JANUARY 2010 MEETING
Members of Rhayader WI held their January Meeting at Rhayader Leisure Centre. President Jane Narborough welcomed members and new members – Val Evans, Marian Harris, Veronica Jones-Davies and Catherine Leigh.
Shirley Jones has arranged a trip for members to go and see Calendar Girls in Cardiff on 31 July – there are two seats still available. Two members will be going on a County Federation trip to the Welsh Assembly and Millennium Theatre in February. Members also put their names down for the County Bowls tournament and Forensic Evening.
The monthly competition was a surprise and drawn from ideas provided by the committee. The choice was the most number of rings on a member’s finger. The winner was Val Evans (Spar) with 6 rings.
The 79th Birthday Party will be held on 23 February and the President has arranged for a knife and fork buffet from Cambrian Catering (Andrew Lewis of the Strand). Members were reminded to be at the Wye Lounge at 6.45 as the buffet was to be served at 7.30pm.
Sue Barrett from the Elan Village was the Guest Speaker and she talked about her previous employment in the Sussex police where she was a civilian worker and also volunteered as a Special Constable. She told members many funny, unusual and sad incidents which occurred during her time with the police and showed some photos and newspaper cuttings of herself in uniform. A very sad case which happened during her time as telephonist with the police was the Sarah Pane murder. Sue had also undergone training to obtain a Wildlife Certificate which would enable her to act on behalf of the police when needed. She told members that she had a very varied career and had enjoyed it very much. Liz Lloyd thanked Sue for an enjoyable and interesting evening
RHAYADER WI CLOSES 2009 ON A HIGH
Rhayader WI held two very important meetings at the close of 2009 with the AGM and election of the new committee being held on 24 November closely followed by the Christmas Party on 8 December.
The Tellers for the AGM were from St Harmon: Prydwen Price and Sheila Rowe who conducted the Committee Elections
After completing 6 years as Treasurer, Mrs Pauline Haydon gave her last report. She reminded members of the fundraising events held during the year including the hosting of the Digital Switchover presentation, stalls at the Charity Fayre and the Green Fayre, raffles, Bring and Buys and the book club held during meetings. The biggest expenditure for the WI remains the hire of the Wye lounge for meetings.
The Committee's Annual Report was presented by the Secretary, Sandra Betty, who outlined the year saying that our WI seems to be never endingly busy. 2009 started with a very interesting January meeting with demonstrator Linda Rowe leading members in designing mosaics onto tiles. Members produced beautiful work and thoroughly enjoyed the evening. She went on to outline the monthly events in her report. These included the 'Coming Together' Project for the new Rhayader Museum at CARAD; Jacky Pugh's Cookery; local author Lorraine Jenkins; a talk by Drs Mike and Stephanie Warwick - Running the Marathon in Bhutan; Sylvia's Travel slides on Yellowstone Park and Line Dancing. Also the Craft Group enjoyed meeting on Wednesdays. Members had attended all the County events and had produced some wonderful work which was entered into the County Show. Rhayader's entry won the 'Rose Bowl' competition and Jane Narborough won the floral exhibition for the 'Brecon Cup'. These went forward to the Royal Welsh Show where the Rose Bowl achieved 6th place. All members acquitted themselves well with their entries for the show. Members went on outings to Eardisland and Aberystwyth for the annual musical at the Arts Centre. Members worked hard on their Carnival float 'SOS Bees' which had been the 2009 resolution. A photo of this had been entered onto the National Web-site. Once more good use was made of the Community Support Minibus to attend various county events, thanks to drivers Jane and Shirley.
President Jane Narborough thanked everyone for their support over the last year. She also thanked Pauline for her 6 years as treasurer. She thanked Shirley for organising and driving the minibus and Gwen and Jen for organising outings. Val Evans was thanked for all the hardwork she had put into being a committee member, President and Secretary over many years and she has agreed to be Entertainments Co-ordinator.
