August at a Glance For sailing dates please see

‘Sailing’ section

Monday 5 August Country Dancing

Tuesday 6 August Croquet

Wednesday 7 August Walking

Thursday 8 August Creative Writing

Friday 9 August Voices of Hickling

Friday 9 August Summer Social

Monday 12 August Country Dancing

Tuesday 13 August Croquet

Thursday 15 August British History

Monday 19 August Blurr

Tuesday 20 August Croquet

Wednesday 21 August Pub Lunches

Friday 23 August (No Art session)

Monday 26 August Gourmet Diggers

Tuesday 27 August Croquet

Monday 2 September Country Dancing

Tuesday 3 September Croquet

Wednesday 4 September Bookworms

Wednesday 4 September Walking

Monday 9 September Country Dancing

Thursday 12 September Creative Writing

Friday 13 September Voices of Hickling

Friday 13 September Main meeting

HBU3A Committee Monthly Update

We would like to thank everyone for attending our meeting on 12th July when Jenny Gibbs gave her talk on “A Turkish Shirley Valentine”. Jenny told us about the extraordinary changes to her life that that her first trip abroad at age 50 brought about. This was a fascinating and entertaining story of Jenny’s life in Turkey. She also brought her own small Bazaar of scarves and trinkets for purchase and kindly made a donation to the U3A from the proceeds of her sales. We are all very sad that our dear friend and committee member Julie Liggitt is leaving the area. Julie has been a loyal, hard-working and creative member of our committee and we will miss her. We wish both Julie and her husband John good fortune and happiness in their new home. Our next meeting is on the 9th August at 2pm and is our annual summer social and interest group extravaganza! We will be enjoying hot dogs and a glass of wine (if you choose) while being entertained by local band “Wrong Direction” Our many interest groups will have displays and tea and home-made cake will also be served as usual.

August 2019

Our July Meeting

Our ‘Turkish Shirley Valentine’, Jenny Gibbs gave us a very entertaining and fascinating talk on her adventures in Turkey. Having set off on her first ever trip abroad, aged 50, and being terrified of water, she found herself on a cruise around the Turkish coast - and in the most beautiful place she had ever seen. So she decided to live there! In a twist of fate, on her return home she was asked whether she wished to take voluntary redundancy – and so the adventure began.

Dressed in traditional Turkish costume Jenny took us on a hilarious trip through her early days, months and years in Turkey. We learned how she eventually mastered the language and the culture, became part of a mountain village community and met her future partner.

Jenny also brought along some beautiful hand-made items from her village for us to purchase if we wished.

Next Members Meeting in the Barn: Friday 9 August – Summer Social and Networking

BLURR – The Camera Group: 3rd Monday (2:00-4:00pm) at Hickling Barn A wide range of landscape aspects were submitted by 9 members, and again members were asked to consider whether compositions could be improved by judicial use of cloning, with reference to the ‘Main Point of Focus’ and ‘The Rule of Thirds’. The 2 landscapes chosen for this month were Janice’s ‘Summer Flowers’ and Ted’s ‘Benches at Gooderstone’. 2 practicals were undertaken this month: The Hickling Strawberry Fair and Blickling: 3 members submitted images for each practical. As a follow up to Martin’s tutorial from last month, we tried creating multiplicity images, using Layers and Masks in Photoshop or Affinity. Sue ran through an example she constructed earlier, accompanied by a handout. These will be viewed next month.

News from our Interest Groups

Art: 4th Friday (2:00 – 4:00pm) in the Methodist Hall The Art Group meet on the 4th Friday each month. We take a break in August due to holidays etc and from 27 September the group will be held at the Barn in Hickling 2pm – 4pm. The cost is just £1 per person which includes tea, coffee and possibly biscuits.

We use all kinds of materials from watercolours to pencil and there is always someone on hand to give you the benefit of their experience.

Please come along if you would like to give it a try. Or you can email me for more information on what's in store for the coming year.

Group Contact Co-ordinator This month all the interest groups have an opportunity to give a display of what they are about and when they meet. I look forward to seeing everyone at the monthly meeting.

British History: 3rd Thursday (2:00 pm)

Country Dancing

Bookworms – Reading Group: 1st Wednesday (pm) Bookworms meet on the first Wednesday of the month and we take turns to host our meetings. The host will have chosen the book to be discussed. At our last meeting on 3 July we discussed A Night on the Orient Express by Veronica Henry. This was Julie's second choice of book as her first choice,The Cellist of Sarajevo, wasn't available from the library. Below is Julie's summary: We all agreed that enjoyable though it was, 'A Night on the Orient Express' (not to be confused with Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie), was very light weight and a good holiday or long journey read. Some good characters but a little far fetched in places. Overall we rated the book 8/10. As Julie will be moving house very soon, this was her last Bookworms and to mark the occasion we raised a glass and wished her and her husband John well in their new home. We gave her flowers and a copy of the Cellist of Sarajevo, Julie's first choice book for this month, as a parting gift to remember us by. Bookworms take a break in August and will resume on 4 September with Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

Cycling: 3rd Thursday Watch this space for details of the start of the cycling group this year.

