The Mercury September-October 2019

CONTENTS :

1.Presidents piece

2. Proverbs

3 Climate Emergency

4. Kenyan Rugby Patrons

1. Presidents Piece

It was a sad start to the year when Sandy Gibson died. He

was a Rotarian for nearly 40 years and he exemplified all of

the Rotary  Ideals. One of my fondest memories of Sandy

was when we reached the top of Snowden in thick cloud,

and realised that we still had to find the energy to come

back down. When Sandy joined Rotary on the 10th of May

1982 life was very different.

My ambition for this year is to make our club more attractive

to potential new younger members.

On a brighter note we have been lucky with the weather for

the Barbecue, the Steam Rally and our trip to Cardiff for the

Rugby. My thanks to Bruce and Brian for the tremendous

effort they put in to organising these events.

We can now look forward to The Last Night of the Proms in

Birmingham and a visit to the Mosque, both organised by

Martin Burton who does these things so well.

Keith has organised a few days away in Chichester, fingers

crossed for our luck with the weather to continue.

Our new project on Eco Greenhouses will get underway

when David Pedlar comes to talk to us on the 16th of

September. Don’t forget we are starting that meeting at

7.15 on September 16 th

I have received an invitation from Inner Wheel President

Kathryn for us to join them at their Meeting on 1st of

October. This will be a special celebration evening with

Andrew entertaining us with Songs from the Shows, please

let Jenny Burton know if you wish to attend.

Brian

2. Proverbs

Perspiration

Here's a little proverb you surely ought to know;

Horses sweat and men perspire but ladies only glow.

Gas on the stomach

What you lose of pride and dignity

You gain in comfort and benignity.

Reason for proverbs

The reason for proverbs is readily seen:

Thus the old and the grey teach the young and the green;

So if you are grey you can take them as red,

But if green they will make you see red, instead.

Wisdom

Some men are wise,

And some are otherwise.

Gravity (Scots traditional)

The gravest fish is an oyster,

The gravest bird is an owl,

The gravest beast is an ass,

An' the gravest man is a fule.

In praise of ale

He that buys land buys many stones,

He that buys flesh buys many bones,

He that buys eggs buys many shells,

Bu he that buys good ale buys nothing else.

3. Climate Emergency

I make no apology for articles on this urgent topic, as I think it

is essential to keep the spotlight on events related to clmate change.

Close to home – at least in this country – in the last two

months we have seen three extreme weather events. There

have been two severe heat waves, admittedly short, and of

course the excessive rainfall which threatened to breach a

dam in Whaley Bridge which had stood for 200 years.

Further afield we continue to see reports of glaciers shrinking

at even greater rates than previously predicted and the

Greenland ice sheet melting at an increasing rate.

Without being too political, these facts are mainly confined to

the inside pages of the media and other short term problems

are more prominent.

The climate change aspect of the environment has been

around for some time. More recently we have heard about the

possibly more severe problem of plastic pollution. 

This small excerpt from the media (horrible word) gives a different 

slant on this problem.

Headed "The prime minister of plastic pollution" ,  it reads:-

Last week I was on my hands an knees in the rain on the

beach at Cable Bay in Anglesey. With me was an environmental scientist,

who was pointing out all the tiny fragments of plastic in the sand.

“We have to turn off the plastic tap” he said. He showed me a photo of the 

prime minister at a desk with two plastic bottles and a takeaway cup

in front of him. “One day,” he said “I hope this picture looks as

dated as if he were smoking or wearing a top hat”. Here's hoping!

4. Kenyan Rugby Patrons

The club agreed unanimously to support this Kenyan Kids Rugby Patrons with a donation of £100, Matched by Jeremy Jackson's donation of a further £100.