The WI Guide is now available. This is a new WI publication designed to recruit new members and give existing members more information about the WI brand.
If you’d like a copy, please see Alison. Copies of the Guide are available for £5 each.
Otherwise, you’re welcome to print your own copy here, or view a screen version here.
Once you’ve read through it, why not enter the CFWI WI Guide quiz? All the answers you need for a perfect score on the quiz are within The WI Guide. You could be a star and win £75 for Crowlas & Ludgvan WI! You’ll have received a copy of the quiz by email but in case you’ve misplaced it, you can find it here.
Our first meeting of the 2014-15 season got us all off to a great start. We had a nearly full house and also welcomed five lovely guests whom we all hope to see again soon.
Jane, guest Kate and NiamhOur new events table
We’ve now created a one-stop table for you to sign up for all of our events, outings and craft days, as well as for all CFWI events. This was a really busy spot last night! In addition, on the table were samples on display of the lovely buttons we’ll be making at this Friday’s button workshop, and some samples of our Rag Dolls’ fabulous rag rugging work.
We’ve also given a boost to our Sales Table and hope it’ll continue to thrive. Rona brought some delicious-looking homemade jam last night which went very quickly! If you’d like to sell anything from garden produce to baked goods to craft items to things you just no longer need, please bring them along. You’ll keep 90% of the money you make, with 10% going to Crowlas & Ludgvan WI funds. Please remember that you are responsible for pricing your items. If you have any questions about the Sales Table, please see Sue Badcock.
Val with guest speaker John Richards at the competitions table
Our speaker last night, John Richards, regaled us with tales of his childhood and youth in old Penzance. Who would have thought Penzance was once home to 14 butcher shops, countless sweet shops and four cinemas?! John had us all giggling with his wonderful sense of humour – in particular a joke about a zebra who escaped from the zoo.
It was wonderful to see such a full Competition Table this month! Flower of the Month was won by Helen Kestle. Our other competition was to bring a photograph of Penzance, and some of the entries were fascinating. The winner was Margaret Walton, with Wendy Larkin second and Kathy Merrett third.
There’s been a lot of buzz lately about the WI’s 2009 resolution about honey bees.
During the last year, the NFWI has worked hard to help persuade the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs that a joined-up, comprehensive Bee Action Plan is needed if we are to tackle bee decline effectively. The Plan is currently out for public consultation, providing a key opportunity to tell government what should be improved, as well as remind them that the WI and wider public are behind an ambitious pollinator strategy that will make a real difference to bees in the long term.
Here’s what you can do to help:
Sow seeds for bees. Plant a range of flowers so that bees can have access to pollen from spring to late summer.
Support local honey. There’s a lot of beautiful local Cornish out there! Not only does it taste delicious, it’s also reputed to help prevent hayfever
Send a postcard to the Minister for Bees. If you didn’t get one at last night’s meeting, we can get more! Email us on crowlasludgvanwi@gmail.com.
A picture of a beekeeper taken from an Egyptian temple from 4,500 years ago.
Have you read Martha Kearney’s Bee Blog? It’s really great! And what about tuning in to see her on BBC 4’s The Wonder of Bees? If you’ve missed it, you can always catch it again on iPlayer.
If you prefer your bees in real life, why not go on the CFWI ‘A Day at an Aviary’ event at Lanhearne Aviary near St Eval in June? You’ll have a chance to don a bee suit and visit some working hives! The cost is £17 per person. See Alison or email us on crowlasludgvanwi@gmail.com if you’d like to put your name down. The deadline is 7 May.
Finally, why not try a recipe using honey?
Honey Granola Granola is like a slightly sweetened roasted muesli, which gives it a lot more crunch and chew, as well as some baked nuttiness. It’s the honey that really brings this together: as well as being a preferable form of sweetener, it binds the ingredients to make fun clusters. Try blossom or heather honey for a proper taste of the British countryside in your breakfast bowl. Once you’ve made your own granola there’s no going back to shop-bought.
