About 80 members attended our cheese and wine evening, numbers down probably due to the expected bad weather. There was plenty to eat. Thanks to those who prepared it all. Thanks to Alec Nunn, Dave Reynolds and Gordon Harridine for setting the quizzes. I don't think many of us would be much good in the SAS.Thanks also to Vanessa for organising it all.

Pat Powell wishes to thank everyone who sent Christmas Cards and Letters to her over the Christmas period. There were far too many for her to reply individually but she was grateful for your kind thoughts.

Auditor

The Society are still needing someone to help audit the accounts. Anyone who has a knowledge of accounting or book keeping and can spare a few hours at this time of year please contact the Treasurer or Secretary as soon as possible.

The Committee has decided that we need more help on the Committee and are therefore offering 2 places for election at the AGM. If you are interested and are willing to work, especially with regard to the setting up and running of the Summer Show please forward your name together with a seconder to either the Chairman or Secretary.

Don't stash those unusable Christmas presents at the back of the cupboard and forget about them. We need them for the Tombola stall at the Summer show. Please hand them to any Committee member.

The Committee are at present working on making this years Summer Show bigger and better. We therefore need your help. Anyone who is interested in helping out on the Tombola or Plant stalls please give your names to the Secretary. If we get enough people you will only have to do half the session if you wish.

I have been handed a packet of photographs by a Hospice volunteer who found them scattered about the grounds. They are Photos of Floral Art exhibits taken at our show probably in the years 1990 and 1991. If you have lost these or had them stolen from your home please contact the Secretary.

17th & 18th February RHS London Flower Show, RHS Halls, Members £3 others £5
13th & 14th March RHS International Orchid Show RHS Halls Members £3 others £5
16th & 17th April RHS Plant Road Show The Palace Hotel Torquay. Members £4 in advance £6 on the day. Others £6.
7th - 9th May The Malvern Spring Show.
25th-28th May Chelsea Flower Show Ticket hot line 0870 906 3780
19th June Bexleyheath & District Rose Show
26th June The Southern Rose Show, Squires, Shepperton.
6th - 11th July Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Ticket hot line 0870 906 3790
(please note there will be no RNRS Rose competition this year)
21st -25th July Tatton Park Garden and Country Show. Ticket hot line 0870 906 3810
25th & 26th September Malvern Autumn Garden and Country Show.

Day trip Saturday 3rd April 2004

I have booked a day trip to Bletchley Park, home of the Enigma code breakers. The cost will be £17 if I can get a full coach. This price includes coaching, entry to Bletchley Park Museum and a guided tour that lasts about 1 hour. You may join a tour whenever you wish, they are run at intervals throughout the day the last one being at 3pm. Volunteers man the huts in the grounds on Saturdays so there are lots of exhibitions to see other than the Mansion. Hot and cold food is available in Hut 4 and the NAAFI and Crypto Cafe serve tea, coffee, sandwiches and cakes throughout the day. You may bring your own picnic to eat in the designated area. There is also the Enigma Shop.

Bletchley Park was the top-secret wartime base of Allied code breakers, such as Alan Turing and Dilly Knox whose work decrypting Enigma and other enemy code systems affected the course of the Second World War and shortened it by at least 2 years. Since then countless millions have been affected by what happened on this site in complete secrecy. It is estimated that over 10,000 people worked at Bletchley Park during the height of wartime activity. Working conditions were cramped and Spartan and the work itself often arduous. But for many recruits it was the best time of their lives. By March 1946 they were all gone, removing every scrap of their code breaking activities. Winston Churchill said that they were "the geese that laid the golden egg.....but never cackled". This secrecy lasted until the 1970s and so strong was their code that many still refuse to reveal exactly what happened. There have recently been several documentaries, a book and a major film depicting the events at Bletchley Park.

If you are interested in joining this trip get in touch with Janet as soon as possible.

Dorset 16th-21st July 2004 (6 days, 5 nights) We have made a booking at the Best Western, East Anglia Hotel, Bournemouth (3 star) The hotel has its own heated swimming pool and sauna. The cost for this trip is £245 each and there is no single supplement. There is a lot to see in this area.

