June County News is available if you’d like to get a sneak peek before the hard copies are distributed. Have a look at it here – and you might even recognise some faces in the crowd in the front page photo!
News
Coffee Beans!
The first ever meeting of what’s now know as ‘Coffee Beans’ was held this morning at The Lime Tree at Tremenheere, and it was a great success!
We hope this will become a casual monthly meet-up for anyone who’d like a chat over a good cup of coffee. Our aim is to visit a different independent café on the second Friday of each month.
Come and join us next time at Scarlet Wines in Lelant at 10:30am on Friday 14 June!
Afternoon tea at The Bay
A group of us tucked into a resplendent afternoon tea at The Bay in Penzance on Wednesday.
There were laughs and scones galore, not to mention sandwiches and cakes to boot!
And the views from our table were astonishingly beautiful on this lovely spring afternoon.
Perhaps we’ll do it again another day?
A Postcard to Penzance
With the importance of saving town centres at the front of everyone’s minds at the moment, The Exchange in Penzance is putting on ‘A Postcard to Penzance’, an evening of debate, discussion and dreams on Thursday 9 May from 6-8pm. This is a free event, but you do need to book through Eventbrite.
The Exchange describes it as:
An optimistic panel discussion in which everyone with a view on the regeneration of Penzance is invited to contribute. Guest speakers include Sarah Gaventa and Alan Boldon who will present case studies offering new thinking on the issues blighting British towns. They will be followed by local speakers with a Penzance perspective, and then the floor will be opened up to positive discussion. You are invited to bring and share your suggestions, dreams and aspirations for the future of Penzance.
If you’re on Facebook, you can follow the event here.
Please do try and get to The Exchange on the 9th. It sounds like a really important and informative evening.
NFWI Competitions
Get those competitive juices flowing and enter!
Lady Denman Cup competition 2013
WI members are invited to write a piece starting with the line, ‘If I were … for a day, I would …’ Members are asked to fill in the blanks with a fictional account of who they would like to be for the day and what they would get up to. Entries must be no more than 500 words and the competition line must be included in the final word count. For more information and for an application form, write to CFWI (Chy Noweth an Conteth, Truro Business Park, Threemilestone, Truro TR4 9NH). The deadline for completed entries is 1 July. The Cup will be presented to the winner at the 2014 AGM and book tokens will be given as prizes to the national winners: 1st prize: to the value of £75, 2nd prize: to the value of £50 and 3rd prize: to the value of £30.
Photographic Competition
Photographs must be based on the competition theme of ‘Inspirational Women’ and may be entered under two categories:
1. Colour
2. Black and White
Photographs must be of a print size 10″ x 7/8″ and must be mounted on mount board using double sided tape. Mount board must not exceed 12″ x 10″. All photographs must be the original work of the entrant and taken between 1 January and 30 June 2013. Judging will be based on the individual image, interpretation of the theme and overall presentation. Entrants must send their work to CFWI by the deadline of 15 August for initial judging. If you’re lucky enough to be chosen, your entry will then go forward for national judging. See Helen Kestle if you’d like an entry form.
The WI Centenary Fruitcake Competition
Submit your recipe for a rich fruit cake – either with, or without, spices and nuts – that has good keeping quality of at least three months. The recipe must demonstrate that consideration has been given to using British ingredients. All entries must be original and the member’s own work.
Submit your recipe to CFWI for initial judging by 28 November. One recipe will then be selected to go forward for the Regional Heats which will take place in May 2014. The winners of the Regional Heats will go forward to take part in the National Finals which will consist of a one-day ‘bake-off’ at Denman in November 2014! See Helen Kestle if you’d like an entry form.
Country of Origin Labelling update
Clear country of origin labelling (COOL) is an issue the WI has been lobbying on since 2010. The last round of negotiations on this saw Members of the European Parliament agree to adopt regulations to include the origin of fresh meat on their labels, yet for other produce, UK consumers have been left to rely on retailers signing up to a voluntary scheme amid concern that mandatory origin labelling is too complex and expensive.
We know that consumers want country of origin labelling that reflects their understanding of food. With meat products they want to know where the animal was reared, rather than where the final product was packed and produced.
The NFWI has urged the government to back whole scale reform of food labelling laws, and to use their influence in establishing a European consensus on new regulations following the recent problems highlighted by supply chain contamination with horse meat. Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has reported that he has secured a commitment to speed up the review of labelling, expected to report later this year. The NFWI will continue to monitor developments.
Ruth Bond and WI Resolutions
In advance of our May Resolution Meeting, have a look at Ruth Bond’s blog post from today, in which she discusses the importance of WI resolutions and mandates over the years. It’s interesting stuff – and she also makes mention of the ‘Save Our High Streets’ resolution which is up for discussion this year.
The Walking Group at Carn Brae
Last week our intrepid walking group donned their boots and made their way up Carn Brae. Joy George shared some of her photos of the day with us:
Annual Meeting (and more!)
Following last night’s Annual Meeting, I am pleased to report that your committee for 2013/14 is as follows:
President: Gill Gowland
Vice President/Membership Secretary: Gail Allen
Treasurer: Sue Knights
Secretary: Helen Kestle
Programme Secretary: Charlotte Robinson
Minutes Secretary: Polly Little
Craft Workshops: Lis Davies
Outings: Kathy Merrett
Muriel Laity
Val Puddiphatt
Any of you wanting to put your names down for Zennor’s “Group” meeting on Thursday 18 April, please let us know as soon as you can. The meeting will be held at 7:30pm at Zennor Village Hall and will cost £1.50 per person. These are always good nights, and I know Zennor has some great entertainment planned for us. Car-sharing and lifts are always available as long as we know who’s going and how many of us there are.
The same goes for the CFWI Chairman’s Coffee Morning to be held at St. Erme Community Centre on Saturday 27 April from 10am until noon (£2.50). Please let us know if you’d like to come and we’ll coordinate lifts.
Cornish Feasts and Festivals book available soon!
Those of you who remember Liz Woods coming to speak to us at Feast a few years ago might be interested to learn that her blog/talk has now been turned into a book. And the illustrations are by former Crowlas & Ludgvan W.I. member Freya Laughton.
The book will be available for £4.76 on Amazon on 23 April, but can be pre-ordered now.
