W.I September meeting
Leigh and District W.I.
On Tuesday 9 September 2008 we had our monthly meeting at The Village Hall; our President Mrs Wendy Kirk opened the meeting and spoke with pride and appreciation for all the help that was given when we hosted our yearly Summer Lunch in August. She informed the members that our “pink theme” had gone down very well with all our guests, with many thank you cards being received from other W.I. Institutes who attended on the day.
The minutes of the last meeting were read by Mrs Edith Durose; these were agreed and duly signed. Edith informed us of the following county events, The Annual Council Meeting on 14th October at Staffordshire County Showground , Murder by Candlelight at Checkley Community Centre on Thursday 23rd October Day.
We were fortunate to receive an “Awards for All Grant” from the Lottery Commission which has enabled many of our members to go on various courses at Denman College in Oxfordshire. Denman College is the Women’s Institutes own residential college in Marcham, Oxfordshire. It consists of a Georgian House set in 17 acres of parkland, with a teaching block and comfortable accommodation. To celebrate our success we will be holding an open evening on Thursday 25th September at 7.30pm, where we will be displaying the crafts we have been taught, this will be open to all who wish to come.
Our speaker for the evening was Mr. Ken Marshall who came to talk on “A Taste of the Hedgerow”. Mr. Marshall makes his own wine with berries and fruit that are in season, the first being an Elderflower wine which was sweet, light and fresh, this went down very well with the most of our ladies. We went on to the next wine which we had to taste and work out what fruit it was made from. We eventually worked out that it was made from bilberries. Ken went on to tell us about how difficult it was to collect the bilberries, this he had explained to a neighbour of his and within weeks the neighbour delivered a fruit scoop (from Norway) that has been invaluable for the collection of small fruit. The next wine was a sensation it was blackberry, he went on to explain that it was one of the easiest wines to make and he had to acknowledge that he thought this wouldn’t last long as it was so good. Our last bottle was a home made port, it being made from the wine that is left over from his talks, it was delicious. We had a very enjoyable evening with lots of laughter and fun.
Following such an enjoyable talk we had refreshments and as always had time to catch up on each others news, bringing to an end the evening. Our next meeting will be on 14th October, our speaker being Mr. Peter Glew who will be giving a demonstration in basketry.
