The bluebells have been splendid this year – they’ve just about peaked now. I hope you’ve managed to get out & see them. Wild garlic just coming out – you can smell it in the woods. It’s great! We officially have a new King, crowned on Saturday, with an extra bank holiday yesterday. Shame about the weather on Saturday for the coronation, but Sunday, when lots of people had street parties etc., it turned out better than forecast, so that was good. The April showers seem to have started in March this year & currently don’t show any sign of stopping…. On the plus side, the reservoirs & bore holes are full, so hopefully no hose pipe bans this year!
Walks Festival – ESW 40th anniversary
The Walks Festival went quite well, despite the weather, which did its best to dampen the proceedings, but we had more than one walk most days & finished the week with the London Blind Ramblers walk. I’d like to thank all the leaders who put walks on during this week as well as those who made cakes for the Sunday after walk tea & especially Helen McD who was instrumental in organising the lunch & nagging (sorry, encouraging) leaders to put a walk or walks into the programme. Thank you one & all.
To the 80 (ish) of you who attended our 40th anniversary lunch at Bletchingley Golf Club, thank you for coming, I hope you enjoyed it, to the rest of you, you missed a good lunch – you also missed my speech, which may or may not be a good thing.
Your Committee Needs You!
As I mentioned in my speech at the lunch, at our AGM in November, we will be losing 3 members of your committee (Arthur, secretary; Helen McD, walks co-ordinator & Janette, membership secretary), as they have all served their 3 years in post. Therefore, we need volunteers to take on these roles! Please, please, please, consider joining the committee – we could also do with some other people on the committee, not necessarily in a role. Currently there are just 5 people making ALL the decisions about what ESW does or does not do. So, if you don’t like what we’re doing, don’t complain, come & join the committee! As of March, we had 473 members, so surely we can find a few people willing to help out. Please contact/talk to one of us to find out more about the roles.
Reigate Ramblers
As you may have gathered from NBs or meeting people on walks, we have an informal arrangement with Reigate Ramblers whereby they promote some of our walks & we promote some of theirs, on days when the other group don’t have a walk. This seems to be working well & I see from both their & our Facebook pages (thanks Nikki) that Sue had 14 Reigate Ramblers on her walk from Tilburstow Hill (great bluebell pictures). Judging from the pictures, they would seem to have made up the majority of the walkers. Certainly made it worthwhile Sue turning out to lead that one!
Our next social event is the cream tea at St Andrews, Limpsfield Chart on Sunday, 25th June. As ever, Sue Halsey is the key contact person for this event (thanks Sue). Please get in touch with her if you can provide a cake/scones/help etc. (
Happy walking.
Kind regards
Deb Skinner Chairman East Surrey Walkers
