31st March
A busy WI day today because the 90th Anniversary of Bucks WI Federation Celebration Lunch took place in Newton Longville. The hall was full to capacity and everyone had been allocated to a table so that there was no scramble for places. The meal was excellent, good portions and well cooked and leisurely.After the official toast there was continual chatter and the projector was showing the celebratory samplers which the WIs had submitted last year. It was a good occasion to show them off. After lunch Lyndsey Haubner talked about her experiences as an extra for films and TV which was an interesting insight into behind the scenes life in the theatrical world.
In the evening it was down town to watch Winslow WI's Fashion Parade. Again the hall was full to overflowing and the set-up was highly professional with a catwalk, musical accompaniment and a spotlight. The models were from our own WI plus a couple of young daughters drafted in and I don't think they will mind me saying that they were of all shapes and sizes and ages, real life people not these twiglike creatures seen parading in the fashion houses.There were stalls around the hall and the wine flowed. The clothes were from GreenHouse and they looked good and felt good too as several of the models bought outfits but left some for the rest of us! The commentary was excellent and the models really entered into the swing of the thing. It was good fun and attracted a lot of non-members from the town which is what we aim to do when holding a fund-raising event. I am told that the rehearsal in the afternoon was dire which just goes to show the truth of the saying that that presages a successful event.It was a resounding success and I think Winslow WI should be proud of itself.
30th March
The Book Group met this afternoon. We were slightly reduced in numbers because of illness but a good turn out really.The novel under discussion was "The Alchemist's Daughter" by Katherine MacMahon which was considered better than "The Rose of Sebastopol" which we had read the month before. People preferred the more definite ending to this book and enjoyed the historical setting. We talked about the theme of nature v. nurture and whether one could possibly in these times bring up a child in such isolation from the outside world even if one went along with home education. Also we wondered whether the heroine, when she showed the baby round her laboratory, was going to repeat her father's experiment with her education with the new child or whether the "we" has meaning herself and the local priest. So maybe the ending wasn't as straightforward as we at first believed. We learned quite a bit of physics too with this book! We are going to give this author a rest for a while and our next book is Alice Munro's "View from Castle Rock" and probably "Once a Landgirl" by Angela Huth.