Hello friends
Welcome to the last newsletter of 2025. Where has the year gone? I swear the older I get the quicker the time goes. I may have written about this before but a friend once told me that you measure time in new experiences. When you are young, and everything is new, time stretches on forever. As you age though it becomes harder to find new things to do and time concertinas in on itself. This is one of the many reasons I love the WI and all the different activities it brings me.
Christmas meeting December 11th
This year I’m going to be cooking us all a three course meal! Really importantly you need to bring a knife, fork and spoon. If you forget I’ll have some bamboo forks on standby but they aren’t all that pleasant to use. We’ll also be doing a Secret Santa; gifts to the value of about a fiver. This is a good time to be donning your party attire -the sparklier the better.
Next year
January CPR and first aid training.
February A very entertaining actor is coming to amuse and educate us and last month we had a vote as to which persona we would like him to adopt. The votes were Churchill 5, Shakespeare 5, Henry Vlll 11 and Margaret Thatcher 14. Thatcher it is then. (My mind is aboggling as to how he’s going to do this!).
March The ceramacist Victoria Carlin will be talking about her exhibition featuring casts made of women’s bodies.
April Singing workshop and AGM.
May By popular request, meditation with Gavin (who did the Tai Chi session with us).
Carol Concert
Many thanks to Katherine, Sally, Sue and Chris for baking cakes and serving tea with me at the carol concert on Wednesday. Also thanks to Tessa for dropping off some delicious brownies. It was a lot of fun and we made £125 to swell our coffers.
Sub group updates
The next meeting of the Keen Cook’s Club is on January 15th at 7pm.
The walking group had a lovely trip to Glow at Hyde Hall last night and will be meeting again on January 24th at 11am.
Dates for other groups coming soon.
Do let us know if you would like to be added to a group or have an idea for a new one.
Volunteer Delegate needed
The NFWI annual meeting is June 4th 2026 and it’s our turn to provide a delegate on behalf of the four local WIs in our group. You won’t need to go anywhere as it’s being conducted virtually. Your duties will be to listen in, vote on the resolutions on behalf of our group, and provide a short written report. People have to pay to be part of the meeting (they usually have some very interesting speakers) but you will get a free ticket. If you’d like to be our delegate please reply to this email.
WI announcement
You may have already seen the news that the WI has made the decision to no longer accept trans gender members. Here is a link to the press release they sent out.
Looking forward to seeing you all on Thursday. If you won’t be joining us may I wish you a very happy Christmas and hope it’s everything you would like it to be.
Much love
Vanessa
