Do you know what happens to your black bin rubbish? Well, 20 WW U3A members do, following a visit to Lincolnshire County Council’s Energy from Waste Centre at North Hykeham Lincoln. Rubbish is no longer (since 2013) used as landfill, but as a fuel to generate electricity.
Lincolnshire, according to our very informative guide at the visitors’ centre, produces 365,000 Tonnes of rubbish annually.About half of this total is recyclable and compost-able. The remaining 170,000 Tonnes is used for conversion into energy. Street collection vehicles in West Lindsey deposit their black bin rubbish at one of 5 Waste Stations in the county ( probably at Gainsborough). From there, very large special vehicles take the rubbish to North Hykeham. On arrival as part of the closely monitored process the vehicles are weighed. After this these vehicles with a moving floor system deposit the rubbish into a deep pit and are then weighed empty on the way out.
The rubbish is then loaded by skilful operators using giant grabs, into a hopper which feeds by gravity into the furnace running at 900 C. This is a continuous process where the rubbish is the fuel. The hot gases produced pass through boiler tubes to raise water in a closed system to superheated steam which expands through a turbine to drive the electrical generator in the normal way to supply 300+MW into the National Grid, (enough for 26,000 houses).
There is some waste in this whole process.The furnace has a shaking action which deposits ash and ferrous metal below it. The ash is used as an aggregate in road building and the metal is recovered for recycling. The flue gases are neutralised and particulates are removed, before being released up a 75 m chimney. Environmental control of the gases is a major part of the final process. Any solids removed are in the form of a fine powder which goes to make building blocks. There is scope in the plant design to use low grade heat presently released via fans, in a district heating scheme when funds permit.
Following our visit we drove to the nearby Pride of Lincoln pub for some R&R. Our next engagement was with the Lincolnshire Vintage Vehicle Society. A green 1940 Leyland Titan double-decker bus came from the Society’s Museum to the pub. We embarked, there followed some rearrangement of seating, as our volunteer driver was worried that most were upstairs and the centre of gravity needed lowering for stability.Reseated more evenly we set off for a tour of Lincoln. Tickets were issued by our volunteer conductor whilst the driver wrestled the bus through the narrow streets to stop outside the Cathedral for photos. We changed seating to give everyone a share of the topdeck and set off for the Road Transport Museum also in North Hykeham.
At the Museum we had time to wander amongst the collection of mostly buses, cars, motor-cycles and memorabilia displayed there. All these vehicles were functional; but behind the display area in the workshop it was a different story. There was much work in progress to be seen. One could not but admire the optimism of some of the Society’s members in tackling the restoration tasks they had set themselves. We did however see the outcome of much past effort and money spent, when the owner of an immaculate 1930’s SS model “Jaguar” proudly showed us his car.
All too soon our day out came to a close. We were delivered back to the pub car park in an ex Co-op single decker. Thanks to Brian Ward for making all the arrangements which led to a different and most interesting day out with not too far to travel.

At our last group meeting, we repeated a session we had done at a much earlier meeting, when we just experimented with our cameras, testing just what all the controls actually did!  Chatting with each other and explaining what we knew and asking about what we did not fully understand, proved to be really useful.  So on a sunny but cold Sunday I went (very slowly!!) on a Stephenson’s coach to Bridlington …

As the day was so bright I added a polarising filter to the ultra violet one permanently fitted to the lens, along with a lens hood for much of the time.  The problem with these is remembering that they cut off your corners when on the nearest lens depth!  Apart from cropping and some automatic adjust, the photos seen

here are as taken  –  the point of the exercise was to take the views in different ways, through the camera setting, and not to revert to changing things in a programme afterwards.  We had talked about depth of field and manual settings, so many shots were taken to try out these techniques.  So what I took is what you see ..  hope the contrasts are of interest.

PS: I titled the images and hoped the titles would come up when you hovered your mouse, but that doesn’t seem to have worked unfortunately.

Do a twirl, girls ..

All together now …

No laughing in class, please.

Follow me, please ..

Co-ordination is the name of the game ..

A final fling of the jingling thing ..

West Wolds Belly Dancers are going from strength to strength, and our mystery photographer was recently granted privileged access to their Monday practice in a secret location, otherwise known as Middle Rasen Church Rooms.  Here we see some of his captured images, published after severe scrutiny by the group’s leader and chief belly gyrater, Gillian Anderton.

WINTER JAZZ IN DEVON

A small but perfectly formed group of our members set off from Market Rasen station one morning at the end of January, to travel to Paignton for a weekend of jazz and socialising.  Checking in to our hotel on a wet Friday evening, we were re-vitalised by the first of the weekend’s excellent dinners, followed by the first of the weekend’s excellent sessions of lively music.

The whole event was well worth the travel involved, which went smoothly throughout, helped by the ‘assistance’ organised to move us and our bags between trains wherever we had to change.  The weather the following days was fine enough to allow us to explore the town – two of our ladies even used their bus passes to reach Torquay – and we were all able to walk off the generous meals.  All in all, an enjoyable time, with good company, good food, good music and a change from your average weekend at home!

The event on Thursday 11th February saw a fascinating talk by Annette Mackenzie about owls and we were lucky enough to be introduced to Eric, the little owl and Boogie, the barn owl.

The audience was spellbound by the owls and Annette described their behaviours and when and where we should expect to see these beautiful creatures.

National U3A Summer Schools for 2016 will be held at
The Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester

8th – 11th August 2016
15th – 18th August 2016

The Summer Schools are now full with the exception of Folk Art Applique in week 1. Please ring 0208 466 6139 if you would like to book that course.

The December quarterly newsletter is now available on the web site. Please click here…

The provisional monthly talks are as follows:
January 14th David Kew (member) – Ballooning
February 11th Annette Mackenzie – Owlin’mad
March 10th Lynda King – Leprosy Mission
April 14th Derek Harris – Up the Cut – the history of canals in word and song
May 12th Steve Short – Magician (TBC)
June 9th Heather Rosser – Families in the First World War (Copies of her book “In The Line Of Duty” for sale)
July 14th Julie Stevenson – Around the World in 365 days
August 11th Jane Barnes – Tales from a Farmer’s Wife (TBC)
September 8th Voice and Verse
October 13th Jannette Merilion – Calendar of Colour
November 10th A G M

The details may change so please keep an eye on events…