Gourmet Diggers: 4th Monday (2:00-4:00 pm) We were very lucky that the sun shone for us on our Gourmet Diggers outing to Long Meadows Gardens in Potter Heigham.We we’re welcomed by the owner Wendy Parker and her Gardener, who gave us a guided tour. The garden is divided into several sections reached by winding paths and arches. A well stocked vegetable garden, fruit garden, wild garden, children’s play area and a lovely wildlife pond made up for what is a delightful garden. Lots to see. We finished off our visit with tea and cakes sitting under the gazebo. A lovely way to spend a summer afternoon.

Croquet: Tuesday mornings

Creative Writing

We meet on the second Thursday of every month and no one is expected to be Shakespeare. Most people have a writer in there somewhere, or even just want to bring and read and discuss favourite poems or prose. Meetings are informal and, hopefully, informative and fun. We have room for more members!

Let’s Discuss It: 2nd Thursday (2:00-4:00 pm)

The discussion group held its final meeting this month. We had an extremely enjoyable time starting with a glass of champagne to celebrate how much we have enjoyed attending the group. We had an enlightening and stimulating discussion about Space Exploration as our last topic. The discussion group has now closed. However, we are keen to try to continue our group in a new form. Perhaps a study group? Initial ideas are; We sign up for a FREE open university or U3A online course. We would all study the same course at the same time. Meeting up once a month to discuss, share, support, study the course website (displaying it on the TV at the venue) and perhaps have video conferencing for those members unable to attend.

The subjects at the OU look to be very stimulating. Some of us will start with Reading and note taking, preparation for study followed by an interesting OU topic, examples: Disorder, young people and delinquency, The value of coffee, problem populations and problem places. There are hundreds of free courses on the OU website.

Are you interested in helping create this group or just want to find out more? Use the website Contact page.

Voices of Hickling: 2nd Friday (11:30 – 1:00 pm)

The group continues to record the memories of the villagers and develop the Voices website.

Sailing: alternate Wednesday and Friday mornings throughout the summer

Newbies Sail Thursdays 8th & 22nd August, and 5th & 19th September. Main Group August Sails: Fri 9th, Wed 14th, Fri 23rd, Wed 28th. September Sails: Fri 6th, Wed 11th, Fri 20th and Wed 25th. All the Newbies are enjoying their course and are most enthusiastic! Fridays seem a more popular day to sail for our main group. We are significantly lower on numbers for Wednesdays this season due to a number of valid reasons but it has really surprised us! Not once have I had to disappoint anyone because there was not a place! If this situation occurs, I always book our members onto the next available preferred date. In any case everyone appears to be sailing quite happily!

Pub Lunches: 3rd Wednesday

We chose to visit the Poacher’s Pocket in order that we could view the sandscaping which had just started along the beach as part of the sea defences. Phil, one of lunchers who lives nearby, explained what was happening and we could see the “dredger” out to sea waiting for its return visit. Some of us went along to the Information Centre after the lunch to find out more.

The Poacher’s Pocket is easy to find as it is on the coast road through Walcott. There is a large car park, and some outside seating which overlooks the sea. We were seated inside with half of us able to appreciate the views through the window. The pub scores well on menu choices + two chef’s specials, and about average on all other elements. Nobody managed to have space for a pudding, but several had coffee or tea. Everybody seemed happy with their lunch and all said they would visit again.

Our next Pub Lunch will be at 12.15pm on Wednesday 21 August at The Lighthouse in Walcott. Please let me know if you are coming by Saturday 17 August - there is no need to pre-order.

Friday 9 August 2019 Summer Social and Interest Group Networking event

This is a space for all of our members to use. If you have anything to tell us, maybe something you’ve done, or an event that’s coming up that you think other members would enjoy, or perhaps you have something to sell or donate that someone else might need. Just see any committee member at our monthly meeting or email Rose at hbu3anews@gmail.com with a brief description and maybe a photo. Space permitting, we will include it in a subsequent newsletter.

Walking: 1st Wednesday at 10:00 am The July walk began from the car park at the Recruiting Sergeant in Horsford. Walking towards Coltishall, we crossed the footbridge over the river turning immediately left to follow the riverside path. It is quite overgrown at this time of year but provides a pretty waterside walk. We eventually arrived at a country lane which we followed until reaching a footpath on the left which took us back through fields and woodlands to the lane back into Horsford where we enjoyed a very good lunch at the pub.

Wildlife Walks: 2nd Monday (2:00-4:00 pm)

If anyone is interested in resuming the Wildlife Walks can they please contact via the website. If there is enough interest the idea is to run it together as a group sharing the planning of the walks.

Members Corner

What’s on Next at your Monthly U3A Meetings

All items for the newsletter should be sent to: hbu3anews@gmail.com or see a Committee member at the monthly members meeting in Hickling Barn.

To all Committee and members of HBU3A I would like to thank the Chairman for her good wishes and thanks for my work on the Committee, which she gave at the July meeting, as I depart with my husband for Kent. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Committee Members, Group Contacts and members for their friendship and support during my four years as a member of HBU3A of which three have been as a committee member. I have enjoyed being part of the U3A and hope to join a group Kent: you will be a hard act to follow.

My best wishes for the continued growth and success of HBU3A, and to you all personally Julie Liggitt