Issue 33
June 2009
Group News cont’d
The group continues to meet on the First and Third Wednesdays at 2pm in Hampsthwaite Village Room. As expected for the summer months the numbers are down but still allow us to have two or three tables each week.
Members are now generally familiar with the basics but not yet always recording scores. This is desirable to increase competitiveness. It is traditionally a gambling game!
We next have to try to learn strategies for winning and perhaps drawing games to reduce losses.
We will continue to meet until the end of July, take a break in August, and re-
Chris Rush
The April outing involved a half days walk round Brimham Rocks and the adjacent countryside. We started by looking at the geology of the rocks to investigate how they were formed and laid down millions of years ago and how, during recent times, glaciation and weathering have sculpted the rocks into their present form. We also saw how early colonisation of the rocks took place with an initial covering of lichens and mosses followed by grasses and other flowering plants.
It was rather early in the year for some of the plant life but there were plenty
of early spring flowers out. Some of the plants that we saw were bluebells, wood
anemone, wood sorrel, golden saxifrage, wood sage and ramsons. The birds were also
out and about, we heard a green woodpecker and curlew as well as seeing small woodland
birds such as the tit family and a tree-
The May meet was a whole day spent at Malham Tarn. We had a look at the geology of
the area to see how the tarn was formed and the surrounding cliffs and limestone
pavement. Next we investigated the upland grassland and found a good display of early
plants including bird’s-
The fen was rather disappointing as there had been little rain and the fen was very dry over large areas. This meant that the fen plants were not there in their usual profusion. We did see the globe flower, bog bean, a range of sedges and the bog asphodel. A tired party then made its way back to the cars to finish off the day with a welcome cup of tea.
Ian Wallace
We started weekly meetings on 21 April with Still Life drawing and nine members present. The present list has about 12 names, with another lady wanting to join us in June, when family commitments allow, and we think that the room has space for about 16 to work comfortably.
This past week eight of us tried our hand at drawing shoes -
Margaret Willan
The Tuesday group is now looking at Plato and will continue to do so at the next
meeting, in May, when we will look at his analogy of ‘The Cave and The Sunlight’
and also have another look at his theory of the ‘Forms’. For our last meeting of
this academic year we shall have an ethical discussion on ‘Who is responsible for
our children’s welfare, parents OR state?’ There is now space for another couple
of members in this group. The Friday group had a discussion on Nihilism, the general
opinion was that there is not much future in the activity. In April we had a light-
David Broadley