Morning All

AA Milne: It rained and it rained and it rained – description of the deluge which flooded the 100 Acre Wood in Winnie-the-Pooh is, I think, an accurate assessment of the current weather!
As Owl solemnly reports to Christopher Robin when the flood waters are rising, “the atmospheric conditions have been very unfavourable lately.”
But, hey-ho, we have just had a talk, by Daniel, on ‘water,’ very apt and very timely!

Coffee morning:
Huge thanks to Freda, Lewis and Robin for generously giving up their time to run yesterday’s fund-raising café operation — a heroic effort involving kettles, plates, cake, and questionable levels of caffeine. And another big thank you to all the members who somehow found time in this busy season to both bake and/or consume cake. Your delicious creations (and your willingness to spend money on them) kept the operation — and several of us — happily sugared up! And, of course, keeping the treasurer happy!
And, big thanks to Maurice for the excellent publicity. 
Robin says:
We took £101 at this morning’s coffee Morning + £5 donation.
In this Calendar year 2025 we have taken £471.60; of this 25% goes to The Arts Centre leaving £353 for the Camera club; that’s 3.5 speakers!

Notices:

Calendar!
We have been tasked, again, to produce images for the 2027 calendar!
Dates and deadlines: I’ll put them together when I have chance over Christmas.
Boundaries: Focused where possible on Garstang and immediate surroundings; however, any images considered between Lancaster in the north, Preston in the south, Blackpool in the west and Abbeystead/Bleasdale in the east. This should give us plenty of opportunity, so please start thinking and snapping!

Raffle:
We will be running a raffle on Wednesday 17^th during our Christmas bash – so any donations will be very kindly accepted!

Our 3^rd internal competition: Creatures and Plants of the World
Description of images: Any real creature or plant that was alive or was once alive, NO toys, sculptures, nothing artificial and NO people.
Last date for entry – 17^th December 2025 – that’s in 10 days’ time!
Date of competition – 21^st January 2026
If you have ANY questions or need ANY help, just get in touch – it is no problem – honest!

Up and coming programme of events:

Wednesday 10^th December – talk by Robin on The Caucasus for the first half;
In the second half Stan will be showing the 15 images chosen for the GLAM Battle, (Garstang, Lancaster, Arnside and Morecambe), and the 30 images for the New Zealand Battle; PLUS, there will be an assortment of various topics including, printing, competitions, selected images, cameras etc. plus a show-and-tell of The Victoria Festival.

Wednesday 17^th December – our Christmas bash – PPP! Plus, entertainment of the highest quality!

Wednesday 24^th December – no meeting Christmas break.

Wednesday 31^st December – no meeting Christmas break.

Wednesday 7^th January – Neil Protheroe via zoom on landscapes.
Neil writes: I thought perhaps to devote the first half of the talk to my “journey” in the world of photography, what I do and my approach to landscape photography; and the second half to a photographic tour of New Zealand’s scenic highlights.
Also, for the last three years I have been closely involved in photographing the white horses of the Camargue in the South of France, and I would like to refer to that photography as well.

That’s all folks, and see you on Wednesday!

Cheers

Mike