In response to an article on Dilys Jenkins (formerly Mrs Ron Davies) a former member which had appeared in WI Life, a letter was read out that had been sent to the magazine by Secretary, Sandra Betty. She also forwarded photos of Dilys and Vicky Pugh in the Welsh Costume made by Joan Hicks. A reply had been received from the Editor.
Members enjoyed a 'Taste and Try' after the elections. The Raffle winner was Ida Davies and a Competition 'Guess who is in the School Photograph' was enjoyed by all members.
The December meeting was very well supported by members and visitors and guests from Newbridge and Howey WIs. Members were told that two full Shoeboxes for our troops in Afghanistan had been delivered to Bradleys by Liz Lloyd's husband John and were received with pleasure. A donation had been sent to St John's Ambulance Rhayader in lieu of fee for Federation Chairman Marilyn Thomas who was asked to speak about the Resolutions - as a response to flooding had appeared in the Queen's speech members need not vote on this subject nor the Armed Forces subject. Members were to return their voting slips for the Resolutions from WI Life to the Secretary at the January meeting. Shirley also finalised bookings to the Holiday on Ice show at Cardiff.
The evening's entertainment was by TONIC with Glyn, Janet Ann and Don from Llanidloes, this was their last public performance. It was excellent with entertaining poems, sketches and songs and they surpassed themselves with their vigour and ability to have everyone laughing and in stitches. Members and visitors had a wonderful evening and the group were thanked by President Jane Narborough and a vote of thanks given by Liz Lloyd. The Competition for the Favourite Christmas decoration was won by Anne Philips, 2nd Morfa Shaw, and 3rd Liz Lloyd'.
OCTOBER MEETING
President Mrs Jane Narborough welcomed everyone to the October meeting.
Members enjoyed an evening of dance and music when they had a demonstration of Line Dancing by the Rhayader Line Dancing group. Hilary McPhee and friends encouraged members to participate in some of the dances and the evening was very enjoyable. Hilary requested that a donation was made to the Rhayader St John's Ambulance in lieu of any fees.
Local History Evening at Llanddewi was well attended by our members and was very entertaining. Thanks to Shirley, the Community Support bus was again used to take members to the meeting. Four members will be taking part in the quiz at Howey and also in the quiz at Crossgates. Books and a hamper will be donated to the forthcoming County Chinese Auction.
The Craft Group had a very enjoyable evening at Ten Green Bottles at New Radnor where they each made a glass suncatcher surprising themselves with their skill at soldering, the evening was rounded off with an excellent meal. The Craft Group meets every other Wednesday at Hafan Day Centre from 7.00pm to 9.00pm, all welcome.
The County Newsletter contained an appeal for Shoe Boxes to be sent to the armed forces. They should contain personal items such as shaving gel and toiletries, some members suggested puzzle and crossword books also. Jane suggested that members on each table in the room may wish to put together a shoe box between them or individuals may do so also.
The Competition for an unusual holiday photograph was won by - 1st Morfa Shaw, 2nd Shirley Jones, 3rd Jen Oakley.
The November meeting will be the AGM and members will also be having a 'Taste and Try Evening', this will be held on Tuesday 24 November, 7.30pm at Rhayader Leisure Centre.
SEPTEMBER MEETING
President Jane Narborough welcomed guests from Nantmel, St Harmon and Bwlch-y-Sarnau WIs to the meeting. Jane thanked all those members who had acted as stewards and donated cakes during Victorian Week and helped arrange the 'WI History Box' at the museum.
The County Newsletter was discussed and lists of events sent around members. The trip to the theatre at Aberystwyth in August was once again a great success and six members had enjoyed a talk about Ken Dodd and a lovely supper as guests of Llanddewi WI. Members will be attending the County Welsh History evening at Llanddewi at the beginning of October and also visiting Howey WI.
