Outing: Although we had no official meeting in August, members and partners and friends enjoyed a lovely boat trip on the River Trent.   After stopping for coffee on route to Nottingham, we boarded our boat for a relaxing 2 hr cruise, during which we were served a delightful lunch, cooked by a most intriguing lady chef!!, which went down very well of course with a nice glass of wine (or two)!  A good time was had by all.

Meeting: It was good to meet up again after the summer break and this month our very own Sally Bartlett gave a very interesting talk on Life in Mazwi Village in Zimbabwe.   Sally and her husband went out to visit and help friends who work for the charity ACACIA and who run the nursery school for the young children of the Village,  and who come from very underprivileged homes.  Sally and Bert took with them many woolly hats (shown in the lovely picture of the children in their classroom,  and which were kindly knitted and donated by various members of the community.  Sally told us many stories about the community and the children, how they live and the hardships they face, some very moving and some very amusing.  Sally and her husband hope to return again next year for another few weeks and we are sure, when they do, they will go laden with many small, but vital necessities, donated by many of our members, which will help to make such a difference to the lives of the people of the village.

Lunch:   Several members enjoyed a delicious lunch this month at the Wheatsheaf Pub at Perry near Grafham Water. The food was excellent as was the conversation.

Choir:   Our choir, Lyrical Voices, will be taking part in the Saffron Song Fest, a unique Gala Festival being held at Saffron Walden Concert Hall on Sunday 15^th October.

 Next Meeting:   will take place on Wednesday 18^th October

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A trip to Brick Lane Music Hall Theatre in London started off the month with more than 40 members, partners and friends boarding the coach at Papworth for London. They had a fabulous time with music hall style entertainment, followed by delicious afternoon tea.  A most memorable and enjoyable day out.

Choir:   Our choir, Lyrical Voices were delighted this year to be invited along to the Eltisley and Croxton Festival on Wednesday 13^th July to sing in the marquee set up by the Eltisley WI ladies.  It was a very successful evening with the villagers coming along for tea and cake and to listen to our varied programme of music.

Meeting: Despite our speaker for the evening being unable to attend, our programme secretaries thought on their feet as usual and came up with a really enjoyable Beetle Drive followed by a ‘Sitcom Quiz’. The competition was fierce on each table to complete the beetle in the quickest time and the noise and laughter in the room was unbelievable.   A great evening was enjoyed by all.

Next Meeting:   There will be no meeting in August although we will be enjoying another outing this time  by coach to Nottingham for a cruise and lunch on the river trent.  This will take place on 11^th August  and  looks to be a great day out.

Our next WI meeting will therefore be on 20th September.  Enjoy the summer break!

To find out more about what is going on you can log on to our website at www.papwortheverardwi.org.uk or if you are 18 or over just 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. You can be sure of a warm welcome.  The visitor’s fee is  £4.00 including refreshments.

We started off the month with a delicious lunch at the Garden Centre at Arrington. This was the first visit for many ladies and they found it most enjoyable.

We were delighted this year to support the  Papworth Summer Fete held on Sunday 11^th June with a Tombola Stall which proved to be very successful .  The tombola prizes were in the form of plastic beakers filled with goodies and hand-made boxes filled with goodies, together with many bottles of all types– all kindly filled and donated by our members.

Our choir, Lyrical Voices, who are Friends of Papworth Hospital also ran a stall on behalf of Papworth Hospital. Again, the stall was most successful with the added attraction of ‘ Madam Clara’ who gave fortune forecasts to those who dared enter her tent!!

The Patientlink AGM was held at the Village Hall on 16^th June when we were proud to present a cheque for £1400.00 to the Papworth Surgery following our very successful ‘Fashion Show’ held back in April 2017.  We are certain the money will be put to excellent use for the benefit of the whole community.  Thanks goes once again to all who made donations, as mentioned in our April Report, and for the many many people from Papworth and the surrounding areas for attending and making the event an amazing success.

Speaker: Our speaker, as advertised, was unfortunately unable to attend, however thankfully Angela from Boxworth Botanicals stepped in at the last minute to save the day. Angela spoke about how she had always been interested in herbs and had started out experimenting with different combinations to make essential oils. Following an illness she decided to go full time into making completely natural products for all uses from domestic cleaning, medicinal and health and beauty.  We all got the opportunity to try various products from skin tonic to foot cream and the fragrance around the room at the end of the evening was wonderful, despite us all melting in the heat of the night!.

Next Meeting:   Our next meeting will be held on 19^th July  when we will be entertained by Sue Smith ‘demonstrating ‘Line Dancing’.  This is sure to be a fun evening – just hope it is a little cooler than now on the night!!.

To find out more about what is going on you can log on to our website at www.papwortheverardwi.org.uk or if you are 18 or over just 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. You can be sure of a warm welcome.  The visitor’s fee is  £4.00 including refreshments.

Speaker:

Our speaker this month was Geoff Lamberts from the charity Medical Detection Dogs, along with Buddy, his lovely personal dog who is used, not as a detection dog, but as an ambassador for the charity. Buddy was adored by all present but was not impressed at all as he slept through most of the talk!!!

Geoff gave a lively and very informative talk describing how the amazing work the dogs do is simply based on smell!   He took us through the whole procedure of where the dogs come from, how they are socialised in a normal home environment with a voluntary ‘socialiser’ for approximately a year, and then how they are trained, again by volunteers, to recognise certain long term life illnesses such as type 1 diabetes and certain cancers and then finally matched with their owner.  Geoff then answered many questions raised by the members and finally a pot was passed round for anybody to make a donation – which many members were happy to do.

The Lonely Bouquet Campaign Nationally the W.I  has been involved in collaboration with the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies  (NAFAS) in promoting the Lonely Bouquet campaign on National Flower Arranging Day, Friday 5 May.  The idea is to spread joy by leaving a small bouquet or just a single bloom for a stranger to find – last year 60,000 bouquets were left.  One of our members was lucky to be the recipient of a pretty bouquet as shown here – a truly wonderful idea that I am sure brings much joy to anybody receiving such a surprise – no doubt this is something we will be thinking of doing next May 5^th.

Lunch: Earlier this month, several ladies travelled to the Royal Oak at Potton and enjoyed a delicious lunch and, of course, a good natter.

Next Meeting:Our next meeting will be held on 21^st June when our speaker will be Stephen Hearn from Tring Auction House.

To find out more about what is going on you can log on to our website at www.papwortheverardwi.org.uk or if you are 18 or over just 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.  You can be sure of a warm welcome.  The visitor’s fee is  £4.00 including refreshments.