At our June meeting WI members enjoyed a cream tea to celebrate 100 years of the WI. There was a light hearted competition during the evening when we tried to identify members from photos taken when young and out of the 30 photos displayed only about half a dozen were correctly identified! The evening concluded with a quiz with some of the questions from the recently held Group quiz at which Oakley & Deane came third.
The National Annual General Meeting of the WI was held at the Royal Albert Hall and this year to honour the centenary it was attended by the Queen, Princess Anne and the Countess of Wessex. It was arranged for this be broadcast live and a member organised this to be relayed to the Fox PH so those who wished to do so could enjoy the atmosphere of the meeting hearing and listening to all that was going on including the three guest speakers, Lucy Wolsey, historian, Tanni Grey-Thompson, para-olympian and Helena Morrissey, a successful business woman. A good lunch was provided by the Fox staff and there was also time to enjoy the rare sunshine in the garden during the lunch break, so it was a very enjoyable day.
There are obviously lots of celebrations arranged to mark the 100 years milestone and one of these was a garden party at Buckingham Palace for which three members were lucky to receive tickets via a ballot and so a report was given on this and the President wore to the monthly meeting the outfit she wore for the occasion.
In May a very enjoyable day was the trip to Oxford In spite of the continual rain. Some member had a tour around the Bodleian library which was really interesting. The guides related much of the history of the library which has been in existence in some form for many centuries but was first opened to scholars in 1602. It is situated in quadrangles of the university and has beautiful and historic interiors which have intricate painted and carved ceilings and houses combined collections of 11 million items. Others explored the Ashmoleum museum whilst others were happy to indulge in some retail therapy.
Forthcoming events include the regular monthly scrabble meeting, a visit to Newbury races and a local walk in August.