There are no Middlesex birthdays in the summer months of July and August: guess we were all too busy doing summery things to be setting up Women’s Institutes!
MFWI News
Annual Council Meeting – 22 July 2021
This event will go ahead online rather than face to face and will be in place of our planned Centenary Council Meeting for this year. This was as a result of the poll we asked you to complete; thanks to all who gave their input.
An agenda will be sent out nearer the time but will include speakers from NFWI, Hope For Justice on Modern Slavery and our own Representatives.
Don’t worry, we are still looking at holding the ‘real’ Centenary ACM, before the end of our Centenary year (March 2022): more details to follow in due course.
How do I book?
We are still in uncertain times, so we will not be going down the usual route of booking via your WIs but will be using Try Booking (a bit like Eventbrite) for our event.
Please click here or copy/paste this link into your browser and follow the prompts:
https://www.trybooking.co.uk/BBVY.
The link will take you directly to the MFWI ACM Event where you can book tickets for yourself and/or a group of you completely free of any charges. You will need to have access to the internet, whether it be on your own or with a group of friends (dependant on the government guidelines at the time of course).
The confirmation email you get will have the zoom link and details for you to join us on the day. The ticketing system will be open up until a couple of days before the event so you have plenty of time to organise yourselves, book a place and join us from the comfort of your own home.
We look forward to seeing you on 22 July!
Middlesex News – June 2021
Middlesex Federation’s June Newsletter is here: please click here to read, and please share with your family and friends (and potential WI members)!
Norwood Green Update
Most of our ladies do not possess a computer, so we have been keeping in touch by phone and the occasional chat on the doorstep.
Members really enjoyed the surprise Christmas goody-bag, which also included the Christmas edition of The Peoples Friend.
Following on that success, they also received an Easter bag with a large chocolate egg, cards and a pot of tete-a-tete daffs.
We hope to arrange meetings soon of small groups in gardens – home or pubs- or parks. We hope it won’t be long before we can all get together at our community centre.
Getting Back to ‘Normality’
It’s undisputable -the Covid pandemic has done much to alter our way of life!
Its affects have been wide ranging – from turning us into recluses till it’s all over, terrifying us into thinking we’re all vulnerable to catching the virus, to working with the restrictions to make life better for ourselves and others. Anyway, it has not been easy. Now we are being told that life can begin to go back to normal once all restrictions are lifted.
So what is ‘normal’, and how do we return to where we were in 2019?
Most of us can’t remember what ‘normal’ was, or we may feel that we can never be ‘normal’ again. How we get back to what we used to do is another matter. There are many things which we can hardly wait to do again, such as meeting our families and friends in larger groups, cuddling the new grandchild, getting together for sewing, crafts, learning and sharing new topics, hugging those close to us (presently forbidden). There are things I’m not in a hurry to do, such as going abroad for a holiday, or attending packed venues.
I think most of us have not been able to maintain our levels of fitness, in spite of being able to join on-line activities or go out for exercise. It is taking me a long time to return to the levels I had before lock down, and I’ve put on weight! However we get (back) there, we must do it slowly and carefully. As a walking netball host, I have been advised by England Netball physios, to build up game skills gradually to avoid injuries. This certainly makes sense to me. It is the same with mental well-being.
The latest WI Life magazine (issue 116) is filled with loads of ways to do this, and really worth looking at. The overall message I got from this is to return to the things we used to do when we are ready, and gradually, as with physical exercise. We can apply this to losing weight (if we want to), and take it all very slowly!
Good luck with getting back to ‘normality’.
Hayes Town Update
Our April meeting brought 10 members online with Zoom, all the ladies sporting longer hairstyles, with one topic on their minds: the hairdressers opening up & getting that vital appointment!
For myself, it was clothes shopping and yes, I queued at my fave TKMaxx; it certainly raised the ‘good endorphins’. There is no buzz buying online!
