2014 began with January's meeting being cancelled due to the flooding everywhere but luckily in February we and our demonstrator all got to the hall and we enjoyed a demonstration of ribbon work. In March we laughed with Faith Powell enjoying her description of her adventures taking part in tv quiz shows.
We had the most wonderful evening of music in April with a lovely and talented violinist Victoria Barnes with accompanist John Belcher, and it turned out that Victoria's mother belongs to WI.
The most exciting day of the year was a trip to Portsmouth Dockyard inspired by a member's son who works there and could give us a wealth of information on his tour. We went with friends and partners and enjoyed tea with Denmead Afternoon WI who are very nearby.
We took a walk at the end of July around the Semaphore Tower near Ockham finishing with a picnic tea and went on a visit to a local hotel for "posh" tea in place of a meeting in August.
September meant another craft evening this time making Christmas Cards and in October those of us who could went on a trip to see the special art installation of red ceramic poppies at the Tower of London. Some had relatives who died in the first World War and one of our members took a photo along of her grandfather.
After visits with other WIs to Bletchley Park and to see "White Christmas" at the Dominion Theatre, we enjoyed making craft and cookery for our Christmas stall. A Christmas meal together with a draw for a bursary to Denman and a December meeting making truffles, finished the year in fine form.
2015
We had a very good social meeting for January with quizzes to make us all laugh and in contrast we had a talk about Headley Down rehabilitation centre at our February meeting. March was a craft evening with decoupage, April another social evening and in May our discussion of the resolution was interesting and the evening was a true success with our speaker telling us about John who is profoundly deaf and Quasar, his assistance dog, the star of the meeting.
This year was the centenary of WI's foundation in Wales, and many celebrations took place to commemorate that event. Two of our members enjoyed the Royal Garden Party attended by the Duchess of Cornwall. Our WI was very happy to enjoy the "broadcast" of the centenary meeting at the Royal Albert Hall in June, the first time this has been done via the internet. One of our members invited us to a lovely "drop in" day to watch this, and the weather was beautiful.
We booked our own trip to Bletchley Park - it was an extremely hot day which made us realise how uncomfortable people must have found the conditions during WW11, and how dedicated they were.
Katie came to talk to us in July about propagation with which she is fully involved at Wisley gardens, but September was a contrast with a retired policeman who used to be in the "Special Branch". Also in September two members were on the guest list for the SFWI Garden Party at Painshill Park where it rained and rained and rained. Our Chairman had to rearrange the whole afternoon on the spot.
Our speaker for October was involved with importing raffia hats and bags from Madagascar, we made bunting at the November meeting and finished the year making wreaths with tuition by our local common ranger. At that December meeting we sang songs to the accompaniment of ukuleles which 4 of our members had learnt to play at Denman College earlier in the year. Every year has its own twists and turns, you can never tell what will happen on the day!
2016
Our first meeting in 2016 at the beginning of January was a gentle activities evening with making tags or bookmarks and the latest craze then of "colouring in." Due to a cancellation of the speaker in February we had a fun Quiz, something we all enjoy. A visit to "The Clink" restaurant at Brixton Prison was a great lunch venue, the prisoners were very good chefs. In March we had a talk on "Animals at War" and went with our friends to the Saddlers Arms pub in Send Marsh.
April brought a hot evening meeting and exactly the right speaker who demonstrated flamenco and got us all up and dancing. In May we helped by doing the teas at Ockham Fete, very soon after doing a similar thing at Dunsborough Park Garden for the Mayor of Guildford's charity. June started with a wonderful trip up and down the River Thames from Runnymede to celebrate the Queen's official 90th Birthday.The trip took place on a very wet afternoon but the event was calm and peaceful with a lovely afternoon cup of tea and cream scone to complete the experience. Our demonstrator for the evening meeting was a member from another WI who had learned to spin and showed us the technique.
July brought a handful of 5 young demonstrators from Clarins to give massages and eye make-up etc. We felt a lot more glamorous afterwards. Then we took part in the Ripley Event raising money for our meetings. Our August outing was to Brighton to see the Regent's Pavilion and the sea combined! What a good idea that was and no doubt other educational visits are very popular as we found out so much from the Guide. September brought a very different evening for the meeting as we had a visit from a falconer with a number of birds of prey and they were just like animals usually are - definitely the stars of any show. At the end of the month we went to Buckingham Palace to see the exhibition of the Queen's clothes. What beautiful workmanship they showed.
October had a presentation of Bob Newhart's funny stories and another lunch at the Saddlers Arms proved a pleasant break. In November we went there again to celebrate our member Peggy's 90th birthday. She was President for a long time and we owe her a lot for keep the WI going.
December we took part in the Christmas Fair and we also went to Kew Gardens for a visit to the special event showing the gardens in the dark with colourful lighting. Our last meeting of the year introduced a new singer to us and we enjoyed joining in with songs from the shows. A very enjoyable 12 months.
