Google Calendar to confirm dates, times and location

Groups Coordinator - Jon Skelton or (01872) 865316