Attendance at the January meeting can often be affected by the wish to stay tucked up cosily indoors but this year a very frosty evening was brightened for us all when the monthly meeting was turned into a French Evening.

About 40 of us, almost the full membership plus two visitors, were wondering what was in store as we gathered in the Studio. The place was decorated with tricolour bunting, ribbons and banners and the tables were covered in bistro-like checked cloths.

The business part of the meeting was cut to the minimum, after which our President Rosie Blencowe (who lived in France for several years) treated us all to Gateaux des Rois – a large traditional cake they share with friends at this time of year – each one topped with a golden crown. Rosie had spent the afternoon making five of these delicious goodies ……………..

………………  each one containing a small porcelain figurine, the finder of which then wore the crown for the rest of the evening.

This was followed by our Secretary Anne Laing entertaining us with her knowledge of French Public Holidays, Rosie talking about the early life of the infamous Pauline Bonaparte who was the youngest sister to Napoleon, an all-things-French quiz and finally a French-themed raffle. Altogether a fun evening.

Early in the month about two dozen of us had an enjoyable lunch at the Three Horseshoes in Graveley, while in February we are planning to lunch at Rocky’s for the first time. Meanwhile the choir have already started rehearsing for forthcoming commitments which will include Elsworth Church and a return visit to Ely Cathedral.

The meeting on 17th February will feature Jane Kennedy talking about Sign Language including differences due to accents, dialogues etc, and she is hoping for full audience participation! Our AGM will be on March 16th. We have lots of exciting plans for 2016 and look forward to welcoming new members and visitors.

December started with our Christmas lunch at The Grand Piano cafe in Godmanchester after which we all sang carols accompanied by Anne Potter on the grand piano.  

Then our choir, Lyrical Voices, were very privileged to be able to sing at the Ely Cathedral and Papworth Hospital Carol Service. The Cathedral was beautifully decorated for the Festive Celebrations, the dominant feature being the very large Christmas Tree. 

Our monthly meeting was a relaxing social evening, a particularly enjoyable gathering of good friends – for that is what we have become – with a dastardly Seasonal Challenge (it is surprising what can done with packs of dried spaghetti, jelly babies and gift ribbon!), a fantastic spread of refreshments and our special Christmas Raffle.  Throughout the evening we were entertained by the friendly and informal Folk duo ‘Silver Lining’, during which Helen impressed us with her playing of her recently purchased hurdy-gurdy (I doubt many of us had seen one before) and we were encouraged to join in singing many of the songs and carols.  

Our choir were busy again on the 17th when they enjoyed visiting the Field Lodge home in St Ives to sing Christmas songs for and with the residents.  

So another WI year comes to an end but we have lots of exciting plans for 2016 and look forward to welcoming new members and visitors.  We start on January 20th with what we hope will be an informative and even slightly challenging French Evening with a talk, a quiz, Fete des Rois gateau and an opportunity to exercise any latent French language skills!

To find out more about what is going on in our W.I., you can log on to our website at www.papwortheverardwi.org.uk or, even better, if you are 18 or over come along to one of our meetings at 7.15 for 7.30 on the third Wednesday of each month in the Studio next door to the Library. The visitor’s fee is £4.00 including refreshments. You can be sure of a very warm welcome.

About a dozen members enjoyed our first ever dining-out evening of good food and good company at the Hartford Mill, and are now organising an evening out at the cinema.

At our November meeting we had a rubbish talk (honestly!) from Nick King who works for Amey’s, the firm that runs the Cambridgeshire waste management plant near Waterbeach. To illustrate his talk Nick was accompanied by seven ‘colleagues’. These life-size figurines were created by the sculptress Michelle Reader and modelled on seven of her friends using the recyclable materials that they each had collected over a three week period. 

He explained how each type of material is separated out, processed and sold on for further use and to defray costs. Nick answered endless questions on what goes in which of our bins and why then, as an ex-teacher, demonstrated some of the work he does in schools to inform and involve the pupils in creating simple, or at times complex, models of items that can be made from recyclable materials – a truly Blue Peter experience! Altogether a fascinating, entertaining and informative evening.

