Brixham WI Christmas Party!

It was lots of fun, very sociable with plenty of welcome guests from our neighbouring WIs. As usual the tables were groaning under the weight of the delicious food supplied by Brixham members! The quiz was way too difficult for our table - we pose no threat to the Eggheads, and Barbara L read out a funny poem with a heartwarming twist to finish!

The Christmas Crackers as presented by the drama group caused a great deal of merriment - I must say I am sort of dreading the photos....! 

Well done to everyone for coming along to make it a good afternoon.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all! 

Christmas Coffee Morning!

 Here we are, setting up the huge range of delicious cakes, always our top selling table! Already, only a few hours after the event I'm receiving rave reviews about the cakes! Trip Advisor has never seen the like! 

Kate and Annie, gearing up for the crowds of coffee drinkers!

We couldn't resist having a closer look at all of the delectable hand made decorations! 

It was a very enjoyable, sociable - and calorie laden! - morning! Thank you to everyone who came along to help and to everyone who came to support us. 

Christmas Lunch at Lupton House

What a fabulous venue! Wow! We arrived in the sunshine, which shone through into the gorgeous room where a grand table was laid for us. The huge Christmas tree stretched right up to the ceiling, it was beautiful! 

As the afternoon wore on, and the sun moved away, some people were very grateful to Barbara who had brought a number of shawls! 

The food was very good - and the dessert was a little plate with four different, rather gorgeous puddings! We finished with a fun heads and tails game, organised by Tina.

Thank you Mary and Tina for all of your efforts in organising the lunch - really excellent choice of venue!

 

On the Fourth Day of December,

🎤 Brixham WI gave

Eight bulging bags full

Of gifts to the Women's

Refuge in Torbay 🎤

(OK, I realise it doesn't scan properly, or even really fit the music - but you get the idea!)

Great work, Brixham WI! 

Cooking Demonstration at Devon College

Cooking demonstration followed by lunch

 Hosted by Devon WI

£12.50

• clock

  Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at 10:15 AM - 3 PM

• pin	South Devon College, Paignton, TQ4 7EJ

Walking Netball after Christmas

The next session will be on Thursday 18th  January, 9.30 until 10.30 followed by coffee and biscuits! It's at the Parkfield Centre in Paignton.

There is no running or jumping! 

It is loads of fun!

What is not to like? 

Put the date in your diary and come and see what it's all about! 

Our trip to the American Museum at Claverton, Bath.

What a fabulous day! We had great weather, and set off from the Rugby Club in good time. After a stop at Sedgmoor Services for a coffee break, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery and sights of Bath before arriving at the museum. The house had been beautifully decorated for Christmas by the museum volunteers following the theme of the recent exhibition of clothing from the twenties. The exhibits were very interesting and really gave a flavour of what life was like. 

The quilts were quite spectacular! Some of us were tempted by the gorgeous items in the Christmas shop, not to mention the rather scrumptious biscuits in the café! 

Thanks to Tina and Barbara L for their work in organising it all for us.

Thank you Tina, photographer in chief! 

The Chairman's Message Board

News – Hope you are enjoying your bumper issue of the Devon News; it is full of events, competitions and useful information as well as the lovely photos of what you have all been up to this year. Now that we have a few regular advertisers we hope to keep going with  eight pages, as we were finding the 4 pages rather restrictive and we want to be able to include your photos too.

Show Don’t Tell. We are lucky enough to have two NFWI Trustees coming to this ‘Opportunities for All’ event, which will be held at Longdown on Saturday 10 February 2018. Whether you are a new member or a longstanding member, this is your chance to find out what  really goes on at the National level and also at the Federation level as all of the Federation Trustees will be there too and the Subcommittee Chairmen, with plenty to show you. We are hoping to make this a day with plenty of fun and facts and of course food, as lunch will be provided by the Foods Crafts  and Skills subcommittee. Enclosure is with your Secretary and closing date is 31 December – don’t miss out!

Resolution Short List. If you weren’t able to go to one of the Special Resolution meetings you can still get plenty of information on all of the shortlisted resolutions in November WI Life, where you will also find your resolution selection form. MyWI also provides briefing  notes, power presentations, online quizzes and links to short films and videos so you can organise your own Resolution meeting if you so wish.

