Around the women’s institutes

BENSON

IT was the occasion of our summer garden party, which was held in the lovely garden of one of our committee members. This was a purely sociable gathering with members supplying refreshments on a “bring and share” basis.

The weather stayed fine for members to enjoy a yummy selection of sandwiches and cakes along with a refreshing summer punch supplied by our host.

Our usual bit of WI business included notices of what’s on in Oxfordshire, a last chance to buy National Federation of Women’s Institutes raffle tickets and we learnt that there was an almost unanimous vote at the national annual meeting for the 2025 campaign “Bystanders can be lifesavers”. This will be subject of one of our meetings later in the year.

Also, among the notices, members were asked to think about ideas for spending our recent bursary award. To that end a plan is being considered to support one of the “River Readings” at the Henley Literary Festival later in September.

Benson WI’s next meeting will be on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 24 in the parish hall when we shall welcome a member of the Benson Nature Group to talk to us about its latest projects and the continuance of its work in keeping us all green and in touch with nature amid all the recent changes to our village.

Visitors are always welcome (£5) along with any potential new members. For more information, contact the secretary on 07789 303905 or email bensonwi@oxfordshirewi.co.uk

Sue Brown

CAVERSHAM

OUR July meeting is always the last before the summer break. Graham Horne visited to speak on the subject of “A Story of Henley-on-Thames”.

He had a number of fascinating historical stories to tell us about the area, which proved to be very interesting. We regularly take a boat trip along the Thames from Henley and now will have many more landmarks to watch out for and facts to recall.

For many of our members, August is a time to meet family and friends and enjoy the warmer weather. We will host a garden party instead of our regular meeting, with a few traditional games and a picnic. Our evening meetings always have time to catch up with each other socially, but the garden parties are especially lovely.

On September 2 we will be learning about something a bit different — how your balance, brain and fitness are related — with Jennifer Cowling. It is sure to motivate us to be more active heading into autumn. If you’re at a loose end or would just like to meet some kindly neighbours, please feel welcome to join us. Visitors are very welcome (and entirely free for the first three visits). After this, there is a set fee but it is less than £5 a month and includes local, Berkshire and national events, activities and resources.

We meet on Tuesday evenings, the first one each month. Holding a weekday evening meeting (7.30pm) enables members with daytime commitments to join us and those looking for a mid-week distraction to get out of the house. Feel free to email
cavershamwi@berkshirewi .co.uk or reach out on Facebook if you would like to join us for an evening.

Meetings are held in central Caversham, in a fully accessible venue, for about two hours including tea/coffee, biscuits, a small raffle and, of course, time to learn something new and discuss local and national issues.

Claire Elliott

CHAZEY

OUR latest meeting in St Andrew’s Hall, Caversham, saw Jonathan Jones give a very amusing and informative talk on his many years as Farnham town crier.

He looked splendid in his ceremonial clothes — white shirt and jabot, black knee breeches topped with a long waistcoat of scarlet.

He had a caped coat of Farnham green and wore a black tricorn hat, white socks, black buckled shoes and white gloves.

He told us how town criers went as far back as the Romans. Over the centuries when many people couldn’t read it was important to spread news by calling it out in market places or other areas where people gathered. He related of his various duties in Farnham and how there were lady town criers in some towns around the country.

Margaret Keen, the president, thanked the speaker before the group broke for tea and the usual delicious cakes.

Margaret Keen

CLEEVE-BY-GORING

CAN you save a life in an evening? Members had it explained to them how to use a defibrillator and carry out CPR by Suzanne Stickley at our July meeting.

We have all taken note of where these lifesaving machines are situated around the village. We hope to encourage our friends and family to also become first aid-canny. This is in association with the WI Resolution — “Bystanders can be lifesavers”.

Several Cleeve members are also involved with Goring in Bloom, the judging of which was in July. Krys Knox made a postbox topper featuring the sunflowers, which are our emblem.

While we have no official meeting in August, we will be meeting on our usual evening for a social get-together with a shared supper and a singer.

On Sunday, August 17 we will be at Goring Lock serving tea and homemade cakes from 2pm to 5.30pm. Goring and Streatley Concert Band will be playing from 2.30pm to 5pm. We have been raising money for local charities this way for more than 50 years. We hope to see some of you there.

Chris Cox

COCKPOLE GREEN

ON Wednesday, July 17, we were treated to a very interesting and informative talk from Tony Lack, a beekeeper and member of Wokingham and District Beekeepers Association.

We learnt about the lifecycle of the honey bee, discovering Queen bees live for three to five years and are very well looked after by the worker bees.