Norfolk 17th - 21st September 2004 (4 days, 3 nights) We propose staying at the Quality Hotel, 4 miles outside Norwich. The cost for this trip is £192 single, £147 each sharing.

June 29th, 2004 Day trip to France for lunch. We propose making a return visit to the Jardins de Valloires, Argules, situated near the River Somme. Many of you will recall the enjoyable day we spent having lunch in the Abbey refectory and then wandering around the gardens. We are unable to quote a price at present as the restaurant and P&O have not confirmed this year's prices yet. You will be advised when these are to hand. Bob will be our driver on this trip. Gerry will still be doing the holidays.

If members are interested in any of the above and would like to reserve a place please contact either Janet any time or Vanessa (evenings only) The deposit payable at time of booking is £25 each for each trip.

Martin Double has agreed to manage our Web site and has done an excellent job although there are several pages that are still in the process of being set up. The Bulletin will be on there each month and also rose and gardening information. Also any other Society information of interest to members and surfers in general. If you wish to pick up your Bulletin via the web site please let Doreen Taylor know as this will save us money on postage and printing and petrol and time for those who deliver by hand. If you don't own a computer, all the boroughs libraries have a web cafe that you may use and the staff are very helpful and would log you on if you don't know how and print out what you need. From then on it's just click and read! We have had 1144 hits at the last time of looking which is brilliant as we are getting our Society known across the world.

This is a month by month reminder of the most important tasks. It is based on the conditions in the south east of England so dates will vary for other parts, and may also vary within the south east, if one lies in a frost pocket for instance. This guide is an adaptation of The Rose Exhibitor's Calendar by Don Charlton from his book Growing and Showing Roses. Don has kindly given us permission to include extracts from his book in our monthly Bulletin and on our new web site. The exhibitor's version of this calendar, by Don Charlton will be published on our web site shortly. We hope to produce detailed articles on some of the subjects contained in this calendar, such as pruning, planting, feeding and lists of varieties etc. All contributions towards these articles and further suggestions are always welcome.

1. Continue planting new rose bushes and rootstocks when the soil is not too wet or frosted. Water in new bushes and rootstocks if the soil is at all dry.

2. For those who have budded their own rootstocks now is the time to start heading back last year's buddings.

3. Sharpen and clean old tools and buy in new as necessary.

4. Renew your membership of the Bexleyheath and District Rose Society.

5. Discard out of date supplies and renew supplies of fungicides, insecticides and fertilisers.

1. The main pruning commences this month, postpone if the rose stems are frosted. Assuming that your new plantings and budded stocks have been dealt with, start by pruning Cluster flowered varieties first, then Hybrid Teas and then Miniature roses. Do not compost prunings, burn them preferably or dump them as they may be diseased.

2. Weed and generally tidy up the rose beds. Firm the ground around each bush.

3. Apply a winter wash solution to the pruned bushes and surrounding ground, such as Jeyes Fluid. Use strictly in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.

4. If you suddenly have the urge for some more roses to plant out, then now is the best time to search for some pot grown roses, ideally from a rose nursery. Potted roses can be planted out at any time of the year but the earlier the better. So plant them out this month when the ground is not water logged or frosted.

Winter Jobs

Lots of jobs done at this time of year can save you time and money in the spring. Clean all the old soil and grass from your lawnmower, check connections if it is electric and oil moving parts. Sharpen blades .Any problems, get the machine into the repairers as soon as possible, they get overloaded with work in the spring and you don't want to land up with grass knee high because your lawnmower is in hospital. Clean all your tools and wipe over with a thin coating of sewing machine oil, this will prevent them from rusting. Wash out all your pots and seed trays ready for sewing. Tidy up the greenhouse and wash staging and windows with a mild wash of Jeyes Fluid. Tidy up that potting shed or garage. Clear up any leaves that have blown onto the lawn as these will rot in the wet weather and damage your lawn.

Mick Andrews has recently told me about the new proposals put forward by Bexley Council to modernise allotments in the Borough. There are 36 allotment sites in the Borough with 1,511 plots, not all are used, in fact Howbury Lane site in Slade Green has no tenants at all. The Council propose to close and sell off under used sites and to use the proceeds to bring the others into the 21st century. Proposals include putting in concrete roadways and paths so that lorries can deliver. Meeting huts on site with a kitchen, heating, toilets and disabled toilets. Easy access water supplies, plots with raised beds for the disabled gardener and stricter control on garden sheds.

