Report - April 18th 2024 meeting

Geoff Vian gave us a detailed and interesting account of his memoirs as a TV cameraman interspersed with humorous anecdotes involving many famous names. His career started as an 18 year old General Assistant under training with the BBC leading to being in a camera crew at Shepherds Bush filming Panorama which was where he met Gordon Brown. Filming Z Cars., Black and White Minstrels,  Grandstand with David Colman and Frank Bough and the Goodlife followed, meeting many of the then current stars. Next Blue Peter and the famous elephant incident and Princess Anne’s Sports Personality in ‘71. An opportunity to have a short term transfer to Bristol arose, which he decided to take if it was not permanent, but as it turned out he found himself as a big cog in a smaller wheel rather than vice-versa. Outside filming followed with World Snooker at Sheffield where he met Terry Griffiths in ‘79 who became champion. The game was long, the pace was slow. Geoff was bursting for a pee but had to wait until there was a break. In the toilets he met Terry who volunteered “if you need another toilet break then just give me the wink and I will make a break for you”. More programmes followed with Tony Hart, the BAFTAs, Antique Roadshow, Songs of Praise, Wildlife, and his lifelong passion Cricket. Service abroad with the Troops in Bahrain pre the Gulf War and Jamaica added excitement. Then BANG - in ‘92 the BBC announced redundancy cutbacks. He was just 42. After a difficult period he was offered freelance work with cricket in South Africa, the Winter Olympics in Japan on Bobsleigh, then the Sydney Olympics. Sky used him as freelance on Cricket, Rugby, the Ashes, Tennis, Rio Olympics Triathlon and the Brownlee bros. and even parts of Diana’s funeral. Perhaps one of his proudest times was helping the cricket referees to refine the way that camera shots were used to be the Third Umpire. Many questions were asked before Brian Jones gave the vote of thanks followed by enthusiastic applause.    JBS

Report - March 20th 2024 meeting - "Eswatini"

Jenny Bowen, of Clevedon based Sense Earth Ltd, gave us an interesting and informative talk about a subject that none of us had any previous knowledge of, namely Eswatini.  Eswatini is the former Swaziland, which changed its name when King Mswati 111 (he of the 15 wifes and 45 children) who in 2018 wanted to mark the 50th anniversary of independence. 

A country surrounded by South Africa and Mozambique and about the size of Wales, but with a density of population about half that of Wales’ 3.2 million, has Africa's last absolute monarch and is a member of the Commonwealth.

Jenny illustrated her talk on the culture, customs, lifestyle, national parks, and her lifelong study of the fauna of the wild landscape with her own pictures. An interesting addition was to hear her mouth mimicking sounds of various creatures of the Eswatini country which is rich in African fauna, some of which was re-introduced from other parts of Africa. She finished with a short quiz on the collective names of animals like standing giraffes being a ‘tower’ or when running a ‘journey’. After questions Brian Jones gave a vote of thanks and members responded enthusiastically.

More information on Jenny’s activities can be found on - https://senseearth.co.uk/africa/eswatini/                JBS

Report  Feb 2024   “All that glitters…”

Rodney Gunner, one of our members, gave us an interesting and amusing account of his life when he found that his main occupation needed additional income to support the payments on his mortgage, providing for his six children and his large Volvo motorcar. He found an old carpenter's chest in a skip, took it home and restored it making over £75 in profit. This led to a new business, the restoration of old pine furniture, however the economic crash and changes to people's tastes in furniture resulted in a change of direction. Many big businesses have surplus products at the end of the day and sell them off, in bulk, at low individual unit cost, which provides an opportunity to wholesale these to local small shops if you had the contacts, transport and time to make it happen. Soon the opportunities expanded into minor damaged confectionery that were packed up and sold at street markets. That led to cheap jewellery and watches that were more lucrative and enabled this to become his main source of income. He explained some of the techniques, the tricks, the cons, the ‘plants’, the scams, the ‘giveaways’ and the events that happen in the market that gave rise to the title of his talk. He asked the audience, where did they think that all the surplus product goes from bankrupt.businesses?    He knows, and he outlined some of them.  He finished by throwing a load of giveaways onto our tables and answering questions from members. Members warmly thanked his talk.    JBS

Report Jan 2024 Ham Wall Nature Reserve

Bob Buck gave us an interesting, informative, illustrated and humorous talk on the Ham Wall Nature Reserve and his involvement with it. The reserve was a peat extraction site which partially destroyed its attraction to its former natural species.  Located near Ashcott it is within sight of Glastonbury Tor. The RSPB has mechanically reworked the site in an attempt to attract its former species back to the site with large areas of open water lined with manually planted reed beds. The hard work and effort is now paying off with the return of breeding Bitterns and Marsh Harriers. Many other species are arriving, possibly as a consequence of global warming, like Little, Cattle and Great Egrets and many rarities are now occurring. The whole ecosystem of the marshes has been dramatically improved with Otters and Water Vowles finding it to their liking. The list of species is too numerous to mention here, so check with RSPB and Wikipedia websites. Much work has been carried out to improve access for the public with walkways, trackways, bridges, viewing platforms, hides and even boating.

The main management of the reserve involves cutting the reeds in rotation to rejuvenate the reed beds and prevent their drying out. Two machines are used, an amphibious Truxor tracked reed cutter to harvest wetter areas, and a faster Softrak for islands and where water levels have been lowered. Native breeds of cattle are also used to graze the reed bed margins. The cut reeds are turned into a peat-free compost and sold for domestic use.

Perhaps one of the most dramatic spectacles to see is the Murmuration of Starlings in the winter months but you have to be in the latest right place in the early morning or late evening. The numbers arriving from the surrounding areas are in the 100’s of thousands and at times over a million. Apart from the visual spectacle the sound of their collective wings sounds like gentle waves on the shore as they twist and turn. 

At the end of his presentation and question session he was given a warm vote of thanks and a surprise presentation for his other major activity of running the St George's Flower Bank LNR. This is located on either side of the A359 from Gordano services towards Bristol. Bob started this over 30 years ago and has built a large organisation of volunteers to maintain it. He was presented with an ‘Outstanding’ certificate from the RHS. More information on this nature reserve can be found on their website.

If Probus interests you then go to our website - https://www.hugofox.com/community/portishead-probus-club-20523/home          JBS