INDOOR MEETINGS 2009

Meetings are held at Haslemere Educational Museum, High Street, Haslemere and with the exception of the AGM, are open to both Museum and Natural History Society members without charge. 

Guests are always welcome, and the Society would be grateful for a donation of £2.00 from non-members.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS  

FEBRUARY 2010        Saturday 13th         2.15 p.m.
A HISTORY OF PEREGRINES IN SUSSEX, 1904-2009
Speaker: Phil Everitt, Sussex Peregrine Study (SPS)
Phil has been studying raptors for many years, in particular honey buzzards, hen harriers and peregrines. Two local falconers. Bart Atfield and Jon Franklin, began monitoring the Sussex peregrine population in the late 1980s and established SPS following their discovery of the first successful breeding attempt of the post-pesticide recovery. Phil joined SPS in 2005, following Bart's untimely death. Drawing on the unpublished diaries of John Walpole-Bond, SPS data and Sussex Ornithological Society records, his talk will outline me history of the species in the county from 1904 to the present day.

MARCH 2010             Saturday 13th         2.15 p.m.
FOLLOWING THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE VICTORIAN ARTIST, MARIANNE NORTH, IN INDIA 1877-79
Speaker: Miss Laura Ponsonby
Laura has retraced parts of the extensive tour which Marianne North undertook in India, including Rajasthan, Delhi, Darjeeling and Calcutta. She will describe the artist's encounters with some notable people and will show some of the places and exotic flora Marianne North painted. Laura will also talk about the recently-restored gallery which Marianne North donated to Kew to house her paintings.

APRIL 2010
AGM AND TALK         Saturday 17^th          2.15 p.m.             
After the meeting, Ian Neilson (Honorary Beekeeper at Haslemere Museum) will talk about BEE HUSBANDRY.  A beekeeper since 1984, Ian looked after the Museum’s bees from 1994-2002.  Following six years abroad, he is again looking after the collections.  His talk will include an overview of the beekeeper’s year and how this relates to the life of the honeybee and colony.  He will show a small selection of equipment to illustrate ancient and modern methods of husbandry.   
 

PAST EVENTS 2009

NOVEMBER 2009       
Saturday 14th            
OCEANIC PLANKTON IN THE ABYSS
Speaker Martin Angel
The two cruises in the Atlantic in which Martin had taken part for the international Census on Marine Life had been on a research ship travelling from Bremerhaven to service German stations in the Antarctic.  His talk showed how the zooplankton had adapted to their niche in the thousands of metres below.  For most, their form and colour was a defence against predation.  Form might involve spines, hydroids, luminous tips to pincers, tail and armpits, a flashing “fishing rod”.  Colour might be absent and the animal be transparent, it might have white pigment “mirrors” on its sides to reflect light;  near the surface it might be blue, or below 1,000 metres where there is no light,  red.  Martin’s photographs showed these animals, strange to most of us, in pristine condition – they had been photographed on the boat.  It was a revelation to us to see life from so deep down in the ocean.

APRIL 2009
Saturday 18^th                                       
AGM AND TALK
After the AGM, Bruce Middleton (Northern Area Manager with the South Downs Joint Committee) gave atalk about "Protecting the Western Weald".
It was a pleasure to be reminded of the mosaic of features which make up the Weald and the importance of the natural history unique to each.  Bruce’s photos showed the habitats and, inset, one or two of the species associated with them.  It was a very deft demonstration of natural history subjects in the context of their natural surroundings.  He described the management needed to sustain some of them, the changes in farming practices and woodland industries, the impact on wildlife and the role of the South Downs Joint Committee.

MARCH 2009
Saturday 14^th                        .
FROM THE SEA TO THE SKY
Speaker:  Dr Peter Brandham
A botanical visit, starting from sea level at the temperate Olympic peninsular west of Seattle, Canada, through alpine meadows, the Cascade Mountains of the USA and rising to the mountain heights of the Columbia Icefield in the Canadian Rockies.
Dr Brandham's superb photographs emphasised each plant in its habitat (with the subject in focus and the surroundings out of focus) and included yellow lupins, fritillaries, a tiny twayblade, a red saprophytic orchid and yellow violets. (All violets are yellow in that region). To obtain good photographs Dr Brandham explained techniques such as framing the scene with trees or vegetation and photographing the subject against the
light.

FEBRUARY 2009           
Saturday 14^th                         
WOODLAND CRAFTS AND INDUSTRIES
Speaker:  Tim Winter
A very well attended talk at the museum. Tim Winter’s interest was fostered through his hobby of collecting postcards.  In the first part of his talk he concentrated on large trees, illustrating how they were felled and transported.  We saw pictures of an 18^th/19^th Century saw-pit, women felling Scots Pine for pit props as part of the War effort, how oak bark was used for its tannin and how English clogs were made.  Tim described the long history of charcoal-burning and how faggots, the waste material from the walking-stick factory in Godalming, were used in bread-making and also donated to the bonfire at Chiddingfold.
Tim then introduced his audience to crafts from coppiced woodland.Chair bodgers were specialist turners who worked green beechwood.Other products, many of them local, included hop poles, washing pegs, salmon or eel traps and lobster pots, barrel hoops, wooden rakes, besom brooms, and willow trug baskets (popularised through Queen Victoria’s patronage of Mr Smith in Herstmonceaux and the 1851 Great Exhibition)!    

JANUARY 2009
Saturday 10^th                       
2001 -  A SIKKIM ODYSSEY   
Speaker:  David Lang
David braved icy roads from East Sussex to share the experiences of his “2001 Sikkim Odyssey”.  His enthusiasm for the country, its people and its flora was infectious.  His plan was to explore the valleys to the north, towards the Tibetan border.  After some time in Gangkok waiting for a “protected area permit”, the group travelled to Lachung, recording several orchids.   Up the valley was a forest reserve but wholesale logging, under armed guard, had devastated the area.  As they climbed, so David was able to find and photograph more and more alpine plants.  Tea with two elderly ladies, who were in the mountains for the summer with their yaks, provided warmth and merriment.  Higher still the glaciers showed signs of retreating and hillsides had disappeared with landslides.  Mists, rain, low cloud and snow made much of the trip hard work.  At last the expedition reached the track leading to Lhasa and was rewarded with breathtaking views of the ice-capped Khangchenjyao and carpets of flowers.   It was an exciting and moving experience to hear about the “Cloud Kingdom”.