BCSS Macclesfield & East Cheshire Branch

Newsletter March 2005 - Chairman’s chat

Just a few lines, firstly to say thank you to everyone who turned up for the AGM and, secondly, thanks for voting me in as Chairman again. I’m getting a bit more used to it now, although this newsletter article writing doesn’t come naturally.

A couple of weeks ago, myself, Julia and some tortoise friends went for a day to the Cotswolds Wildlife Park at Burford in Oxfordshire. It was a beautiful day, blue skies and brilliant sunshine, but so very cold. We were very excited and privileged to be allowed into the enclosure of the giant tortoises, and to stroke them They were magnificent and it was a lovely experience. We didn’t spend all day with the tortoises but it was hard to tear ourselves away.

We found a lovely walled garden which had all kinds of birds, spider monkeys and a very nice penguin pool where, if you were brave enough, you could stroke the penguins. There were also meerkats, and an enclosure with otters in. They were running about, with their babies and were not at all bothered by people watching them. In the centre of the walled garden was a large collection of Aloes, Agaves, Opuntias and other succulents, and it was obvious they had been growing there for some time. It just goes to show how hardy these plants can be even in our climate. I wondered how on earth they had not been eaten by slugs or snails. There didn’t seem to be any slug pellets about!

It is a lovely park, well worth the visit if you’re in the area. We even found some “hibernating bananas” all wrapped up in their sackcloths. I bet this garden is delight in the summer.

Well, so much for my day out. My next port of call is Dublin where, I have heard, there is a botanical garden. So I’ll he searching for that.

So long for now,

Christine Foye