Bees can fly up to five miles when going to a food source and make up to 10 to 15 trips a day visiting many flowers and plants to collect nectar. The collection of pollen benefits the flowering plants as the bee’s action pollinates, enabling the plants to produce seeds.

About a third of the food we eat is pollinated by bees.

Scout bees will fly further from the hive and return to the hive to communicate their findings to the other bees. They do this in a form of “dance”, using the sun as a navigation tool.

The angle of the dance by the scout bee once back in the hive demonstrates the direction of the food source and the vigour of the dance indicates the distance. Clever bees!

Bees, as well as pollinators, also make honey, beeswax, royal jelly and propolis, which is a sealant used in the hive and has antiseptic properties. We all enjoyed Tony’s talk and benefited from his knowledge and expertise. So much to learn and appreciate about the wonderful bees who have been doing their job for thousands of years.

Tony answered many of our questions and then we sampled mead, which is a drink made from fermenting honey with water. It was delicious.

We also had a chance to roll our own beeswax candles to take home and buy some jars of honey made by the bees from Tony’s hives. Thank you to Tony and the bees!

We also had our annual outing on Thursday, July 21, a river cruise on the River Thames through the Oxfordshire countryside.

Ruth-Mary Vaughan

HARPSDEN-GREYS

OUR president welcomed 19 members to our July meeting and, despite the high temperature outside, it was very pleasant inside Harpsden hall listening to our guest speaker Jean Hill.

She entertained us for about an hour with humorous rhyming poems describing some personal experiences of her own, such as when her husband took up DIY with catastrophic consequences and when she was taken to the seaside as a child on a very rainy day — something that we could all identify with.

Another poem described how problematic it was when driving behind Sunday cyclists on country roads.

Each poem concluded with a funny line which made us all laugh. She has had both her poetry and prose books published so they are available on the internet.

Susan thanked everyone who had contributed to the meeting either by running the raffle, registering our members or providing the tea and cakes which concluded the meeting.

We have also begun having coffee mornings and thanks were given to Di Painter for holding the first one while Susan Beswick held the second one at her house on July 23. Our next meeting is on August 13 and it will be a garden party when everyone brings a sweet or savoury dish of their choice for us all to share. Finally, our lunch club and walking group will resume in September.

Gwen Wilding

HOT (Henley-on-Thames)

THE life of the honeybee with Sue Remenyi, a local apiarist, was our offering to our members for July.

Sue explained the very interesting life of honeybees and the use of royal jelly for feeding the bee larva, how nectar is stored and pollen is used within the hive. It was very informative, especially the description of how and why swarms form.

Our extra groups have been busy in the community, visiting Acacia Lodge care home explaining the history of the Henley WI and spending the afternoon chatting to some of the residents and staff.

Our theatre and cinema group went to see the Mikron Players at its open-air performance in Wallingford beside the river and enjoyed a lively atmosphere of laughter and music.

Our quiz group has been out and about at the Wednesday quiz at the Catherine Wheel pub in Henley with some success. We have even been trying to combine our walking and quiz group to visit the Lockdown Lodge at Hambleden Lock.

We have been invited to attend the Henley branch of the Royal British Legion afternoon tea at Greenlands, which precedes our next meeting on Friday, August 15. This will be our social event where we will be commemorating VJ Day and the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

Coming up in September we will have a defib demonstration, which enhances our commitment to our national campaign for 2025 — “Bystanders can be lifesavers”.

There are more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests a year in the UK and less than one in 10 people survive.

Women have a lower chance of surviving than men. Early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillating can more than double the chances of survival.

We call on WI members to work together to increase public confidence and training in the delivery of CPR and to work with local organisations to help to improve access to defibrillators in their communities to give every person the best chance of surviving a cardiac arrest.

Nicola Taylor, president

PEPPARD

OUR members gathered for our annual garden party, outside on the terrace behind Peppard hall and enjoyed a delicious tea and a glass of Prosecco.

It was a beautiful summer day and everyone relaxed and enjoyed being together and chatting about plans for the summer ahead.

Our additional open day tea party at the hall on July 5 saw the hall decorated with cheerful flowers and balloons and goodies to eat were on offer to all who attended.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, September 10 at 2pm, in Peppard Memorial Hall and we look forward to welcoming our speaker, Hannah Bignell, who will talk to us about flower arranging. Visitors are most welcome so do join us.

Elaine Douglas

REMENHAM

MEMBERS gathered in a typically English garden for our July meeting, which saw bright sunshine welcoming everyone to the afternoon.

After the business side of the meeting was over, everyone was encouraged to draw or paint some of the flowers from the vases on the tables. Very soon there were looks of concentration as the song English Country Garden was playing in the background. Some people chose watercolours, others pastels while felt tips produced some beautifully bright colours.

