We are having a busy August. Members have enjoyed a croquet evening, an event at Foxlease with other local WI clubs.

We entered the New Forest Show. Beautifully made items taking hours to sew, knit, macrame, bake, make fruit marmalade, photograph, paint flower arrange and make a 1920’s larder with contents and a model allotment we managed to have several third prizes. A tremendous effort by everyone involved.

Our darts team has won every match.

Our outing was to Furzey Gardens one evening.  The philosophy of the garden is training and support to provide people with learning difficulties with work experience.  Nineteen ladies listened to the Head Gardener talk about the Garden – the history and the future plans.  Furzey is a ten acre woodland garden in Minstead, New Forest.  An informal garden with lots of features for example fairy houses, winding paths and thatched huts.  The garden since 1922, has been planted using seeds from all over the world.   Furzey won in 2012 the RHS Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal for a Show Garden and this has been recreated by the lake and is quite sizeable.

Some of the WI members have been involved with bandage making for the front line in Ukraine. Julie has headed this exercise. We had a talk about this at one of our meetings. It is amazing how many bandages can be made from one cotton sheet.Out of each sheet bandages , triangular bandages and tourniquet ties can be made. Our contributions are passed on and over one thousand five hundred trauma packs have been sent off by New Forest for Ukraine to the frontline to be used straightaway.

If you are interested do look on the website –  New Forest for Ukraine – and there are instructions on how to make the bandages or email  brockenhurstpres@hampshirewi.org.uk for further information.

Brockenhurst WI meets on the second Monday of the month in the Village Hall. Our next meeting is on Monday September 12 at 7.30pm. The speaker Jeremy Prescott is talking about Violette Szabo GC – a British-French Special Operations Executive Agent.

If you wish to make contact about any of the above or to join us, please email us.