ACCRINGTON DISTRICT PROBUS CLUB

ACCRINGTON AND DISTRICT BONSAI SOCIETY

THE society are pleased to wish you a happy and successful 2020, and to invite you to our next meeting, to be held, as always, at Hippings Vale Community Centre, Oswaldtwistle.

Starting at 7.30pm on Tuesday, January 14, we don’t charge on your first visit and we can guarantee a brew and a biscuit.

This month, we are holding our winter tree competition.

Bonsai trees don’t have to be in leaf, in flower, or have fruit on them to be beautiful, they are lovely at any time of year.

And if you don’t know how to grow bonsai, we are here to help teach you.

But don’t take our word for it – come and see for yourself.

HAPPY New Year, at our first meeting of 2020 and the first since the excellent Christmas Lunch, on December 12 at the Dunkenhalgh.

We had seen and been impressed by some of Brian White’s photographs before, so were looking forward to his Amazon Expedition and were certainly not disappointed.

Brian is an accomplished wildlife photographer, with an eye for landscape as well as portraits.

He backs this with more than a little spirit of adventure: “I approach each trip as an adventure, not as a vacation.”

The result is riveting images with an absorbing and informative commentary.

Just to whet our appetites, Brian brought along a selection of mounted photographs from a recent trip to Namibia before launching into the Peruvian

Amazon.

Getting there involved flying from Manchester to Amsterdam, joining the KLM flight to Lima then flying to Iquitos, some 3,000 miles from the delta and styling itself the Venice of the Amazon.

With a fair wind you can do this in 24 hours, then the real adventure starts.

Iquitos is a large ‘port’ but boasts not a solitary road in, or out.

Most of the residents speak Spanish and are generally very helpful but not all the local currency you get is genuine.

You need, really need, a guide.

One who is anxious to learn English is a bonus.

A good pair of wellies is essential.

From over 7,000 images we were treated to an hour of stunning pictures, the flora, fauna and inhabitants as well as the challenging but overwhelmingly beautiful environment.

From dawn over the river, to a king vulture, almost beautiful, a black vulture, definitely not beautiful and an owl wing butterfly, amazing.

One of the ugliest monkeys you are ever likely to see, a rainbow boa, which you might not want to see but which made another unforgettable image eventually bringing us to Amazon sunset and the teaser of Mach Picchu, the next part of the presentation, already in the diary for 2021.

Apparently, digital cameras will tolerate the heat and humidity, if looked after carefully but make sure you have plenty of batteries.

You will be lucky to get an hour or two on the generator each evening.

Tony proposed the vote of thanks for this splendid start to our year.

Kathleen closed the meeting with an amusing ode to embracing advancing years.

There are still some vacancies for new members.

If you are retired or retiring soon, and would like to try a taster, please join us in Accrington

Town Hall on January 20, from 10am, in the Gallery/ Supper Room (for the time being) at the top of the stairs from the main foyer.

Introduce yourself and enjoy coffee, a biscuit, and good company.

We meet every 1st and third Monday, barring Bank Holidays.

EVERY December,

Church and

Oswaldtwistle Rotary tour the district with Santa and his sleigh, the mission is two fold, firstly to bring happiness to the children (and adults) and secondary to raise money through the generosity of residents which then goes to very worthwhile charities.

Santa and his sleigh carried out 23 outings during 21 days of December, fortunately apart from two evenings the weather was reasonably kind, which resulted in the grand sum of £7,600 being raised, this is a record figure.

Four charities were each presented with a cheque for £574 by Ken Freeman, fundraising chairman at a recent Rotary meeting.

These organisations were North West Ambulance, Derian House, NSPCC and Accrington and District Blind Society.

The balance of the amount raised will go to other local charities, and also to National and International Charities Without doubt a great deal of praise goes to local organisations who provided around 50 per cent of the collectors each evening or during the day at Tesco and Asda, these volunteers were essential to ensure a full compliment of around eight collectors going out on each occasion, together with Santa and his driver.

Club Rotarians were full of praise to these volunteers as without them, the number of evenings would have to be halved.

At the presentation ceremony, Ken Freeman was singled out as being the person who was responsible for all matters relating to the organisation of all 23 outings and its success.

He received a standing ovation.

The Rotary club are indebted to Stephen Norton who allowed the sleigh to be stored in his premises on the Sadler

Street estate, also to the two supermarkets who allowed collections to take place. President of the club Lyndon Heap said: “I wish to thank everyone involved in this marvellous Santa project, it was quite obvious the local residents and their children really look forward to seeing Santa and his sleigh, it was a pleasure to see how the younger children react when speaking to Santa.

“I certainly appreciate the grand turn out of Rotarians and volunteers from local organisations.

“Lastly, I must congratulate organiser Ken Freeman who is just an amazing person.”