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IGO July 24 News Extra


July, what a month it has been, with elections in the UK in France and news of the upcoming American election too; the international news has also indeed been grim from Ukraine and Gaza. Sporting events have provided diversions a plenty though, with Cricket and Wimbledon, not forgetting the Football.

In News Extra this month we have information about a couple of our Start Up groups and a fun quiz about wine. Plus we have a great piece from the group leader of Art Techniques - remember to view all our IGO groups and join those of interest to you via the Beacon Members' Portal.

Helen Titherington, Editor
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

collage of fish underwater
This picture was created by Maisie from the IGO Art Techniques group.

New Groups

  • Feminist Discussion Group restarts👩
    • A dedicated space for exploring and discussing feminist ideas, issues, and activism. The purpose of this group is to foster an inclusive, respectful, and collaborative environment where individuals can share their thoughts, experiences, and knowledge about feminism. The first meeting is on 2nd August at 11:30am and people can join on Beacon.


How about joining the Pop-up Poetry group?

Pop-up Poetry is a relaxed and friendly poetry discussion group – rather like a book group, but with much smaller texts! We meet once a fortnight and discuss four widely differing poems linked by topic. All sorts of ideas arise, and we generally laugh quite a lot. The group is kept small to allow each member time to share their thoughts, but we currently have a vacancy. You may be a poetry expert, you may not have read a poem since you left school – the only qualification required is curiosity!

Group Leader, Pauline Buckland


New Wine Appreciation Group

The inaugural meeting of the Wine Appreciation Group will be held on Thursday the 1st of August at 4pm.

Our theme will be the wines of Spain – members can choose to contribute on any aspect of the topic from wine growing region to grape types to what wine to pair with your favourite tapa – CAVA, FINO, RIOJA, RIBERA, MALAGA WINE, ROSADO, TEMPRANILLO, POPULAR BLENDS – all contributions are welcome.

My choices for the August meeting were recommended in the Guardian:

  • Marketed by the Coop Supermarket – a pale Spanish rose called SOLO £7
  • Vina San Juan La Mancha a popular blend from Lidl £6.49

Helen Titherington – Group Leader

green fields of vineyards with blue sky
Photo from wiki commons in the public domain

Art Techniques Group

About a year ago I discovered U3a. I was excited at the prospect of joining other older people and learning something new and three months ago I started a group called 'Art Techniques'. It is aimed at people who want to make art but feel they don’t have the drawing or painting skills required. I wanted to be amongst people who were interested in producing art, I wanted to feel that excitement when something has worked and something beautiful has been produced.

We have had a series of sessions, starting from very simple mark making to slightly more complicated techniques that don’t require expensive equipment or prior knowledge. What I want is enthusiasm and experimentation. What I want is for people to have fun creating beautiful art.

Maisie Parker, Group Leader

'Aqua' was created by Joan from the Art Techniques group, featuring potato printing, finger printing and collage 

New Sociology Group

There are now sufficient members of our start up SOCIOLOGY group to call a first meeting to work out how the group will function, what will be the discussion themes and how often it will meet etc etc - very shortly therefore the members will be invited to join their first meeting to sort all this out, together.

In the meantime, I thought I would feature some words from Wikipedia’s article on Sociology as food for thought … ‘Traditional focuses of sociology include social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, sexuality, gender, and deviance. Recent studies have added socio-technical aspects of the digital divide as a new focus. As all spheres of human activity are affected by the interplay between social structure and individual agency, sociology has gradually expanded its focus to other subjects and institutions, such as health and the institution of medicine; economy; military; punishment and systems of control; the Internet; sociology of education; social capital; and the role of social activity in the development of scientific knowledge.'

The first start-up sociology meeting is on Thursday 25th July at 11am, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to join. 


Wine Related Quiz Questions

  1. What is the average number of grapes needed to produce a bottle of wine?
    600, 1000, 1600
  2. What is Novinophobia? Fear of wine, Fear of running out of wine, Fear of spilling your wine
  3. Which famous Italian singer belongs to a Tuscan wine making family? Andrea Bocelli, Carlo Ancelloti, Antonio Carluccio
  4. The Shape of modern Champagne glasses is said to derive from the moulds of whose breasts? Dolly Parton, Marie Antoinette, Marilyn Monroe
  5. What percentage of your wine is water? 85%, 50%, 35%
  6. Where does the colour of wine come from? The grape skin, The grape pips, The grape flesh
  7. A Nebuchadnezzar holds how many standard bottles of wine? 5, 10, 20
  8. Who painted the picture “Red Vines in Arles”? Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Banksy
Image from wiki commons

Summer Recipe - Gazpacho Soup

Ingredients
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 medium cucumber, diced
• 2 x 440g jubilee vine tomatoes, diced
• 100g slightly stale crusty white bread, torn into small pieces
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 125ml extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp sherry vinegar
• 7g mint leaves, finely shredded, to serve

Method
Step 1
Set aside 1 tbsp each of the diced red pepper and cucumber for garnish. Place the remaining peppers and cucumber with the tomatoes, bread, garlic, almost all of the oil and some seasoning in a liquidiser and blend until completely smooth. Add the vinegar and season to taste.

Image from wiki commons

Step 2
Pass the mixture through a fine sieve and refrigerate until well chilled. Divide between 4 bowls and top with the remaining vegetable garnishes and mint. Serve drizzled with the remaining extra virgin olive oil.


Quiz Answers from the July Wine Quiz

  1. 600
  2. Fear of running out of wine
  3. Andrea Bocelli
  4. Marie Antoinette
  5. 85%
  6. The grape skin
  7. 20
  8. Vincent Van Gogh
Save
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