At the April meeting members learned their outing to Stansted House would take place, on May 27, even with the ever-rising cost of fuel.

The Hunter Centre for dementia care gave dates for its Farmhouse Breakfast, on May 9, and Dance the Night Away event, on May 15.

Haslemere Morning WI supports The Hunter Centre by baking a cake or biscuits every week in the year.

There was an invitation from Grayshott Women's Cricket Club to try out walking cricket on May 7.

After the raffle had been called and coffee had been taken, members settled down for the speaker.

Rosemary Paynter welcomed Paul Whittle, who had come to speak to Haslemere Morning WI on The Venetian Connection, an excellent talk supported with superb slides.

He told members that Venice was founded in 421 AD by building on sunken tree trunks into the mud, and grew upwards utilising 118 islands.

By 828 AD Venetian merchants were travelling far afield - including Alexandria, where they stole the body of St Mark and brought it back to Venice, where it now resides in St Mark’s Basilica.

By the 12th century trade connections including The Silk Road had started. The Venetians ruled a huge area including Dubrovnik, Montenegro, Crete and Cyprus from the 15th century until Napoleon’s arrival in 1797. Plague struck a number of times from the 16th century to the 18th century, killing thousands.

The great flood in 1966, followed in 2019 with the highest levels recorded, caused Project MOSE, similar to the Thames Barrier, to be constructed to stop flooding in the area. It was finished in 2021. Three sets of huge steel gates rise up to close the gaps in the coastline.

There is more to Venice than glass and lace, and much more in Paul’s riveting talk. He arrived by boat and left by train, the Orient Express. This talk is one which people should hear and see by inviting him to their group. For more information visit www.travellertales.net

Jenny Hill

On June 19, after a friendly lunch, members of Milford Probus Club and visitors will have a talk by David Bickerton, an admired speaker in the field of military history, about The Battle of the River Plate.

This was the first major naval battle of the Second World War, fought between the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee and three smaller British cruisers.

Graf Spee and her sister ships were designed to outgun any cruiser fast enough to catch them. Their top speed of 28 knots outpaced all but a few capital ships and cruisers in the Anglo-French navies.

The battle followed a three-month hunt for Graf Spee, which had sunk nine British merchant ships. It lasted 80 terrifying minutes and left more than 100 men dead and many more wounded.

Graf Spee sought refuge in the port of Montevideo where, convinced by false reports of superior British naval forces gathering, its commander ordered the vessel to be scuttled.

Lunch and the talk cost £34. To book, eight days before the event, call Miranda O’Brien on 01483 423398 or email her at [email protected]

Milford Probus Club is for retired and semi-retired business and professional men and women who enjoy comradeship, informative talks and wider activities.

The club’s activities include organised outings and enjoyable walks, ending in a fine pub. Established in 1999, it has welcomed women members since 2016 and now has a female president.

Prospective members can join lunches as paying guests while considering membership. There is a friendly bar and plenty of parking. For more information visit www.milfordprobus.com

Kim Page led a workshop on Watercolour Dry Brush Landscape in Four Marks Village Hall on April 18.

This followed on from his demonstration on Watercolour Dry Brush Techniques in November.

He started by exercising his wrists to loosen up, and then gave a quick demonstration, emphasising that what people paint should inspire them, and that moving trees etcetera to make a better and more interesting composition was fine.

Kim said painting should not be a mechanical, mental exercise, otherwise the artist and their audience lose interest.

He explained that artists should observe carefully before starting so that shapes and colours were accurate.

Brush control was important, and the amount of water on the brush was critical. Too much water and the ‘lost and found’ effect of dry brush was lost. He advised that whatever people drew it must be accurate, without too much detail.

Kim told members to leave lots of white paper. If there was too much at the end it could be reduced, but it could not be restored. Working quickly was recommended, although this proved difficult for some.

Then it was the members’ turn to paint. Kim helped with composition, encouraging and suggesting how a painting could be improved. Everyone seemed to enjoy the day and went home with at least one completed or near completed painting.

The Wessex Chamber Choir is performing two concerts on May 16.

The Silver Swan - Music for Spring and Summer will be performed at Rotherwick Village Hall at 3pm and at the Church of St Lawrence in Alton at 7.30pm.

These joy-filled concerts will feature everything from folk songs to madrigals, with music by composers such as Dowland, Daley, Gjelo, Lander, Rutter and Tarney.

For tickets, priced £17.50 (free for under-18s), visit www.wessexchamberchoir.co.uk

After a very successful event in Surrey Border Movie Makers’ 2025 programme, when club members had the opportunity to create a film of a live band performing, the club was recently contacted and asked if it could produce promotional film footage for another band.

This was agreed and arranged for the club’s April meeting. Several club members took on various filming roles, with John Blackman taking on the task of director with the assistance of Mike Sanders. Andrew Hillary, who is an experienced lighting guru, took care of the backdrop for the band and the important task of lighting.

Several cameras were used to capture as many angles and as varied footage as possible. The camera operators were Jack Visser, Dick Grainger, Peter Stratford, Cameron Gilroy, Adrian Smith and Keith Bagot. Tom Simpson, Jonathan Hill, Camilla Martin, Sophia Bagheri and Al Wheeler also contributed by taking close-ups of band members and their instruments on their iPhones.

New members, and those with less experience but keen to learn, were also very much involved.

When everything was set up and ready to roll, several takes were made for the different shots and angles of the band members in action - there were keyboards, lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, a female vocalist and a male vocalist. These covered the four songs which the band, Horizon, had chosen.

Brian O’Connell organised a ‘making of’ film of the night, which involved Peter Frost and Sophia Bagheri interviewing the band and club members. The footage for the ’making of’ film was taken by Brian O’Connell and Peter Frost.

Club chairman Mike Sanders was in control of collating and downloading the immense quantity of footage which had been generated during the evening. Some of the edited results of the filming will be on the club website in the coming weeks.

Two other important club members to mention are Kathy and Hugh Le Fanu, who kindly offered to make sure that the tea, coffee and biscuits were in plentiful supply during the evening.

The club meets on the first Friday of each month at St Joan's Centre, 19 Tilford Road, Farnham. There is plenty of parking and the first visit is free. Anyone interested in any aspect of filmmaking, including using artificial intelligence, should visit www.surreyborder.org.uk or email [email protected]

England, folklore and chivalry will be the theme of Haslemere Musical Society’s concert at Haslemere Hall on May 16 at 7.30pm.

Works will range from Elgar’s cantata The Black Knight to Percy Grainger’s Country Gardens.

The orchestra and choir will be conducted by Dr James Ross, and David Greenwood of Haslemere Thespians will give readings between pieces.

The audience will hear the Richard II Concert Fantasy, arranged from music composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1944 which languished in the BBC archive for decades until revived and re-worked by Nathaniel Lew. Dr Ross recorded it in 2024 with the Kent Sinfonia.

The main choral work is The Black Knight, based on a medieval tale of knightly feasting and jousting interrupted by the arrival of a mysterious and deadly stranger.

Elgar wrote it in the early 1890s for the Worcester Festival as a “symphony for chorus and orchestra”. Elgar biographer Basil Maine believes the idea was to create a close mix of vocal and instrumental tones.

Eric Coates’ London Suite, plus choral works by the society’s assistant chorus master and rehearsal accompanist, Clive Osgood, and another local composer, George Richford, complete the line-up.

For tickets, priced from £6 to £20.50, call Haslemere Hall on 01428 661793.