The Market Harborough WI Christmas Bingo Night will be held on 16th December via Zoom. We are planning a fun evening playing a couple of rounds of Bingo as well as the Christmas Raffle with some seasonal (and some not so seasonal) prizes.

Personal Bingo Cards will be distributed by email to all members with a registered Email address in the WI database.  These can then be printed out or used on any screen (such as a phone). 

Bingo Night will start at 7.30pm – eyes down at 7.45pm sharp.

Zoom access details will be send out by email closer to the day. Please get in touch at marketharboroughwi@gmail.com if you need any help to set up zoom on your device or want to do a ‘test run’ to make sure it works.

So dust off your dabbers, get a bevy or two ready and join us on the 16th!

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It is starting to look a lot like winter at the allotment.

The last of the harvest has been taken up and distributed, the fruit bushes have been cut down and the dahlias (daaahlias) have been lifted. With the weather not necessarily on our side we have been keeping warm by digging over the empty beds and covering them up with weed suppressant material which will hopefully keep the weeds at bay until we get back in spring.

There are a few shoots of hope though: Onions and garlice as well as broadbeans are in the ground and already sending shoots up. And a crop of green manure has been put in to help fertilise some of the beds for next year. Crop rotation will be the game then and we will refine our selection of crops following the lessions we have learned this year.

Since the lock-down restrictions won’t allow us to retreat to our usual spot at the large table at the Farnden Fields Restaurant we decided to hold a last planning and seed distribution meeting at the allotment.

As you can see, the weather was still not on our side, but that did not stop us from closing the year true to form with a lot of fun and laughter.

See you all next year at 41A Cricket Pitch View at the Stevens Street Allotments. Stay safe out there and have a lovely Christmas Season.

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Members of the Market Harborough WI met via Zoom last night for a craft session with Katherine Wright from the Leicestershire Craft Centre, who took us through the steps of making a leather tassel for a handbag.

And thanks to some logistical gymnastics members had a kit of materials delivered to their home address so they could work alongside Katherine and produce their own tassel. Who says you can’t do crafting via zoom?!?

A fun evening with plenty of banter, we all learned a new craft and will wear our tassels proudly! Thanks Katherine!

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Our Pamper Evening with Independant Neal’s Yard Consultant Suzanne Thorneycroft took place this week. Participants subscribed ahead of the event so that Suzanne could sent samples of the facial care range to everyones address.

The evening was informative and fun. Apart from taking the group through the steps of applying a facial treatment Suzanne also discussed other skin care tips and tricks using the Neals Yard product range.

A straw poll on the following day suggests that the treatments were successful and members may just include facials in their regular routines more often.

Thank you Suzanne!

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Lockdown may be upon us again, but that does not prevent us at the Market Harborough WI from planning virtual get togethers and online fun until we can all meet again in person. To wet your appetite and help you plan, here are the key dates for the diary for the next three months:

* * * N o v e m b e r * * *

Thursday, 5th November

The Craft Club Meeting (which was due to take place at the Langton Garden Centre Cafe) had to be cancelled due to the new lock-down restrictions. Members should continue working on their squares for the charity project. These are due by the 3rd December and information re the collection will be emailed in due course.

Monday, 9th November

As with the craft club meeting, the Book Club in-person meeting at the Langton Garden Centre Cafe can now not take place. The Club will meet instead via Zoom on 9th November at 7.30pm to discuss ‘Redhead by the side of the road’ by Anne Tyler. Zoom access details will be send to members ahead of the meeting. If you would like to join the club, please email us for the details.

Wednesday, 11th November 

The Pamper Evening with Neals Yard Consultant Suzanne Thorneycroft will start at 7.30pm. Participants should receive their samples by post in the days before the meeting and the joining details as well as a list of items to have ready for the session have been sent out by email. Please get in touch if you have subscribed to this event but have not received the email.

Wednesday, 25th November

Our monthly meeting on 25th November at 7.30pm will be a craft session via Zoom with the Leicestershire Craft Centre who will show us how to make a Leather Tassel Charm for a handbag. Materials will be provided, so in order to take part, please email marketharboroughwi@gmail.com with your name and the address to which we can deliver the kit of materials. The deadline for signing up is the 9th November, so get that email on the way!