Rhayader member, Sylvia Richards, gave a wonderful presentation with slides and video excerpts of her trip to Wyoming and Yellowstone Park. Luckily this year the laptop worked, though for a minute it seemed a bit like 'deja vu' and we were able to enjoy some very colourful and breathtaking pictures of scenery and animals. Sylvia has the knack of telling a good tale and everyone was engrossed in the fascinating journey of Sylvia and her husband, Dave, in Wyoming.
They visited such places as Deadwood, Denver, Cheyenne and saw the original route taken by the 'covered wagons' on 'The Oregon Trail' of the immigrants to North America. There were wonderful pictures of the snow on the Black Hills of Dakota and the Rockies. There was plenty of art to engross Dave and Sylvia including 8ft high decorated Cowboy boots and glass beads galore.
Sylvia showed pictures of Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorial which was a project started in 1948 and is still ongoing.
The wildlife pictures were stunning and the video shots of beavers cutting down trees and swimming them to their lodge were amazing. There were also some fantastic video shots of the geyser 'Old Faithfull' in Yellowstone Park which were really fascinating.
Jen Oakley thanked Sylvia for a wonderful talk and visitors and members enjoyed a substantial supper. Thanks were extended by members of the visiting WIs for an enjoyable evening and meal.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday 27 October at Rhayader Leisure Centre when the Rhayader Line Dancers will be demonstrating their dances.
July 2009 meeting
Members and guests were welcomed to the July meeting by President Jane Narborough. Jane congratulated members on a number of recent achievements - coming 6th at the Royal Welsh Show with the Rose Bowl Competition, the entry to the Carnival parade of their float depicting 'SOS Bees Resolution by NFWI' and the beautiful display members achieved for the Rhayader Church Exhibition during Carnival week.
Members thoroughly enjoyed speakers Drs Stephanie and Mike Warwick who enjoy running all over the world, including Rhayader's own 'Hill Race', and gave a colourful and very interesting display of slides on their marathon and 'holiday' in Bhutan in 2007.
They have always enjoyed trekking in various countries and had always wanted to go to Bhutan so to offset some of the costs of the run they had gone as medical support for the group. The slides were colourful and showed a very traditional way of life. The homes looked beautiful, very colourfully and intricately decorated with paintings and carvings and reminiscent of Swiss chalets or Tudor houses being mainly of wood. The theme of decoration was, perhaps rather shockingly to European eyes, often very large and colourful phallic symbols! The country is now becoming a democracy but the people still wore traditional dress for working in and everyday life. The scenery was stunning and the nature of their agriculture being terraced fields on the sides of the mountains making use of every square yard of land was very sustainable. They showed pictures of homes and everyday life in Bhutan. They also had some tourist activities and visited a number of famous sites including the 'Tigers Nest' monastery perched on the side of a cliff face and other beautiful buildings.
The challenge was a marathon which rose from 7,000ft above sea level to 12,000 ft. It took a lot longer to run owing to the altitude changes. There were some marvellous photos of the runners and of the Warwicks during the run. There were massive temperature changes during the run, from hot to freezing, and also the run finished in pitch dark! Mike had to go back with food to help some of the runners. Only 1/3 of those who started finished; normally the distance would be covered in 4hours and 30 minutes but because of the conditions it took 10 and a half hours! First home was a young Bhutani! Ruth Hide thanked Drs Stephanie and Mike for a wonderful evening and invited them to have some supper.
Competition winners of 'My favourite Birthday Card' were Jane Narborough, Sylvia Richards and Mavis Jones. The raffle was won by Julie Farmer. Members are off to see 'The King and I' at Aberystwyth in August and there is no meeting. However the committee will meet as usual and will be looking at Programme Planning for 2010, ideas are welcome.
The September meeting will be travel slides by Sylvia Richards of her trip to Wyoming and Yellowstone Park and will be on Tuesday 29 September when the competition will be 'Most items in a Matchbox' (England's Glory size). Visitors have been invited for the meeting and supper from St Harmon, Bwlch-y-Sarnau, Llanddewi and Howey.
