Category Archives: Monthly meeting

Raffle success and prize winners

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We are delighted to announce the raffe winners, drawn at our meeting on Wednesday 19 December:
Christmas 12 (12)-w500-h500
Holly Lidbetter – £20 Angel Hotel Vouchers
Belinda Tapp – £20 Tesco vouchers
Patsy-Ann Tracey – Red food hamper
Mr B Hollier – Wicker Basket hamper
Wendy Meadows – £10 Duncan Murray voucher
Rusty Jones – Gold food hamper
Julie Pyle – Champagne
Tina Fortnum – 6 bottles of wine
Lynda Meadows – Bottle on wine donated by The 3 Swans Hotel
Kayleigh Cunningham – 4 boxes of chocolates
Many thanks to WI member, Carla, for organising our first major fundraising event.  We made just under £300 for local funds.  This will go towards monthly costs, such as room hire.

Congratulations to Carrie Robinson

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Market Harborough WI member, Carrie Robinson, delighted a large audience on Wednesday with her seasonal floral arrangements for Christmas.  She showed us how to make an almost cost free wreath by winding ivy into a circle and decorating it with single flowers held in a specimen container tucked into the leaves, whilst others used  white amarylis and winter green crysanthemums.

First birthday and annual meeting

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Wednesday 24 October 2012 saw the first birthday and annual meeting of the Market Harborough WI.  Members gathered to receive enthusiastic reports from key commitee members, celebrating the huge achivement of 80 members joining, aged from 20 to 86 years, as well as a very successful programme of monthly activities and social outings having taken place.

A bye law was passed, bringing future annual meetings forward to September so they do not clash with half term.  The evening concluded with a Dutch Supper and a WI knowledge quiz.  The Brainheads won!

October meeting – our 1st birthday and Annual Meeting

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We’ll be celebrating our first brithday on the 24th as well as holding our first Annual Meeting.  Besides looking back on our first, very successful year, recruiting 80+ members and running many enjoyable events, it’s a chance to have a say about what happens in the year ahead.  Your suggestions are always very welcome and the committee will do their best to make things happen.

Talking of the committee, there is the opportunity to step up and have a go.  There’s currently vacancies for a Treasurer, Secretary and Marketing Secretary.

Hope you can make it in this busy half term week.  Don’t forget to bring a plate of nibbles for a Dutch supper.

Uncorking the mystery of wine

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This week Sue Lobb unveiled the mysteries of wine making, including the world’s major wine producing regions and the vast range of ingredients that can be used, as well as the characteristics that should feature in the finished product – even the taste of old leather in one wine.  I now know that red grapes also make white wine!

Hints and tips followed on sampling: sight, smell, taste, and, yes, touch (your palette!) and suggestions for food and wine matching.  Best of all, we tried wine tasting with a Veltliner, Syrah and Monbazillac.

From priesthood to policeman

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An engaging talk last night from Rich Keenan, a Chief Inspector in the Leicestershire Constabulary.  Rich grabbed our interest right from the start, explaining how, as an 18 year old, he plucked up courage to tell his father that he was planning to go to priest training college.  Located in the wilds of the Durham hills, he spent 2 years’ training before a group of female friends lurred him away.

He began a chequered career from selling aluminium double glazing, doing shifts as an overnight care worker in a hostel to teaching in a devoutly run Jesuit school.  Eventually joining the Met, Rich humourously took us through his training, placement in upper class Kingston on Thames to handling protest crowds in Trafalgar Square.  Family needs brought him to Leicestershire, where diverse roles have included work in rural Melton Mowbray (making decisions on whether the road was too muddy) to the Somali community in Highfields.

His local link?  Getting married 22 years’ ago in the Congregational Church where we meet monthly.

My bunting

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Armed with my piece of calico bunting from the April meeting, I pondered on how to decorate this with a Diamond Jubilee theme.  Then I spotted a bundle of fabric in a sewing shop in Leicester – just the thing – pieces of red, blue gingham and Union Jack flags.  I spent a relaxing Saturday morning designing 2 flags, using patchwork as my theme, with buttons and loops to decorate.  I proudly pegged them on the line at the May celebration evening, along with a couple of dozen others.  The standard was very high and I was glad I had made an effort.  Well done to the 2 winners.

Diamond Jubilee Celebrations

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The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and Resolutions night was a huge success on Wednesday 23 May 2012.   After giving unanimous support to the resolution at the fothcoming National WI AGM, members were entertained by a delightful array of songs performed in the Congreational Church by Great Bowden Choice: ‘You’ll never walk alone’ to the leader’s own choice of ‘Why I love music’.

Members then tested their knowledge on all things Royal in a quiz.  Questions, Guess Who and a fun round of Royal Pictionary, proving how resourceful members can be when drawing stick people!  The evening was rounded off by a Dutch supper, with a strong Jubilee theme.

Metres of red, white and blue bunting decorated the hall. Members displayed their own individually decorated bunting, judged by visitors from Stoke Golding WI.