At our June meeting, Julie stood in for Liz, our new President, who was unwell. Julie welcomed the members, two returning guests and speaker Gavin Blackman.

We sang Jerusalem -thanks go to Anne N for, as usual, providing the music.

Julie thanked Meral (in her absence) for the lovely arrangement of flowers for the table.

Julie thanked everyone for their help with out D-Day stall. It was a real team effort. You can read about it here. Liz had printed out some photos of the day, which were displayed.

Issy was thanked for organising a successful Croquet evening. You can read about the evening here.

Notices were read out about June Activities:

• Lunch, 20^th June Turfcutters Arms – Christine
• Evening Walk, 24^th June 6.30pm Starting at Beechern Wood – Julie
• Darts – Thursday mornings – Janette
• Bandage making Wednesday mornings – Rita
• Group Quiz – good luck to our teams on 26th
• August Outing – 12^th August -Jackie collecting money (to be paid asap)
• Hampshire WI Events – Pasta makings, Glass fusing, Willow craft, Photography

A reminder was given about the upcoming closing date for entries for the New Forest Show on 16th June. We are still looking for people to enter the Cooperative categories:

• Produce Co-operative ‘A Beach Bag Picnic for Two’ 3 different food items, (2 savoury and 1 sweet),
• Craft Co-operative ‘Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside’ -3 different craft items.

The ‘Flower of the Month‘ competition was won by Ann Hessey, for the most votes with silver coins. The money is donated to ACWW.

We also had a Plant & seed sale with donations going to ACWW. This helped reduce waste, share resources and help pollinators. It also fitted in to #GreatBigGreenWeek #SwapTogether. Thanks to those who donated plants and gave donations for plants.

Birthdays gifts were given/delivered to nine members with Birthdays this month.

Jackie, our new treasurer, gave us an update.

Our Speaker, Gavin Blackman, was introduced by Jayne J . He gave an interesting talk Hypnotherapy and Wellbeing.

After spending 30+ years in a corporate environment, Gavin retrained as a Hypnotherapist.

Gavin has a clinic in Winchester and also works within a Macmillan unit.

We heard a history of Hypnotherapy and Hypnosis, learning that it goes back to Egyptian times! We learnt the science behind Hypnotherapy.

Gavin explained what Hypnotherapy is (and isn’t) and debunked myths , such as you can’t move during hypnosis or that you can be made to do things against your will!

We learnt that tapping into the subconscious mind, as is done during meditation, can help people to make positive life changes..

We ended by doing a few fun exercise and a question and answer session.

It was an interesting and thought-provoking session.

The raffle was, as usual, run by Maureen and April.

Thanks go to Karen, Evelyn and Caroline for providing the refreshments.

Our next meeting is on Monday 8th July 2024 with speaker Kevin Fowler -“The Race to Scotland -an adventure”. This will be held at Brockenhurst Village Hall – arrival from 7pm for a 7.30pm start.

Thanks go to Jayne and Christine for the photographs.