On a lovely evening we had a wonderful meal at Test Valley Golf Club. There were a lot of pictures taken, a few are below. If you would like to see some more click on THIS LINK
0 Comments
We celebrated our 105th Birthday in April with a buffet and a talk by Robin Maddy on Magicians and the Music Hall. The speaker was a member of the Magic Circle and performed little tricks with rings, cords and a decorated plate while he was talking. He spoke of the 19th century magicians and showed on the screen some of their posters for the music halls. He talked of the famous shows such as sawing a woman in half ,the Indian rope trick and Houdini’s miraculous escapes but he did not reveal how they were done. The Nancy Kirby plate was awarded to the best decorated sunhat. We had a very successful Jumble sale in April too. The speaker at the May meeting was Sarah Fincken who describes herself as a foot practitioner, having been a physiotherapist and a an occupational therapist previously. She dealt with many of the problems we are aware of ---bunions, athlete foot, nail fungi for example. The speaker for the March meeting of Oakley and Deane WI was straight off the plane from Uganda. His talk was entitled My Adventures in Tropical Agriculture. Steve Vaux grew up in Yeovil and went to Reading University. He had been to so many places in Africa and Papua New Guinea. He was involved with the growing of a variety of crops – oil palm, rubber, cocoa, sugar cane, citrus, sisal and tea. The Loddon group of WIs had a meeting where a Hampton Court Guide talked about the period costumes she makes and wears. There were a couple of walks in March, around Overton and Greenham Common, were we went up the control tower and enjoyed a coffee at the cafe there too. On the 22nd March at the Spring Council meeting of Hampshire WI at Portsmouth, Eddie the Eagle Edwards was one of the speakers. At our January meeting we heard about the National Garden Scheme from Mark Porter, who is the South East England Regional Chairman of NGS. He told us about the start of the scheme, how much money has been raised for charity and showed us lovely pictures of a few of the gardens which will be available to visit. There was also a bring and buy sale of unwanted Christmas gifts. February 14th brought no romance to the ladies of Oakley and Deane WI at their meeting! However the Rev Michael Kenning delighted us with a very comprehensive account of the life and work of Jane Austen. She had lived as our neighbour in Steventon for 25 years. Plenty of romance in her writings – 6 novels completed, letters, poems and prayers. Her clever father as Rector had 8 children so Jane had good company. Steventon was the cradle of Jane’s genius, but when her father died, the family were forced to move to Bath and then Southampton . Happiness came again when her fortunate brother was able to offer them a home at Chawton, near his house which his adoptive parents had provided. Then followed her most productive writing until illness caused her to die at Winchester in 1805. Members brought in some Jane Austen related items, for an interesting exhibition. We started the year with 3 walks in January, one in Oakley, one in Whitchurch and one in Rooksdown with coffee at St Michael's Hospice. There were also 3 walks in February, Overton where we saw the Laverstoke Buffalo Herd, Basingstoke's War Memorial and Eastrop parks and a litter pick around Oakley. Some pictures are below. We enjoyed the decorations left over from the pantomime at our December meeting. The speaker was Susan Essex who told of her 9 months as a Housemother in India in 2005 working for the Pestalozzi charity. She was situated near the border of Nepal and they took 24 bright children from poor families in India, Nepal and Tibet to get them ready to attend good Secondary schools. The children had not lived in a civilised house before so there was much to learn besides English and Maths. They prospered and stole the heart of our speaker and she had been back only last week to one of their weddings.
There was a competition for the best wrapped present which was won by Colleen. Christmas preparations started at our November meeting. We made either cards or giant crackers for a table decoration. There was also a competition, 6 mince pies on a plate and these were enjoyed with our tea and coffee.
We also put up the poppies which members knitted or crocheted which decorated the WI bench and were hung up beside it opposite the village pond. A Make Up Artist, Nina Roe, revealed her secrets to Oakley and Deane WI at the October meeting. It was quite gory seeing how wounds are created for TV. Wax is used and powdered blood makes bullet holes look realistic and a crushed finger can be produced! Latex is no longer used for hideous faces so silicone replaces this, but is very expensive. Bookings were taken for the Xmas lunch at Test Valley Golf Club. Tickets were available for The flower demonstration and cream tea on Wed Nov 23 arranged by Oakley Afternoon WI. Scissors and 2 Pringle boxes are needed for next time’s meeting for making a Xmas decoration or Xmas cards.
We began the September meeting with a minutes silence for our fellow WI member, the President of Sandringham, Her Majesty, the Queen. The speaker was Joyce Meader giving us the history of knitting 1817 to 1945. She was a most amusing speaker and had a large bagful of garments people had given her and she had knitted. These ranged from socks, swimsuits, lacy embellishments, corset covers and patterns produced from 1932 -1982. Our members brought it a variety of knitted items for an interesting exhibition too. Our WI had a cake stall at the village show, it was very hot, but we managed. |
Archives
April 2024
|