Dear Members,
To everyone who does not already know, this will be my last chairman’s letter. I have made a difficult decision to resign from the position due to health problems. I have very much enjoyed my time as chairman for your Association and enjoyed organising holidays and coach trips. Now, Helen Stalker has temporarily taken on the role of Chair until the AGM after which I hope someone else will take on the role, and help to arrange events for everyone to join. I will look forward to partaking in the new events, when I can, and still meeting everyone.
Since our last newsletter we have had our holiday based in Leamington Spa, when we were able to visit 5 National Trust properties. We were lucky to have our visits before heatwave conditions arose and it was enjoyable to see the gardens at the properties with a lot of colour.
We have had two garden visits: Prospect House and Thirsk Hall; the first was very good and included a talk by the owner, the second was a disappointment as the garden was in a poor state due to hot, dry weather. I have also revisited the gardens at Jervaux Abbey and Littlethorpe Manor when they were open as part of the National Garden Scheme’s charity events. Both gardens were superb.
Our quiet garden at Fountains Abbey also looks superb and I hope you were able to enjoy it on the Yorkshire Day Picnic. I wasn’t able to make it as I was in Scotland on that day.
A final good wish to everyone, and hope you can continue to go on visits, and to the lunches and lectures. You will see in the newsletter we have changed the venue for our lunches, and I hope that will be successful.
Regards, Geoff