Spring Road Show at Henton

What a great roadshow, put on by our County trustees and committees at Henton today!
Barbara and I had a most enjoyable and informative day, meeting friends from across the county and hearing about all the great events and opportunities arranged for our delectation this year.
The main speaker was Emma Britton, the BBC Somerset breakfast show presenter - and she was excellent, painting a vivid and very entertaining picture of her life.
The theme was based on the centenary of WW1 and several members had brought along very interesting mementos and letters from that time. We heard some very poignant poetry, learned a little bit about the role played by women at the time in recruiting boys for the front and finished the day singing some songs of the time.

Spring Group Meeting

Here is Barbara's report on the evening:

Jane, Marguerite and Barbara went to Beckington to the Group Meeting. We had the usual business meeting and Eileen Hurd WI, our adviser, reported on her trip to Cardiff : The Inspiring Women conference and gave us a written report. Hazel Hillman from Chewton Mendip is our board of Trustees contact and she reported on the training day being put on by the Arts Craft and Cookery committee.

We then heard from Andy Fussel, a farmer who has diversified into growing oilseed rape. When he first grew it he sold it but then thought he would make biofuel. This proved to be uneconomic so he decided to make cooking oil. He is very enthusiastic and passionate about his product and went on Dragons Den in 2010 hoping to get financial help. It was amusing to hear his tales of the experience but he didn't get funded but it did get his name Fussel and the logo into the public domain. He had various products for sale. 

We had a ploughmans supper followed by coffee. A lady from Rode judged the competition which was something made using oilseed rape. Unfortunately Sue Rodford's entry of delicious looking Chocolate Brownies didn't win. Buckland Dinham came first with a fancy sponge cake. 

Barbara went home with the first raffle prize and the evening ended quite late arriving home just before 11pm. A pleasant evening. 

NFWI conference in Exeter

Yesterday, Janet from Nunney, Sandra from Standerwick, Berkeley and Beckington and I went to the Westpoint Arena in Exeter to attend one of the conferences run by the NFWI Board of trustees. The purpose was to enable us to have more access to them, for them to tell us how each aspect of the WI is progressing and for some of our questions to be answered. £20,000 had been reclaimed from VAT payments on membership fees and this money could only be spent on the members; so this is how the conferences have been funded.
The NFWI volunteers all gave very informative and interesting descriptions of the work of their own committees, from Finance, campaigns, craft, WI Enterprises, science and leisure, Denman, WI Life magazine..... covering every angle of their remit. There were displays for us to peruse and gain more information whilst meeting other Presidents from as far afield as Penzance and Bournemouth. It seems that our Somerset choice of the organ donation resolution has been reflected across the country, as that is the one to be debated at the AGM in Leeds this year.
Denman College is still struggling financially, and following a couple of questions from the floor it was agreed that a piece would appear in WI Life to explain why it isn't feasible for NFWI headquarters to move there. It is principally because of the Constitution which prevents WI funds being transferred to use in different sectors: so, for example the VAT amount which has been used to fund the series of conferences must be spent on membership and could not be diverted to support Denman College.
The plans for the centenary year are progressing, and the centenary rose will feature on many of the items which will be for sale (prices ranging from £5 to £50, so something for each one of us to have a memento if we wish!). A suggestion from the floor ( and, I think, from a Somerset President!) was for each WI in the country to plant a centenary rose somewhere in their village/town on the same day in 2015 to mark our 100 years. Simple, inexpensive and inclusive! What a brilliant idea! (Let's hope that the board members thought so, too!)

The Literary Lunch with Lesley Pearse

On March 14th  Barbara travelled with 3 members from Gurney Slade WI to the Webbington Hotel:- 

We all enjoyed a very nice meal of either beef, salmon, or chicken followed by yummy sweets. We then listened to an interesting talk by Lesley Pearse who has written lots of books and she spoke to us about all the research she does before she starts writing. There were books on sale including her latest book Survivor which she signed.

There was also the usual raffle and it was my lucky day as I came home with a bottle of wine! 

The Village Clean Up

What a gorgeous day! Sunny and warm to entice people out, despite the attractions of the rugby on television! Thank you all for coming along to care for our lovely village! It was very noticeable in some areas there was much less rubbish - that is thanks to the sterling efforts of the people who regularly walk and pick up as they go. Other lanes were just the same as always; shame on those people who don't care and chuck anything and everything from the car as they drive.
We are creatures of habit, aren't we?, well, I mean those who don't care a jot for the environment and drop their litter all over the place. In Blackers Lane I collected mainly coke cans, sweet papers and McDonald's wrappers, whereas the folk who drive down the next lane drink Red Bull and eat crisps! However, at the top of that lane is where the majority of the wine bottles and cider cans are deposited! It's a good advert for high energy drinks, too, as those cans had been lobbed high and deep into the hedges. The coke cans had been simply dropped on the edges of the lane! In the Knapp Hill area was a packet of biscuits and, discovered separately, three dinner plates! Two of which matched! Check your cupboards at home.... We may be able to find one culprit at least! The area around Soho and along the quarry was really densely littered - such a shame. I wonder if a 'Take your litter home' sign in the little car park there would make a difference?
Thank you everyone for your help!

A slight alteration from the plan.....

Leigh on Mendip WI is on trend! Yes, we paid our tribute tonight to the Winter Olympics by joining in with the latest sporting favourite game of kurling. We may need a little more practice before taking it any further; or perhaps it was because we didn't have the brushes to polish the ice (hall floor)?

It was lots of fun, and many thanks to LOMCA for the hire of the kit.
Our speaker was unable to make it, because of illness in her family.

We're getting ready for cleaning up the village next Saturday afternoon; let's hope we have plenty of helpers again this year.

Another lovely lunch date!

What a lovely sunny day and a very good lunch for ten of us at the Mendip Inn. It was great to see Jeni again and hear about her travels.

Afterwards some of us went over to the museum at Radstock to see the Quilting and Patchwork exhibition. It was stunning! We were completely engrossed for a couple of hours! If you are thinking of going, it is well worth it!