(Makes around 1kg)
If you don’t often take a look around the NFWI website, you might be interested to know that every week a new ‘Menu of the Week’ is published!
This week, it’s an antipasti starter, chickpea burgers with salsa for a main course and American chocolate pie for dessert. In addition, there’s a good index of all the recipes that have been published in the past, conveniently sorted by course.
I like the sound of those chickpea burgers!
Have a look around and see if there’s anything there that strikes your fancy.
For those of you who’ll be going to CFWI’s Take a Town event next Friday or Saturday, here’s a sneak preview of the Newlyn Archive exhibit which will make up part of the day.
It sounds as though it’ll give us a fantastic look into Newlyn’s relationship with the sea over the years.
At last Wednesday’s Spring Countdown, we were treated to a talk by author Julie Summers who has written Jambusters: The Story of the Women’s Institute in the Second World War.
Julie mentioned one source of W.I. photos which she encountered while researching her book, the Mary Evans Picture Library. Mary Evans, an avid collector of old books and photographs, established the library in the 1960s and now, in the digital age, many of the library’s collections are available online, including a great assortment of photos of the W.I.
Because the library licenses images for commercial purposes, all of the images are watermarked to prevent illegal usage. However, you can still have a browse and look at the collection. I’m particularly partial to the photo of the 1950s basket-making class. Plus ça change!
A record 18 (!) members of Crowlas & Ludgvan WI attended today’s CFWI Spring Countdown at the Hall for Cornwall in Truro.
We were all thrilled when Julie Summers, author of Jambusters, revealed that the book is going to be made into a six-part drama series for television. It’ll air in the spring of 2015 on ITV. Exciting news indeed!
Wendy Allen stands proudly in front of the CFWI photo competition entries
But the high point of the day was seeing the display of prize-winning photographs from institutes across the county. Our own Wendy Allen was awarded five prizes – first prize in the Novice class, second in the Architecture and Landscape classes, third in the Favourites class and a highly commended in the Flora and Fauna class. Helen Kestle also won second prize in the Favourites class and highly commended in the Novice and Architecture classes. Well done to Wendy and Helen!
Hobbycraft is offering all WI members a free ball of wool! Just clip the coupon on page 59 of the April issue of WI Life and take it with you the next time you’re headed to Truro!
Thorne’s Fruit & Veg in Penzance is doing its part to help save the high street! If you spend £10 at Thorne’s on any visit in the month of April, they’ll give you £1 to pay for two hours’ parking in town.
Malcolm Hendy, who has run the shop with his wife Sue for the past 18 years, says, ““It would be great if we could encourage some of those who currently do all their shopping at the big supermarkets to come into town to do their shopping.”
This is right in line with the WI’s efforts to encourage people to shop in their local high streets.
You can read the full article about Thorne’s in The Cornishmanhere.
Knitting and other crafting can serve as a natural antidepressant says a new study published in The British Journal of Occupational Therapy.
Because crafting stimulates the use of many different areas of the brain – working memory and attention span, visuospatial processing, creativity and problem-solving abilities – there is a hypothesis that it can help keep the brain young by preventing cerebral atrophy and significantly delaying dementia.
As if our new Flying Fingers group didn’t already know this!
In case you don’t know, Flying Fingers meets monthly with the objective of making things for ourselves and others. You can choose to knit clothes for premature babies, you can sew bags to sell at our Farmers’ Market stall or you can just bring along a project you happen to be working on. Any and all crafters are welcome.
The next Flying Fingers get-together is on Monday 7 April at 10am at Val Puddiphatt’s. For more information, get in touch with Lis on (01736) 754146.
The WI Guide is now available. This is a new WI publication designed to recruit new members and give existing members more information about the WI brand.
Once you’ve read through it, why not enter the CFWI WI Guide quiz? All the answers you need for a perfect score on the quiz are within The WI Guide. You could be a star and win £75 for Crowlas & Ludgvan WI! You’ll have received a copy of the quiz by email but in case you’ve misplaced it, you can find it here.
Crowlas & Ludgvan WI 