As part of the National Federation of WI's competition to reuse, recycle in 2016 the above are photographs of Melksham's Hanging BRAskets, where our members Janey Cox, Heather McMullen and Carrie Weeks have reused old bra's to make unusual hanging baskets. I hope you agree that they are very fetching. The entry from Janey Cox was voted as our favorite and has gone forward to the National WI competition. Good Luck Janey
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We had a very informative and fun evening as the 'Bowler Hatted wood turner' John Aitken brought his lathe and wood to our meeting. John started off with a poem and took us on a short walk through his life with wood, starting off being apprenticed as a wood turner, moving into general carpentry and joinery and then back to wood turning.
He brought many examples of items he had made that were for sale as well as making a honey dipper, spinning top, lace bobbin and a light pull which were kindly donated to our next raffle in September. What a fun evening we all had - we welcomed Helen, Mark, Catherine and Eden from Flowers in Focus in Melksham who brought us flowers and showed us how to tie a flower arrangement as well as giving us a potted history of their family owned shop/business in Melksham.
Who would have thought it was so difficult to hold on to your flowers as you try to arrange them in a spiral before tying them... with help from Flowers in Focus we did all manage to successfully tie a bouquet which we were able to take home. A big thank you to Flowers in Focus for such a fun and informative evening. What an interesting talk from Mrs Dorothy Whittle on ‘Herbs and their uses’. Mrs Whittle brought a wide variety of herbs for us to smell, handle and generally enjoy. She not only gave us lots of tips on what to use various herbs for, in cooking or making herbal teas, but also which herbs make good companions for other crops we might grow in our gardens either to deter pests or enhance their productivity or flavour. So ladies how many of you are now growing borage alongside your strawberries, summer savory with your beans, or penny royal to keep ants at bay? Mrs Whittle also brought some herbs for us to purchase. A big thank you to our speaker for stepping in at short notice
What a fun evening, very fitting for our 33rd birthday. Once the routine business had been concluded the evening’s activities arranged by our very able programme team of Julia Deneen, Jo Stoddart and Janey Cox could begin. We enjoyed 5 rounds of quizzing provided by ‘Ali’ and ably assisted by Jo, which covered The WI, Game Shows, Animals in Film and TV, a Music round and finally Literature first lines. There were prizes for each round. This was followed by a glass of fizz and a veritable feast provided by all the attendees. Pat Lee kindly baked a lovely lemon cake and Happy Birthday was sung when the cake was cut by Julia. There was much laughter and a very sociable evening. Thank you to everyone for your contribution.
April was our Resolution meeting and we debated the two Resolutions that are to go forward to the NFWI Annual General Meeting in Brighton in June.
Jo Stoddart presented the case ‘for and against’ for the resolution “We call upon HM Government and the NHS to provide facilities to enable carers to stay with people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia that have been admitted into hospital” – after a lively discussion a vote was taken and everyone voted to adopt the campaign. Ann Finch presented the case ‘for and against’ for the resolution “The WI calls on all supermarkets to sign up to a voluntary agreement to avoid food waste, thereby passing surplus food on to charities thus helping to address the issue of increasing food proverty in the UK” a very lively discussion followed 12 voted yes, in its current form with 10 against, the remaining 14 would be for the resolution if it became a compulsory agreement similar to that implemented by the French government – it was felt this would enable supermarkets to legally pass on surplus foods. What an enjoyable evening with Pete and Julie Colegate telling us all things about Bee’s. How in the winter months they feed them with ‘Fondant Icing’ to keep the hive healthy. How Queens are selected and why bees swarm. Also how important flowers are – particularly the spring flowers that get the hive up and running again. If the winter is too mild and the bees come out to early there may be a shortage of flowers for them to collect pollen and nectar. A very interesting, informative and entertaining evening.
This was the chance to proudly display our newly made banner when 7 of us headed to Tidworth to take part in the celebrations of the Wiltshire Federation hosting the WI Centenary Baton (a bit like the olympic torch that made its way around Britain). The WI Centenary Baton is visiting all Federations during its journey in 2014 and 2015 culminating in the baton arriving at The Royal Albert Hall for the Annual General Meeting on Thursday 4th June.
Wiltshire received the baton from Gloucestershire on 23rd March with the first Wiltshire celebrations held in The Steam Museum, Swindon. the baton then transferred from North Wiltshire to South Wiltshire via Salisbury Plain on a Challenger Tank before arriving at Tidworth. We enjoyed demonstrations of besom broom making, wood turning, clematis care and candle making in the morning. The afternoon kicked off with WI representatives showing their Centenary Banners while passing the baton between each WI present. This was followed by a demonstration of 'Belly Dancing' from Wafaa Powell who visited us last month. Redlynch WI treated us to a performance of 'One Hundred Years of The WI' highlighting significant events across the decades with suitable period costume - a very good summary of key moments. The gathering rounded off with a singing celebration hosted by Jo Sercombe. A fun day out. There was much shared laughter and 'Dad Dancing' in evidence at our March meeting when we hosted Mrs Wafaa Powell from Trowbridge who talked to us about Belly Dancing, an ancient form of dance, originating in the Arabic world where it was and still is, an art form performed in families to celebrate happy occasions. The session started with Wafaa taking us through the history and benefits of Belly Dancing which is a lifelong activity performed primarily by women for women. Belly dancing can improve your posture and body confidence, trim the waistline, strengthen back and abdominal muscles whilst increasing tone, suppleness and flexibility of the entire body, and improving circulation and reducing stress levels. It was now time for us to have a go!! Wafaa supplied scarves with bells and charms attached to tie tightly around our hips, which was to aid the movements required for Belly Dancing. Wafaa chose Egyptian classical music for us to dance to and took us through the various basic moves which gave us the basis for a dance routine. We all found the new dance moves challenging which engendered much hilarity as we were put through our paces. With guidance we all managed a shimmy of the hips and shoulders and had great fun taking part in this type of dance/exercise. For those members who sat out the practical element they shared in the activity by shaking their arms and shoulders from their seats. Wafaa finished with a Belly Dance performance – which to be honest if we had tried, we would have been falling over each other. We all headed home with aching sides and cheeks from so much laughter and hilarity and looking forward to the next meeting when we will be learning about and making Venetian Masks. Saturday 31st May 2014 Melksham WI will be hosting a stall at the Melksham Lions 40th Birthday celebrations. Do come along and say hello and buy some produce and craft items from our stall between 10am and 4pm at the United Church Hall.
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June 2018
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