Keith Saunders

For those attending the first meeting of the year it was a chance to forget the icy conditions outside and be transported to South America, Easter Island and French Polynesia, courtesy of Diana & George Nelson. Despite the short-lived, but spectacular, snowstorm of the previous evening, which as mentioned had turned to ice, this was …

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The last meeting of the year is, in fact, Party Time. For several years, we have employed a caterer from Totton who provides an excellent five-course dinner, which means the minimum amount of work for us. Apart from organising the tables, the rest is all done for us, Mr J Davis provides everything else, from …

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No excuses this newsletter is late because my own personal preparations for Christmas have rather taken priority, but I can assure you that the Institute has been active. November is an important month for us, as all WI’s have their Annual Meeting this month. This is when the Committee for the following year is formed, …

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If it is not being too smug, Abbotts Ann WI is feeling very pleased with itself, as we hosted a very successful walk and lunch on 31 October. It was our usual monthly meeting the night before and as we gathered in the hall, the main fear for the following day was the weather. Despite …

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I cannot believe that September has come and gone so quickly, our feet do not seem to have touched the ground. For us the month started with the Village Fete, as usual we did the “teas”. This is very much a team effort, all hands on deck or rather the kitchen of the Village Hall …

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Gosh what have we been up to in July? We have just had a very successful open meeting – as explained in our June newsletter, an open meeting is when invitations are sent to neighbouring Institutes for a specific meeting, although anyone is welcome to come along at any time. Not having hosted one for …

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Our June meeting took the form of a visit to Sparsholt Agricultural College, where we had two excellent guides in Mark and Nathan. We were given a tour of the glasshouses, where there were plants in abundance in various phases of development. These will be used at large flower shows, such as Hampton Court in …

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Before going into detail on our busy month of May, just a few more words about our April meeting, which as mentioned in the last newsletter, Helen Stuart organised with the assistance of other non-committee members, including Julia Jenkins who was our speaker for the evening. Julia and her husband Alan re-visited India last year, …

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First I will explain as to how we have come to take up so much space on the Village website, for some time we have had a page on the Hampshire Federation’s Website (link?) which up until recently has just had a brief paragraph about our Institute and our Programme for the year, but space …

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