Issue 28
Winter 2007/8
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STRAY NEWS
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Group News cont’d
The Spring term of Keep Fit started on Tuesday 8th January and that would have been an excellent time to join, especially if you are feeling the effect of Christmas and New Year!!!
But we welcome new members at any time as well.
We meet at the Styan Centre, Jennyfields, on Tuesday afternoons during the term time, at 2 p.m. The facilities are excellent, with ample parking and a good bus service,
No. 103 from central Harrogate.
The Keep Fit course is designed especially for the older
person. Jane Wood, the leader, is highly qualified and skilled with our age group. Jane has written a series of newsletters for 'Healthy Living' which can be accessed through the Keep Fit page on the web site.
person. Jane Wood, the leader, is highly qualified and skilled with our age group. Jane has written a series of newsletters for 'Healthy Living' which can be accessed through the Keep Fit page on the web site.
Our annual lunch will be in the Easter holidays. More detail later.
It is essential to be a member of the Harrogate U3A to join. Please contact Val Cooke by email for more information.
Val Cooke
The January meeting was indoors to avoid any bad weather. We had our usual AGM where we discussed the programme for 2008 and introduced new members to the group and explained the administrative procedures that we were adopting for the New Year.
This was followed by a talk on ‘The Wildlife of Kensington Park – London’.
The talk was give by one of our members Tony Wilson who regularly visits the area and photographs the wildlife while taking his family on walks. It was eye-opening to see the variety of plants, animals and birds that live in the centre of London. Everyone enjoyed the talk which was followed by tea and biscuits before we all dispersed after a pleasant afternoon.
The next meeting is indoors at Community House when we will be looking at recording wildlife, phenology and the veteran tree programme run by the Woodland Trust.
Ian Wallace
The Autumn of 2007 was an eventful time for us. Being refugees from our usual home our search for new premises took us to Starbeck. Here we found excellent facilities at the Methodist Church Hall, except for one thing – many of our members found the acoustics to be noisy, disturbing concentration and causing difficulty in hearing announcements.
However we bravely soldiered on with our planned programme of drawing and painting which included several challenging projects – how do you draw a transparent plastic bag?
Perhaps the most demanding was “Just an idea”. Trying to paint an idea made you long to go back to the plastic bags!.
A small group of our members, including Peter, enjoyed a trip to Florence, taking in the magnificent scenery and architecture of Tuscany and returning with lots of sun-filled photos and sketches.
The two weeks prior to our Christmas break were devoted to fun and games. This included our now traditional art game in which each member draws and paints a small part of a large picture. This requires constant checks with your neighbours to ensure that the lines and colours of the adjoining pieces would correspond at least roughly with your own. Peter then proceeds to assemble the pieces, bringing order out of chaos and hopefully revealing a pleasing result.
Our final session consisted of a buffet lunch preceded by a photo quiz in which we attempted to match members with photos from their infancy or childhood. This proved much more difficult than it sounds, especially as it was evident that several members had cunningly disguised themselves with grey hair and glasses since the photo was taken!!!
2008 starts with another move, this time to St Andrews, Starbeck, but we still live in hope that the Convent will welcome us back eventually. In the meantime we meet on Tuesday each week. Details from Peter Kearney.
Bill Mallinson
We ended the theme of female philosophers by looking at the life and work of Simone de Beauvoir, the long time lover of Jean Paul Sartre, and her contribution to the ideas of the Existential movement. We found that it was somewhat difficult to separate her input from his as they worked very much together, but she was a major figure in her own right. We then looked at another major philosopher of the 20th century, Karl Popper, a man of immense intellect, who discussed ideas of philosophy and relativity with Albert Einstein. His major contribution to philosophy was his idea of ‘falsifying’ a theory before accepting its validity. The term is somewhat confusing but means to try and prove whether an idea is wrong, or false, before accepting that it is correct. The accepted method was simply to repeat tests to prove an idea was correct. Many eminent scientists hold his philosophies in great regard. This year we shall be looking at some of the modern philosophers, starting with the American Pragmatists, and then moving on to the ‘logical positivism’ of such as Bertrand Russell and A. J. Ayres. We shall also make time for a couple of ethical discussions.
If you are interested in joining us contact me by email.
David Broadley