Enchanted Hour Connections

 I thought that the talk in the Library yesterday was going to be a sort of travelogue - the title did imply a journey from New Mexico to the North Pole, by way of dancing hippopotamuses, after all.  In her introduction, Mary Anne said there was only one thing you did when you saw a hippo - run!

It turned out to be rather different.  The travelling was from subject to subject by way of interesting links between them - so we very quickly got from Cae Mawr outside the window (the Big Field) to the Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico, and from there to outer space with the messages that were sent off into deep space in the 1970s, including a recording of music from Earth (including instructions on how to make a record player to listen to it!).  One of the musical tracks brought us back to Dallas - there were extracts of music as well as slides - and another piece of music was the Hippopotomus Polka, written to celebrate the arrival of the first hippo in London Zoo in about 1850!

The polka led to Swedish candy, and the woman who invented the sweets lived in the same town as the man who went on a doomed balloon expedition to the North Pole.... There were also giant rabbits.

It was very entertaining, and funny, and I enjoyed it very much.

At the end of the talk, Mary Anne passed a sheet of paper around for people to sign if they were interested in a minibus tour of the tombs and castles I was talking about in my talk in January.  She had already found out the cost of hiring a minibus (£169 plus petrol) so there may be some fund raising involved.  If people pay for tickets, it becomes more complicated.  There are a lot of regulations that have to be abided by.  But if we just get in and go, it's a lot easier.

Someone suggested car sharing, but there are narrow lanes where parking to see the monuments would be a bit difficult.  We're planning on a trial run to work out how long the trip will take and look at practical things like parking and how far people will have to walk. 

Mary Anne has a variety of talks planned throughout the year, including an explanation of why sourdough is good for us from a local baker and a series of talks on local conservation.