Christmas Tree Festival

Leigh on Mendip Church held a Christmas Tree Festival the weekend of 10/11 December. Thank you to Sue Rodford, Caroline and Shelagh for making the decorations for our beautiful tree.  It was a lovely occasion and raised funds for FOLC.

Christmas Meal

Many of our members had great fun at our Christmas Meal at The Bell on Thursday 6 December.  Thank You to Mary for organising the event.  At the end of the meal we all had a 'Secret Santa' present and Barbara gave best attendance prizes to Ann Orpwood & Christine (and also to Hazel Parks at the monthly meeting the following week).  

Monthly Meeting for November

LEIGH ON MENDIP WI

Some final arrangements were made for Christmas events at our November meeting. We were reminded about the Secret Santa presents for the Christmas meal and to make our food choices if not already done. The Carol Concert in Kilmersdon clashed with the monthly lunch in the Bell on Friday 2^nd Dec but it was decided to go ahead with the latter albeit at the later time of 12.45. The FOLC Christmas fair would take place on Friday 9^th December and members were asked to make cakes to pass to Barbara who is running a cake stall there or at least to come along between 6 and 9pm. That weekend too is the Christmas tree festival in the church where the WI entry on a Scandinavian theme will be on display with the others.

As mentioned last month don’t forget the Denman fundraiser breakfast at Barbara’s house on 13th January from 10am, entry £5. Also in January will be our 68^th birthday party on the afternoon of Sunday 29^th when we will enjoy tea and cakes along with any friends, partners etc. who would like to join us. Venue to be decided. Finally if you have any old unused spectacles Caroline would love to receive them for her recycling project.

Our speaker session in November was very different to most.  A laughter therapist led us through many different exercises which were basically just making ourselves laugh but interacting with each other. Research has shown that the many advantages of laughter which include stress and depression relief are just as effective with “pretend” laughter as the natural kind. I think some of us may have felt a little silly at first but it was surprisingly easy to get into the spirit of things and just laugh!

Our next meeting will be on Monday 12^th December at 7.30pm when fellow members will help us make Christmas cards and we will hear about the choices for the Resolutions.

Meeting Monday 10 October 2016

Christmas was definitely in our sights at the October meeting with choices being taken for the meal at the Bell on December 8^th and mentions of carol concerts at Wells and Kilmersdon. Sue Rodford volunteered to produce our entry for this year’s Christmas tree competition in the church and would be helped by Shelagh and Caroline. We were asked to bring pieces of green material to the next meeting or give them to Caroline or Mary as these are needed to use in the making of Christmas cards at the December meeting.

Looking ahead to January, Barbara will be hosting a “breakfast”, at her house, from 10am on the 13^th entry £5. This will be Leigh WI’s fundraiser for Denman so do support it if you can.

We all felt the recent defibrillator training had gone well and it was agreed that a follow up session, with maybe some more hands on action, would be welcome.

Our speaker, Mr Shepherd, gave us a talk full of fun and interest, even including a quiz, mainly on music through the decades. He brought along many objects he had “saved” from skips and told us about others he had sold at auction. He urged us not to throw our unwanted items away but to sell or give them to someone such as a charity shop instead so they would not go to waste.

At our next meeting on Monday 14^th November our guest speaker will talk to us about “The Power of Laughter”

Looking Ahead!!

Some dates for you to note:

Community Coffee Morning - Monday 3 October, 9.45-10.45am in Leigh on Mendip Village Hall
WI Monthly Lunch - Friday 7 October, 12.15pm at The Bell
Monthly Meeting - Monday 10 October, 7.30pm
ACWW Coffee Morning, Wednesday 19 October, 10.30-12.30pm.  Binegar Village Hall
Group Carol Service, Friday 2 December, 11am at Kilmersdon Church
WI Christmas Evening Meal, Thursday 8 December at The Bell
Christmas Tree Festival, Leigh on Mendip Church, 10/11 December.  WI would like to enter a decorated tree.  Volunteers please!

Monthly Meeting Monday 12 September

Barbara welcomed members back after the summer break.  During this time various events had taken place, including the party at Kilmersdon WI, a walking tour of Frome and the President’s evening (a very enjoyable social time with some lovely food).

The Annual meeting is on 22 October at Taunton.  Caroline & Shelagh will be attending.  Members were asked to donate items for the YMCA Christmas Shoe box appeal for both male and female young adults. Small toiletry and household items are required, as well as some chocolates and food treats, socks, gloves, etc.  Any items to Caroline by 17 October at the latest.  Members were encouraged to sign up for the Defibrillator training in the Village Hall on 21 September.  Other events to look forward to are the Autumn Group Meeting at Beckington on Monday 3 October at which the Frome Town Crier will be present.  There is an ACWW Coffee morning in Binegar on 19 October.  Further ahead Christmas activities include – the Group Carol Service on 2 December at Kilmersdon and our Christmas meal to be held at The Bell on Thursday 8 December.

Barbara welcomed our speaker, Steph from Dorothy House.  She gave an interesting talk on the history of the organisation.  It is a registered Charity and was set up in 1976 in a house in Bloomfield Road and was able to care for 6 people at a time.  In 1995 they moved to their current home at Winsley.  There are only 9 bedrooms as well as facilities for day patients.  Predominately care is carried out in the person’s own home.  They cover an area of 700 square miles and last year cared for over 2000 patients.  Everything is free of charge and although they do receive some NHS funding the majority is from their own fund raising.  In total they need £12K per day.

Our speaker next month will be giving a talk on ‘Living Out of a Skip’!

Monday 11 July Meeting

We started our July meeting with a fire drill, partly as we had not had one for a while but also as we had 2 ladies with us from the now closed Oakhill institute. The village fair had been financially successful with a bigger pay out for all groups than recently and Barbara thanked again all those who took part or donated items.

The National AGM had taken place and the voting raised an issue as to whether we should in future leave the decisions on the resolutions to our group delegate so they can take into account the information and views of the formal speakers at the event.  Often the resolutions are not clear or comprehensive enough and a more informed vote would seem to be sensible.

We had a reminder about Denman courses with both a one day taster and a Federation weekend listed in the County News. We still have a bursary to give out for a course and it was suggested that if wanted this could be shared between two members, maybe attending the taster day which is already good value. Let a committee member know if you are interested.

Our entertainment came from Victoria of Angel-Oh! who specialises in a range of treatments including massage and nail care. She gave us an in depth nail care session including the recipe for a homemade hand scrub, demonstrations of nail and cuticle care and hand massage both for ourselves and others. Several people were the guinea pigs for some parts of the evening while we all joined in with the massages.

The President’s evening will be at Barbara’s house on Monday 8^th August with a knife and fork supper, now to start at 7.30. At the September meeting there will be a talk from Dorothy House Hospice.