9th December
One of the Bucks Federation's sub-committees met today for an IT surgery to learn about the new technology which it has bought so that its members will be able to wire up speakers in a blase fashion and without undue nervous tension.Everyone should be able to see the advantage of this training at future events.It was a successful and enjoyable session. We went on to explore the NFWI website with its Moodle (training scheme), our own Bucks Federation website which is heralded for release soon and then on to the National Chairman's blog and Twitter site. We came away screen-blind but very confident; so watch out you non-users of computers we are coming to get you involved too !
This will probably be my last entry on the blog for 2010. May I wish my readers a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year with many enjoyable experiences shared in your WIs.How about a resolution for the new year to make a comment on this blog or to drop in on the WI websites at National, at Stuart Lodge and the numerous others across the county? I promise you wont feel a thing except a bit smug and deservedly so!
8th December
The discussion group members shook the snow from their boots and enjoyed a cosy evening talking about old wives tales and sayings.This was pretty light-hearted stuff after last month's talk of Care not Custody. Probably the most interesting part was the regional differences to the same saying. We almost strayed into a reprise of talk on superstitions and we came to realise that in the days before Health and Safety regulations the old wives were warning of the dangers around us in another way. What a lot were gloomy forecasts of disasters and evil designs in inanimate objects! We touched on the possible closure of our library and agreed to talk about that at our next meeting.
7th December
The book group met this afternoon and of course there was quite a bit of discussion about the possible closure of the local branch library. It would certainly be a great miss for our group as we depend on the Library Service for our multiple copies of books to read.We do sometimes buy in bulk when titles are on offer but on the whole we rely on the library. The book we had all read was The House at Riverton by Kate Morton which suffered slightly from its resemblance to Downton Abbey recently covered on ITV. Actually it had similarities with those kind of family sagas such as the Forsyte Saga and Upstairs, Downstairs: not surprisingly as we recognised that authors were using the same sources for the background of their stories. One of the references in Riverton was a book written by a maid from Gayhurst House near Tyrringham which is local to us. I tried to find it in the library stock but there isn't a copy available now.The book also had echoes of Rebecca and the Nancy Mitford books which are all treating the same period but it was well constructed, keeping its secret until the end and making everyone finish the book.
6th December
Some of our local WI members went out for a Christmas Dinner together tonight. We invite partners to these events as they are not a bona fide part of the membership and not every member wants to attend. It is a way of saying thank you for all the phone calls our partners answer, the chair-moving and the provision of a shoulder to weep on when everything WI seems in danger of going pear-shaped.These parties are always very noisy affairs and good fun. The food was excellent again this year and we hire the community bus so that no one need worry about being found driving under the influence of drink which would be very embarrassing and give the local press a gleeful opportunity for a really damaging headline.
Monday, 13 December 2010
Sunday, 5 December 2010
Music to our ears
3rd December
The final event of the BFWI 90th anniversary took place at Haddenham this evening when a Christmas Concert was held in the local church.The BFWI certainly knows how to choose dramatic weather for its events. We will never forget the rain at Stowe and, not now, the cold at Haddenham. The walk across to the floodlit church over crunchy snow beside the frozen pond really set a Christmas feeling to the evening. The Aylesbury Concert Band played seasonal music and accompanied the singing.The playing of the Haddenham Handbell Ringers was so clear and silvery and sounded lovely in the church.How the players in the band managed to play the right notes with icy fingers I don't know: the temperature was just above freezing because the tower under scaffolding for repairs was open to the four winds and at least two were blowing cold air through the building. Luckily the music was great, especially the duets by Jacqueline and Susan, and the readings were amusing so we began to forget about the cold. It was so good to hear some WI produced music which has been missing recently in WI events.It was only as we headed into a snow storm on the way home that I realised I was warm enough to feel my toes!
It was also very heartening to hear in the concert interval that it is possible that following the promotional activities at the "Calendar Girls" we may be about to witness the birth of a new WI in Aylesbury itself. Did you realise that there have been at least two new WIs formed in Bucks last year? How come I didn't know about all these developments? Did I miss the announcement in the WI Newsletter? We should be shouting this sort of thing from the rooftops to encourage the others. After all this growth in membership is a national trend and it looks as though we are on the bandwagon.
