September 2017 was a relatively successful month with 19 items of information being received from 18 contributors.  Thank you everyone.  At the start of the month a good amount of information was received via the website, but unfortunately this upsurge did not continue.  The Archive now contains 7542 items of information from 2122 contributors.

6279  searches were made of the website, up from 5897 in September 2017.  Trevor Maskery who set the website up in 2010 and provided technical assistance ever since has retired from this work.  Thank you for your support Trevor.  Tricia McGrath will be taking over from Trevor, she has already come up with several ideas about how to make things more user-friendly and these will be steadily worked on during the coming months.

Work continued on the Folk Flora, and it is planned that the ‘final draft’ will be completed by mid October, then there will be a final appeal for information, especially for any memories dating from the 1960s to the present, before the work is sent to the publishers at the end of the year.

A number of plant-lore events, such as the Carshalton Straw Jack and the Newent Onion Fayre, were visited, and a visit was made to Ayr for the Society for Folk Life Studies annual conference, which as usual provided a pleasant and stimulating four days.  A number of walks were led, and some useful information received as a result of these.

Image:  Chris Waddell of  the Burns Birthplace Museum, Alloway, discussing rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) at the Society for Folk Life Studies annual meeting.