Buckinghamshire Federation of Women's Institutes
  • Home
  • What we do
    • Board and Committees
      • Federation Trustees
    • Speaking out
      • Resolutions
      • Campaigns
        • Get On Board
        • Stop Modern Slavery
        • Make a Match
        • 5 Minutes that matter
    • Denman
    • The Members' Blog
  • What's On
    • Events Calendar
    • Competitions & Challenges
      • 100 Miles More
      • Huxley Cup
      • Elizabeth Bell Challenge 2021
      • 101 words
      • Silver Cup
      • Virtual Show
    • Centenary+1 Celebrations
  • Join Us
    • About Bucks WIs
    • Find a WI (Map)
      • Morning WIs
      • Afternoon WIs
      • Evening WIs
    • Find a WI (A-Z)
  • On-line Store
  • Contact Us
  • Gallery
  • Running your WI
    • Tutorials & Library
    • Finding a Speaker
    • Volunteering with BFWI
  • History of Buckinghamshire WIs
  • Use of Website
  • Covid advice
  • Home
  • What we do
    • Board and Committees
      • Federation Trustees
    • Speaking out
      • Resolutions
      • Campaigns
        • Get On Board
        • Stop Modern Slavery
        • Make a Match
        • 5 Minutes that matter
    • Denman
    • The Members' Blog
  • What's On
    • Events Calendar
    • Competitions & Challenges
      • 100 Miles More
      • Huxley Cup
      • Elizabeth Bell Challenge 2021
      • 101 words
      • Silver Cup
      • Virtual Show
    • Centenary+1 Celebrations
  • Join Us
    • About Bucks WIs
    • Find a WI (Map)
      • Morning WIs
      • Afternoon WIs
      • Evening WIs
    • Find a WI (A-Z)
  • On-line Store
  • Contact Us
  • Gallery
  • Running your WI
    • Tutorials & Library
    • Finding a Speaker
    • Volunteering with BFWI
  • History of Buckinghamshire WIs
  • Use of Website
  • Covid advice


The Members' Blog

Authorship
Until January 2020, this Blog was the voice of an individual WI member.  Over her 40 years of membership, our Blogger had made a very fine contribution to this and other Federations in England.  With interests in crafts, reading and writing and in travel, she also took an active part in campaigning for women's welfare and education and on environmental issues.  While she has now handed over the Blog to the wider Bucks membership, her archived blog posts are a testament to someone who always made the utmost of her membership, and a rich source of information about the part the WI can play in today's society. 

Busy, busy, busy...

3/4/2015

0 Comments

 
1st April

The monthly WI gathering this evening was held in the local pub because the new meeting hall at our home school premises was not ready for use yet. I don't know whether it was because we had to make our way through the bar on the way to the function room or wether every one was feeling full of the joys of spring but it was a very busy and talkative meeting. The entertainment from Downley WI entitled "Verse and Worse" was highly entertaining and very slick considering the area left for the performers was a bit restrictive and had to be adapted in full view of the audience. There were heaps and heaps of knitted squares piling up ready to be joined together to make shawls for the fistula victims in Ethiopia:this appeal had found support from nearly all the members. Amazingly only one person wanted to go to the Royal Garden Party so that was easily sorted.Volunteers were sought for lots of tasks to do with the arrival of the WI Centenary baton in Winslow later this month and bookings made for the Waddesdon Garden Party.

 

31st March

Book Group this afternoon when we discussed "My Dear, I wanted to tell you..." by Louise Young. This was a heart-rending story about life at home and in the trenches in World War I, full of quite graphic detail on the early work in re-building bodies, faces and minds of returning wounded soldiers and the changing lives of the women left behind.Several members of the group had difficulties initially getting into the story but persevered and then began to appreciate the novel. However there was a difference of opinion on the motives at the end of the book for the destructive actions of the beautiful wife. We enjoyed the descriptions of the natural world still appearing amongst all the horror, shuddered at the mismanagement of the war and despaired at the waste of life.There were many strong characters depicted throughout. I was really pleased to have read the book and some of us are going to track down the promised sequel.

 

WI Life magasine arrived this morning and once again there was no write-up of the Bucks Science event which was promised not only last year but this as well. Never mind, there were two pages of instructions for creating a pretty pincushion.

