We had the sunniest April on record, with 47% more sunshine hours than the long-term average. It was also the third-warmest April on record and the spring season so far has been the driest in over a century. The driest April on record in the UK was 1938, with only 14.1mm of rain recorded. The next driest was 1974, with 14.6mm of rain. More recent driest Aprils include 2007 (26.6mm) and 2020 (29.1mm). It’s now starting to affect the crops, but we know the rain won’t stay away for long.
Two of our committee members have decided to cut back on the work, through problems with their health. Gladly Geoff Nixon and Lynne Davies will be staying on in an ad-hoc basis. We value any help from all and greatly welcome anyone who would like to join the committee and get involved with organising events. Geoff’s wife, Jo, will still continue making her fabulous handmake cards for the Society, which are available at our coffee mornings.
There has been a short delay in organising our yearly outing, hopefully it will be to Blists Hill, Pam will report more later when we have more information. We had another bit of sad news in April, Trevor McFarlane passed away. Trevor was a good friend to the Society. We have also lost one of our members, Mac Meredith. Our deepest sympathy to their families. As you can see I’m now back as Chairman, nobody wished to take it on and bang the gavel, so my time away from the Chairmanship was brief to say the least.