1st December
I visited one of the smaller WIs in the County this morning for its Annual Meeting. It was feared that the members were not going to be able to find the 3 officers because most of them had already served their turn and wanted a break. Same old problem you might say but we managed to re-arrange things a bit and I am sure they will be fine for another year. Some small WIs are a lesson to those larger than themselves and here was further evidence that small is beautiful.The members had taken part in nearly every BFWI event even though transport is often a problem. They had participated in WI holidays, entered competitions, helped in the setting up of a new WI in close proximity to their own in spite of the imagined threat to themselves and done sterling work in the village community. I was told the average age could be 75 but they had been cavorting about on a float in the village fete parade---don't tell Elfin Safety! A lesson to us all.
It was the local WI Christmas meeting tonight. In spite of the snow there was a good turn-out and once indoors the warmth was there for all to feel.We voted on the split for the profit from our Murder Mystery Evening between the WI and the refurbishment of the meeting place on the Market Square. The new appointments for next year were announced and mention was made of the threat of closure for our local branch library. This tied in well with the exhortation to have our voting forms ready next meeting for the resolutions to go up to the NFWI AGM in June. Also the date was given for our extra group craft activity in June which is being funded from our money-raising events so that everyone can reap the reward for their hard work. And then.....we degenerated into a very noisy game of beetle and some pretty unfortunate carol singing! The fact we needed a little glass to keep out the cold on the way home may have had something to do with this. It was a lovely evening and now let Christmas begin.
The final event of the BFWI 90th anniversary took place at Haddenham this evening when a Christmas Concert was held in the local church.The BFWI certainly knows how to choose dramatic weather for its events. We will never forget the rain at Stowe and, not now, the cold at Haddenham. The walk across to the floodlit church over crunchy snow beside the frozen pond really set a Christmas feeling to the evening. The Aylesbury Concert Band played seasonal music and accompanied the singing.The playing of the Haddenham Handbell Ringers was so clear and silvery and sounded lovely in the church.How the players in the band managed to play the right notes with icy fingers I don't know: the temperature was just above freezing because the tower under scaffolding for repairs was open to the four winds and at least two were blowing cold air through the building. Luckily the music was great, especially the duets by Jacqueline and Susan, and the readings were amusing so we began to forget about the cold. It was so good to hear some WI produced music which has been missing recently in WI events.It was only as we headed into a snow storm on the way home that I realised I was warm enough to feel my toes!
It was also very heartening to hear in the concert interval that it is possible that following the promotional activities at the "Calendar Girls" we may be about to witness the birth of a new WI in Aylesbury itself. Did you realise that there have been at least two new WIs formed in Bucks last year? How come I didn't know about all these developments? Did I miss the announcement in the WI Newsletter? We should be shouting this sort of thing from the rooftops to encourage the others. After all this growth in membership is a national trend and it looks as though we are on the bandwagon.
1st December
I visited one of the smaller WIs in the County this morning for its Annual Meeting. It was feared that the members were not going to be able to find the 3 officers because most of them had already served their turn and wanted a break. Same old problem you might say but we managed to re-arrange things a bit and I am sure they will be fine for another year. Some small WIs are a lesson to those larger than themselves and here was further evidence that small is beautiful.The members had taken part in nearly every BFWI event even though transport is often a problem. They had participated in WI holidays, entered competitions, helped in the setting up of a new WI in close proximity to their own in spite of the imagined threat to themselves and done sterling work in the village community. I was told the average age could be 75 but they had been cavorting about on a float in the village fete parade---don't tell Elfin Safety! A lesson to us all.
It was the local WI Christmas meeting tonight. In spite of the snow there was a good turn-out and once indoors the warmth was there for all to feel.We voted on the split for the profit from our Murder Mystery Evening between the WI and the refurbishment of the meeting place on the Market Square. The new appointments for next year were announced and mention was made of the threat of closure for our local branch library. This tied in well with the exhortation to have our voting forms ready next meeting for the resolutions to go up to the NFWI AGM in June. Also the date was given for our extra group craft activity in June which is being funded from our money-raising events so that everyone can reap the reward for their hard work. And then.....we degenerated into a very noisy game of beetle and some pretty unfortunate carol singing! The fact we needed a little glass to keep out the cold on the way home may have had something to do with this. It was a lovely evening and now let Christmas begin.
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