The beginning of April saw a flurry of activity amongst some of our members who were committed to demonstrating their craft skills. Some had produced samples of their work for a display in the window of the Parish Council office in Brookley Road and others had been busy knitting and crocheting squares to be used for decorating 2 large Easter Eggs sited at the front of St Saviour’s church garden. Both displays had a theme of Renewal in keeping with the Easter message and both were admired by village residents and visitors alike.
Our thanks go to Meral Carter and Britta Wells for all their hard work in creating the displays and to all the members who made contributions.
At the end of March, Julie Wooten gave a demonstration of therapeutic hand massage techniques via Zoom to 16 members and guests. Each lady was given sample products so that they could follow Julie’s demonstration and learn techniques and some of the lesser-known facts about hand massage. It was a very pleasant occasion, much enjoyed by all and left us with hands that had recovered in part from the ravages of hand sanitizer and feeling very “chilled”.
On 12th April Krysia Watson, Chair of the New Forest Bee-Keepers Association, gave an excellent talk about beekeeping, how to become a beekeeper, how to gather honey and how to care for bees. The type of equipment needed by a novice beekeeper, how to acquire a swarm of bees, where to site beehives and how to care for the bees were all explained. Krysia recounted tales of her own experiences when she first started beekeeping 4/5 years ago, and how she has developed her skills over time to the point that she now has sufficient honey crops to supply her own family’s needs, to give as gifts to relatives and friends and to sell to the public.
We also learned about the sorts of flowers to which bees are attracted at various time of the year, the difference that different flowers make to the flavour and quality of the honey. It was a fascinating talk which gave some of us an incentive to explore beekeeping in more detail.
At our meeting on May 10th there will be a presentation by Peta Allingham entitled “A Woman’s Experience of Participating in Scientific Experiments on 4 Continents”.
Peta will talk about her expeditions in Australia, Europe, north America and central Asia. The talk is not really about the research but more about being a woman on expeditions and the organisation of expeditions finishing with a mini run through central Asian expeditions.
Join from 7pm for a chat prior to the talk.
Guests are welcome to join the Zoom presentation between 7.15 and 8.00pm.
If you would like to join in, please contact us for Zoom details. The more the merrier!
After the talk, will be our our AGM. The AGM part of the meeting will be for WI members only.