Whilst many of these alterations are welcomed by allotment users the Council propose to bulldoze the sites when the improvements are being put in place and this has caused uproar amongst the Boroughs gardeners. It appears that 2 growing seasons could be lost while the changes are made and many, being well into pensionable age would not return to their plots. You will not be guaranteed to get your old plot back and of course the rents will go up. Several sites are managed by the members themselves and already have quite good facilities such as those at Alers Road. These sites want to opt out of the Council scheme. What will happen next ? Could there be a Borough wide dig in !!! We will have to wait and see. Bexrose will endeavour to keep you up to speed on this hot potato!!!

Our Christmas trip to Bath proved to be a trial of patience over adversity and after leaving Bexleyheath at a slightly later ungodly hour, 10-30am saw us crawling into Clackets Lane services due to the Motorway being closed following an accident. We finally left the services at 1pm and had to drive directly to our hotel in Bristol, missing out on the arranged visit to the American Museum near Bath which many of us were looking forward to.

On arrival at our Hotel we found that many rooms were not ready for occupation so we managed to get the hotel to provide us weary travellers with tea , coffee and biscuits at their expense. Into our rooms and a stiff drink was called for as much to ease the tension of the day as to give us strength to board a coach to another hotel for our evening meal which our hotel was unable to provide due to overbooking. The Marriott looked after us very well and we had a enjoyable evening but were unable to get a drink at the residents bar back at our hotel due to a disco having taken it over. Some of us staggered up to bed while other more adventurous souls determined to get a drink somewhere finally ended up in a Pitcher and Piano bar across the dock, complete with mindless thumping noise. We stayed as long as we could bear it but finally gave in, trudged back to our Hotel and so to bed to the accompaniment of mindless thumping noise

Day 2 was a success with an enjoyable stroll around the Abbey. I had seen the wonderful needlework altar fronts on exhibition at Alexandra Palace earlier in the year and they looked even better in their correct setting although I was disappointed that the water spout altar cloth was not being used. The Christmas Fair was very good and we managed to get round it before it got crowded. All the stalls were in little decorated garden sheds with the fronts cut our and it was quite charming. The goods on display were of very good quality, many hand made and of course there was mulled wine and pork roast sandwiches to keep out the winter chill. We managed to get into Sally Lunns for coffee and half a cinnamon bun and then had a look round the little museum in the basement and bought some Christmas presents. Next it was off to the Jane Austen Centre which was interesting but I felt they were a bit strapped for exhibition items, lots of reading of course and a short talk from one of the curators on Jane Austen's Life.

Our next stop was the Assembly rooms where were spent an enjoyable couple of hours going round the dress exhibition which ranged from the 18th to the 20th century. The rooms were wonderful to see especially the chandeliers and one could imagine times passed and the dances that were held here.

Next we stood in a queue for afternoon tea at the Pump Room but had to give up after 3/4 hour or we would be late for the coach. Bath was by now very crowded but full of Christmas spirit with lovely shops and bright decorations.

Our evening meal was once again a coach to another Hotel but not so good this time as they seemed to run out of food and were very slow with 4 coach loads of people to contend with. Many of us were quite disgruntled and went straight to bed to the sound of mindless thumping noise.

Day 3 was Gerry's contribution to the trip and he took us around Bristol giving us a commentary. We walked over the wonderful Clifton Suspension Bridge and had a great view of the Gorge, then we drove underneath it. We saw much of the regeneration of the docks area and had coffee in the visitors centre next to the dock where the SS Great Briton is moored. Also moored there was a replica of the Matthew which sailed over to America with the Pilgrim Fathers. Gerry left the best till last when he took us out to Filton and we saw Concorde on the runway. Then it was home James and don't spare the horses, stopping for a short lunch break and then we indulged in our usual mince pies and a glass of sherry to round off the trip.

In usual Rose Society spirit every one said they had enjoyed the trip despite the ineptitude of the Hotel and its staff. If there is one thing about our trips you can certainly say they are different and never boring!!!