Thursday 1March walk is cancelled!

Thanks to the cold and windy weather forecast, this Thursday's walk is cancelled! 

Please let everyone know! 

Record of our February meeting

We welcomed Tracy from Chocella who gave us a lovely talk about her shop and tasters! 

Mosaics were displayed and were such fun that another day will be arranged.

Jane Wright was thanked for organizing the teas and in future Elly Challoner will look after the tea bag.

The new crockery has been ordered.

Future events: 

22March.   Stoke Gabriel is organizing a ploughmans lunch for the group meeting.

27th March.  Coffee morning at the community Centre.

12th April.    Crochet workshop at Rugby club 10-1.

15th May.    Sugarcraft flowers 10-4

18th April.   Spring Council meeting at Riviera Centre.

There will be a trip in November to Gloucester Xmas market and Waterway Museum.

The ‘walking netball’ resulted ‘walking wounded’ and in future it will be ‘just walking’.

Tina Hemmings won Member of the Year.

Flower competition 1 Hellibore. Marilyn Sterling
                                 2 Camelia.   Annie Schofield
                                 3 camelia.   Elly Challoner

The raffle was drawn and Kate Jackson read ‘Thought of the Month’.

Chairman's Message

Spring Council Meeting – Don’t miss Martine Wright MBE!  (April 18)
As promised a little more information about the ‘dibble dabble’ sessions.

These are not intended to be major craft works but something that can be completed in 15-20 minutes. We hope to offer a variety of different crafts, using tutors within and from outside the federation.

If members wish to participate you will be asked to sign up to a session, one session only per person from one of the crafts with a maximum of 10 people per session. There will be a small fee to cover costs of materials, which we anticipate will be approximately £3-£5 per person and will be paid direct to the tutor. Other members will be free to stand and watch the workshop.

There will be a 10 minute break between each session to enable changeover of members and a total of 4 sessions per craft activity over the lunch break starting at 12.25pm and the final one finishing at 2.15pm.

The tutors will be set up by 9am on the morning of the Council meeting so that members can view the different crafts available and you will be asked to sign up before the lunch break. However if there are spare slots still available at lunch time these can be signed up then.

 In addition we will be including a chance to shoot some goals in our netball hoop as part of the Walking Netball Project and an opportunity to talk to the Netball England representative Jenny Kelly.

Remember your hats Ladies and you might also want to commemorate the 100 years of women’s suffrage by including a sash, ribbon or rosette in the suffragette colours of green, purple and white!

Royal Bunting –Radio Devon is launching a project to collect bunting from every city, town and village across Devon to mark the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle. They are asking listeners to design a triangle of bunting making sure the name of the place where they live is included in the design. The assembled bunting will be displayed at the BBC marquee at the Devon County Show on the wedding day. Many of you took part, with great success, in the Poppy display last year so here is another chance for members to get involved in a community project. More details available from Emma Clements at Emma.clements@bbc.co.uk

Visit by West Sussex Federation. Members of West Sussex Federation will be in Devon between 29 April and 4 May and visiting Exeter, Honiton, Powderham, Paignton, Dartmouth and Totnes. They have some free time in a fairly busy schedule and would love to meet WI members from our Federation. Please make them feel welcome if you see their group. I have their complete itinerary if any WI would like to try to meet up with them. Please contact me directly for the itinerary. 

Suffrage Grants – Public Affairs NFWI have recently notified us of this grant scheme. The Government is offering community groups in England the chance to bid for small grants of between £300 and £2,000 for activities to celebrate the centenary of women gaining the vote. Activities should increase people’s awareness of the women’s suffrage movement, improve understanding of democracy in the UK particularly young people and encourage and inspire participation in civic life. There are two more funding rounds one in April and one in August, for full information and application forms go to www.womensvotecentenaryfund.co.uk

Silent soldier campaign –This is the Royal British Legion’s new project to commemorate the end of the First World War. These Silent Soldier silhouettes will appear across the country as a tribute to those who did not return home and to those whose lives would never be the same again. Organisations, community groups and individuals are invited to donate to receive a Silent soldier to display and can chose to display their company/group name on the base of the silhouette. If you or your WI is interested in participating please contact Claudia Kelly at ckelly@britishlegion.org.uk. I have pictures of the silhouettes, so you can see what they look like, contact me if you would like a copy.

 Research Projects which may be of interest.

