Around the WI

BENSON

AT our May meeting, members discussed the current national campaign resolution and all voted in favour of “Dental health matters”.

There seemed to be not much argument against.

Other bits of business included the issuing of programme cards, an update on the installation of a blue plaque in our village and special happy 80th birthday wishes to one of our very long-standing members.

Members welcomed local lady Jill Reeves to talk to us about her experiences of running a bed and breakfast business.

She gave details of her background and how she came into the business and also how she had run the Riverside shop in Wallingford for a number of years.

Jill, a former WI member, gave an insight into the type of customers, their habits and requests, property they left behind and even how they liked to eat their breakfast.

There were questions over our tea and birthday cake.

Members enjoyed hearing some of the more humorous anecdotes about the business of running a B&B.

Also in May, the Oxfordshire Federation came to Benson again to host a talk on the Diamond Light Source by Amy Griffin, the public engagement officer at the UK’s National
Synchrotron.

Diamond is one of the most advanced scientific facilities in the world and it is located here in Oxfordshire.

This well-attended talk was open to non-members who had many questions expertly answered by Amy.

On June 8, Benson WI will participate in a Great Big Green Week event at St Helen’s Church.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, June 27 when we will be out of our usual parish hall for our annual summer garden party.

Anyone wishing to visit us should please call the secretary on (01491) 837885 or email bensonwi@oxfordshire
wi.co.uk

Sue Brown

CAVERSHAM

OUR May speaker was Professor Chris Rhodes, who spoke about “Energy and the changing climate”.

This proved to be an extremely interesting talk, bringing together all the various facets involved.

We heard about oil, which is running out around the world and is of a much poorer quality now.

But we understand that with ever increasing technological advances we will be able to overcome some of the more serious problems with time.

The upcoming speakers are on quite different topics, but still local: “Sculptures and statues in Reading town centre” (in June) and “The work of a local magistrate” (in July).

We now meet on the first Tuesday evening of each month (7.30pm).

This change has enabled us to maintain a meeting to suit members with daytime commitments and those looking for a midweek
distraction.

Feel free to reach out on Facebook or email caversham
wi@berkshirewi.co.uk if you would like to join us for an evening. Visitors are welcome (and entirely free). 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, meet with your neighbours and discuss local and national issues.

Claire Elliott

CLEEVE-BY-GORING

WHAT connects the eating of rabbits, celery, dates and olives and an overwhelming love of fish sauce?

The arrival of the Romans in Britain before which the cuisine must have been very boring.

Alison Warren made a return visit to take us through the many fruits, vegetables and herbs that the Romans introduced from many parts of their extensive empire.

She explained their cooking and eating habits. Their city eateries sounded very much like the takeaways of today.

Alison left some tried and tested recipes for more adventurous members.

Several members helped at the Goring repair café at the weekend.

Our annual summer social will be held at Nuns Acre on June 26 where we hope to be enjoying strawberries and Prosecco in the warm sunshine.

Our next meeting will be on June 12 when we will be meeting dogs from Hearing Dogs for the Deaf.

Chris Cox

COCKPOLE GREEN

LAST month was a busy one for Cockpole Green WI members.

On May 8 a group of us visited Nuffield Place, the home of William Morris, later Lord Nuffield.

We had a guided tour of the house and were given fascinating information about Morris.

From a 14-year-old apprentice at an Oxford bicycle shop, he became a millionaire building Morris Motors.

He went on to found Nuffield College, Oxford, the Nuffield Foundation and the Nuffield Trust, benefiting education and health.

Our meeting on May 15 included a presentation from Brighter Futures for Children, the only not-for-profit independent fostering agency in the Reading area.

It delivers children’s services in Reading on behalf of the borough council.

There is a huge need for foster carers and there are many misconceptions about the role.

Dijana Capan outlined some of the different kinds of fostering there are — from respite fostering, providing a few days’ care to give a child’s family a short break, to long-term fostering, permanent care for a young person until they reach 18.

Some families need short-term support during a crisis where there is no close wider family to help, for example, if parents need to go into hospital.

We were shown a short film that illustrated the plight of children managing alone without adults.

Dimple Gillausseyn told us how she began fostering and that she looks after babies born addicted to multiple drugs.

She cares for them during their struggles with withdrawal until they become healthy and begin to thrive.

After the presentation we had a lively question-and-answer session during which there was a great deal of discussion which continued over tea and biscuits.

If you would like to find out more about fostering in Reading, visit www.reading
fostering.co.uk

Because of the Wargrave Festival taking place in June, our next meeting will be at the River & Rowing Museum in Henley on Wednesday, June 19 at 10am with an optional walk.

