On a beautifully sunny October morning, our hardy walking group set off for a trek in St Just.
In case you’re interested in joining Shirley for next month’s walk, it will be held on Wednesday 20 November and will be in St Clement.
Author: crowlasludgvanwi
Coffee Beans in Perranuthnoe!
Last Friday a big group of Coffee Beans ladies took over the Peppercorn Kitchen Café in Perranuthnoe for the morning.
There was coffee, cake, good conversation and lots of laughter.
Please join next month’s Coffee Bean gathering at Birdie’s Bistro in Hayle at 10:30am on Friday 8 November.
“The Gagging Law”: Have Your Say!
Sorry this is so last-minute, but I thought you should all be aware of a Public Meeting to be held tomorrow (Friday) at 7:00pm at St John’s Hall in Penzance to discuss the proposed “Gagging Law” with Andrew George.
What does this have to do with WI, you ask? Potentially, a lot!
Although the law’s laudable intention is to prevent ‘big money’ from having undue influence on our political process, the implications go far beyond this.
The law is currently written in such a way that it will restrict the WI’s ability to pass resolutions and engage in campaigns, all of which – if the law passes – will now be included under the umbrella of activities considered to be “for election purposes.” As you know, although the WI has a long history of involvement in social issues, we do not get involved in party politics. The Gagging Law, however, fails to see that distinction.
It’s not just us, either. All charities and community organisations stand to be affected, from the National Trust to Christian Aid to the Royal British Legion to Friends of the Earth and The Countryside Alliance.
This is such an important issue so if you can spare the time, please try and get to St John’s Hall tomorrow. It’s all about numbers. Andrew George is opposed to the law as it is currently written, but he does need to know how much support he has in Cornwall. That’s where we come in.
If you can’t make it to the Public Meeting, please write a letter or send an email to your MP. The contact information for Andrew George is:
Andrew George, MP
Constituency Office
Trewella
18 Mennaye Road
Penzance TR18 4NB
andrew.george.mp@parliament.uk
Please see the Briefing Notes from NFWI which include wording for a sample letter.
Crowlas & Ludgvan WI at the Farmers’ Market!
What a great day at the Farmers’ Market!
Thank you to all the sewers, bakers, painters and makers. We had a fantastic assortment of things to sell. And also a big thank you to everyone who gave their time to help staff our stall.
We wound up making over £70!
Wendy’s Christmas Cake Recipe
It may be just a little bit early to be thinking about Christmas, but Wendy Allen would like to share her special Christmas cake recipe with all of you. Click here to read it.
(Apologies to any teetotalers!)
Find us at the Farmers’ Market this Friday!
This Friday, 4 October, we’ll have a stall at the Penzance Farmer’s Market at St John’s Hall.
If you have anything in the way of produce, baked goods or craft items you’d like to donate for us to sell, please drop it off at Gill’s by Thursday at the latest.
If you can’t donate anything, don’t worry! But please do stop by on Friday if you can and say hello!
2014 Subscription Rates
For those of you who missed last night’s meeting, you won’t have heard that subs for 2014 are increasing from £33 to £34.70.
Of that amount, the portion our individual WI keeps is going up by £1, which means that our funds will get an extra £40-50 next year (so it’s not all bad news!).
Many of us find it a bit of a hardship coming up with the full amount when subs are due in the new year, so why not start contributing to our Thrift Club? You can put in as little or as much as you want each month. By the end of the year, you may withdraw what you want to pay for either or both your sub and the cost of your Christmas meal. For instance, if you put in £5 a month all year, at the November meeting you’ll have £55 to draw from – which should cover both subs and the Christmas meal.
If you’re interested in joining the Thrift Club, see Jane Twose at our next meeting.
How to skin a rabbit and other thrifty crafts
In 1941, the NFWI published a booklet entitled Thrift Crafts. This little document was designed to offer women advice on how to put household ‘waste’ to use. It says:
There is apparently nothing in our homes that cannot, with patience and industry, become something else when its original purpose has been served.
That advice is as good today as it was 70 years ago.
However, not all the information contained in Thrift Crafts is particularly useful to today’s woman. I’m sure not many of us will be interested, for instance, in skinning our own rabbit in order to make a fur collar! But it does make for entertaining, if somewhat gruesome, reading.
In the end, though, the WI is right:
Thrift is an attitude of mind towards the whole of life, a point of view which stimulates, while it control, activity. The thrifty spirit is frequently twin sister to the warm-hearted ‘giving’ spirit. Wasteful people find their generous impulses checked because their resources are frequently at a low ebb. The really thrifty person has always something to give, something to share.
A full copy of Thrift Crafts can be viewed here.
Excess Baggage
Do you always bring your own shopping bags when you go to the supermarket? Do you sometimes forget, even though you have the best of intentions?
The WI’s latest campaign is an attempt to reduce plastic bag use in England.
England’s plastic bag use is almost six times that of Wales, due to the 5p a bag charge introduced by the Welsh government in 2011. Northern Ireland and Scotland are following the lead set by Wales and are now also charging for single use plastic bags.
According to this month’s WI Life:
Plastic bags can remain in the environment for hundreds of years. In the Pacific, an area one and a half times the size of Europe is covered by a ‘soup’ of plastic debris. Unable to biodegrade, the plastic simply floats with the currents. Many birds and other marine life mistake it for food, even feeding it to their young, and die from the effects. On land, plastic bags pollute waterways, block drains and cause flooding, as well as posing risks to animals and livestock.
With so many gorgeous re-usable bags available at the moment, there’s no reason to keep using plastic.
Why not stop by our stall at the Penzance Farmers’ Market on Friday 4 October. We always have lovely handmade shopping bags for sale! You’ll be supporting Crowlas & Ludgvan WI as well as doing your part for the environment.
A Day Out to Healey’s Cyder Farm with Camelford WI
Today was our annual outing with our friends from Camelford W.I. This year, the Camelford ladies arranged for a day out to Healey’s Cyder Farm, and what a lovely day it was!
We had coffee to begin with, then were given a tour of the farm – the bottling room, the still, the cellar, etc., as well as the fascinating museum full of ancient cider making equipment. Our friend tour guide regaled us with stories of rats in cider … and, even worse than that, lead!
Following our tour, we had a tractor ride through the orchards where we all admired the beautiful trees in the sunshine.
A big thank you to all those at Camelford for hosting such a good day.
More photos may be seen here.
Crowlas & Ludgvan WI 