WEDNESDAY CLUB: The meeting held in King Georges Hall on April 11 was the first under the chairmanship of the newly elected chairman, Mrs Joan Chaloner, and was listed in the programme as 'Lebos - a Greek island - slides'! The speaker was recognised immediately as being a very good photographer and that he has visited the club on several occasions previously, he was Mr Jim Clarke and in spite of the title, things seemed promising. And so they were! The talk covered a holiday in Lebos and we were quickly introduced, through the slides to the feature of the island and the principal town with its attractive painted houses, its markets and its harbour. Then things got down to the really serious stuff in which Jim was so very interested in birds. It quickly became apparent that the choice of Lebos for the holiday was centred on the fact that the island lies on the flight path of thousand of migratory birds arriving in the spring months bound for Europe from Africa. The slides were projected in rapid succession and covered a range of subjects besides birds and included portraiture of local fisher-folk, harbour scenes, wild flowers, butterflies, lizards and frogs plus of course, wading birds in the salt flat and field birds. To delight the eye, we had avocets stilts, storks, flamingo's, herons and bitterns, whilst on dry land - so to speak, we saw bee-eaters, corn buntings, owls, larks and even woodpeckers though perhaps the last one might not have been going anywhere north of the Greek islands. All in all a fascinating afternoon and much enjoyed by all and particularly by Norbet Halama who gave the vote of thanks on behalf of around 30 members present. Programme secretary, Mrs Marie Phillipson advised members on progress made in arranging the forthcoming outing on May 9, when the club goes by coach to Bewdley. Our destination is the George Hotel for lunch and afterwards the party travels on to the Webbs Garden Centre at Droitwich for an hour. This sounds very promising too.

GARDENING CLUB: Barbara Knight gave an insight into the planting and care of the herbaceous border, which was designed originally to lead the eye onto further views and to give a permanent plant display. Slides of Waterperry, Hidcote and Sissinghurst illustrated this. Mixed borders including shrubs and roses are more usual now, as these days we do all our own work. There were some guidelines to follow. The width of the border depends on the height of the background, plants should tumble over at the front rather than having a straight edge and a hard surface here is easier for maintenance. A rich loam and manure help plants grow from ground level up to six feet. Staking aims to be invisible when the flowers are fully out, though a big peony might need seven canes and cats cradle in between. Tall plants go to the back of the border, and differently shaped ones are included, such as the sword leafed iris, the broad leaved hosta, the rounded shape of euphorbia and the spires of delphinium. Pastel shaded plants are best. Too much bright red is too strident. Some plants start flowering in the spring and others last right up to the frosts. Herbaceous borders make a wonderful display of flowers throughout the summer. Sarah Lancaster thanked the speaker for her talk and beautiful slides and for sending us away wiser than when we came. Gay Rochfort won the tabletop competition with her blue and yellow posy.