Report of Bude & District U3A AGM November 2011
In her address to the November monthly meeting at the Parkhouse,
Hilary Workman our chairperson, informed us that Mary Lynn has now
become a member of our committee and that Sylvia Henry has kindly
taken on the role of Groups Co ordinator. She reminded us that our
Christmas Lunch will take place on 15th December at the Falcon Hotel.
She also reminded us that money for this and some people's Annual
Subscriptions still need to be paid.
A new group is being started on aspects of Antarctica and that there
was a list on the back table to fill in if people are interested.
Peter informed us that the Music Appreciation Group has now been re
established and new members will be welcome.
Val Adams who has been very successful in finding us interesting
speakers, introduced our speaker for the afternoon. David Kernard and
his sheep dog Mist.
David Kernard proved to be an inspirational natural speaker with a
warm friendly relaxed conversational style of speaking that very
rapidly endeared him to the hearts of his listeners. Unlike many of
our audience, I had never seen any of his television series or his
films and will certainly look forward to seeing them in the future.
The real stars of his talk, which were illustrated with a wonderful
collection of Photographs, were his sheepdogs, and Mist in particular
who was with him curled up and sleeping on an old coat strewn across
two chairs.
Despite being a media personality David Kernard is still a full time
sheepfarmer on Devon National Trust property, overlooking steep
cliffs which drop dramaticaly down to the crashing waves below. This
terraine has provided a wonderful backdrop for his films and tv
series.
What has made David so successful has been his love and understanding
of sheepdogs. His talk was peppered with some wonderful anecdotes of
sheepdog personalities and entertaining stories.
He told us that it is not looks that determine a good sheepdog, but
ability. He showed us pictures of many very diffrerent looking collie
dogs who were all excellent sheepdogs.
He explained to us that two sheepdogs of similar age need to be
trained to work together, each with his own whistle commands. To
illustrate how a dog responds to whistle commands he gently woke up
Mist, and the back row of the audience were asked to bleat like sheep
as realistically as possible. We could see Mist pricking up his ears
and with a whistle from David he immediately shook off his lethargy
and rushed down to the back of the room to round up some of the
members of the U3A. On a different note from David he rushed back.
There were then questions from the audience followed by refreshments
for our guests,in the formof tea and biscuits for David and Dggie
chews for Mist.
Jenny Leyland
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