April

May 10, 2016 by Shaftesbury Rotary

April 2 – Clay Pigeon Shoot

The first monday of April, a number of us met with some friends at the “Walnut Tree” in Mere for breakfast and then went to a nearby clear pigeon shooting venue. We divided into groups depending on experience of shooting. We tried a range of different disciplines with varying degrees of success.

Richard our president tried to introduce a golf style handicap system, but even with the help of this Mike Farrow easily won. Even the least experienced of us had a number of successes. Perhaps the most entertaining shooting was aiming at clay rabbits. No living animals were involved only clay pigeons launched horizontally across the ground, jumping unpredictably every time that they hit a bump and proving very difficult targets.

April 11 – Clay Pigeon Shooting Talk

Following our very successful clay pitching shooting session Mike Farrow, one of our members, gave us an entertaining talk on shotguns and the different types of clay pigeon shooting. It was quite a site seeing several shot guns being handled in the Fleur De Lys restaurant. There was of course no live ammunition anywhere around! The talk stimulated lots of questions.

April 18 – Business Meeting

We had our standard business meeting which was held on the 18th April.

April 22-25th – Heerlen Trip

A party of thirteen of us traveled to Heerlen in the Netherlands. We have been twinned with a club there for many years and every year alternate our visits. Most of us traveled by Eurostar. We were given our usual very warm welcome in the Netherlands. We very much enjoy staying with Dutch families and sharing their home for a few days. We also have an opportunity to learn what they are doing as a club and how they do fundraising.

We always enjoy a number of visits to sites of interest in the neighborhood. This time we visited a brewery and had a chance to sample their produce! We then visited a nearby castle with a modern art exhibition but we did find this rather puzzling! We then felt very privileged to be invited into the normally private rooms of the castle to be shown around by the owner.

We then visited and educational centre for children with special needs. We were impressed by the standard of the facilities. One of the buildings was architecture of the very interesting having been designed by Hundertwasser.

In the evening we all enjoyed a meal at a local restaurant. The following day we visited nearby Valkenburg. We went to a mill and had a chance to look around the picturesque town. In the evening we enjoyed a lavish meal in an excellent restaurant and the following day returned to the United Kingdom after saying our farewells in Aachen railway station.

Heerlen Group