Happy New Year to all. St. Helena has started the year with some long awaited rains, so the gardens are blooming. We have enjoyed the annual return of many friends and family members over the Christmas period, and will be sad when most leave next week. Around 200 St. Helenians come home for Christmas, and whatever the proposed transport arrangements for the future, we hope that this tradition can continue. It is good to have visitors who also help us, as varied as with Public Meetings (The Ashmoles and Ian Baker), the museum ( Edward Baldwin) and weeding at the Millennium Forest ( Vince Thompson)!

I have been working hard to get School Resource Packs ready for this term, and had to decide to devote whole days to that, otherwise they never get finished. I hope that people who found I was not in the Office will understand. There is only myself, and Vanessa works part time. The biggest task before Christmas was preparing our Bids for OTEP, the newly formed Overseas Territories Environment Programme jointly funded by FCO and DFID – sadly to find that the new fund still does not cover the built environment. If anyone out there knows how we can get funds to restore the crumbling built environment on St. Helena – and establish a much needed Grants system to help private owners – PLEASE let us know. We have asked SHG to accept basic costs of SHNT after the FCO Project concludes in 2005. It is very difficult to find running costs from elsewhere on a regular basis, and our membership is still small, so we need their support.

Edward Baldwin, a member of the Friends of St. Helena in UK, spent some time at SHNT during his last visit, and was surprised to see his beautiful photograph of the Ebony as out screen saver! We wish to thank Edward for this wonderful photo, and for his permission to use it on our Newsletters. It would be good if the ebony flower could become our National emblem, replacing the arum lily

We are sorry to announce the resignation of our President, Mr. Gilbert Yon, who has now taken up full time employment, and we thank him warmly for all his help during the establishment phase of the Trust. The Trust Council agreed Dr. Cairns-Wicks would be President until the AGM.

Barbara B. George, Director

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