Our Speaker this month was local naturalist Tony Brown who delivered a very interesting talk on Fascinating Fungi, with a wonderful slide-show of photographs he had taken over many years.

We were introduced to a wide variety of edible fungi, however, one important fact that we all learned was that although it might be very tempting to forage and pick your own mushrooms, some wild mushrooms are deadly poisonous and must never be eaten. I think I'll stick to Tesco's

We welcomed back Annette Hurt who had talked to us back in June about growing tomatoes. This time he husband Ray Hurt was our speaker with his talk on Bee Keeping. We were shown the construction of a bee hive and learnt about the life cycle of a honey bee. It was no surprise to hear that there are three types of honey bees, Queens, Workers and Drones, the Workers being all female.   Worker bees are sterile females who do all of the foraging, feeding of young, honey production and storage, wax production, cleaning, and defending the hive against intruders. While the sole purpose of male drones, is to spread the genetics of the colony by mating with virgin queens from other colonies. Unsuccessful drones return to the hive to eat honey and pollen. No change there then 😊

The meeting this month didn’t start well with the projector refusing to work. However, with everyone rallying round we still managed to have an entertaining afternoon with a gardening quiz, a flowerpot game and everyone winning a prize. Topped off with tea and cake, all seemed to go well.

With fingers crossed, we set up the projector once more and this time we were successful. The hanging basket dvd was very enlightening and some of the displays on show quite breathtaking. Notes were taken and ideas recorded by some hoping to get ahead of the game for next year. The monthly hand-out, with jobs for the June/July and the monthly quiz was appreciated by everyone, as were the afternoon refreshments.

For the July meeting we welcomed back our friend and speaker Annette Hurt, who entertained us with her talk on Gardening Naturally – Changing from Chemicals to Nature. As always with Annette, we were enthralled to hear of the natural ways of deterring both weeds and bugs with homemade potions and sprays, look out slugs and black spot we are on the case.

See report above

Maggie Swinfen talked about the Local Nature Recovery Strategy on behalf of the Norfolk & Suffolk Nature Recovery Partnership. A new, collaborative approach to restoring and protecting biodiversity in Norfolk and Suffolk . If you missed the meeting, here is a copy of her presentation:

Norfolk & Suffolk Nature Recovery Presentation

If you have any further questions regarding the presentation, please email naturalnorfolk@norfolk.gov.uk