WI

Judith Bentham

18th February 2024

WI – Feb 2024

We held our Christmas party on December 8th and as usual it was a very enjoyable evening. The party started with a welcome drink and we then had our delicious buffet supper supplied by Alison Thompson. There was a 12 Days of Christmas themed quiz on the tables to keep us busy throughout the evening. After the meal we enjoyed a Day at the Races with one “volunteer” from each table mounting their inflatable hobby horse, each with the name of a famous racehorse. Then the race across the carpet tiles began, with progress being dictated by the throw of a dice. The excitement was intense, as was the laughter during the race. In order to calm down, we then played an alternative to Beetle, colouring in a gingerbread man. This competitive colouring-in game was also a lot of fun. It was a great Christmas party and many thanks are due to the Committee who had been very busy planning and organising the activities, decorating the tables, etc.

At our first meeting of the new year, on January 12th, Steve Halliwell came to tell us the story of the humble snowdrop. He accompanied his talk with some lovely photographs of snowdrops and poetry about them. Snowdrops are not native to this country but arrived in the 16th century and have been naturalised. They seem to have spread from the Pyrenees east to Turkey, western Russia, Georgia, etc before being brought to western Europe, possibly by monks. There are 19-20 species but our naturalised one is Galanthus nivalis (milk flower of the snows). There are many traditional local names for snowdrops and stories about them in folklore. Four species of Galanthus have been used to create the hundreds of new varieties which are now available. Steve then told us about some local places where we could see snowdrops in abundance such as the banks of the river Wenning at Hornby Castle, the banks of Artle Beck, Brantwood on Coniston (in the gardens and on the lake shore) and Parcevall Hall near Skipton. At Gresgarth Hall you can see species snowdrops rather than mass plantings. This may give you some ideas for places to visit in the near future while the snowdrops are still in bloom.

Judith Bentham

1st December 2023

WI – Dec 2023

Bob and Cath Saunders, who live in the village and have a Nursery called Cath’s Garden Plants near Heaves, came to the meeting on October 13th. Bob, assisted by Cath, gave a talk and showed us examples of autumn flowering plants and plants with autumn colour. Examples of shrubs with autumn colour were Hydrangea paniculata, initially with white pyramidal flowers which then change to greenish-pink in the autumn, a red-stemmed Cornus with golden leaves that turn to pink, Acers which have a fantastic range of autumn colours and smaller ones which can be grown in pots, Ceratostigma with blue flowers and hardy fuschias which flower in summer through to the first frosts.

Bob then moved on to autumn flowering plants such as Nerine and Schizostylis (lilies), gentians, some red hot pokers, some geraniums and geums and Heuchera. Autumn crocus look good when planted in the grass. Hardy ferns provide greenery all year round and there is a new mini pampas grass with white feathery fronds.

Bob and Cath are very knowledgeable plantsmen and the talk was both interesting because all the plants were there to see and informative. In fact Bob gave us a lot of useful tips throughout the talk. There was quite a lot of interest in buying the plants afterwards.

Jean White and Barbara Garnett were the joint winners of the competition for a plant. Of interest to note, Nether Kellet WI now has its own Facebook page.

On November 10th we spent an excellent evening decorating Christmas biscuits with Angela Rodger who lives in the village and used to make cakes as a profession.

She provided each of us with five Christmas shape biscuits and piping bags of red, white, green and blue Royal icing, so she had put in a tremendous amount of preparation for the evening. She had decorated each of her biscuits as an example for us and then took us through the stages of decorating our own. Everyone went quiet and the concentration was intense as we all tried to follow Angela’s instructions and produce beautifully iced Christmas biscuits. There were some problems along the way which Angela sorted out but in the end we were all very pleased with our efforts and they tasted good too.

The competition for a seasonal recipe was won by Barbara Bellis with very amusing instructions for how to make a gin Christmas cake and Barbara Garnett was second. Our coffee morning on October 26th in Bolton-le-Sands raised £235 for Morecambe RNLI.

Visitors are welcome to come to our meeting on January 12th when Stephen Halliwell will be talking about snowdrops.

Judith Bentham

1st October 2023

WI – Oct 2023

On the 8th of September Nether Kellet WI held a party to celebrate its 90-year anniversary. Former members were invited and happily five were able to come and join the party.

Some members had made up memory boxes with family items from each decade since the 1930s including photos, newspaper articles, ration books, toys, clothes, even a pair of demob shoes and a nurse’s uniform. These boxes created a lot of interest.

Everyone enjoyed the buffet meal which was ordered from Morrisons and Christine Stephenson made the birthday cake and some tray bakes. During the buffet everyone was entertained by live music from Jayne Crow on vocals and keyboard, and Willy Fluss on guitar.
To test the memory there was a quiz on the tables about the decade in which events had occurred.

It was apparent as everyone left to go home that the 90th birthday celebration had been a great success. Judith Bentham 26 Nether Kellet b

Judith Bentham

1st August 2023

WI – Aug 2023

On May 31st a group of us enjoyed a Pensioners Lunch at the Redwell. It was a lovely day, the Saddles café was busy but we all sat together at a long table and thoroughly enjoyed the lunch and the company.