Cockpole Green WI is hosting bridge for all at the old pavilion in the recreation ground in Wargrave on Monday, June 24 from 2pm to 4.30pm. Tickets cost £40 a table of four to include full afternoon tea.

Sheila Brockelbank

HOT (HENLEY-ON-THAMES)

WE had the wonderfully talented Liz Felix come to our May meeting to talk about her life as a milliner.

She explained how she creates her hats by turning flat pieces of material into works of art using a variety of techniques.

She had bought along hat blocks which she uses to mould the crowns and brims which are then hand sewn together.

Then the magic happens as she adds the finishing touches, hand-dyeing and manipulating materials such as feathers to produce her exclusive own designs.

We all bought our own hats and Liz offered some styling advice too.

We all had a great fun time and are looking forward to wearing more hats with Ascot, Henley Royal Regatta and wedding season coming up or just to keep the sun off our faces in the garden.

Liz has a studio nearby and also a pop-up shop during regatta week at Phyllis Court Club.

Our next meeting on June 21 will include a talk about the Royal Berkshire Hospital voluntary services.

Nicola Taylor

PEPPARD

WHAT a relief that the incessant winter has emerged into a verdant and hopeful spring.

We have all been meeting over the months wrapped in winter clothes and are relieved that many of those are soon going to find a storage cupboard.

In May, in customary fashion, we all gathered in friendship for conversation, inspiration and a delicious afternoon tea.

Jane Fletcher gave us an insightful talk on “Memories: making the most of our possessions”.

She presented suggestions for how to tell family members the history of certain objects, where they came from and to whom they had belonged that would be of interest and engage younger members of the family.

Sadly, our longest standing member, Pamela Davies, passed away on May 2.

She will be remembered as she was a president on numerous occasions and was a stalwart of the organisation and contributed to the wonderful legacy that is Peppard WI.

Our next meeting will be in Peppard War Memorial Hall on Wednesday, June 12 at 2pm when Dr Lizzie Rowe will talk to us about the Royal Collection. Do join us.

Elaine and Stephanie Douglas

REMENHAM

HOW well do you know London? In May Jean Sheppard presented “The London you know and the London you don’t” to members of Remenham WI.

She showed images of familiar London landmarks from unexpected angles and added some unfamiliar facts.

Who knew that the Thames Barrier was the second largest barrier in the world and could protect 125 sq km of central London from flooding?

The OXO tower originally belonged to Royal Mail but in 1920 was sold and remodelled by the OXO Meat company with windows in the shape of a cross that, with light shining through them, showed the word “OXO” all over London.

The monument in Pudding Lane commemorates the Great Fire of London and is topped with a metal urn holding metal flames.

You can climb into the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral if you can manage the 528 steps up (and down). Who’d have known it? Jean also took us on a virtual tour inside No 10 Downing Street where she had been lucky enough to be taken on a tour with her late husband and friends.

We saw the Cabinet Room, the Party Room for entertaining visiting guests, the library to which each every Prime Minister can donate a book and the famous staircase lined with photographs of past prime ministers.

Members were reminded of the book club meeting, the next Ladies who Lunch at the George and Dragon, Wargrave, and speakers selection day.

Finally, members needed to vote on the resolution going forward to the National Federation’s annual meeting at the Albert Hall in June.

The resolution asks the Government for more investment and training of dentists to provide better dental cover for everyone. The meeting unanimously voted to support the resolution.

The next meeting will be on Monday, June 10 at 2.30pm when we will hear “Time for tea” from Whittards Teas. This is an open meeting and visitors are welcome.

For more information, email Daphne Austen at wi.daphne@hotmail.com

Judy Palmer

SHIPLAKE

MAY was our resolution meeting introduced by our president Sue Lines.

Janet Matthews gave us the details for members to vote on the resolution, “Dental health matters”. It was voted for unanimously.

All the ladies that helped at the Henley Arts Trail providing refreshments were given a vote of thanks.

A total of £310 was raised, which was sent to Bluebells day centre which meets at the Christ Church Centre in Henley.

During the arts trial weekend member Shirley Cooke sold plants from her front garden and collected more than £100 for Cancer Research.

Several members turned up to assist with the Big Help Out at the memorial hall garden on May 10.

Our next meeting will be at Shiplake Memorial Hall on June 19 at 2.30pm. All welcome.

Jean Buckett

SONNING COMMON

AMONG the Sonning Common birthdays this month was that of our president, who was hitting a big “0”.

We sang Happy Birthday in true Marilyn Monroe style and wished her happy celebrations. She had quite a few planned.

