MORTON WI

Morton WI met on a cold January evening, but we soon realised that it was not so cold as the subject of the talk - Antarctica. Liz Jayne and Marc travelled to the Antarctic on holiday three years ago and as Marc said you’ve come to see our holiday snaps. This was not really true as Liz had taken more than a thousand pictures and we only saw a small percentage of them. They went with a Norwegian company in the MS Fram, which was built to go through ice, although not classed as an icebraker. There were strict precautions in place not to pollute the area and harm the wild life, eg wellington boots were worn ashore which were disinfected before leaving the ship and on returning. You were not allowed to go closer than 5 meters to the wild life unfortunately nobody had explained that to the penguins who seemed fascinated by humans. They travelled past Cape Horn and through the Beagle Channel and Drakes Passage. Liz treated us to photos of ice bergs that looked like magnificent ice sculptures, to pictures of seals and to quite a few different breeds of penguins. We also discovered from her pictures that penguin poo is pink! They also visited a number of abandoned British Scientific research stations that were abandoned in the 1950’s, inside they looked like they were left last week, with tins of food, Marmite, and bedding still in place. It was obvious listening to Liz that it was a holiday of a life time and one that many of us would love to take, if only it was a bit warmer!

The competition for a Penguin Christmas card was won by Ruth Waite, second was Dorothy Mainwaring and Tina Barnatt was third. The raffle was won by Dorothy Payne.

February’s meeting is on Tuesday 7th and is at 7.30 in the Village Hall and is the Pudding Club and Food Quiz. Members are invited to bring along their favourite puddings for us all to sample, (and a bowl to eat them out of!)
 

New members are always welcome please contact:
Secretary: Tina Barnatt, Tel: 01778 570366