WI Newsletter – July 2011

When this year’s programme was revealed, there were a few comments, when it was noted that there was to be a Beetle Drive this month – let’s just say it was more popular with some than others.

However, all that was forgotten once play was under way. Should you be under the impression that our members are not competitive then forget it; it was every women for herself. Speed was of the essence, fast and furiously the dice were thrown, shouts of glee when a six appeared and a beetle could be started. There were groans from those who were tantalising close to getting every body part, when the first shout of beetle went up. This continued for nine rounds and our demon player was Janis Bulpitt who had the highest score of the evening.

The artistic skills of our members were certainly tested this month, what with beetles being drawn on our scorecards of all shapes and sizes, our much anticipated Designer Day at Denman College dawned on 12th July. Twelve being the operative number, as a dozen of us travelled up the A34 to test our talents with water colours. We were testament to the theory that one is never too old to play with paint and water, and we were eager to experiment. In the morning we learnt to mix our three basic pots of blue, red and yellow to produce different colours, shades and hues. We were also given the opportunity to experiment with salt, sponges and candle wax to produce different effects.

After a break for lunch, we returned to the classroom to produce a landscape, albeit we all had to copy the same one, it was a water colour painted by our tutor, Pat Gove, a very atmospheric image of a castle reflected in a lake surrounded by mountains and all in various shades of blue!

Whilst some found it a challenge, there is certainly some hidden talent amongst our members as there were several superb attempts. Regardless of our abilities, we all had a thoroughly enjoyable day and most brought along their attempts to this month’s meeting

Even though there is no meeting now until September, our members will continue to get together over the summer at the usual coffee mornings, lunches, reading and walking groups. There will be discussions about the fete and if anyone out there would like to help in any way – make a cake or come and help us on the day, then we would like to hear from you please.

We are looking forward to visiting Tyntesfield, a National Trust property in Somerset, next month and we have already put an outing to Mayflower Theatre in the diary for March 2012 to see Sister Act.

Diary Dates:
2011

03 August – Outing to Tyntesfield near Bristol

09 August – Reading Group

13 August – Walking Group

17 August – Coffee Morning

03 September – Village Fete (WI Teas)

Sharon King