Programme change
PRESIDENT Valerie Greenhill welcomed members and a special visitor, Jo’s Sister Kath, to the October meeting of the Thorpe Acre WI held at the Thorpe Acre Church Hall on Tuesday the 10th at 7.30pm.
She went on to give two cards to those members with upcoming birthdays and received one from Linda for her own.
We didn’t get the warmest of days when we meet up for coffee at the café in Queen’s Park. Even though we were indoors, we still had a lovely cuppa and some were even tempted to an accompaniment! The venue for November’s coffee morning will be at Goodliffe’s. Names for October’s lunch at the Windmill were confirmed.
The final matches of the first round of the Darts competition have been played and we are now waiting, with baited breath, to see if Team A, with their 27 points, has made it to the second, knock out round.
In contrast, our participation in the Skittles Competition was short lived as we lost Ashby Spa. Now we’ll have to sit at home, feet up, in front of the fire and dream of all the suppers we’ll be missing. However the possibility of partaking in a ‘fun’ game of Bingo at the Beacon Bingo club sparked some interest.
The results of Sue W’s craft survey indicated that many members would like to hone their crocheting skills. She is going to contact Ruth Green of the Arts and Crafts Committee to see if a tutoring session can be organised.
Other things on the list were glass or silk painting, wool spinning and teabag folding. There are no local people available to explore the first three topics but she is quite happy to fold a teabag or two with those interested in this art.
Still on the crafting theme, Valerie asked members to bring their pompom decorations to November’s meeting so we can see if there needs to be an extra pompom making session.
Valerie drew our attention to one item from NFWI that being the new subscription fee for 2018 which will increase to £41. She pointed out that this is equates to £3.42 per meeting. All thought that this was not bad value for a chat, perhaps learning something new, a cup of tea with biscuits and most of all a bit of a giggle.
Anyone, other than Sue Y., Linda and Marilyn, wishing to attend next year’s Centenary Annual Council Meeting must let Linda know as soon as possible.
Correspondence from NFWI and WI House was placed at the front of the table for perusal during tea and further information relating to the latter to could be found in County News. The committee again decided that each member would receive a free copy of the County News throughout 2018.
Carole handed out copies of the menu for the Christmas Lunch at Beaumanor Hall. All the dishes sound lovely but we must make our choices by next month’s meeting. Decisions, decisions!
It was a busy month in the Culture Club Diary. We were entranced by Victoria and Abdul, laughed at the wit of Gervaise Finn and tapped our feet and clapped our hands to the unique sound of The Glenn Miller Orchestra.
There are quite a few interesting films being released in the near future and these will be explored in due course.
Members were reminded that next month’s meeting will be our Annual Meeting and nominations for the committee would be most welcome.
The Speaker this month was the ever popular Julie Ede with her talk entitled ‘Bess of Hardwick Hall’. She outlined how a certain Elizabeth Hardwick, a gentleman’s daughter from Derbyshire, scaled the 16th century social ladder to become Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury. She outlived four husbands and was a very shrewd match maker not only for herself but for her children and grandchildren. She died, aged approximately 81, a very wealthy women.
The competition, ‘A Necklace’ was won by Sue Wainwright, with Janice Newbold coming 2nd and Jo Seddon, 3rd.
The raffle prize was won by Jean Homer. Refreshments were provided by Lynne Hoad and Jill Atkinson.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday, November 14, at 7.30pm at the Thorpe Acre Church Hall.
As this is our Annual Meeting there will be no speaker. However there will be fun and games and tea and biscuits after the Business Agenda has been completed.
If you want to drop in and see the serious and not so serious side of us then please do so. You’ll be more than welcome.