This years Memory Walk in aid of Children’s Hospice South West takes place in Falmouth on Saturday 27 September. The event brings together women of all ages who take to the moonlit streets to walk in memory of someone they have loved and lost.
By taking part you’ll help to raise vital funds to support the families who use the services of Children’s Hospice South West.
The event is a chance to reflect, remember and celebrate your loved ones, as we walk the 5 mile Falmouth route through the moonlit streets. The event is open to ladies only, aged 14+. The events begin with an uplifting memory ceremony, where your personalised candle bag will join hundreds of others aglow with memories. As the clock strikes 10pm, we’ll set off.
Each walker is asked to raise as much sponsorship money as possible. Your entry fee covers the cost of participation. To register, visit the website of Children’s Hospice South West.
Safer Penzance and West Cornwall Women’s Aid will open a Pop up Shop at 11 Market Place in Penzance on 4th August 2014.
Domestic abuse and sexual violence has a devastating impact on the lives of victims and results in massive costs to society. Domestic abuse respects no boundaries; it targets both rich and poor; it can affect children, teenagers or the older generation – its perpetrators respect no boundaries or walk of life.
Making use of one of the many empty shops in central Penzance provides an opportunity to promote the services available locally and county-wide to support victims who have been or are currently suffering domestic abuse or sexual violence.
The shop will be open from 12 noon until 2pm Monday through Friday until the 29th of August.
There was a sea of pink this evening on the Penzance harbourfront as Julie Blewett, Helen Kestle, Pippa Lilley and Beth Marshall (along with Beth’s daughter Sam who’s visiting for the week) volunteered at Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life.
We arrived early and were briefed on our role working in the Admin Marquee. Our job involved signing in any racers who didn’t have numbers, answering all sorts of questions from the public and guarding our box of safety pins very carefully!
Sam and Beth got into the spirit of things and were even on stage getting the crowds going.
Helen particularly enjoyed her Madonna-moment, wearing a very important radio headset.
We worked hard, but had a great time, and it was all for a wonderful cause. The atmosphere and camaraderie among the racers was really special with everyone coming together for a common goal.
Over 900 women and girls raced, most dressed in amazing pink get-ups.
It was a completely rewarding experience and we hope to join in again next year … though next time, instead of volunteering, we may try to put together a team and join in the 5K walk!
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)
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.
Meet Foncho. He’s a man on a mission. He knows first-hand that cheap bananas threaten farmers’ futures.
Over the past 10 years, the typical price of a banana in the UK has nearly halved, whilst the cost of production has doubled. Foncho thinks this is unfair. And so does the NFWI.
He traveled from his banana farm in Colombia to the UK for Fairtrade Fortnight, to ask Vince Cable to investigate unfair supermarket pricing practices and act to protect the producers of the UK’s favourite fruit.
Click here to sign the petition to make bananas fair. The petition is put forward by the Fairtrade Foundation and is backed by the NFWI.
You can also use the Fairtrade website to find out which local supermarkets stock fairtrade products. Remember, every time you buy a fairtrade banana, it’s a signal to the supermarkets that we value our food, we value the people who grow it and we expect supermarkets to value them too.
Rubbish collections will be suspended on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Residents will receive a double collection the following week.
Recycling collections will not take place on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. If your collection is due on either of these days, it will be collected on Saturday 28 December.
Garden waste collections will not take place on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. If your collection is due on either of these days, it will be collected on Saturday 28 December.
Christmas trees
Real Christmas trees will only be collected on weeks commencing 6 January and 13 January. Place your tree out for collection on your rubbish collection day, on the alternate week to your recycling collection. The trees will be collected for free, then shredded and composted.
Other Christmas Questions
Christmas cards
There are a number of charity collections for Christmas cards, but if you wish to dispose of them using the kerbside recycling collection, they should be placed in the cardboard sack.
Envelopes
White envelopes should go in the paper sack; coloured or brown envelopes should go with the cardboard.
Wrapping paper
We can accept most wrapping paper but shiny paper is difficult to recycle as the water in the paper mills cannot penetrate the fibres. So if paper is coated with foil or plastic, we cannot take it. Please put all non-shiny paper in the paper sack and remove all sticky take, string and ribbons.
Cardboard
Over Christmas there are a lot of extra cardboard boxes. The boxes should be flattened and put into the orange cardboard bag. If the boxes are too big, flat pack them, tie them in a bundle and put them out next to your recycling. If you have very large amounts of cardboard, you can either take it to the household waste and recycling centres or put it out for the kerbside collection over a couple of weeks.
Chocolate and biscuit tins
You can put chocolate and biscuit tins out for recycling in the sack for plastic bottles and cans. We can only accept metal sweet and biscuit tins; we cannot take plastic tubs.
Additonal recycling
If you have more kerbside recycling than usual, please put it out in carrier bags. Please be extra careful with glass bottles and place out for collection in a rigid box.
Household waste and recycling centres
The sites will be closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. The normal site opening times are 9am to 4pm.
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:
We were all moved by some of the stories we heard at August’s meeting, as related to us by our speaker from St. Petroc’s Society. And although many of us don’t immediately think of Cornwall when we think of homelessness, it is a very real problem even in our community.
If you happen to see anyone sleeping rough or someone you think is in need of assistance, please contact the Devon and Cornwall Rough Sleepers Partnership as soon as you can.
A big thank you to all members who donated items to St. Petroc’s at our August meeting. We collected a huge amount of clothing and toiletries, all of which will go to a very worthwhile cause.
Crowlas & Ludgvan WI 