Darfield Garden Club Report

Our June meeting was held at the Darfield Recreation Centre and had an excellent attendance. The early Winter Competition was won by Margaret Seaton Margaret Seaton Margaret Seaton Margaret Seaton, followed closely in second place, by Georgie Eaves Georgie Eaves Georgie Eaves Georgie Eaves. Flowers and shrubs are special at this time of year, due to the cooler and wet season. Our guest speaker was Allan Desquitad o Allan Desquitad o Allan Desquitad o Allan Desquitad o, an educator from the Arthritis Society, he amazed us with statistics and gave us an interesting talk on arthritis and gardening. We were encouraged to enjoy our gardening, even with some modifications needed at times, such as pacing, planning, prioritising and posture. Next month’s Garden Club meeting will be held at the Darfield Recreation Centre on July 20th and will include plant identification with members being encouraged to bring along their best-loved tips and ideas to share. Upcoming events will include an early Spring Flowers Competition and the Floral Art Competition, which will have a theme of ‘Rapt with Nature’.

Lee Stokes. U3A Malvern was very fortunate to have local Martin Sutherland Martin Sutherland Martin Sutherland Martin Sutherland as the speaker at their June meeting. Martin grew up in Darfield attending both Darfield Primary and High School. He first asked for a show of hands as to who had Scottish ancestors. The majority of people raised their hands, an illustration of just how prevalent emigration from Scotland over the years has been. Martin highlighted the disparity between the crofts and the landowners, the example shown was his family crofts and the Castle of the Sutherlands. This graphically illustrated the inequity within the Highlands. He quoted Robert Matheson Robert Matheson Robert Matheson Robert Matheson, “The clearances dispossessed a people, expelled them to totally inadequate sites and condemned them to misery and disease.” Martin detailed the reasons for the clearances. The Highland clearances were the coerced movement of Scottish Highland populations from traditional rural communities. There was a for generations by their family. clash of cultures, increasing With the colonisation of New English influence, population Zealand, Maori felt just as increase too great to be dislocated. sustained in the harsh In July we welcome Lance Lance Lance Lance Highlands, innovation and wars, Jennings Jennings Jennings Jennings a virologist, his topic these all contributed to the is ‘The Global pandemic: clearances. What are the lessons’. The mass movement 1760 – 1803 at first was voluntary, Ruth Warren, whole families moving to look on behalf of Malvern U3A. for a better and more sustainable life. 1790 – 1830 saw forced relocation and the burning of crofts by landowners. Landowners no longer needing the crofters, wanting to farm the land themselves. Many of these displaced crofters emigrated to Canada. 1790 – 1830 emigration was forced and encouraged with landowners paying for crofters to emigrate, often with an agreement that when they landed in the new country, they had no claim on land in Scotland. A very interesting point Martin made was the dislocation of those who moved from their Martin Sutherland addresses land which had been farmed U3A Malvern.