At the beginning of this New Year, the real start of the New Millennium they say, I would like to wish all our members - and the other readers of our magazine, a very happy and healthy New Year. A year in which we hopefully will once again be able to share many fuchsias happenings together.
This includes our monthly meetings for which our Secretary, Christine Bramley, has managed to secure an excellent variety of speakers - no mean feat as so many speakers are normally committed for several years ahead.
Other events to look forward to are the Fuchsia Workshop in March, the Mini Show at the end of July and our Annual Show in August, the highlight of the growing season and for many the accumulation of a year's work.
It certainly looks like another very interesting year and I hope to keep you all well informed of these events as well as various other aspects of fuchsia growing through the pages of our Society Newsletters. It has also proved an excellent way to keep in touch with those members who are now less able to get about, so let's brighten up their year too and strive to have bumper issues.
A helping hand in this respect would be very much appreciated. Please share your news and views, handy hints, growing secrets or whatever else you think might interest our members, it doesn't even need to be closely related to Fuchsias! Go on, be brave, have a go and submit a few lines.
The Committee have now decided to aim to issue four editions a year to fit in with the four seasons. Compiling it is an ongoing project, so don't wait for a deadline, your contributions can be submitted any time, for inclusion in the next edition!
For today's edition we have once again managed to supplement our own offerings with a good variety of articles from fuchsia friends from other societies and we are much indebted for their willingness to let us reproduce their work - Fuchsia Folk are indeed Friendly Folk!