Buckland Dinham WI host an Excellent Group Meeting!

Last night we went along to the February Group Meeting at Buckland Dinham village hall. We enjoyed an interesting quiz (which our table managed to win!), listened to an article and poem about the washing line which clearly brought back many memories for lots of the audience, and we were treated to a tasty home made soup. The photo supplied by a Leigh member came third in the competition.
Our speaker was a student at Writhlington school, aged 18, very enthusiastic, confident and knowledgeable about the orchids he had been helping to look after in the green houses at Writhlington School.  He showed us some beautiful photos they had taken on their trip last year to Laos.  They have been involved in a project to assist a local couple to create an area for orchids to thrive and provide an income from the tourist trade, rather than allowing them to disappear during deforestation and the illegal collection for use in chinese medicines.
For more information take a look at the website:
http://www.wsbeorchids.org.uk/
you will find the dates of their open days and information about the world orchid congress which they are hosting in October this year.

Let's Cook Local!

As you can see, we had another successful session! We made shepherds's pie, vegetable curry with rice and chocolate brownies.  You can see that we have a normal sized cooker to work on, so it's been quite a challenge sometimes to work out how to get the quantities required all cooked and ready to eat at 1 o'clock!
We've reached the stage of having to do very little of the preparation ourselves, it's all over to the Mums. This week we had enough time to talk about food storage, sell by dates and how to avoid wasting food as well as sharing ideas on how to use up left overs. Next week: soup, macaroni cheese and fruit crumble!

February meeting was a Silky Success!

Here is a selection of some of the photos Barbara took. You can see how engrossed we all were! Everyone produced a really lovely painting, and had a great time!

Rag Rug Workshop, 16th February at Wilton Lodge

Here we all are, working away! There was plenty to do, all engrossing, and some time to chat!

This is what I made:  a "prodded" lavender bag (you can see the "prodder"  - a wooden stick, like a pencil) and a "hooked" sample with the "hooker" ( a crochet hook).

Our tutor, Debbie Hastings was very experienced and had plenty of examples of her work to show us. Pretty much everything she uses is recycled; mainly duvet covers and pillow cases which she buys in bulk from her local Devon Hospice charity shop, after they have been in the shop for a while and remain unsold. The "hooked" sample above was made using old T shirts. (She may have had an eye on the orange one I was wearing!). The fabrics are cut up into strips which are then inserted into the hessian backing, with some quite spectacular results - well, with a little practice!
An excellent day - we all put our names down for her next course!

And here is the finished lavender bag! A very easy and enjoyable occupation!

Let's Cook Local - second session

We were so much better prepared this time! Without any worries about the snow and ice to get in the way! Slight set back when we arrived... Only one of the young Mums was there! Oh no! Too much food! Luckily more came along a little later, including a new member - so all went well! We cooked potato wedges, a variety of meatballs, salsa and a lovely sweetheart cabbage, which was so very tasty that one of the little girls came and asked for more! Barbara organised flapjacks to follow, which disappeared in a flash!
While it was cooking we swapped ideas for leftovers and store cupboard staples; there were some excellent ideas and lots of questions, so that proved to be a very useful session.
Afterwards we came back and planned the next few sessions over a coffee - a thoroughly enjoyable day.
Lots of thanks to Barbara, June, Ann and Sue for their stirling support.

June and Catherine prepare the salsa

Barbara showed us all how to chop an onion.

National Libraries Day 4th February

 Well, the library in Frome was cheerfully decorated with brightly coloured bunting, lots of smiling faces and it was  pretty crowded when I called in!
On checking out my books, I was given a lovely poem which had been specially written to celebrate the day and a copy of the new opening times:
9.30 - 5.30 Monday to Thursday, 9.30 - 7.00 on Friday and 9.30 - 4.00 on Saturday!

Hooray! Let's keep on using it!

Ladies who lunch....!

We spent another very enjoyable Friday lunchtime at The Bell Inn! (Feb 2nd) The food was nice, 'though it did take a long time to appear! We had plenty to talk about while we were waiting!
Our next date is 2nd March and we'll book and order in advance!
looking forward to seeing you there! (I'll e mail everyone beforehand)