June 2009 Meeting
President Jane Narborough welcomed members and guests to the June meeting and read a poem 'Old Age' which had been brought by a member and was very entertaining.
Several members had attended the Powys County Council 'Waste Awareness' Roadshow outside Rhayader Leisure Centre which was quite informative with examples of kitchen waste and recycling bins, etc. Another event will be held again later in the year and leaflets would go out explaining collection changes.
The WI table at the Community Support Charity Fair was very successful and members had also organised a tombola stall for the Green Fair on 11 July using unwanted toiletries.
The recent trip to the open gardens at Eardisland had been very enjoyable and the President thanked Shirley Jones for driving the minibus and to Jen Oakley and Gwen Jones for organising the trip.
Joan Caie reported on the WI Public Affairs Day at Newtown attended by herself, Ida Davies and Liz Lloyd. They attended workshops and listened to interesting speakers on subjects including women into public life, putting forward a Resolution, and help for over 60's.
Mrs Margaret Davies of Nantmel WI had been this year's delegate representing Rhayader and Nantmel WIs at the WI National AGM in London where the resolution had been 'SOS for Bees'. Margaret gave a very full report describing the atmosphere and speakers. Speakers at the AGM included Fay Mansell who suggested every member should introduce a new member. It was pointed out that a lot of younger women now wanted to 'go back to basics' eg cooking, sewing etc. Maureen Lipman aired her views on the state of modern television programmes saying it was a pity they weren't more like the format of Radio 4! She also spoke about 'Care in Custody', out of death experiences and plastic surgery. Eve Pollard and Richard Stillgoe were other excellent speakers. Four students from the charity the Orpheus Centre were introduced by Richard Stillgoe and played their own compositions.
The monthly competition was the most unusual teapot and the winners were 1st Alison Collins, 2nd Chris Phillips and a tie for third by Sandra Betty and Betty Davies.
The evening's demonstrator was Jackie Pugh who gave an excellent demonstration of 'Summer Cookery' including brown bread ice-cream, sweet potato roulade, pear and chocolate tart, mousseline of asparagus with curried pea sauce, and apricot gratin with almonds. Members thoroughly enjoyed the demonstration and after the meeting was declared closed the items were raffled. Liz Lloyd thanked Jackie for a delicious demonstration.
The next meeting will be held at Rhayader Leisure Centre on Tuesday 28 July at 7.30 pm when there will be an illustrated talk by Drs Mike and Stephanie Warwick . The competition will be 'My Favourite Birthday Card. Visitors and new members are welcome.
May 2009 Meeting
The President Jane Narborough welcomed everyone to the May meeting and showed members the beautiful cups that had been won at the County Show. Rhayader's entry won the County 'Rose Bowl' and Jane Narborough won the Floral Exhibition 'Brecon Cup', both with the theme 'Fire and Ice'. These would go forward to the Royal Welsh Show in July. Jane thanked all members for their hard work both in the individual and group entries and said that once again we had 'flown the flag' for Rhayader. She also congratulated the team of Helen Lee, Wendy Armistead, Sylvia Richards, Joan Caie and Yvonne Bedford on their third place at the County Quiz.
The President suggested members attend the 'Waste Awareness' Roadshow in Rhayader on Monday 15 June.
The resolution for the National AGM at the Albert Hall in London in June, 'SOS for Honey Bees', was discussed. Ida Davies reported back from the recent Resolution Meeting and it was unanimously agreed to vote 'For' the resolution.
Carrie Wiltshire from CARAD attended the meeting and recorded memories from members of when and why they joined WI and what they enjoyed about it. This would be used as part of the WI display in the 'Who We Are' section of the Museum. Members are currently arranging an exhibit to be displayed at the museum.
Craft work was the theme for the evening and members demonstrated patchwork, knitting, card making, jewellery and parchment work. The albums of old WI photos once again proved a hit. The craft night held every other Wednesday at Hafan is proving very popular.
