THERE was a good attendance at the April meeting when the president welcomed everyone. After the usual business formalities, discussion took place regarding our outing in August, which will be to Gloucester Docks. This will be finalised very soon.

Several members wished to go to the spring rally and names were taken for this. Anne Meredith (who is training to be a WIA) told us of several invitations she had accepted from other institutes and thoroughly enjoyed these.

Pauline has sent our tea tokens to Taylors of Yorkshire for the Trees For Life scheme.

We then had a very interesting talk by Garth Lowe on Bats And Badgers. Garth brought slides and told us very many stories about them. His interest started when he worked at the Knapp and Papermill Nature Reserve and he spent many hours taking photographs of badgers, as they are mainly nocturnal.

Bats are fascinating creatures and, anyone who has them in their loft should leave them alone. There are more than 100 species and they are not blind as many people believe.

The competition for anything unusual beginning with the letter B was won by Beryl Kettle, with Doris Francis, second, and Cicely Barnes, third. Teas were served by Deanna and helpers.

We meet on the third Wednesday of each month in the parish hall at 7.30pm. Why not come and join us?