* * * D e c e m b e r * * *

Thursday, 3rd December

The final social event for this year will be a joint meeting with the Craft Club and take place via Zoom at 7.30pm, when Heather will demonstrate how to make a seasonal wreath. The completed wreath will then be raffled off amongst the attendees. There is no need to subscribe to this event – zoom access details will be sent out to all nearer the date.

Monday, 14th December 

The Book Club will meet this Monday to discuss ‘The Cafe’ by Libby Page. Meeting time and location will depend on the corona restrictions in place at the time, so watch this space.

Wednesday, 16th December

For our Christmas Monthly Meeting on the 16th December at 7.30pm we are planning a Bingo Night and Year End Raffle via Zoom. Details will be send out by email closer to the date.

* * * J a n u a r y * * *

Wednesday, 7th January

Craft Club at 7pm – likely via Zoom. Join in for a chat and to plan the projects for the coming months!

Monday, 11th January

Book Club Meeting – Save the day: time, location and book of the month will be advertised at the beginning of December

Wednesday, 27th January

Our first monthly meeting in 2021 will be a Zoom Tutorial on 27th January at 7.30pm about how to take better photos with our mobile phones and capture that perfect shot.

We’ll be updating the ‘Dates for the Diary’ post on a monthly basis, so keep an eye on the website for the latest news.

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This week Dr Ray Lowry dropped in to our monthly meeting on zoom to share some thoughts on the relationship between the medical profession and comedy writing.

Having worked in both fields Ray Lowry shared a number of fun slides as examples of how comedy is all around us – we’ll often just need to recognise the funny side of things. It was interesting to hear about how he finds material, how life often imitates art and how doctors often have to be great performers in their interactions with patients.

Thanks for a lighthearted discussion and a fun evening!

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For our October monthly meeting ‘Funny Bones’ Dr Ray Lowry, retired GP and dentist turned comedy writer and performer will entertain us on Zoom with his tales.

Zoom Access details have been emailed to all members – please get in touch with marketharboroughwi@gmail.com if you can’t find the email and need the details!

Save the day and join us on 

Wednesday, 28th October at 7.30pm

Zoom details will be emailed to members in due course.

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October has seen the allotment turning from a jubilant carpet of colour to a more sombre autumn pallet. Flowerheads are giving way to seed pods, spent foliage is dying down and there is more and more clear(ish) ground to be seen.

As we are pulling up the annuals and vegetable stalks a final harvest is coming our way – amazing how many beans have been hiding under those leaves and how many seed pods are falling off those nasturtiums. We had rather a lot of these useful and pretty plants this year – somehow we did not realise how far and wide a single plant would spread. Did you know that you can eat their flowers and use the seeds in lieu of capers? There is still a bit of a glut of leeks and cabbages as well, so it’ll be leek and potato soup and a myriad of cabbage recipes in the next few weeks.

Some of the cleared beds will be hosting some winter crops – there is already a meticulous line of onions peeping out of the soil and the plan is to plant some green manure to give the soil a boost for next year. The rest of the beds will be covered over for the winter months while we start thinking about next year’s planting. There are a few ‘notes to self’ hanging around the shed to remind us of the lessons learned this year…

Autumn is also the time of year for building projects and general maintenance on the plot. We have been busy turning over and sorting out the compost bins, adding some horse manure for extra ‘umpf’. Nice and messy job, but great fun…

Over the last couple of months the pond has been filling with weeds causing the water to go rather green. So one of the jobs this month has been to clear it and add some pond plants to help the little ecosystem.

The good news is that the pond is very popular with the local frog population. In fact we have started a transport service from 19b on the other side of the road to ensure they all get a chance to have a dip.

The other project this month has been the ‘strawberry fence’:

There are a lot of strawberry runners around the plot and while the old mother plants are not producing any relevant harvest anymore, the young plants hopefully could. In order to save planting space in the beds we were trying to find a more high-rise solution and came up with the idea to convert some (kindly donated) pallets into planters. Being newbies at fence building it may not be the straightest of arrangements, but it is stable and decidedly a better looking fence than the green plastic netting that was there before. Once kitted out with weed-surpressing fabric and fresh compost (see above) the strawberries can move in and picking should be a doddle at that height…

More from the allotment next month when we’ll be closing things down to go into hibernation. Come and see us at 41A Cricket Pitch View at the Stevens Street Allotments in Market Harborough every Monday between 11am and 2pm if the weather is dry.

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