1. Pioneering Women. Eleanor Copp is doing a research project at Falmouth University looking into local women who have played a key role in history but have not had their names celebrated. One such lady was Kathleen (Kitty) Dickinson (Blackmoore) who was known for her activities during the Second World War in preserving foods and jam and her workshops in glove making, lampshades and dressmaking. If anyone has any specific information on this lady or any other pioneering women who carried out similar projects Eleanor would love to hear from you. Contact her directly on efmcopp@gmail.com

2. Emotion and memory As part of her studies in Psychology, Jessica Leighton-Price from the University of Exeter is conducting a research project to try to understand the factors that influence whether people experience worry or distress when they have memory lapses. The study is open to people over the age of 60. If you are interested please contact Jessica directly on jl599@exeter.ac.uk for more information. I also have some information that I can forward, if you prefer to contact me in the first instance.

3. Year of the Woman. Heart Research UK are running a survey to gain insights into women’s knowledge and understanding of risk of heart disease, particularly after the menopause. This survey consists of 21 questions and would take around 10 minutes to complete online. If you are interested in participating please contact Rachel Brooke directly on community@heartresearch.org.uk. More information on their website www.heartresearch.org.uk

Group Meeting 22nd March

Here is a message for our members who will attend the Spring Group meeting in Stoke Gabriel on 22nd  March:- Following on the theme of the Bard of Exeter, we have now chosen an ode "Ode to Devon" as our theme. Hopefully our ladies will feel inspired!

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Pia Barrett SGWI

Lunch Club at the Breakwater Bistro

We had a marvellous lunch, great food, excellent service and lovely company! 

Some indulged in a dessert as well.... Mmmmmmm...

February Craft Group

.....provided a great many laughs and giggles this afternoon! Beryl showed us all how to make a beautiful box card - the end results were fabulous.

Good News!

Our crochet workshop on April 12 from 10 until 1 will go ahead with making a blanket for the local charity which helps the homeless, PATH. Tina has just confirmed with a PATH worker that they do indeed require blankets! So! Come along to our workshop and either learn to crochet or hone your crochet skills! If you have them, bring double knitting wool and crochet hooks! If not, come and use what is there! 

It will be sociable and lots of fun! 

Our days of indulging in....

N 

dangerous sports are numbered! We loved it! But evidence proves that we were too rash, too impulsive and a danger to ourselves and those around us! 😂😂😂

So.....the next venture is walking! 

To a café! 

Non walkers, the socialites of our number, could easily arrange to join us for the après walk refreshments! 

First walk is on March 1st - 10.30 meet at the William of Orange statue, walk round the quay to the breakwater then down to the lighthouse and back then into the breakwater café. 

Or perhaps we could try one of these sports? 

Wow! Chocolate!

What a great meeting, with lots of members and guests all there to enjoy the sumptuous talk by Tracy from Chocella! Tracy donated her fee to the Macmillan Charity shop which is next door to her shop in Middle Street. Tina was voted overwhelmingly our 'Woman of the Year'. 

Tracy finished by taking a selfie with us all! 

I think she will have quite a lot more customers! Chocolate soup is a must! 

Après workshop grouting party!

Nine of us got together on a wet and dreary afternoon to grout our creations. A fine time was had by all, along with tea and biscuits! Next step: polishing and then we will bring them to WI to show everyone! (All admiring comments will be gratefully received!) 

Tina brought along a gorgeous shoe (one she had made earlier!) to grout, as well.

Mosaic workshop

We had a very industrious and enjoyable morning with Tracy Johnson who showed us how to create our chosen mosaic. Some of our number were very thoughtful and chose suitable shapes and small tiles which they were able to put together comfortably inside the time we had. A few of us took a different route, choosing a very curvy design and taking the option of cutting the tiles instead of selecting the smaller ones! This lead to a slight air of panic when the time was short and there were still wide empty spaces waiting to be decorated! 

It was lots of fun, very satisfying and we all ended up with a superb result. With luck, everyone will remember to bring their design along to WI next week.

Here we are, choosing the tiles.

Then we all set to work! 

All but one of the finished mosaics. They will be even more beautiful once they have been grouted and polished! 

And now for some local news......

Annie is holding a coffee morning for All Saints Church on Saturday 10th Feb from 10 - 12 noon. It will be a mix of friends and neighbours and she would love to see any WI ladies (partners welcome, too!)

There's still time to #showthelove

Are you interested in your surroundings? Thinking about climate change? Make a green heart to wear or share with someone and maybe spend some time filling out this worksheet: you can see only a part of it here. If you would like to read the whole thing, contact me and I'll send it to you! This looks like a really good  grandparent/grandchild activity! Or just a good excuse for a walk! 

Bunting ideas, anyone?

Show the Love