Rotary planting in Cale Park

Having chosen some magnificent plants last week, Roger, Sally and Jennie (in suitable gardening gear) took a vast selection of forks, spades, rakes and buckets onto the strip of land, on quite a steep slope, which Rotarians had cleared and painted the railings on last year.  Luckily Roger has skiing experience so he bravely mastered the slopes to plant

 

whilst Jennie and Sally passed over plants, gave advice and generally encouraged.  Sally managed all the water from the river, no photos but without it the plants would not have looked so good.  Now we hope the weekend won’t be too hot so that they can display themselves at their best for the summer.

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A Night at the Bakery

Last Thursday Brue Valley Rotary visited the bakery of ‘Burns the Bread’ and were warmly welcomed by Bob Burns, his daughter Terri and Grandson Carey.  After an amusing introductory talk we were guided around the bakery and invited to crimp some of their famous pasties – prizes would be awarded!  We learned about the many and varied pastry items produced daily by the bakery for their 7 shops, baked freshly and delivered early each day – not a job for layabeds…………

After our tour we enjoyed a buffet comprising goodies from the shop and a pleasant glass of something refreshing.  If you are ever offered an opportunity to visit the bakery it should not be missed.   All monies raised through donations on tour nights goes directly to St Margaret’s Hospice which Bob has been supporting for a number of years, well done and thanks Bob.

Oh, by the way, the prize crimper was President elect Mike Kew, well done.

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After the Royal Visit

Following on from Thursday’s Royal Visit by HM The Queen, Brue Valley Rotary hosted the weekly coffee morning at the Community Hall in Bruton.  Although the turnout was slightly below usual, exhaustion from Thursday was suggested, there was a strong team of Rotarians on hand to make things run smoothly.  With home made cakes, books, bric-a-brac and the magnificent raffle on offer, Rotary funds benefitted by more than £126 from the event.

A challenge for the forthcoming Castle Cary coffee morning !

 

SKI ROTARY 2019

Our arrival at the Hotel Beau Regarde in Morzine wasn’t auspicious. Its formidable proprietor, Madame Claire, immediately itemising hotel rules including: breakfast service starting at 07:40, the lift being switched off at 23:00, the doors and staircases to be used after 23:00 and dinner arrival between 19:30 and 20:00 only. Rooms were allocated in a military fashion and we were lucky to have ended up with the correct partners.  We grew to love her and she us.

Our week in Morzine found the skiers enjoying some good skiing in the four days of  sunshine,  There was one truly miserable morning where the mixture of horizontal snow, sleet and rain resulted in very poor visibility; morale sagged necessitating a coffee avec rhum stop. Whilst spirits were lifting the entire lift system was switched off due to thunder and lightning. The only exit from the valley where we found ourselves being a significant walk up the mountainside in deep snow.  Subsequently we found ourselves skiing down a snowbound D354 road back to civilisation. The courage of the Ski Rotary Team in coping with adversity should not be underestimated.  Chairlift exiting technique was, on occasions, lamentable with two or three highly embarrassing incidents which are best not recounted.

The skiing highlight of the week must surely be Sandra skiing her first black run – she needed and deserved the subsequent vin chaud

.The walkers, Madam President, Anne and Philippa were out in all weathers.. They enjoyed two excellent blue sky days high on the cross country ski piste. Walking wasn’t confined to the mountains. Lakeside and riverside adventures  were taken in their stride despite walking through forest and past chainlink fences as lightening flashed around them. Gourmet hot chocolates and crepes provided a regular morale boost. Unlike the skiers embarrassing moments didn’t feature.

As in previous years the walkers and skiers met up for a lunch. This year we used a rainy morning to play pool, table tennis and chat – a delicious lunch preceded by beers. followed.

The hotel’s food was good including an excellent evening cheeseboard and a sociable communal fondue evening.  Many bottles were sunk. A surprising and welcome development this year was it being rare for any of the party to retire to slumberland much before 21:45 !!!

It was a good trip – perhaps we’ll do another in 2020 – if so do think about joining us.

Brue Valley through to next round of Skittles

Brue Valley played Shepton Mallet Club in the interclub skittles tournament
and it was a very tight match. Brue Valley just got to the winning post by one point! 307 – 306. So we are now through to the next round – the quarter finals. Many thanks to Shepton Mallet who hosted this game.<img

Youth Speaks Very Well

Examples of memorable public oratory are still studied years after their delivery; one has only to think of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address or Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream ” speech at the Washington Monument. Tonight we had the privilege of listening to memorable oratory from three schools competing in the District 1200 Intermediate Age Group Area Central Final of “Youth Speaks”. Each school  chose a very different subject – Ansford Academy provided a confident presentation on “Return to Aberfan”; Sherbourne Prep School spoke on ” Happiness Cannot be Bought” and a young team from Sunninghill School, Dorchester gave an excellent and amusing insight on “Should Rugby Be Played in Schools”.  The Best Speaker emerged from the latter with Ansford Academy being the winners. Several members of Brue Valley were in attendance to enjoy both the rhetoric and our President presenting awards and medals. Exhausted by the intellectual effort we repaired to the Natterjack afterwards for banter, beer and food.      RW