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. 

​Two of our members recently attended the Worcestershire Federation WI Weekend at Denman College in Oxfordshire. A variety of courses over the weekend with our members choosing to do digital photography. A lovely time with lots of good tuition and lots of good food and an adventure coming back home through the snow!

​Deborah Overton was the guest speaker at our March WI meeting. Some may remember her talk last year about Bredon Hill. This time her talk was ‘Rural Life in Medieval Worcestershire’. Another popular talk as we welcomed nearly 20 visitors.
After a break for tea, members were reminded of the events coming up including our regular coffee morning, lunch club, drinks evening, skittles and WITCH. Federation opportunities coming up soon include scrap book workshop and the Federation Quiz.
Since our last report, we have played another skittles match and unfortunately suffered another loss. Playing against the Hot Peppers WI, the score was 196 v 216; our highest score of the competition so far but still a loss. 

Weather was against on Wednesday evening but we had a couple of people attend. So a nice cosy evening of turning coke bottles into trinket boxes - some good results too. 

Well, this was a popular event! 11 of us ventured down to our local The Bell for a drink and natter on Tuesday evening. No bad behaviour reported so I am sure they will let us come again. 

​Darren Hedges was our guest speaker at our February meeting. Some know him as the manager of Revills Farm Shop but in fact, he was a fine art photographic printer in London before moving to Worcestershire with his family. He brought along some superb prints to show us as well as giving an insight into the techniques involved in producing such artwork from processing films, and the people for whom he worked. This was before the use of digital cameras and their software capabilities became widespread; this progress in technology essentially ended the need for the specialist work provided by Darren and his colleagues but his enthusiasm for his work still clearly came through.
After a break for tea, members were reminded of the events coming up including our regular coffee morning, lunch club, skittles and WITCH along with a new venture we are trying – evening drinks at the Bell! Federation opportunities coming up soon include a needle felting workshop, lino print workshop, scrap book workshop and the Federation Quiz. Only February and we are busy, busy, busy! 

​Our last WITCH session at the end of January was a popular event with nearly 30 people creating some beautiful cards by quilling. Only managed to do a couple of photos though but the others were just as lovely with some wonderful individual creative touches.