John Abel

The great race refers to the 1049 mile annual Iditarod race between Anchorage and Nome in Alaska by dog sled. The race is 1049 miles long because Alaska is the 49th state of America. He started by explaining the immense size of Alaska and its tiny population of 723,000 people.  Originally it was purchased from … Read more

  Rod outlined six stages of medical misunderstanding. These were: The age of mysticism. The age of reason – misplaced. The dark ages. The Renaissance. Modern knowledge. Science. The earliest references can be found in Samaria when the snake was the symbol of a priest with healing power.  Later in Egyptian times only a Pharaoh could … Read more

Sir John Betjeman was born on 28 August 1906 to a upper middle class family in Highgate London.  He died in 1984 from Parkinson’s Disease at his cottage in Trebetherwick in Cornwall.  His father Ernest had a family firm that manufactured expensive Victorian style household furniture, especially decanter holders.  John strongly resisted his family’s demands … Read more

Richard Ashbee stepped in at short notice with an excellent photograph led talk in which he revealed to us again both his passion for nature and photography plus his understanding of wild life.  The standard of the photographs was quite outstanding. His talk ranged from every day subjects found in one’s garden to rare birds … Read more

Mike Spick is a popular speaker at Stumperlowe Probus having already spoken to us about “J G Graves” and “Salesman to the World”.  Today’s talk was about another passion of both his wife and himself who are part of a syndicate that own a longboat.  It is moored to the south of Birmingham. He started … Read more