Audlem WI July Meeting

Aaah, summer – that long anticipated stretch of lazy, lingering days, free of responsibility and rife with possibility until that inevitable phone call asking you to help out with childcare.

My husband is happiest when he's idle. He can live for months without performing any kind of labour, and at the expiration of that time he feels fresh and vigorous enough to carry on in the same way for numerous more months to come.

At this time of year I become glued to the TV watching Wimbledon with all the necessary requirements to hand – Pimms, crisp, nuts and chocolate – although I draw the line at a port-a-loo. Which reminds me, a word of advice, never fall in love with a tennis player. To them love means nothing, and most of us would also fail on the 'all white' dress code as it's unlikely we could complete a whites wash cycle without finding the odd coloured sock had snuck in somehow.

At this point I would like to congratulate the WI member who drew the short straw and valiantly volunteered to stand still for five days, chained to Audlem church railings in her suffragette outfit whilst she was prodded and perused by random members of the public and force fed by several children. We are used to being called scarecrows, however all her dignity was finally lost when she was folded unceremoniously into the boot of a car on completion of her stunt never to see the light of day again whilst the rest of our WI scoffed the winners box of chocolates!

Our July meeting was an 'Open' one. This meant we could bring visitors and introduce them in the time honoured way by offering them a glass of Prosecco at the door. I didn't catch all their names, but they looked a suitable bunch to grace our hallowed hall.

Lyn Wainwright brought a beautiful pot of flowers to grace our 'top table' and Lin, our President, completed business speedily to ensure we were allowed plenty of time for our speaker to talk about her life whilst arranging flowers in a way I can only feel is beyond my talents, although several of our members are pretty high in the 'floral grouping' stakes.

Anne Russell was our demonstrator last night with a talk entitled 'From Dogs to Dogwood'. Her flowers were inspiring and her stories and little quips cheered everyone up. Anne explained that the title of her talk reflected her personal history. She had always wanted to work with dogs and had worked in kennels. After seeing an advertisement, she subsequently did a one year Kennel Maid Course in Windsor and after passing the examination she went to work for the Guide Dogs for the Blind. That might have been that, but after passing her driving test she and a friend decided to go to night school to learn about car maintenance. That is when serendipity chipped in because the car maintenance course was over subscribed and she was persuaded to do flower arranging while her friend did pottery. This in turn led to Anne being asked to do flower arrangements for the reception area of the Guide Dogs for the Blind and with the experience she gained she eventually developed into a confident flower arranger, then a florist and now a demonstrator. Hence the title from 'Dogs to Dogwood'.

After each flower arrangement she read out a funny little quip to keep us all amused. Everyone enjoyed her talk and her beautiful arrangements were raffled off at the end of the evening with two of the winners donating their arrangements to an upcoming coffee morning to raise funds for the Methodist Church – we are such a benevolent bunch, so thank you Christine and Shirley.

Anne was asked to judge this month's competition ' A Flower Arrangement in a Tea cup'. We had lot's of fabulous entries for this competition, however our winner was....wait for the drum roll....Anne Watson who had cleverly arranged her flowers in a cup which was delicately positioned on its side! I have to confess I thought she had knocked it over, but no, I was assured this was how it was meant to be!

The raffle was drawn and several lucky ladies staggered home with exotic flower arrangements whilst the rest of us could just hang our heads low in disappointment.

Jackie Creber, who was modest enough to not let on it was her birthday month, handed out her birthday bouquets to Kath Disley, Anne Huntbach, Christina Lawson, Menai Price, Joy Taylor, Lynn Wheeler and Daphne Mounteney.

Finally Lin wished us all a safe journey home and the meeting was closed.

This report may be slightly shorter than my normal ones, much to the relief of AoL (Ed – nonsense, you can't have too much of a good thing), but I will be glued to the TV for the next ten days.

Top Tip;

At 65 you can go to Antique Shops to visit your old furniture.

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