Competition winners for the 'Most Unusual Egg Cup' were Sylvia Richards, Shirley Jones and Liz Lloyd. The raffle was won by Susan George.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday 30 June and the demonstration will be 'Summer Cookery' with Jackie Pugh and the competition 'Most Unusual Teapot'.
April 2009 Meeting
Sylvia Richards, vice president, welcomed members to the April meeting. A short report from Jennifer Oakley, delegate at the ACM in Llandrindod Wells was read. Sixteen members had attended the very interesting meeting and the speaker, Martin Bell, was excellent. The mini show to select entries for the forthcoming County Show was judged by Mrs Ann Edwards; entries by Ruth Hide, Shirley Jones, Jane Narborough, Sylvia Richards and Liz Lloyd were selected.
The Speaker for the evening was Lorraine Jenkins of Newbridge-on-Wye who spoke about her adventures when travelling in South America and Patagonia to write a book. The adventure had started when she felt that pressure of work and having no time to herself meant that she could not have time to write the book that was already in her head. She thought Patagonia would be ideal as she spoke Welsh and thought it would be nice to work in a Welsh Tea room!
Lorraine regaled members with her stories of travelling after arriving in Buenos Aires and setting off walking through Argentina toward the Patagonia region. She had many hair-raising adventures on the way and was very brave travelling on her own. When she arrived in Patagonia she expected to hear Welsh spoken and to find her Tea Room, however although there were Welsh surnames she didn't hear the language and her Spanish was very sparse. Eventually she found a Welsh Tea Room but they only spoke Spanish also! She eventually went through Chile and on up into Peru where she went on an excursion trip to Lake Titicaca and was so impressed she went to live as part of a Peruvian family, working with the mother in the terraced fields gathering potatoes, and then cleaning them. She was very impressed with the contented life of the Peruvian family despite the fact they appeared deprived to our minds.
Ruth Hide thanked Lorraine for a very entertaining evening. The raffle winner was Angela Auger competition winners of 'An Unusual Foreign Doll' were: 1st Alison Collins, 2nd Shirley Jones, 3rd Liz Lloyd.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday 26 May at 7.30pm when the NFWI resolution for the AGM at The Albert Hall 'SOS Bees' would be discussed. There would also be a craft evening when members would demonstrate to other members various crafts and Carrie Wiltshire, of CARAD, Community Museum Development Co-ordinator, who will be talking to individual members about why they joined WI and recording it with permission for the Oral History Project.
March 2009 Meeting
President Jane Narborough welcomed members to the March meeting of Rhayader WI. She was very pleased to announce that the Digital Switchover and Coffee Morning had been well attended and it was good to see that there were plenty of people to hear Angela Jones explain the process and that people were able to ask questions. It was also a very successful coffee morning.
It had been decided that plans should be started now towards the 80th Birthday celebrations of Rhayader WI which would be held in 2011. It was thought that a programme for the year should be planned with every month depicting a period during the 80 years. A sub-committee would be set up and ideas, photos etc requested from members.
Rhayader are considering applying to the Lottery for an Awards For All grant to enable every member to go to Denman College either as a small group or individually. The President explained what Denman was like for those who had never been, telling of her experience when going, and assured members it was beneficial to everyone wherever you lived. Shirley Jones would get forms to apply, a list was sent around to gauge interest.
The speaker for the evening was Maddie Lavelle on Food Intolerance. Maddie told members about ways of testing for food intolerance. She explained that there was a difference between a food allergy and food intolerance. Maddie took members through a 'switching on' session and then passed plastic bags containing small phials of essences from different foods and additives. These were held against the body and a muscular reaction in the arm would show a possible intolerance. Maddie said you should always listen to what your body is telling you. Liz Lloyd thanked Maddie for her interesting demonstration.