A special and delicious English afternoon tea was prepared by the committee, which was appreciated by everyone present. Raffle prizes were won by Anne Francis, Caroline Leeming and Pat Sly. Several members attended the service of thanksgiving for Sheila Constantinidi at St Mary’s Church in Henley. Sheila had been a member of Remenham WI for a great number of years and will be much missed.

A craft and chatter morning was well attended and again was blessed with fine weather. There was a range of crafts being undertaken, including quilling, sketching, knitting and crocheting.

Lots of chatter accompanied the “work” and all was going well until Judy “dropped a stitch” which, eventually, everyone gave up looking for! The chatting continued over lunch and the thunder didn’t arrive until we had all departed.

The book club also had another meeting and discussed Tinker, Tailor, Schoolmum, Spy by Faye Brann, which everyone enjoyed and felt that it was a good and easy summer read. It was decided to work out who might also be a spy among the people we know. The next read is A Plague on Mr Pepys by Deborah Swift, where Samuel Pepys and his world spring to life.

Daphne Austen

SHIPLAKE

ON arrival at our meeting everyone was given a glass of Prosecco or soft drink and a quiz sheet to complete during the afternoon. This was compiled by Wendy Channell.

President Sue dealt with business as usual but kept it brief as this was our summer tea party. Sue did ask members if they could take part in making dental care bags to include toothbrush and toothpaste which will be passed on to those who are in need.

These will be distributed nationwide. A letter of thanks was received from the secretary of the war memorial hall committee for the help our members had given in clearing the gardens.

The memorial hall centenary celebrations took place on July 20 when our WI did the catering. This had been very much appreciated.

The ABBA trip on Friday, July 18 was enjoyed by many members and Sue reminded everyone of dates for the next few outings.

The next Beechwood meeting will be hosted by Henley WI on October 3 when the speaker will talk about “The confessions of an advertising photographer”.

We then enjoyed our lovely summer party tea, when the result of the quiz was announced and our special big raffle took place.

There will be no meeting in August. Our next meeting is September 17 at 2.30pm at Shiplake Memorial Hall. Visitors welcome.

Jean Buckett

STOKE ROW

OUR July meeting was popular and as well as many of our members we welcomed the husbands of four of them as guests to hear our speaker, Tony Boffin, telling us about the life of William Morris, Lord Nuffield.

Tony was an enthusiastic speaker and, as a guide from Nuffield Place, the former home of Lord Nuffield, he was very knowledgeable on the subject. Lord Nuffield was the founder of Morris Motors of Oxford and a great philanthropist. He founded Nuffield College, Oxford, and the Nuffield Foundation with the purpose of advancing education and social welfare.

I do remember clearly being in the first A level chemistry class at my school to follow the Nuffield Science curriculum which came with new modern textbooks that seemed so much more exciting than the chemistry that had come before. It was probably nearly 50 years later when I made the connection with Lord Nuffield.

Making the most of the warm, light evenings, Tilley Smith led an evening walk around Mapledurham followed by dinner at the Packhorse pub. Several members who did not want to walk met us at the pub afterwards. It was a lovely sociable evening with great food.

Our crafters have been busy making poppies that will form part of our new installation for Remembrance Day this year. We held a successful coffee and chat session via Zoom this month after a technical hitch last month and there was a final swim session at a member’s pool before a summer break.

In August we will be taking a sail along the Kennet and Avon canal by horse-drawn barge. Although swimming and the drama group will be taking a break for the summer we will still be holding our regular monthly meeting of the craft and book group and coffee and chat via Zoom in August.

For more information, email the secretary at stokerowwi
@oxfordshirewi.co.uk

Denise Stanworth

WOODCOTE

ANN Larden welcomed the members to our July meeting. The birthday girls this month were Patricia Solomons, Rose Metcalf, Wendy Muchamore, Doreen Knox, Maxine Wilde and Joan Comley.

We had our very own bingo caller, Kerry Jones, who kept us entertained and eyes down for a line and then a full house. Thank you to Kerry and Debbie Emmett.

This was followed by a delicious tea, many thanks to Yasmin Gaielle, Debbie Emmett and helper.

The Bloom of the Month winner was Shirley Bryant with beautiful bright red gladioli.

We had a group meeting at South Stoke village hall with Woodcote, South Stoke and North and South Moreton. We enjoyed a lunch with a big thank-you to everyone who helped make it a success and all the men who helped to put the tables out.

The speaker, Julia Sorrell, was excellent and told us how to “renovate our home with attitude”.

We meet in August at the Maker Space in Nuffield where we will have an afternoon tea.

Judy Williams