Once again, we have managed to have a variety of events taking place. These have sometimes required changes at the last minute depending on the COVID infection rates locally and again we have held some meetings via Zoom and others face to face.

In January we held a “Gardners Question Time”. Our gardening group answered questions put to them by members. It was really enjoyable and we all took away new ideas and knowledge related to gardening. The panel were fantastic and totally unfazed by the questions asked

February, again via Zoom, we had a talk from Saima about embroidery. She told us about phulkari, which is a traditional Punjabi stitching technique. The examples she showed us were beautiful

March required a last minute change to our planned programme as our speaker tested positive for covid! So instead of having a speaker we did the talking ourselves by way of a Speed Chat meeting. Members moved around the room and had 5 minutes to chat before having to move onto the next person. It was brilliant. It was amazing what things we discovered about each other, even though we had been members of the group for many years!

April was Northern Powerhouse, who showed a variety of self defence techniques to the members who were able to attend.

May was our Annual General Meeting and then a talk entitled “Flat Stan”. This was about resuscitation and the use of community defibrillators

In June we had a jubilee party with competitions for the best cake or pudding and the best tiara. The entries were both amazing and delicious!

July was food elated again. Martina Karol came to talk to us about fermentation. It was fascinating and we learnt about the benefits of eating fermented foods, and also the types of foods that can be used for this. Martina gave us the recipe for doing this and many of our members will no doubt be trying this.

This was our first indoor meeting for over a year! it felt very strange but so, so nice.

Vanessa – one of our members, led us through the evening. We made lavender filled tree decorations adorned with all sorts of ribbons and bells, buttons and stars!

it was so nice to be together in Hebden Bridge Town hall after so long Having to wear masks and use hand gel mattered not a jot! The rules are not a worry when there are friends having fun, learning new skills and eating cake!

Our lockdown banner was also displayed for the first time!

We actually managed to meet up in July for a meeting Our meeting was held outdoors. We went to Heptinstall Bowling Club and learnt about bowling we were then given the opportunity to ’have a go’! It was really good fun and some of our group were pretty good.

In August some of our members met up to play rounders and eat strawberries – again an outside meeting for which the weather stayed dry!

September we met up for a treasure hunt in Hebden Bridge We split into a number of teams and set off following the clues to try and find the treasure Unfortunately darkness descended before anyone found the treasure, so we went into a local hostelry and had a catch up – no tea and cake on this occasion

Our October meeting was a talk over zoom Richard Rickitts told us about bees in a talk entitled ’A buzz in the garden’

Meetings continued through the Spring via Zoom

In April we were taught how to make a macrame plant holder. We were supplied with a plant pot, the string and a tutorial via Zoom. Most of us ended up with a plant holder at the end of the session!

May was our AGM. No new committee members were elected and Wilma Downs has continued to be our president. We have continued to support Mothershare as our charity for a second year

In June, we heard from Frances Carlaw about pearls. Her fascinating talk was entitled Pearls of Wisdom. She explained so much about how pearls are formed and the difference between, natural, cultured and artificial pearls. She showed us some beautiful examples – via Zoom of course- of different sorts of pearls. There were so many sorts. It was a lovely evening.

Our JUly meeting is going to be held outside so we will be able to meet up as a group for the first time since February 2020!

Despite being unable to hold our meetings at the Town Hall we have had zoom meetings with speakers each month

In November we had a talk from Sarah Slater of Hampton Court Palace. Her talk was entitled – Sex, Secrets, Scandal and Salacious Gossip. It was amusing and entertaining and enjoyed by us all!

December we had our usual Christmas party. Each member had a goody bag delivered -which included a small bottle of Prosecco and we had games with prizes, and a raffle. We were entertained by story teller Ursula Holden-Gill, who told several stories with a festive twist

In January we learnt to juggle and do magic tricks. Martin Mor did a class via zoom with us. Some of our members were very talented and vowed that they would continue to practice in order to be able to entertain others in the future!!!! Martin did not charge us for the event but asked us to bake goods to be donated to a local women’s refuge. This was a lovely idea, and many of us baked goods which were delivered for the women and children prior to Christmas

In February, Jane Raywood-Booth, from Overgate Hospice, gave us a lovely talk – again via Zoom, about alternative therapy. She explained the role that the therapies play in palliative care at the hospice. She advised on the therapeutic properties of various oils and how to mix and use them. At the end of the evening she did a guided meditation/ relaxation session with us. It was lovely

All in all, our winter meetings have been really good and we are continuing to find different ways of working to keep our WI going

Although we have not been able to meet at the Town Hall as normal we have held meeting each month by Zoom.
We have been very inventive and some of us have learnt to use technology in a way that we never could have envisaged.

We have had a Beetle Drive, our AGM, a scavenger hunt, and a talk about our charity for the coming year. The charity is called Mothershare and we now need to think of different ways to raise money since we cannot hold our Rag Market and our meetings

Despite social distancing, we managed to hand over the cheque to Healthy Minds at the end of the financial year.

All our members received a Goody Bag in July. This was packed with all sorts of goodies including tea bags and a brownie! It wouldn’t be WI without tea and cake after all. The bag also has fabric and some craft items for members to make a “lockdown” collage or panel, which will be incorporated into a banner in the future hopefully.

David gave us a fantastic talk about the history of chocolate which was first made four and a half thousand years ago. It was thought then to have special powers and was used as currency

David told us about the process used for making it and then did some tasting with us. For those of us who love chocolate it was a fantastic evening. David made ganache and also had lots of ready made goodies for us to take home with us

Two of our members gave short talks about the courses they had attended which were funded through our bursaries. Sakina attended a two day willow weaving workshop at Creative with Nature and Fliss had been to Denman for a course on modern calligraphy

Another fantastic night with Ade from Drum Machine. We certainly did bang our drums! It’s amazing the sound that comes out from a group of enthusiastic women, even if some of us did struggle to keep in time.
Ade explained about different rhythms and how they vary in different cultures and that in itself was fascinating.
I think everyone would agree about it being a good night and it was rounded off with the usual cake and refreshments

Our party started with a short history of beer making. Apparently women were the first people to brew beer!  We then learned about the different ingredients that are used and how these can alter the taste of the beer. Then followed some tasting!
There were several different beers to try, and even those of us who didn’t normally like or drink beer found something that we liked
Our  evening was completed with some food brought in by a local Tibetan restaurant.  It was delicious  The party was a big success with our members.