Our Christmas lunch is being held in early December at The Grand Piano restaurant in Godmanchester.

Lyrical Voices, our choir, will be singing at Ely Cathedral on 5th December as part of the annual Papworth Hospital Carol Service then, on 17th December, will be entertaining the residents of Field Lodge in St. Ives.

Our meeting on 16th December will be a purely social evening and Christmas celebration with entertainment from the folk duo ‘Silver Lining’, seasonal refreshments and, of course, ending with some carols.

Our monthly lunch was held on the 1st of October at The Grand Piano Cafe in Godmanchester.  Eighteen of our members enjoyed the wide variety of food on offer and were particularly impressed with the attentive service from the friendly staff.   

As attendance at our monthly lunch outings is limited to those members who are available during the daytime, which usually precludes those who are working or who have daytime caring responsibilities, we are planning a dining out evening so that others have the opportunity to join in what is always a most pleasant event.

Festival of Choirs

Lyrical Voices, the Papworth and Elsworth W.I. choir, hosted a Festival of Choirs in which five other W.I. choirs from across Cambridgeshire and from as far afield as Norfolk, totalling almost 100 participants, took part. Having worked towards the Centenary Choir Competition for the past two years it was felt that it would be great to invite choirs for an afternoon of music and song in Papworth’s newly renovated Village Hall. The whole event was a big success and it is hoped that the event will be repeated sometime in the future.

The Choir section contains more information and photos.

At our October meeting we were in turn entertained, informed, amused and at times horrified by the dramatic story of The Lady Juliana, the first Convict Ship for women, that sailed to Australia in 1789. The speaker Ann James, who is an enthusiastic member of the Huntingdon Family History Society, gave a colourful account of the day to day life on board the ship as well as a detailed history of several individual women who went on to become the ‘founding mothers’ for the new colony of Australia.  Altogether a fascinating and interesting evening.

Towards the end of October over 300 daffodil bulbs, that had been donated by W.I. members, were planted on our behalf by the Cambridge Unpaid Work Team outside the Library in the grass verge in front of the W.I. Memorial bed. They should provide a cheery display to welcome the Spring and, if successful, we hope to add to their numbers over the coming years.

Our September lunch at the Golden Ball in Boxworth was as enjoyable as ever and the October lunch is due to be held at The Grand Piano cafe in Godmanchester. As attendance at our monthly lunch outings is limited to those members who are available during the daytime, which usually precludes those who are working or who have daytime caring responsibilities, we are planning a dining out evening so that others have the opportunity to join in what is always a most pleasant event.

The monthly meeting on 16th September coincided with the actual Centenary anniversary of the formation of the first UK W.I. so we took full advantage of the excuse to lay on our own celebrations. The hall was decorated with bunting, the usual rows of seating were replaced by groups of tables and chairs………….

W.I. memorabilia (scrap books, handicrafts etc) were on display ………………

………….and the business part of the meeting was minimised to leave plenty of time for socialising. Following a relaxing interval with bubbles and a celebration cake, accompanied by the singing of ‘Happy Birthday’ ………..

………….several members entertained us with short talks featuring interesting and quirky events in their own lives from the past 100 (well, somewhat less than 100!) years.

A Bring-and-Buy sale of homemade items raised welcome funds……..

……………and the meeting ended with a celebration raffle.

On the 25th of September Lyn hosted an afternoon tea at her home in aid of Macmillan Cancer Relief which raised over £190.00 for the charity. The array of homemade cakes that had been prepared by her and her sister were quite superb – thank you Lyn and family for all your hard work, it was certainly worth it!

The ‘Lyrical Voices’ of our choir have been rehearsing hard for The Festival of Choirs that they are hosting in the Village Hall on 4th October, so if you are interested in joining them (no audition necessary) please just come along or find out more by visiting the choir section on our website or by emailing jb.varrierjones@btopenworld.com.

The invited Speaker at our monthly meeting on 21st October is Ann James who will be talking about The Lady Juliana, the first convict ship transporting women to Australia in 1789, while the meeting on 18th November will feature the somewhat unglamorous but useful topic of Waste Management and Recycling