LlMPLEY STOKE WOMEN'S INSTITUTE
The Rev. David Clark, Rector of Limpley Stoke, Freshford and Hinton
Charterhouse was the guest speaker at our monthly meeting on 14th
January -our first meeting of the New Year.
We had anticipated that this would be an exceptional evening so we
invited our friends in the village to come along. We were delighted that so
many responded to the invitation -including several husbands and even
some potential new members.
The business was kept to a minimum and we settled down to listen to
David as he conveyed to us his great enthusiasm for his subject and to
see his wonderful photographs and graphics of our solar system, our
galaxy and the universe. Since the first moon landings most of us have
become familiar with the picture of Earth viewed from space. Ifs not called
the blue planer for nothing. We swiftly travelled from Mercury to Pluto,
leaning more about the nine worlds that everlastingly orbit our home star
-the sun. Although Old Sol floats beaming up there in the sky he is in
reality violent, colossal and mind-boggling. However, we couldn't do
without him. And there are more like him -dwarfs, giants, blue, white,
yellow, shining, swallowing, exploding, turning into black holes
There are unimaginable millions of stars and planets, asteroids, galaxies
and comets out there in space and we are learning more and more about
them all the time, courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope and other
deep space probes.
Perhaps some of us think that Star Trek is real (isn't it'?) but I doubt if we
shall ever know if there really is life out there, let alone be able to visit
other worlds.
We rounded off an engrossing evening by coming back to Earth and
enjoying home made mince pies and mulled wine.
Angela O'Shaughnessy