A typical British summer

June 1st
A really pleasant way to start a new month! Three of us from the local WI had been lucky to be allocated places at Denman College's first Literary Lunch. We picked up a member from a neighbouring WI and we were off out for the day in lovely sunshine. Denman looked marvellous as usual and the new Ferris building is state of the art.The morning featured Santa Montefiore, a novelist of some renown who was a very accomplished speaker. She spoke with great humour about her life and her approach to writing and in no time at all it was lunch which was most enjoyable. In the afternoon two speakers talked about what was looked for in the entries for the WI Lady Denman Cup.This annual competition is different every year and although Bucks sends up 3 entries every year we haven't won for years and years. Well, there were 5 members from Bucks present today so perhaps there will be a change of fortune.
I would recommend people to go if another Literary Lunch is planned as it was good to discuss things with members from other Federations. Some had spent the previous night at the College so it had been a bit of a holiday as well.
June 2nd
Another lovely day on which 8 members of the local WI travelled down to High Wycombe ostensibly to visit the WI Exhibition in the library in the town. However as some had never been down to see Stuart Lodge, the Bucks Federation's ancient pile which is our headquarters nor had they sampled the delights of the WI shop we had a conducted tour of the premises too.We walked along to the library where we were given another conducted tour of the exhibits and the spanking new library. We were most impressed by the display and I think our archivist has done us proud. Of course after all that walking, we needed a little something for lunch and some indulged in retail therapy in the new Eden Centre. The exhibition closes soon so if you haven't seen it yet, you had better hurry.
June 3rd
I always like to imagine WI members staggering out into little lanes and busy roads all over the country at ungodly hours of the morning to catch trains and coaches to the Royal Albert Hall for the NFWI Annual General Meeting.In Bucks we are lucky as 7am is soon enough for us to contend with the rush hour across London.It was a really good meeting this year with excellent speakers and some interesting points raised on the single resolution about honey bees. This was of course carried almost unanimously.Maureen Lipman was her usual irrepressible self, the fellow from Yorkshire Tea knows exactly how to handle a WI audience, Eve Pollard was good too and we ended up with Richard Stilgoe with his Orpheus Centre Apprentices which was heartwarming.The weather was kind so we could migrate over lunch to the feet of dear Albert and watch the world go by with friends met in previous years.The only disappointing thing about the day was that the Albert Hall will no longer allow WI Enterprises to have a stall to sell WI items and there were none of the usual displays in the foyer.Oh! and what happened to the ice-cream man at the end of the meeting?
Two of us came straight back to our local meeting but didn't report on the AGM. We just sat and unwound and watched another excellent demonstrator and speaker from amongst our own members.The talent among WI members is amazing and yet so much is hidden under the proverbial bushel.
June 6th
Did you watch the programme on TV about the Calendar Girls? Of course you did.
June 8th
Today was the Dates Meeting where the chairmen and secretaries from all the Bucks sub-committees come together to hammer out the programme for the next 18 months and discuss policy too. As Bucks Federation is 90 next year watch out for lots of celebratory events and think how you would like to celebrate your membership of the WI. What has it done for you? And what have you done for it?
June 10th
When one chooses a date for a garden barbeque, one takes into account things like Wimbledon and the Fastnet races and plumps for a different date which is what we did locally. And the heavens opened about five minutes before everyone was due to arrive! Nothing daunted we carried on and enjoyed time together even if there was no chance of sitting in garden chairs in summer clothes. The event wasn't a fund-raiser but a social affair that the members had suggested in our WI questionnaire so that we could talk and get to know each other outside the meetings. So it was a success in its way.Never mind--we have another planned for an August evening. It can't happen twice, can it?