Middlesex Federation of Women’s Institutes
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Middlesex Federation of Women's Institutes

MFWI News

Bedfont Belles update

It was so good to be back at the British Legion Hall for our September meeting and to see our WI friends again.

After official business, we discussed our planned visit to the Tower of London, our Christmas meal, and Sandra told us about her involvement at The Hampton Hub.

Chris and Margaret organised another challenging quiz Name the Spitting Image caricatures and Name the chocolate bars, both of which proved surprisingly tricky. The winning team (Janice, Linda and Jenny) won some delicious chocolate (not featured in the quiz!). To draw the evening to a close, a raffle was, as usual, organised by Marion and Wendy.

Harlington update

At our September meeting we held a celebration of the LGBT+ community to celebrate equality in society. Anna, using the resources from National Federation, put together a fun evening with quizzes, a word search, drawing and crafts and some fun games.

Rosemary was the winner of the tallest flower competition and received the coveted Eileen Saunders plate and a bouquet of sunflowers.

Members had been given sunflower seeds in their April goody bag and were invited to grow them in their gardens or pots. Some were very successful, some were lost to our not so friendly wild life, aka slugs and squirrels.

We have held our first Poppy making workshop, with part two to follow, results of all this hard work were displayed. We are aiming for a wreath and a post box topper in Harlington village to commemorate Remembrance Sunday.

We have also completed some knitted canaries in support of ‘Climate Craftivisim’ movement, though we haven’t quite got a flock yet! These will be sent to our MPs as a gentle protest to encourage the UK Government to be a bold host as world leaders meet in Scotland for COP 26 in November.

Two birthday girls were celebrated and future events were discussed.

Here are the resources Harlington used for its meeting:

https://mywi.thewi.org.uk/running-your-wi/members-resources/celebrating-pride-2021

Like to brush up on the WI’s policies on equality and diversity?

https://mywi.thewi.org.uk/essential-information/equality-diversity-inclusion

 

Hillingdon uodate

Hillingdon WI met in on Wednesday 8th September 2021, for the first time in 17 months.

After the business was completed, we had a good natter about how we would like the meetings to go going forward, and what speakers members would like to have in the future.

We were then treated to a selection of homemade biscuits and cookies made by the President.

Hope to see everyone again next month.

 

Hayes Town update

Wednesday 8th September, on a beautiful hot and sunny day, was our first organised outing for 18 months.

We headed to Church Gardens, Harefield, for a two-hour visit and tour led by head gardener Kay.

We learnt about their family restoration project of a 1600s renaissance garden, which had a very overgrown remains of a formal walled garden, with huge lengths of brick walls which go back to the 11th and 12th centuries.

Both Kay and her husband Patrick are hugely into recycling, self-sustaining, composting… No weed killers are used here. They show great respect for the history of this special place, even as far as giving a home to the local church organ pipes, which certainly make a statement in the garden—very quirky! (The Chelsea Flower Show comes to mind!)

Kay planted 5,000 bulbs in 2019 and this year had 21,000 crocuses! They are currently working on a large pond in the cobnut orchard and restoring an arcaded wall.

A spring visit will be on our list of outings next year including to taste again the lovely homemade cakes made by Kay’s daughters. We would certainly recommend to other WIs to visit and support  this ‘oasis’, especially when you see the impact on the countryside by HS2 on your way to Harefield.

200+ Club – September 2021 Winners

Congratulations to the winners of our  September 200+ Club draw!

1st prize – £35

Anne Jacob, Iver Evening

2nd prize – £20

Anne Moss, Hillingdon

3rd prize – £15

Gerry Attias, Sunbury on Thames

 

Good luck to everyone who has submitted an application for the coming year’s 200+ Club!

 

Chair’s Message – November 2021

Photo of Lorraine How is everyone faring after a period of ‘freedom’ from restrictions?

Is everyone double jabbed and the booster jab on the horizon? I am waiting for my booster and quite frankly am looking forward to it even though I have a fear of hypodermics.

Something happened in the past month which impacted so many on so many levels: the fuel issue! It highlighted what can happen when people react without checking facts. I think we should all be able to take a step back to see what the reality is before becoming part of the problem, no matter the subject (toilet rolls, for example).

