Challenges

21st June
Was there ever such a hot day for a WI outing as today? Winslow WI was celebrating its annual group excursion and had chosen to visit Windsor where fortunately it had booked a cruise up the river lasting for most of the afternoon. This was a little cooler than on the riverbank and was very enjoyable and ---guess what?--- I saw a kingfisher for the first time in my life. There was a lot of bird life to be seen and the commentator on the launch was very knowledgeable. The coach driver went a long way round to avoid the usual traffic jams in Aylesbury but the passengers didn’t mind how we reached home provided we could be reasonably cool. The members were grateful for the work of the committee in arranging the day.
19th June
Happy Stitchers were suffering from the heat so attendance was down but a few stalwarts managed a few stitches and quite a bit of chat.
7th June
The National Federation’s Annual General Meeting in Liverpool and I was halfway up a mountain in The Lakes but I was willing the Ashley Green WI resolution to go well. Without one of these ultra-modern gadgets I had to wait to be told by text what the outcome had been. What a vote! Now we will need to lead the way in getting things done about the pollution caused by plastic fibres in the ocean and also, from the home front, to tackle loneliness in the community.
I am looking forward to hearing all about the meeting and reading about it in WI Life. I don’t think I have ever written in my blog so little about this the most important day in the WI calendar so I am hoping someone else will cover it on the Bucks website.
30th May
The book discussed by the local WI Book Group this month was not a novel but the autobiographical account of Joe Simpson’s survival story “Touching the Void”. We all learned a lot of new words to do with ice and mountains and knots used in climbing but what most impressed us was the sheer courage and determination demonstrated by both the mountaineers in extreme conditions. The decisions they both had to make with as much detachment as they could muster facing the almost certain outcome of death were mind-blowing. They were up against frostbite and broken limbs in blizzard conditions but never once did they blame anyone but themselves although both began to think of the mountain as a malevolent force against which they were fighting. We admired the book and the endeavour but still Joe Simpson couldn’t really explain why people like him have to challenge themselves to climb up these peaks and put themselves in such peril.
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