Feeling the Heat

15th July

Local craft meeting this very hot afternoon. It was pleasant to be inside and share time doing different crafty activities. Some were making patchwork, some embroidery, some knitting and some toymaking. We discussed the idea of booking a demonstrator on beadwork to come in the autumn for a practical session making jewellery so we will be enquiring into the costs of that and suitable dates.

11th July

The Current Affairs sub-committee met this morning down at Stuart Lodge. Final arrangements were made for the coming outing to Eton College and Windsor. I hope the weather doesn't change before then. The most important item on the agenda was definitely the coming Great Food Debate on 25th September at the New Bucks University in High Wycombe in the evening. We have not heard yet of other federations holding a similar event so BFWI's reputation is definitely on the line; this must be disappointing for NFWI because it is a national initiative on a topic which has always been dear to the hearts of WI members. Anyway we have confirmation of excellent panellists and we are pretty sure that the questions put forward for debate will be of a high standard, if those at the recent science day are anything to go by.The publicity should be good for the WI as a whole and for Bucks in particular.

We also spent time planning another Georgian event with some different speakers and at a different venue from the last successful day held in the snow in February. Those that had to be turned away last time will have priority this. There will be another celebration for National Science Week in March so we are chasing up speakers for that: it takes months of preparation to put on an event or an outing and it is over in a flash.

10th July

The discussion group met tonight to talk about Age-ism. We had all suffered from it and not just recently but at various stages in our lives. It can rear its ugly head at work, in hospital and every day on the high street.And as for insurance....Have you been on the front desk at some event and been told to give your place up for a younger member of staff to "lighten the image"? Have you been described as a "mature Mum" or been told that it didn't really matter about a scar from surgery if a little large as you wouldn't be wanting to wear a swimsuit any more, would you? Does the cashier call you Dear and Darling because you have grey hair? Some people are old at 18 yrs others young at 90. Perhaps we ought to re-think what is expected of the elderly, if 70 is the new 60 as we are told. Certainly I think we ought to warn our families about the choice of music at our funerals or at singsongs in the residential homes or there will be some irate ghosts wreaking vengeance.

3rd July

We enjoyed a really interesting talk by Edwin Rye about David Austin and the English rose. Gardening is not usually one of my favourite topics but I found this fascinating: just the time-scale of breeding a new variety and the infinite care and patience required to establish one was amazing. Mr Rye's photographs were beautiful too. Many in the audience had visited his garden in Wendover previously and they were just as attentive as the rest of us.

Unfortunately we had to spend a long time re-hashing the suggestion that the WI changes the hall in which we meet. Although all but one other venue had been dismissed at the May meeting, the remaining school hall suggested had been inspected. It was obvious that it would be unsuitable and thank Goodness the idea of a move was voted out. Our present premises have been extremely accommodating so it seemed ungrateful to abandon it for the inconvenience of 15 months while they construct the new buildings.The only way we could go back to the small hall in the centre of the town would be to split the WI into two WIs which would mean another committee would be needed to be found for the new one ----and that wouldn't go down well.

Final arrangements for the Garden Party on 17th August were made, jobs assigned and other coming events advertised. There is no such thing as a summer recess for the WI.