Harlow Women's Institute

Member of the Federation of Essex Women's Institutes
Charity Registration Number 228992

Thursday 10 November 2016

November

A busy time for Harlow WI - two weeks ago we attended the Cobbin Group Meeting, hosted by Church Langley WI.  This proved to be a very pleasant evening with good food, good company and a first class performance by Emily Yarrow who talked about her life as a singer and the other work she does between singing engagements.  Her talk was illustrated with plenty of music, some classical, some popular, including a splendid rendition of the theme from the most recent James Bond film, Spectre. 



 
 
 



Harlow's contribution to the evening was to run a stall selling 'mystery gifts' - wrapped presents with no indication of the contents.  We had an excellent selection of gifts donated by members of all five WIs, and sold the lot during the course of the evening (picture left). 


Today brought our monthly meeting and, despite the drear November weather, a good turnout.  There was much to discuss as our WI Bazaar is on Saturday so there was the usual appeal for helpers, donations, and patrons. 

The speaker today was Miss Joan Francies, talking about European Gardens.  The gardens she chose covered a wide area from the north of Scotland, via Jersey, Spain, France, Germany and Sicily to the lovely gardens close to the Italian Lakes.  Most of these gardens were on the grand scale and featured a preponderance of green from grass, foliage and trees and nearly all had a wealth of statuary.  Only the Moorish gardens of Spain were without lawns or statues.   Displays of flowers were usually only in evidence close to a villa or chateau.  Such a lot of green is very restful to the eye.

Her talk was much enjoyed and she was warmly thanked.  Miss Francies later judged the competition which was for a buttonhole (pictures below). 


Some of the entries

Miss Francies holding the winning entry.



 
Dates for your diary
 
Saturday 12 November - WI Bazaar, WI Hall, Garden Terrace Road, CM17 0AT
10 am-noon
Entrance £1, includes tea/coffee and biscuits
Stalls include Cakes, Books, Gifts & Crafts, Bric-à-brac, Raffle, Name-the-Toy, etc
 
Thursday 17 November - Play-reading Group (at the Hall)
2-4 pm
Act II of The Pocket Dream by Elli Brewer & Sandi Toksvig
 
Friday 25 November - Craft Group (at the Hall)
open from 11 am to 4 pm
Craft and Conversation
 
Thursday 1 December - Book Group (at the Hall)
2-4 pm
 
Wednesday 7 December - Christmas Lunch (at the Hall)
12.45 for 1 pm