Our meeting on June 9th was a visit to RNLI Lifeboat Station at Morecambe, arranged by Sue Hodkinson. The history of the Morecambe lifeboat began in 1934 when Sir William Priestley gave money for a boat to be built by Crossfield in Arnside. It had oars and an engine. 20,000 people attended the naming and the launch by Lady Priestley! This first boat was finally decommissioned in the 1980s but by then it had been superseded by the first inflatable D-class boat in 1963. Since 1966 there have been quite a few boats because they have a lifetime of about 10 years. The current boat is the Brenda Rowarth, funded by Dr Rowarth. The first hovercraft arrived in 2002 and the two vessels work in partnership. The crew train once a week on the sea or on shore and they also train with other crews. In 2022 there were 56 “shouts”, 23 people were aided and 6 lives were saved. In Morecambe Bay the problems are usually people stuck in the mud or cut off by the tide. Information about tide times is going to be posted along the Prom in Morecambe in the hope that fewer people will venture onto the sands when the tide is coming in.

We also looked round the rescue boat which normally has a crew of 3, a helm and 2 crew who deal with the navigation and radio communication. The crew have to kneel in the boat which is very uncomfortable in rough seas! We then saw the impressive kit that they have to wear and the equally impressive drying room. WI made a donation at the end of the visit, the RNLI being funded entirely by donations and the profits from their shops. The evening was rounded off with a drink in the sunshine outside the Auckland Hotel.

Ten of us went to Barton Grange on June 13th to play Crazy Golf. It was a very hot day which some found hard to cope with but it was great fun, with a few holes in one, a few forays into the water and some more into the boulder field! The worthy winner was Barbara Bellis. After the match we enjoyed lunch in the restaurant. Thank you to Jane Storer for organising the trip.

On July 14th our speaker was the very talented textile artist Corinne Young. She creates 3D embroidered artwork (such as Auricula or Hellebores in pots), embroidered panels and brooches, all of flowers or butterflies. She makes her own paper from flax and then embroiders it on her Bernina sewing machine and makes the French knots by hand. She then uses wire to create the 3D shapes and varnishes the final product. She gets lots of commissions, sells her work on line and via a shop in London. Her work is amazing and absolutely beautiful and it is well worth visiting her website to view it (corinneyoungtextiles.co.uk). The winner of the competition for an embroidery sample was Joyce Mace and Pat Preston was second.

Judith Bentham

10th June 2023

WI – June 2023

At the start of the meeting on April 14th Barbara told us about the Lancashire Federation
AGM at Lytham. The speaker was the mother of a young man killed in the Manchester.
Arena bombing and her talk was understandably very moving. Barbara said that the
meeting had been very well worth attending and encouraged others to go next time.
Our talk on Life and Health in Malawi was given by Dr Gill Pilling who was a GP in
Lancashire before moving to Scotland where she worked in a clinic which was attached to
a hospital in Malawi. She still makes regular visits to the country even though she has
retired. Malawi is a very poor country with no natural resources and no exports. Most
people live in small villages of mud brick houses and it is normally very dry. However,
recently a cyclone washed away crops and houses. The people are short of dietary
protein so they eat ants and grasshoppers and a mouse is a delicacy. Primary school is
free but secondary has to be paid for so not many parents can afford to pay for their
children to attend. There are dilapidated buses for transport but most people walk and
this lack of transport is a problem for the Health Service. Other problems are a lack of
medicines, malnutrition and malaria. Hospitals are overcrowded, short of water, supplies
and staff and parents often sleep on the floor. Dr Pilling gives palliative care to parents,
adding some quality of life to their remaining days, so she takes as many palliative care
drugs as she can out to Malawi and she also trains nurses in this field. She partly funds
her work by selling very colourful items made from local cloth in Malawi and these were
on sale after the talk. She was a truly inspirational speaker. Barbara Garnett won the
competition for an African item.

On May 12th we started the meeting by drinking a toast to King Charles lll, Duke of
Lancaster. Jane Storer reported on an enjoyable walk to see the spring flowers in
Oxember Wood, followed by lunch at the café in Feizor.

We had two speakers, Karen Hine and Louisa Balderson, who took us into the world of
Dragon Boat Racing. They are both members of Paddlers for Life, a support charity for
people who have had breast or other forms of cancer plus their relatives. Louisa started
dragon boat racing in Liverpool after treatment for breast cancer. The group then raised
funds for two dragon boats to be based at Low Wood on Windermere. They now have
about 80 members who do not actually race but enjoy powering themselves on the lake,
socialising and looking at the scenery. However some of the members do go racing in
dragon boats elsewhere. Each boat takes 20 people and is dressed up before going on the
water with a drum, a seat for the helm and flowers, fruits, etc. The drummer’s drumbeat
is the heart of the boat. The whole experience of getting the boat ready, rowing and
having fun together is important and therapeutic for all who take part. Karen and Louisa
brought along a model of the boat, the drum as well as other items to show us. It was a
fascinating and very enjoyable evening. Barbara Bellis and Veronica Atkinson were joint
winners of the competition for a dragon.