WI meeting

East and West Ayton WI had a wonderful afternoon tea party at Hackness Grange for their own branch celebrations of 100 years of WI. All the ladies were in their finery and a number of past members who, for various reasons, are no longer able to attend the monthly meetings, were invited and joined in our celebrations. It was lovely to see them all and for them to renew friendships. A lovely tea was served by the staff at Hackness and to complete the celebrations we cut the cake and drank the bubbly. A rousing chorus of Jerusalem closed the event. A truly wonderful afternoon. I’m sure by the end of the year some of us will be glad of a little rest and to put our feet up, but not for long for as members of the WI we always have plenty on.

The monthly meeting was held on Tuesday October 6 in the village hall at 7.15pm and despite the awful weather we had a wonderful turn out. The speaker was Jonathan Botham who spoke about Elizabeth Botham and the story of her baking. It was a wonderful talk, very interesting, informative and funny at times. How one little lady with 13 children and farmer husband could work so hard and achieve so much over her life time. A marvellous woman and all credit to her family for continuing the family business. The competition winners of four homebaked biscuits were Janet Dober, Hazel Keld and Heather Whitehouse. The raffle prize winners were Angie Archer, Sandra Austin, Linda Garghan and Linda Richardson.

The mid-month coffee is at Betton Farm today (Thursday) from 10.30am.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday November 3 at 7.15pm in the village hall when the speaker will be Sue Woodcock whose talk is entitled From Copper to Shepherd. Come along and join us, you will be made welcome.