Janet from the village pharmacy was wished a happy retirement and given thanks for her help and service over many years.

The National Federation’s annual meeting is to be held on Zoom, alternating with a large venue in future years.

The Oxfordshire Federation chair Tracy has written about this in our magazine.

Possible outings for us include a village day in July, where we will have a cake stall, and a WI picnic day in June, both on the Millennium Field.

Our summer outing will be to Waterperry Gardens in August.

We were handed our new programme, which looks very inviting.

D-Day-themed post boxtoppers were installed around the village. Thanks to our craft members for making them.

One of our many sub groups plays darts and this month they swapped their arrows for skittles.

A fun time was had by them in Wallingford and may be repeated.

We heard all about the WI resolution on “Dental health matters” and after listening to facts and discussing the sorry state of NHS availability, we voted unanimously in favour of it.

The vote will go to the National Federation’s meeting in June for further voting and action.

Tea and social time followed and a frantic beetle game finished off the evening.

Penny Noble

STOKE ROW

IN May we had our resolution meeting at which we decided unanimously to support this year’s resolution, entitled “Dental health matters”.

One of our members who is a retired local dentist gave an enlightening talk about the importance of good dental health, particularly in children, and about her work in Romania helping children with no access to dentistry.

Another member talked about the importance of resolutions and the influence the WI campaigns have on government.

After tea and a lively chat, the evening finished with a beetle drive which was great fun.

Earlier in the month, 11 of our members spent a delightful morning at an Indian print workshop led by Marea Brown.

Beautifully decorated aprons, tea towels and bags were produced and everyone agreed what a satisfying experience it had been.

At this time of year the bluebells were at their best and we celebrated this with an enjoyable if rather wet walk through the beautiful woodlands around Woodcote led by Isobel Green.

This was followed by tea and delicious homemade cakes at Isobel’s house.

Looking ahead, there will be skittles and croquet events, theatre trips and a mini break to York at the end of the year.

There will also be meetings of the craft, book and games groups as well as swimming, coffee and chat sessions on Zoom, walking and dining.

Why don’t you come along and try one of our meetings? You would be most welcome to visit us. You can contact our secretary via email at stokerowwi@oxfordshire
wi.co.uk

Denise Stanworth

WHITCHURCH HILL

A LOT has been going on in the last month.

A very interesting talk on Otmoor wetlands got our monthly gathering off to a fine start.

We learnt how the wetlands, once poor farmland, were turned into the wonderful wildlife facility it is today.

Even if members weren’t particularly interested in the subject matter, all were entertained by Peter Barker’s renditions of many of the different birds to be found there.

Did you know that a female cuckoo sounds like laughter? Mixed in with the “boom” of the bustard and the more refined calls of warblers and waders, the talk had something for everyone. At the same gathering we celebrated the 90th birthday of our longest-serving member Mae Cairns with suitable servings of tea/coffee and birthday cake kindly made by Sandra Atack.

Cakes were also the order of the day at Whitchurch Hill fete, where members served afternoon teas, traditional, vegan and gluten-free according to preference.

A busy day’s work raised more than £500 for our funds while a donation was made to the fete committee to go towards next year’s extravaganza.

On (Tuesday) June 4 we were due to enjoy our own afternoon tea in Goring Heath village hall.

Our next monthly meeting will be on June 18 when we will learn about Shaw House.

If anyone fancies learning more about us, please call Frances Strange on 0118 984 2162.

Sally Bergmann

WOODCOTE

SALLY Lambert welcomed the members to our May meeting and the president of South Stoke WI, who will be our delegate at the National Federation’s annual meeting in June at the Royal Albert Hall.

Hazel Tagg celebrated her birthday and we hope she had a good day.

There will be a trip to Waterperry Gardens with our homes and gardens group, so an opportunity to see the lovely gardens and have a tour of the house.

We were also given details of the group meeting, this time at North Moreton. This will include a ploughman’s lunch and a glass of wine.

The speaker will be Deborah Ellis, a poet “but not as you know it”.

This was followed by a delicious tea. Thank you to Shirley Bryant and Louise Heathcote.

Sally then gave an outline of the resolution, “Dental health matters”.

This was followed by a debate before members voted unanimously for the resolution.

We then had a quiz given by Ann Larden, which was won by Sally Lambert.

The bloom of the month winner was Carole Shelley-Allen with a beautiful red peony.

At our June meeting the speaker will be David Gilbert from the Thames Valley Air Ambulance and the competition will be for the cutest bandaged toy.

We meet in the village hall on the third Wednesday of the month with a 2.30pm start.

Judy Williams