We then went on to play Scattergories, a word game against the clock, with the aim get an answer that no one else has thought of, but as everyone has ‘lockdown brain’, I bypassed the timer! The most outstanding answer was in the boys name category: Romulus (but alas no Remus), an answer to keep in the memory box for another time! It was a lot of fun, the scores being tied, with Yve McBride and Jackie Hinchcliffe both on 80.
Hopefully our next meeting on May 20th will be in the local park, weather permitting.
On Friday 23rd April, St George’s Day, six WI ladies meet up for the 2.5km walk around Ruislip Lido with flags, headgear etc. We got a lot of smiles and cheering, with runners and families wishing us a
Happy St George’s Day.
It was certainly perfect warm weather with a stunning clear blue sky and a need for the sunnies at last.
Ashford Update
Ashford WI Craft group took advantage of the relaxing of Covid regulations at the end of March to begin April with a meeting in the park. Only four of the six members were able to be there but despite the cold wind they enjoyed meeting in person.
Our monthly Zoom meetings have continued with Sarah Lott showing us how to capture and share our life stories.
The newsletters, coffee mornings, book club have been joined by the script reading group. All are playing a part in keeping our members entertained and connected.
Doorstep deliveries are keeping our members without internet informed and involved with a safely distanced chat.
West Ealing Update
We were delighted to welcome Jo May to our April meeting for a workshop in playing the spoons.
Jo is a professional Orchestra Playing Percussionist with an avid interest in the art of spoon-playing. She is particularly interested in its folk music applications in Ireland and in the American Bluegrass Hillbilly tradition. Jo outlined the different types of spoons you can use from ordinary metal spoons to plastic measuring spoons.
She then took us through the different techniques of making music with them, starting off with gentle taps, how to do drum rolls and how to develop rhythm.
We ended with everyone joining in a singing and spoon bashing version of What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor. We’ll let you know when we form the West Ealing WI Spoon Players Band!
We’re still keeping a close eye on updates from the Government and very much hoping that our May meeting will be the last one on Zoom.
We can’t wait to get back into the community centre and see our members in person again, especially those who haven’t been able to join our online meetings.
Harrow Belles Update
We are delighted that we have been able to hold our monthly meetings online over the past year, enjoying a rich variety of talks and even recruiting some new members.
We have had talks on topics ranging from Egyptian archaeology to black holes, and heard from speakers ranging from a professional dating matchmaker to a remarkable female adventurer who circumnavigated the world solo.
Despite the limitations of being online, we have also managed to bond over activities including book folding, at-home scavenger hunts, baking and photography competitions, bingo, quizzes and a hilarious self-portrait contest.
The meetings have provided a real lifeline over the various lockdowns – and our president Sarah has proved to be the most fantastic Zoom host (thank you Sarah!)
We also managed a wonderful summer garden party in the break between lockdowns – which was such a success we hope to make it an annual event.
We recently held our AGM online – the voting thankfully made easier in that we only had one candidate for President!
And we’re very much looking forward to the year to come – with upcoming events including talks ranging from beekeeping to taxidermy, as well as (Covid allowing) a local history walking tour, a visit to Harrow’s Headstone Manor Museum, a fitness class and of course our summer garden party!
Federation Training Update
I attended the recent Federation-run training session for Presidents and Secretaries on Zoom which was incredibly insightful.
We learned about how to run our WI as well as where to find information and documents we may need on My WI, which I had never really used before then.
It was great to see so many Presidents and Secretaries from WIs across the Federation attending and we were able to have a discussion about other aspects of running our WI from emails to social media.
From this discussion there were a few WIs who felt they would benefit from having an additional session centred around social media and it was agreed that this would be arranged in order to assist those who need it.
I thoroughly enjoy attending sessions like this as we can all learn from each other and get ideas to take forward to our own WIs.
If you interested in future training sessions, please contact Secretary@mfwi.org.uk.