Remember member selections need to reach the DFWI office by 9 Feb 2018.

Christmas Floral Art Step-by-Step Guides. The next set of guides from NFWI Food and Garden Committee are on MyWI. You too can now make a Christmas swag or a Christmas garland with these easy instructions. In the Craft section you will find patterns for fabric advent cottages,  a perfect use of those small scraps of material we all seem to have filling up drawers and cupboards!

Do keep checking MyWI, the content changes all the time and is getting better and better.  

Spring Council Meeting Hope you spotted the full page spreadin the Devon News and details of this year’s main speaker; a truly inspirational woman, paralympian, Martine Wright MBE. We have also decided to change the day around a little and have given you a longer lunch  break so that you can enjoy and participate in some new hands-on activities. More details in the New Year with the enclosure and Agenda.

As you know this will be my last Spring Council Meeting as your Chairman.  We had a few ‘Cuthberts’ at the first SCM and a few more at the second. I was trying to think of something different for you all to bring, but whilst looking at some of the original photos of the Annual  meetings at the Albert Hall I thought why don’t we all wear hats? It can be fancy or plain, big or small, a scarf, a beret, whatever you like. It would make such a terrific photo.  Do join me in this bit of fun to finish off my term.  

Red Cross Project in Plymouth. If anyone is interested in a project aimed at helping and supporting individuals who are socially isolated, low in confidence or lonely, please contact Megan Edwards, a Community Connector and Co-ordinator of the project at MeganEdwards@redcross.org.uk for more information.

2020 Forward Planning. Thank you to the WIs who have already forwarded some interesting ideas, please keep them coming.

Merry Christmas and Thanks I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The Federation continues to thrive due to your continuing support and enthusiasm. Also a big thankyou to the Board of Trustees, Subcommittee members, the WI  Advisers and the Office staff for all their hard work this year.

I look forward to seeing as many of you as I can next year.

With my Best wishes  

It's a Wonderful World

There were plenty of entries in our Kingswear Cup competition, it must have been very difficult to decide which one you preferred! Well done all of the people who entered!

Congratulations indeed to Tina! 

More photos of the needle felting workshop - we had fun!

Today's needle felting workshop - first impressions!

Wow! We had a great time! As Sandy commented, mid morning, no-one would think this is the WI, we're so quiet!

It took a great deal of concentration! It was lots of fun and everyone made beautiful felted animals or toadstools, Bees and Christmas decorations. Thank you very much indeed to the lovely Sandy and to the 'Leg Lady' Mary, who also provided us with some gorgeous cakes! 

Lots of photos were taken, so I shall post them as soon as they reach me! 

Walking netball anyone?

It's happening very soon - first session next Thursday morning! 

DFWI competitions:

Radio Devon Cup Writing Competition 2018 - A holiday postcard to your best friend.

Entries will be displayed at the Spring Council Meeting on 18 April 2018, having been previously judged. Closing date 9 March 2018. Application form with your WI Secretary, and competition rules on our website: https://www.thewi.org.uk/…/struc…/england/devon/competitions

St George's Day Trophy Competition 2018
Design a logo suitable for use in the DFWI 2020 centenary celebrations. Entries will be displayed at the Spring Council Meeting on 18 April 2018, having been previously judged. Closing date 2 March 2018. Application form with your secretary, competition rules on our website (see above for details) 

thewi.org.uk

Yesterday morning Tina and I attended an IT course at The Firs, the DFWI office near Exeter. We found out about our new email address: brixham@devonwi.org.uk, which we will begin using immediately - or at least, quite soon! 

We also discovered that the WI website contains pages for each county and for each WI. The very useful thing for each of our internet friendly members is that you can have your own personal access to everything organised by Devon! 

Here is a screen shot of one of the Devon pages, to show you how to access it: 

Simply type thewi.org.uk into your internet browser, and when the website appears, look for the dark green 'search' box in the top right corner. Type in 'Devon', and then click on 'Devon' on the left hand side of the next page. 

You can see from the screen shot that I had clicked on the 'Latest news and Postings' box. 

This is excellent! You will always know what is available to you! 

Exciting trip on offer from DFWI

This was posted on The DFWI Facebook page today! It looks like a fabulous trip!

You can find more details by looking at the Devon pages of the WI website: thewi.org.uk