October’s Meeting and Press Report

We met this month for our meeting at The Village Hall. The competition of the month for this month was to make Christmas Tree decorations. We received a good selection and money was raised by voting with silver coins for our charity ACWW.

The craft group brought along some of the July New Forest Show entries so that members could be encouraged to enter the show next year! A lot of hard work.

A group of members continue to make bandages for trauma packs for Ukraine. We also collected hats to be sent out to Ukraine as winter is fast approaching.

Caroline brought in some soft toys that she had made and members were able to make donations for these which will go to New Forest for Ukraine.

Our speaker Mrs E Barron gave us an amusing and informative talk. Her grandfather travelled by train from Barry in South Wales to Shanghai on the trans Siberian railway in 1913. She decided to do the exact same trip 100 years later with her husband in 2013. This is a 6000 mile journey. Her grandfather had written a diary and so she was able to map out the journey. So they started from Barry by train to Paddington via Cardiff. They then travelled to Ramsgate and caught the ferry to Ostend. The train travelled across Europe – Brussels, Cologne, Berlin and Warsaw to Moscow. The sleeper train stopped at various points along the way. The next train was the Trans Siberian railway from Moscow to Northern China – Changchun. The train then travelled to Beijing and finally Shanghai. There were many stories of the train and scenery – for example Lake Baikal in Russia , the largest fresh water lake in the world, ices over in the winter, and is 636Km long.

The whole journey took her grandfather 15 days as he was starting a new job. Liz and her husband took 24 days as they stopped off at various points to see China and relatives in Hong Kong. They flew back to the UK! She achieved virtually the same trip as her grandfather although at some stage had to deviate.

The Powerpoint presentation was fascinating seeing old photos and more recent ones of the same places also of her grandfather who married and lived in Shanghai for many years.

One of our members organised a tour of Medieval Southampton followed by a meal.

Our Darts team won the Group competition so we saw the trophy at the meeting.

The Group Quiz final was held in Eastleigh. Brockenhurst WI came ninth!

We also were treated to a tour of the gardens at The Pig in Brockenhurst by the Head Gardener. Extensive grounds beautifully kept. We then sampled some of the produce with a glass of bubbly!

Earlier this month our WI catered for World Textile Day. A colourful display of African quilts, clothes, baskets, covers and many other items took over the Village Hall for the day. There were several talks during the day and despite the rail strike there was a good turnout.