I was extremely challenged, as were many front line/emergency service workers and normal folk really needing fuel to be somewhere to help others. What I saw was an amazing outpouring of the ‘me first’ attitude which is beyond my comprehension. I hope that if anything like this happens again, people will stop to think of those who are really in need and not just of their own comfort.

There were so many cars, parked throughout Middlesex, with full tanks but going nowhere; totally unnecessary. This had a big impact on those on a strict budget and those already isolated, the car being their only outlet to see others and attend appointments. Another challenge to attempts to alleviating loneliness, sadly.

As we know in the WI world, there are always changes of officers/trustees and sadly, we say goodbye to Yve McBride, on both Board of Trustees and the Digital Team. Thank you Yve for all the support you have given our members over the past four years. (Please do send in your digital requests as normal to digitalteam@mfwi.org.uk; they will be picked up.)

The MFWI Board of Trustees and I would also like to give a warm welcome to our newest Trustee, Heather McIntyre from Ashford WI, who has joined with immediate effect. We look forward to working with Heather and I know that she will be a welcome addition to our team.

I attended the resolutions longlist meeting with NFWI. Each resolution one is gone through in detail (ie all the pros and cons debated, questions asked) in order to generate a much shorter list. The shortlist will be published soon by NFWI. Once that is done, the Public Affairs Team will be able to put into place a Zoom session for WIs/members to attend to have a discussion, just as we did last year.

The National Council meeting is being carried out via Zoom in stages and as I write this, part 2 is coming up and will be across two days. Although I quite like not having to travel and stay away from home, I will miss the interactional benefits of talking to other Chairs and Treasurers face to face, but it is what it is, at least for this year.

Enjoy any Halloween and bonfire night celebrations you may have—let us have some photographs of your creations if you do any.

Take care and keep well as we go further into Autumn.

 

Chair’s Message – October 2021

Hello everyone!

Once again time has whizzed by and I have no idea where it went, what I did or what I am about to do. I thought I had left life in the fast lane when I left the City of London many moons ago… clearly not this past month!

Sadly, I would have been in my bolt hole ‘office’ in Corfu at the time of writing this, but I was not comfortable with travelling to and from as we are still shielding family members and if anyone knows Greek airports, during the summer, they are not mainly used by those who like to follow rules. I hope however that some of you managed to get a break of some sort to re-charge your batteries.

Having said we are busy, please do communicate with us. As a team we are here to help, clarify your queries and we do still appreciate snail mail if anyone is unable to use email. Some of you may be surprised, but I still use a fountain pen! I do hear murmurs from the WI chatter at times of discontent, happiness, confusion but I rarely get correspondence or discussion to back it up—it is so much easier if we were made aware of things as we can’t know what we don’t know, and needless to say, we cannot fix or clarify anything we know nothing of.

I do hope you are all as well as can be expected and you are able to get out and about a little more than you have been doing. Talking of wellness, I have had my regular breast screening done: please do take up your appointments if and when offered.

WI Day came and went and to be honest as we did not have our planned afternoon tea, it seemed very quiet on the MFWI front. I hope you all managed to mark the day in one way or another. Hayes Town did add a splash of colour—to be featured in the November newsletter. We will try and book another date for Afternoon Tea for early December so watch this space.

We have had some observers at our Board of Trustees meetings, more details to come, however we still have capacity for others to join us. All you have to do is get in touch to show your interest. Same applies if anyone is interested in being a WI Adviser or maybe joining our sub committees such as Public Affairs or Craft: more hands make light work, as we all know. Contact secretary@mfwi.org.uk to register your interest.

Our MFWI ACM March 2022 date is not that far away. It is our Centenary meeting (finally!) and we are asking all members to take part in the poll attached to the email in which this newsletter is sent. For those who do not have access to email, please feel free to telephone or post your views

  • Will you attend the face to face meeting at the RGS in March 2022 if it goes ahead
  • Are you happy to travel into central London?
  • Would you not attend the RGS under any circumstances?

Best wishes

Lorraine x