Always keen to try something new, we accepted an invitation from Beckford Croquet Club to have a go at Golf Croquet. So last Thursday afternoon, 5 of us had a lovely afternoon playing croquet. Under the gentle guidance of their members, we soon learnt the basic techniques as well as the skullduggery involved in scuppering your opponents! Finishing off with a well deserved cup of tea and several slices of cake, it was a lovely way to spend a sunny afternoon. 

Our July meeting was a very topical one for a WI meeting; Paddy Hannigan was talking about ‘Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? The Suffragettes & Votes for Women’. After having several members demonstrate their enthusiasm for political agitation by throwing stones at windows (don’t panic – they were paper stones) and shouting slogans, we settled down to hear his lively talk on suffragettes. An entertaining and interesting talk that could easily have gone on all night …. 

No photos of the stone throwing but below some examples of memorablia brought by Paddy. 

Another year gone by, and time again to appoint a new committee and new President. Well, we say new; what we really mean is that everyone was quite happy to continue as before and be led again by our excellent President Cynthia. As well as reporting on our last year's activities, financial position etc, it was also time to vote on the 2018 Resolution. So with our visiting WI Adviser, Suzanne, leading us, we voted to accept the Resolution which will now be debated at the NFWI Annual Meeting next month. 
And the 2018 Resolution is: 
Mental health matters as much as physical health. The NFWI urges all WI members to recognise the importance of parity between mental health and physical health, and take action to make it as acceptable to talk about mental health issues as much as physical health issues, and to lobby government for better support for mental illness.
(PS this was a resolution that was proposed by a WI member from WFWI - good result!)

Okay maybe not ..... but we did do very well at the WFWI Annual Quiz night in Hanley Castle last week. With the excellent minds of Lesley, Cynthia, Sarah & Barbara, we answered questions on all sorts of subjects and even impressed ourselves with our breadth of knowledge. At the end of the evening, we were equal second in our area. However, there was a parallel quiz night at the north end of the County and a team there managed to better the scores from Hanley Castle pushing us a little further down the pecking order. We didn't mind though as we had a fun night and didn't disgrace ourselves. Eggheads next then? 

If you have seen some re-energised ladies around the Village lately, it may you have spotted a WI member who followed advice given to us at our April WI meeting. Lisa Jacks gave a talk on nutrition for increased energy and health. She explained how our diet should work and what we can do to help ourselves to improve our diet which will then help in all aspects of our lives. Whilst taking on board her advice, it didn’t stop us eating the biscuits during our coffee break!
The week after our own meeting, we crossed the border and visited Kemerton WI, Glos Federation. We had received an invite from Kemerton WI to attend their Open Evening for a talk on producing a Chelsea Flower Show Garden. So 7 of us went and enjoyed a pleasant evening at Kemerton with a behind the scenes look at how a garden at Chelsea evolves.

Well our last WITCH session of the season in March was another success. By various means, we managed to bookfold our way to create hedgehogs & angels. 

On Saturday, Cynthia, Sarah & Barbara headed off to WI House at Hallow for a day of lino cutting. Under the expert eye of our tutor, we traced, gouged, inked and printed eventually producing 4 prints of good quality images (given it was our first attempt). Fun day out with something nice to take home with us. 

The WFWI Denman weekend was part of its centenary celebration. On Saturday evening Sue Stone (WFWI Chairman) and Anne Smith (WFWI Vice Chairman and Denman Ambassador) cut the beautiful cake made by the Denman chefs in celebration of its 100th birthday. It looked lovely and tasted just as nice.