We can't do it without you! Here are some more examples of what our supporters make possible.

SALES

Shop

The 1997 Christmas season was our busiest yet, hopefully proving that we have established a good customer base in the locality. This doesn't quite make up for the lack of tourist trade in the summer, but no sooner does one season end than another one begins and fortunately there will be another Maritime Festival in Penzance this summer, attracting many more visitors than would normally be in the vicinity.

I would like to welcome and give thanks to Pippa Cass, who has been employed part time at the shop since December. She has settled in very well, comfortable with both the shop and the volunteers, taking on much of the day-to-day running of the shop and creating imaginative displays, both in the shop and in the windows. Pippa's introduction has enabled me to concentrate more on the book work for sales, particularly with Paul Horak on the computerisation of accounts and stock at the shop, which should greatly improve sales, providing us with information about what is selling and what is not, as well as simplifying the accounts and making them compatible with the main Trust system. I am also hoping to take Trust sales to more events this year as outlined below.

I would like to thank all of the volunteers who are so consistently generous in their offers of help. I know I say this often, but it cannot be stressed enough, that the shop, sales and sales profits would not exist without volunteers - thanks to you all.

We are still trying to establish a more secure lease on shop premises. This is ongoing, but hopefully by the end of this season we will have found somewhere to really put down roots.

Events

The Royal Cornwall Show is fast approaching (4th, 5th and 6th June). We must start praying for good, or I would even settle just for slightly better, weather this year. I have already declined the offer of camping space at the site, after experiences of having to take the tent down in gales and pouring rain before it was pulled down! Sales at the event were not as bad as feared, so if the sun shines on this one we could be in for a bumper year. If you would like to help at the event, either with sales or the raffle (in return for free entry to the show ground), please contact me via Trust HQ or by phoning (01736) 331824.

Other events at which we shall be present include:

Chacewater Festival Weekend:
Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th June, 10.00am until 4.00pm each day.

Macmillan Garden Day at Trewithen Gardens:
Saturday 20th June, Grampound Road, Truro, 10.30am until 5.30pm.

Falmouth Green Fair:
Saturday 4th July, 10.00am until 4.00pm, Falmouth Community School.

Co-operative Fair:
Sunday 5th July, 10.00am until 4.00pm, Tolcarne Green, Newlyn.

West Cornwall Maritime Festival:
10th to 14th July, 10.00am until 6.00pm each day, at the Promenade, Penzance.

Wildlife Fair at Heligan Gardens:
Tuesday 28th July, evening.

Some of the above events have been booked by, and will be run by, volunteers from individual branches. Such events provide the Trust with valuable extra income and also provide some income for branches. They order stock from us at the shop and then keep 15 per cent of the total sales turnover for their branch funds. You may know of an important event close to where you live at which you would be happy to run a stall. If that is the case, please get in touch. We can provide you with everything you need to get started and it may be an opportunity for you to raise money for your branch as well as the Trust as a whole.

Raffle

Last year's raffle raised over £7,000. This was largely made possible by you, the members, selling tickets. Thank you! I hope that you will be happy to do the same this year.

We have no fewer than three trips to the Isles of Scilly: one week's self-catering plus flight on British International Helicopters; a long weekend for two at the Lyonnesse Guest House, St Mary's, with flight on Sky Bus; and a family day trip on the Scillonian III. There is also a beautiful limited edition wildlife print by Dick Twinney and many other prizes.

Links with Germany

The Trust's links with the German conservation organisation NABU (Naturschutzbund - Nature Conservation) grow ever-stronger. We don't yet have a date for a formal twinning, but hope to confirm this soon. If you would like to be part of a party of people travelling to northern Germany, please contact either myself or Howard Curnow via Trust HQ.

Rudiger Wohlers, co-ordinator for the Oldenburg District of NABU, took a travelling slide show about Cornish hedgerows all over Germany, raising over £300 for us. Also, as a direct result of his talks, he is bringing a group of 29 German Cornwall wildlife fans over to Cornwall for the last week of July, and hopes to do the same in October of this year and March 1999. Each person on these trips makes a donation to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust of 100dm; the total of this first trip meant a donation of just over £900! So, thanks indeed to Rudiger Wohler's innovations and generosity.

Our sales links with Germany are also still strong. I have just had an order for 144 furry hedgehogs and several hundred greetings cards!

Sally Hawkins

Lux Legato

Lux Legato, a new singing group, will be donating profits to the Trust from its performances this year. Singing in close harmony, with piano accompaniment, the group's repertoire will include musicals, Simon and Garfunkel, folk and old-time. See the next Wild Cornwall for dates.

Mark Nicholson

Habitat Appeal

To the rescue

The latest site to be saved by the Trust's Habitat Appeal is Caer Brân, near Sancreed on the West Penwith Moors.

Caer Brân was turned over to agriculture about twenty years ago. When it came onto the market recently, Trust members Alma Hathway and Bruce Wotton McTurk were able to snap it up and start to reverse the destruction.

In the long term, this was too heavy a commitment for Bruce and Alma alone, so 60 acres (24 hectares) of the land were offered to the Wildlife Trust. Local member Hugh Miners donated several thousand pounds in "partnership funding" to allow the Trust to claim a Heritage Lottery Fund grant for the site's purchase and management.

Now retired, Hugh has many fond boyhood memories of the Penwith Moors and has long held an ambition to buy and protect a piece of the heathland.

The Caer Brân Nature Reserve will be wardened by Bruce and Alma. Together with their own land, it will link a number of neighbouring sites, including the Caer Brân ancient monument, Bartine Castle and Bartinney Downs, to form a very important stand of heathland managed for conservation.

Paul Horak