Conchology Section
Auckland Museum Institute

President's Report
Our October meeting saw 23 members enjoying a most interesting visit to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Wilma Blom’s Powerpoint presentation updated us with the happenings in the Marine Department, and Margaret Morley was wonderful accommodating all our requests to look at a wide variety of shells — some people did not want to leave! The evening was rounded off with a wonderful supper including a delicious cake baked by Wilma (recipe over). A big thank you to Wilma and Margaret for their input into a very successful evening.

Looking forward to seeing you at our November meeting.
Heather

November Meeting
We shall begin with a Committee Meeting at 6.00 pm. If you are on the committee, or are interested in joining our committee then we would love to see you. On the Agenda will be December meeting activities, any committee changes for 2007, planning guest speakers for next year, our auction, and other club activities for 2007.

Our speaker for the evening will be Andrea Alfaro from AUT. Andrea is very interested in aqua culture — specifically mussel ecology which she has been actively researching at Ninety Mile Beach. Her studies include reproduction, dispersal, settlement, growth, etc. Andrea has a lot of research and information to share which will make the evening a night not to be missed.

Please bring along your shells from the west coast of New Zealand, or New Zealand bivalves for all to view.

This will be held on Tuesday, 14th November 2006 at Epsom Community Centre, 202 Gillies Avenue, Epsom. For those not attending the committee meeting, the monthly meeting will commence at 7.30pm — a great chance to catch up with fellow club members, lucky door prize, shells to buy — come along!

Poirieria
Please find enclosed the latest edition of the Poirieria Journal.

A huge thank you to Editors, Tony and Jenny Enderby, for the large amount of time and effort that they have put into the Journal and to those members who submitted articles for publishing. The end result looks fantastic and makes for an interesting and entertaining read. Thank you all.

Congratulations
Congratulations to member, Angela Baker, who has been selected to display her crochet sculpture art at the NZ Sculpture OnShore exhibition. Work will be exhibited at the Fort Takapuna Historic Reserve in Devonport, Auckland from 3rd to 12th November with proceeds to Women’s Refuge. We were fortunate to have Angela show us some of her work at our June meeting. All the best Angela.

Shell Terms
Excerpts from "Glossary of terms used in association with shells"
Apophysis : a projecting peg-like structure, eg in rock borers.
Arcuate : curved or arched.
Axial : longitudinal ribs or colour banding in a gastropod.

Hunt Seelye
Those club members who knew Hunter (better known as Hunt) will be saddened to hear of his death on 14th October. He was looking forward to his 90th birthday in December. Hunt’s wife, Molly, died some years ago.
Although Hunt and Molly lived in Houhora and then in Kamo near Whangarei, they were keen members of the Auckland Conchology Club for over 40 years. Hunt’s large, meticulously ordered collection was only recently sold. It contained both overseas and New Zealand specimens with a specialist collection of volutes. Hunt donated to the club a wonderful collection of photos of his volutes.
Hunt and Molly, with Norm and Noel Gardner, went on many trips in Northland, off-shore islands, Australia and the Pacific. They were also wonderfully hospitable and always willing to accommodate shellers in their motel and lodge in Houhora. Hunt also lead many Auckland members out to Cape Marie van Diemen.
He willingly used his wide knowledge to identify shells. His drawers of "spares" at Kamo were far superior to most collections and because Hunt was very generous this drawer was a good collecting spot for conchologists!
Hunt will be greatly missed.
(Tribute prepared by Margaret Morley.)

We were fortunate to have Hunt attend our meeting in February 2006 when Allan Limpus spoke.

Powerpoint Presentation
For our December (Christmas) meeting, we are planning on having a powerpoint "slide show" incorporating photographs of shell club related activities over the past year. This may include the 75th celebration weekend, shell collecting trips taken with club members or on your own, auction purchases, shell trays, Sydney shell show, etc — anything that you think we would be interested in!
Please bring either your photographs (which we can scan and return the original to you), or computer discs to our November meeting. Peter Poortman will kindly be preparing this presentation for us (thanks in advance Peter!).
If you have access to a computer projector, please also let us know.

New Zealand Shell Show 2007
Lower Hutt Town Hall, 26-28 January 2007
Selwyn Bracegirdle attended our recent meeting at the museum and confirms that the shell show will be an event not to be missed for keen members. (Unfortunately he was not open to bribes for results in the shell show competitions!)

Lemon Drizzle Cake (kindly provided by Wilma Blom)
100g softened butter
1 cup sugar
Thinly peeled rind of 2 lemons (use a zester)
3 eggs
1/2 cup plain yoghurt or sour cream
2 cups self-raising flour

Honey Drizzle
2 tablespoons light honey (eg clover)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Juice of 2 lemons (approx 1/2 cup)

1. Cream butter, sugar and lemon rind until smooth (could use a food processor, but I find a fork works just as well). Beat in eggs and yoghurt one at a time. Add flour, and mix in until just smooth and lump free (as for muffins, don’t over-mix or the cake becomes "tough").

2. Spoon into a well-greased and floured ring tin. Bake at 160ºc for 30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes before loosening sides and centre.

3. Heat together all the honey drizzle ingredients until sugar is dissolved. Spoon the mixture over the cake while it is still warm and in the tin.

4. Turn cake out onto plate or rack.

5. Enjoy!

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