OUR last meeting at St Andrew’s Church (and not St Augustine’s as I said in my last report) on Poolbrook Road was a great success for a variety of reasons, not only for our speaker but also for our littlest member, Bumble, who sat quietly on the floor all through the meeting enthralling everyone and being enthralled by our speaker’s pictures.

Pauline Key brought along some endearing pictures of her alpacas and kept us totally absorbed by her stories of these wonderful animals.

Pauline explained that initially she had acquired them to keep the grass down in her orchard but they soon became her friends and I can understand why. It was fascinating.

Our next meeting will again be a bit different as Elizabeth is determined to stretch our grey matter and has set us a quiz... needless to say to be completed in her absence!

But we will meet at St Andrew’s a bit after 10am on Wednesday, June 6, for coffee and a chat before getting down to the business of the morning. The chat tends to take over which underwrites our determination to be a gathering of old and new friends and to swap news.

Before then we will be meeting up for a pub lunch, meet at noon for 12.30pm at the Blue Bell in Ryall. It is on the A38 about half-a-mile south of the turning for Upton.

Perhaps that is a bit short notice for anyone who did not put their name down but would like to join us for our monthly pub lunch. We are trying to fix on the second Friday of the month, so that folk will know where they are on the calendar whereas our main meeting is on the first Wednesday of the month.

The next lunch will be at the Harvester on the Bath Road just outside the city boundary, on June 15, and after that it will be at the Blue Bell on the Guarlford Road just outside Barnards Green, on July 13.

We have a trip booked for Thursday, July 5, and we will be going by coach to the Herefordshire Hampton Court. Names are being collected and should you wish your friend to be included please make sure that their name is on the list so that we can order a coach to fit us all and no one has to go in the luggage compartment!

Should you need transport to any of these events or need to know more about what we are doing, please contact Alan on 575671 or myself on 592709.

CHRISTINE GLEDHILL