THE May and June meetings at ZEAL MONACHORUM were both well attended.

May speaker, David Follett’s talk “Broken neck to Olympic torch” was such an inspirational record of his life after suffering a life-changing accident in his teens.

His determination and efforts were incredible. We wish him well with his ambition to represent England in the next paralympic badminton event. I am sure he will succeed. A bouquet was presented to Judi as a token of appreciation of her work as speaker’s secretary. Thank you Judi, we all know this is not an easy task. Edna, our most senior and loyal member, celebrated her 90th birthday in May. Margaret, her daughter, provided us with a lovely birthday cake and a good selection of drinks.

After presenting Edna with a bouquet we all tucked into the cake and drinks. Many thanks to Margaret.

The Red Earth Spring council meeting at Down St Mary was attended by six members. It was a most enjoyable evening, a wonderful supper and interesting speaker.

Zeal Monachorum and Down St Mary tied for the Rose Bowl competition which was a “village fete”. Zeal’s fantastic entry was made by Jen S and Jan S and is an amazing piece of craft. Well done to them.

Flower of the month result was tied by three - Marion, Marg D and Jan B. The monthly competition result was: 1 Marg D, 2 Diana, 3 Marian. Marian took the chair at the June meeting, in Jan B’s absence. Matters arising - unfortunately due to not enough support our outing to Paignton Zoo was cancelled.

A sub-committee was formed to arrange our collective exhibit for the WI section at Okehampton Show. The next lunch club will be held on June 22 at RHS Rosemoor at Torrington and weather permitting, we will also view the gardens.

Six members booked to go on at the county walk around the secret places in Okehampton. We agreed to send our proceeds from the July meeting draw to the Denman appeal fund.

Skittles evenings at the Waie Inn began on June 14.

Our speaker was Jane Innis, chair of Crediton University of the Third Age (U3A). She gave a good description of the aims of U3A, i.e. to advance education of learning opportunities for people who are not in full-time employment and who are in the third age (i.e. over retirement age). This proved very interesting with lots of questions and is proving to be a very successful organisation with nationally 330,000 members. Thank you Jane for a wonderful presentation. Flower of the month result: 1 Hazel J, 2 Marian, 3 Jan S and Diana.

The next meeting will be held on July 6 and the speaker will be Kari Bettoney on “Bat rescue”. New members are always welcome. MQ