Meeting 8 April 2019

In April there were positive reports of several recent events including the coffee morning, first Friday lunch and the Hall quiz. Mary thanked everyone who had taken part in the village clean up, although there was less rubbish this year, mainly due to the very welcome regular collecting by some villagers.

There had been some changes to the structure of the Frome Group with both Mary and Caroline resigning from their positions as co-ordinator and treasurer respectively. One institute had left the group and the remaining 5 had decided to conduct matters in a more informal way, including each choosing the format of their own group event to host on an average once every 2 years. We are due to run the summer social in 2020.

Planning ahead, for the fete in June we were reminded that both prizes for the tombola stall and volunteers to staff it were needed, so do sign up to the rota if you can when asked.

Finally another reminder, this time about the meeting in May. This is our AGM when we would be discussing the Resolutions. One is a call against the decline in local bus services and the other is titled “Don’t fear the smear”. Both need to be voted on, lots of information in WI Life to help you make up your mind. This will be followed by a “bring and tell” session, with anything interesting you would like to bring along, the telling part not compulsory!

We then had a talk about her work as a Registrar from WI adviser June Greenway who had stepped in when the booked speaker had to withdraw. She told us many amusing and interesting stories about her work including how inflexible the rules are about the right paperwork etc., something many applicants don’t understand.

The meeting on May 13^th, Resolutions etc., see above.

Meeting 11 March 2019

Final names were being taken in March for our outing to the Somerset Rural life museum in May and Mary was pleased to announce that as this is an educational trip the cost of this for members would be taken from WI funds which were currently at a good level. We were also asked if we wanted to take part in the annual Tarmac Trophy quiz taking place in the Hall on April 6^th, although it was unclear how many had volunteered for this. Before then our annual litter pick was due on Saturday 16^th March and members were encouraged to join in with this and the refreshments afterwards.

Various events, including these, were listed on a printout attached to our County News copies so do check this if you are unsure of any dates. Looking ahead to the Resolutions for the National AGM, it had been decided to have two topics, the first about the decline in local buses and the second on fear about smear tests, so both would need discussing.

Our entertainment was a session of belly dancing led by Wafaa Powell.  She had held a similar evening 11 years ago which some of us did remember. She told us a little about the background of belly dancing, originally developed to improve health, not to entertain men as some think and even now is mostly done amongst women. Those who could joined in and others sat and watched while she built a simple routine for us by putting several moves together. It was good fun plus some exercise at the same time. Finally she did a demonstration dance to show us how it really should be done.

Our talk on 8th April is called “Grumpy travels the Americas” .

Meeting 11 February 2019

Mary welcomed our members and a guest to the February meeting.  The celebration of our Institute’s 70^th birthday at The Bell had been a great success.  We were joined by a number of husbands and people had great fun joining in the games of skittles.  Members had not been put off by the snow for our monthly lunch.  The Monday coffee morning had 14 people attending. The Village Clean Up is on Saturday 16 March starting at 2pm.  Please do come along – this is not just for the WI.  Tea and cake served afterwards.  There was some discussion on the Frome Group of WI Institutes.  Caroline after a number of years will be stepping down as their Co-ordinator.  The next meeting will be on 26 March at Nunney and a number of our members will be going.  Looking further ahead to the Village Fair Mary suggested members could start collecting Tombola prizes and she is happy to store them at her house.  Other events to look forward to are an evening outing to the Rural Life Museum and a trip to the Merlin theatre in Frome to see ‘Allo Allo’. 

We then had a very interesting talk from Fiona Blackmore on “My Life as a Gardener”.  She had always been interested in the outdoors and was encouraged by both her grandfathers who were keen gardeners.  She had studied Geography at University but later re-trained in Horticulture and Softscaping.  She works at a local plant nursery and they travel extensively to various Shows, including Chelsea, where they have won many gold medals.  When she is not busy at work she has her own garden to look after, which included digging a pond and keeping chickens and goats!  We saw some lovely slides of her work.

Our meeting on 11 March at 7.30pm will be on Open Meeting – so please if you haven’t come along before or it is a while since we have seen you please do join in.  We will be having a demonstration on Belly Dancing - participation for those who wish to join in!

Birthday Social at the Bell Inn

We celebrated our birthday again with a social evening of Skittles, food and drink on Friday 18th January. Twenty four members/partners enjoyed a fun evening of Skittles in the Bell Inn, with Martin winning the overall score and Daggs winning the game of "Killer".

Many of us also enjoyed a meal beforehand and there was plenty of time to catch up with friends and for our newer members to get to know others and their partners too.

Thanks to Denis for doing the scoring and for the two young ladies doing the  "sticking up".

A very successful and sociable evening all round!

70 YEARS YOUNG!!

The WI started in Leigh on Mendip in 1949 and we will very soon be celebrating our 70th Birthday!

We had refreshments and cake at our Monday meeting.  As a reminder to members we will be holding a Fun Event in the Skittles Alley at The Bell this coming Friday evening (18 January).  Come along and bring your family & friends.

Meeting 14 January 2019

In January we were celebrating our Institute’s 70^th birthday with cake at the monthly meeting and a skittles social evening planned for Friday 18^th. There were positive reports of the recent coffee morning in the Hall and First Friday lunch in the Bell and we heard from one of our members how much she had enjoyed the WI carol service in Wells Cathedral. The new programme cards were given out and it was pointed out no outings were listed but any ideas through the year for these would be very welcome. The voting slips for the Resolutions were collected plus the yearly subscriptions and we were reminded to bring along a raffle prize if we had not already done so. Jo reported from the fete committee that the Saturday would go ahead with stalls etc much as in previous years and there would also be barn dance on the Friday before. There was a suggestion that the WI sell strawberries and cream rather than Pimms/Mocktails as part of our contribution which was agreed by members.

We then had a very interesting and detailed talk on climate change and global warming from Phil Gulvin. He studied earth science many years ago and reverted to this in recent times to give lectures to OU students after many years as a vicar. It became clear how difficult the science of predicting climate change is as so many factors can affect it although it seems generally agreed that one, global warming, needs addressing and we can all do a little to help with this.

Our meeting on 11^th February at 7.30pm will include a talk called “My Life as a Gardener” from Fiona Blackmore who works in a local plant nursery.

Happy New Year

Wishing all of our current and prospective members, friends and followers a very Happy New Year.

We look forward to seeing you at our meetings and events over the coming year.

Take a look at the Programme and Information link to the right to find our 2019 Programme and Committee List.

See below for a summary of our recent events and many photographs.

If you are new to the area, or just never been to WI before, please do come along to a meeting as a visitor and meet us before you decide if you would like to join. Details are posted here and on the Village Website What's On page.

We are here to offer friendship, share skills and new experiences and have fun together.

We hope to see you soon.

Mary Mears and the Committee