The raffle winner was Sylvia Richards. The monthly competition was a Home Health Remedy and there were some excellent remedies entered. Competition winners were 1st Shirley Jones, 2nd Morfa Shaw, 3rd Sylvia Richards
February 2009
The President Jane Narborough welcomed everyone to the 78th Birthday celebrations and congratulated them on the lovely turnout of 'Blue and Black' outfits, the colour scheme chosen for this party.
The Digital Switchover Coffee Morning will take place on Saturday 28th March from 10.00am until 12 noon with a presentation at 10.30am and will include a raffle, bric-a-brac, book and cake stalls. Sylvia offered to put each members' postcode into the Wales/UK Digital website to find out who would switch to digital in the August/September 2009 and who would switch later in November.
Jane, Sandra, Liz and Sylvia had met with Carrie Wiltshire of Rhayader and District Museum at CARAD for the 'Coming Together' display and had ideas of items they may like to put in a display box at the start of the permanent exhibition. Carrie would also be visiting the May meeting when she would like to talk to members, individually about what they like about being a WI member.
The Rose bowl group for the County Show Exhibition had met and everything was underway.
The President then carried out the Annual Presentation of Cups: Val Evans was presented with the 'Member of the Year Cup'. Jane told members that it was because Val was always so helpful, never moaning, always smiling and had been a member for fifty years in March. Jane also presented Val with a beautiful bouquet of flowers in honour of her long membership.
Monthly Competition Winners were presented with cups by president and vice president. 1st Jane Narborough, 2nd Shirley Jones, 3rd Liz Lloyd. Jennifer Oakley then thanked Shirley Jones and Jane Narborough for always being so willing to drive the minibus to go to events and presented them with bouquets of flowers. The Raffle winners were: Val, Stella, Chris, Anne, Jane, Sylvia and Shirley.
Members were delighted with the results of their mosaic tiles which had been grouted and returned by Lynda Rowe.
After a delicious knife and fork meal and lovely puddings, provided by Andrew Lewis of the Strand, members played a few games. Unfortunately (or fortunately!) the Karaoke machine would not work so members played 'stand up Bingo' and a quiz (name the hat). Quiz winners were a tie between two teams - Joan, Beryl, Pauline, Sandra and Liz, Wendy, Margaret and Ida with 19/20.
January 2009 Meeting
At the January meeting the President, Jane Narborough, welcomed members and visitors to the first meeting of 2009. Members were told of the funeral of a former member Rita Hughes, who had been a member form the 1950's until leaving the area in the 1990's. The Birthday Party in February will be a 'Knife and Fork' buffet in the Wye Lounge and continuing the theme of previous years members were asked to wear something 'Blue and Black'.
The first meeting for the Rose bowl Sub group will be on Thursday 29 Jan, the 2009 theme was 'Fire and Ice', members were invited to attend if they would like to help.
A Coffee Morning was organised for Saturday 28 March when members of the public would be able to listen to a short presentation by Angela Jones on the Digital Switchover, and how it would affect Rhayader. Members would provide light refreshments, a cake, raffle and book stall.
The demonstrator was Mrs Lynda Rowe who brought a variety of completed pieces along with tiles for members to have a go at making a mosaic. Lynda said her interest in mosaics had begun after she attended an International Women's Day taster session at the Royal Welsh Showground. She particularly enjoys making mirrors. She started with old tiles that she had collected at home but found them difficult to cut into the shapes. She eventually ordered the pieces from a website. Members enthusiastically set to, choosing the colourful pieces and glueing them to a larger tile. Everyone agreed it had been a very enjoyable evening and didn't matter whether or not you were 'artistic'! Liz Lloyd thanked Lynda and said she always thought she was not at all arty/crafty, but that the evening had been lovely. The raffle was won by Morfa Shaw. Hostesses were Jane Micah, Ruth Hide and Dorothy Ingram. The competition, 'Prettiest Cloth' was won by - Shirley Jones, Betty Davies, and Alison Collins.