 

30th March

This was fun. The Bucks Celebration Lunch held at Newton Longville was very well attended and everyone had made a real effort to dress in a style which would have been seen within the 95 years of the Federation. The hats were gorgeous and the winning costume was straight out of My Fair Lady. There were also uniforms and hippies and Dior creations. The food was good and was served so that we all enjoyed hot food and were able to use proper napkins. The girl duo was entertaining and we all left feeling happy at the start to the centenary celebrations.

 

26th March

The Resolution Selection meeting was held today at the Gatehouse in Aylesbury Two young ladies, one from NHS Continuing Healthcare and the other from Social Services presented the " failure to care" resolution. It is a very complicated subject and the audience had difficulty in taking in the different bodies involved in providing care and who was supposed to do what for the elderly and long-term disabled. Perhaps that is the real crux of the motion ie. it needs explaining to the public instead of no one being aware of what can be done by whom.We learned that NHS Continuing to Care was free to all and that social care needed separate assessment and was means tested. However we were left with a feeling of dissatisfaction with the wording of the resolution and uncertain of whether it was addressed to the right people: HM Government had set up Continuing Care but it had been approached in different ways by councils working in different postcodes.I do wonder how the delegates listening this afternoon will present the resolution to their home WI members.The need for integration between the two systems was not stated clearly in the wording.

 

23rd March

The Group meeting tonight was well attended. The speaker was a stunt woman who had worked on the Titanic film (which she never mentioned) and on many TV films where she had been asked to fall from high buildings or be knocked about in accidents and crime scenes. She did have difficulty in engaging the audience in the reported stunts but her tales of her stage life and the effect of risk assessment and insurance claims on her activities were entertaining. She was certainly fearless in most situations unless it involved a horse! The refreshments were good and much enjoyed and there was a lot of talk afterwards. We were sad to hear that one of our group WIs had had to close but glad to see some of the former members among the audience. We hope that they will join a neighbouring WI again.

 

0 Comments

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013

    Categories

    All
    ACWW
    Annual Meeting
    Body Image
    Book Group
    Bucks County Show
    Care Not Custody
    Centenary
    Christmas
    COOL
    Denman
    Digital Team Leader
    Discussion Group
    Existentialist Angst
    FGM
    Food Matters
    Great Food Debate
    Happy Stitchers
    History Day
    Homelessness
    Investigation And Discovery
    Jammin' With The WI
    Literary Lunch
    Loneliness
    Love Your Libraries
    Membership
    Mental Health Matters
    Modern Slavery
    Organ Donation
    Plastic Soup
    Quiz
    Resolutions
    Science
    Shop
    SOS For High Streets
    Stuart Lodge
    Support Overdue
    Violence Against Women
    WI Campaigns
    WI Constitution
    WI Crafts
    WI Life
    Women's History
    Women's Suffrage

    RSS Feed

​Charity No: 228057 ​
WI ADVISER
MY WI
NFWI
WI TRAINING
MCS2
​External links disclaimer
Throughout our site you will find links to external websites. Although we make every effort to ensure these links are accurate, up to date and relevant, BFWI cannot take responsibility for pages maintained by external providers.  If you come across any external links that don't work, we would be grateful if you could report them to us.
Photo used under Creative Commons from rverc
  • Home
  • What we do
    • Board and Committees
      • Federation Trustees
    • Speaking out
      • Resolutions
      • Campaigns
        • Get On Board
        • Stop Modern Slavery
        • Make a Match
        • 5 Minutes that matter
    • Denman
    • The Members' Blog
  • What's On
    • Events Calendar
    • Competitions & Challenges
      • 100 Miles More
      • Huxley Cup
      • Elizabeth Bell Challenge 2021
      • 101 words
      • Silver Cup
      • Virtual Show
    • Centenary+1 Celebrations
  • Join Us
    • About Bucks WIs
    • Find a WI (Map)
      • Morning WIs
      • Afternoon WIs
      • Evening WIs
    • Find a WI (A-Z)
  • On-line Store
  • Contact Us
  • Gallery
  • Running your WI
    • Tutorials & Library
    • Finding a Speaker
    • Volunteering with BFWI
  • History of Buckinghamshire WIs
  • Use of Website
  • Covid advice