September sorties

18 September
Did you pick up that article in the national press about the WI singers called The Harmonies who are releasing their first album at the end of October? They are obviously wanting to catch the Christmas market and need the support of the WI members. The singers are also featured in the M&S campaign promoting tea and cakes to play lip service to our image, while branching out into the pop music world.

16 September
It was lovely to be able to spend the evening celebrating a tenth birthday with one of our Bucks WIs. I remember when Fairford Leys WI was formed; the new members had to paddle across muddy ground to a portacabin but now they meet in a lovely hall with all mod. cons.The community has grown to about 5000 people and it is establishing a strong community identity which acknowledges the part the WI has taken in bonding the place together. It was the WI that was a prime mover in setting up the annual Fair on the Square which has become an important date in the calendar for the village.
There was a good atmosphere with music and tasty food and a chance to look back on the photographic record of the ten years the members had spent together. This WI is gaining members and keeping the founder members too. Congratulations!

15 September
After spending the morning wrestling with the technology of a new laptop, it was pleasant to come home to a gathering of the local WI play-readers. There were not many of us but we read two plays and enjoyed talking of past dramatic occasions when drama took a much greater role in our own WI and at NFWI level also. Next time when we meet we are going to read the play which our WI took to the Regional Contest in Cambridgeshire many years ago.That is if we can remember where we each put our copy. We were ever so disappointed that the NFWI pulled the plug on that competition at that stage, never holding a final. Apparently the money ran out which doesn't stop us bearing a grudge---we almost certainly would not have won but think of the glory in taking part.I shall never forget telling two rather startled policemen at 11.30pm somewhere near Baldock that we had just come first in a drama festival. Well they were the only other people in the service station at the time!

14 September
It was up early and away to Hampton Court Palace today on the outing arranged by the Education and Current Affairs sub-committee. Sixty members and friends spent a very busy day exploring the palace and gardens with two excellent guides.We learned a great deal about the Tudors which followed on nicely from the Henry VIII and All That day last June. Then the icing on the cake was for a small group of us to tour the Royal School of Needlework. We admired the conservation work going on there, as well as the exhibition of past masterpieces made by the students. I think we would all like to have been able to touch the lovely things on show and the bookshop held wonderful books which were very tempting too.The rain kept away until the journey home, the coaches were dead on time and the traffic reasonable. We returned exhausted and vowing to return to see what we hadn't had time to view in the few hours we had there today.

9 September
The Education and Current Affairs sub-committee met today and were faced by a long agenda.We spent the major part of the meeting deciding on our programme for the next year and some events for the one to follow. One always has to think so far ahead with the WI. Plans are well advanced for the Alternative Christmas lunch in aid of ACWW in November. Every year the WIs pay out a donation to ACWW in the Coins for Friendship scheme but few members really know what this organisation does. So this is a chance to hear all about it and also listen to an Oxfordshire member's efforts to raise money by cycling in Peru. We are aware of members' feelings and concerns about the planned disappearance of cheques in 2016 and also their worries about the new high speed train due to carve its way across Bucks.We are planning a BFWI response on grounds which will not set one parish council against another. A NIMBY approach is not the answer. Then where shall we go next for an educational outing next year and who can we persuade to speak at our Tree event in March? Everyone has a job to do before the next meeting in November.

8 September
At the local WI Discussion Group this evening we had set ourselves the topic of "climate".Well, the British are supposed to talk a lot about the weather so it seemed a safe choice. And so it proved:there was never a real gap in talk. We learned about the danger facing our islands if the Gulf Stream or the Atlantic Conveyor, as it is more scientifically known, becomes cooler. Then there are the problems of flooding and the effect of enforced migration which is extremely topical at the moment.There are those who have too little water and those who have too much, problems whci already cause friction in international relations. Was our weather really changing or do we just remember childhood experiences of seasonal extremes? What effect does the weather have on our mood? Don't we just talk about the weather because it is a safe common factor? It was in past times but now we have the shared topic of health and sex according to the media. Great subject, good wine, the chance to laugh together and the opportunity to get to know each other better.Why don't you encourage your WI to form a discussion group?