What’s On?

 

Day trip to Tavistock

 This is organised by the committee of Sew Crafty, Goodrington.

Please let Sparks know if you wish to join this day trip to Tavistock. The coach will depart at 8.30 am from St George’s Church, Goodrington.

As soon as I know if it is viable (they have a 49 seater coach to fill!) I will let you know how to pay.

Book Share, September

 Three of us enjoyed a very pleasant conversation this afternoon at the golf club! We decided that Raymond Chandler’s Big Sleep was written to be read aloud, his descriptive writing and choice of vocabulary was enjoyed. The dark nature of the story was not so popular! For next month we have ‘A Spool of Blue Thread’ by Anne Tyler.

You had to be there….

 Absolutely the best afternoon of ‘practical conservation’! Huge thanks to the National Trust at Coleton Fishacre for giving us permission to participate and to walk around the gardens afterwards! (Some tea, cake and ice creams may well have been consumed!).

We arrived to find four very tired LotE people: Rob, Sam, Joe and Kirsty, who had spent the morning cutting the grass, rotavating and raking the area. All we had to do was distribute the seeds evenly and stamp the ground to bed them in. The most tricky part was climbing and descending the bank to reach the area! It is just by the entrance to Coleton Fishacre - so have a good look next spring and summer to see what we did! Afterwards we enjoyed a lovely walk and a stop in the café. Some of us wandered around the gardens, too.

We all felt very privileged to have been offered such an opportunity!

Painters! Another opportunity!

 This is part of the Festival of Arts in Brixham, taking place at the end of October! Plenty of you enjoyed the painting sessions - so here is a lovely opportunity for you again! Contact Sarah at A Kick up the Arts to book your place. 

Are you interested in textile art?

 

Travels in Thread

Sunday 5th October until Saturday 11th October Birdwood House, Totnes.

SUNDAY 5TH OCTOBER 2PM - 4.30 PM

MONDAY 6TH OCTOBER THROUGH TO SATURDAY 11TH OCTOBER 10 AM UNTIL 4.30 PM

This exhibition is presented by Stranded Together a group of seven experienced textile artists collating a collection of work within the theme of Travels with Threads. Our interpretation of this title is exciting and diverse and will include framed work, hangings, sculptures, bags, purses, books and cushions. Whilst we each have a style, collectively we love colour and texture, transforming ordinary fabric into extraordinary desirable objects using, paint, dye, beads, paper and on and on. Come and see what we do and ask how we do it.

Wildflower meadow of the day!

 Have you spotted the bee? What a corker! 

What’s On?

 

Life on the Edge!

 We have only two more sessions! Wednesday 24th September is the real deal! Actually helping to seed a wildflower meadow! Meeting at Coleton Fishacre entrance at 2pm. Here are the all of the details I have:

Brixham WI Life on the Edge - 

Wednesday 24th September - 2 until 4.30pm

The ground at Coleton Fishacre is being prepared (rotavated)that morning. It's a relatively small site, but will have high impact as it's by the vehicle entrance drive. 
Our afternoon: we will be raking the rotavated ground, learning how to seed effectively on a large scale, and doing the seeding. It is expected that this could take anything from 45mins to 2 hours! 
If the job is done early, we may go for a short walk. We MAY be allowed in or through the Coleton Gardens without paying but this can't yet be guaranteed. that. (If not, there is another walk planned. It's not an easy walk!)
If we are allowed, we'll go for coffee at the café on site, though people will need to buy their own coffee in this case. Stuart has emailed the National Trust team and asked for clarity on these questions, but not heard back yet.
We may have to pay for parking; Stuart still doesn’t have an answer to this either. 
Attendees should meet outside reception of Coleton Fishacre just before 2pm and they should bring work clothes/footwear. Or at least those they don’t mind getting dirty. Bear in mind choosing footwear that is suitable for a walk also would really help.
If the weather is awful, this event will be cancelled the day before!

Free motion machine embroidery, anyone? Here is your chance!

https://learninghub.thewi.org.uk/at-home/courses/craft-gills-stitched-cards-wis-110th-birthday-celebration-2025-09-16-133000

 Please note, this session will be recorded and available to view after the session within 48 hours of it taking place. You will be able to locate it under our Recent Recordings list and you will be able to watch it flexibly in your own time for the subsequent 7 days.

What is open to you this week?

 

Morris dancing, anyone?

 Lynn and I enjoyed a day in Totnes where we watched some Morris dancing! Specifically Beltane Border Morris - no jingling or fluffing about with handkerchiefs! That was provided by a couple of other troupes we saw.

We are hoping that when our speaker comes along in March, he will be in costume and full make up!

This year’s resolution is doing well!

 The WI (National Federation of Women's Institutes)

1,000 lifesavers and counting!

We’re thrilled to announce that 1,000 WI members have now been trained in CPR through our Bystanders Can Be Lifesavers campaign.

Every member trained is another step towards safer, stronger communities. In an emergency, bystanders really can make the difference.

Make sure you and your WI are counted by completing our survey - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7RZB2WP

Lupton House café

 The coffee morning today was very interesting - covering such topics as scrap stores and charity shops, chickens, nurseries (of the garden variety!), recommendations for good food - Jack’s Patch serves an excellent bubble and squeak - and plans for our entries into the Margaret Seaward exhibition!

Thank you all for you lovely company!

Bystanders can be lifesavers - something very useful here:-

 The WI (National Federation of Women's Institutes)

When delivering CPR, chest compressions need to follow a rhythm of approximately 120BPM (beats per minute).

To help our members, we’ve created a playlist on the NFWI YouTube Channel with an array of songs by female artists from across multiple decades that can all be used as a basis to time your CPR compressions. Why not take a look at what songs you can use: https://youtube.com/playlist...

What song do you use to make sure you're in time?

Look at this!

 

What’s On?

 

What are you planning to do?

 Our annual Margaret Seaward Exhibition is taking place on the last Wednesday of October, alongside the Life on the Edge drumming workshop. This event will bring to a close our Life on the Edge partnership. 

Entries are on the theme of flora and (or) fauna to reflect our Life on the Edge project.

Your entry must be made by you, this year, specifically for this exhibition. It can be in any medium: photo, glass etching, cake, flower arrangement, painting, stained glass, embroidery, colouring, sewing, a scene inside a bottle, sketching, taxidermy, paper craft, knitting, pyrography, crochet, needle felting , weaving, poetry, short story, a song, whittling, a scene on a tray…… any other ideas?

How are you going to join in?

 This looks like fun for the sleuths and dressing up fans amongst us!

What’s On?

 September is looking like a very interesting month!

16th is WI Day, the anniversary of it all beginning. Find out about how, why, what (all the questions!) on that day by listening to the WI Learning hub - then you will really understand what we are all about! Click here to find out about accessing this free talk: https://learninghub.thewi.org.uk/at-home/courses/talks-caitrionas-talk-on-the-wi-at-110-years-the-story-of-a-movement-for-women-2025-09-16-193000/

More photos of etchings!

 Thank you Wendy P! 

August glass etching

 Life on the Edge glass etching workshop was a great success! Thank you to Ann P for the photos! Thank you to Jackie Bufton for the workshop and, as Pat pointed out, a big thank you to Life on the Edge for funding it for us.