As well as our usual festive drinks and nibbles, we also had a Murder Mystery evening. Who poisoned Henry Plant – owner of Lowfield Garden Centre? Six of our ladies played the suspects beautifully and the rest of our ladies had lots of fun trying to work who the killer was. It turned out that we were all wrong as we thought it was Stan Cribbs, the Deputy Manager of the garden centre; but Gwen was the closest when she said most poisoners are women. It was indeed a women – Diana Gardiner the over-qualified executive assistant!
We returned to The Priory Inn again this year for our annual Christmas meal and we weren’t disappointed. Nat and her chef served up some fantastic meals, all enjoyed in very good company.
The charity Blue Light Babies was set up by Jo Owen and provides ambulance packs for health services throughout the UK. Each pack contains a blanket and hat for babies born on their way to hospital and a snugglepod for those babies, who sadly, are born too early to survive. These babies are wrapped in a white sheet and then a snugglepod so mum and baby can have a cuddle. The current appeal for snugglepods is 2000 so several of our members are knitting, sewing and threading to help. This batch will be sent off before Christmas but the appeal is ongoing and donations of white wool are also required. Many thanks to our ladies who have helped so far.
Once again this year, we had a stall at the Tetbury Lights Switch On and Christmas Market. We had children’s Christmas craft kits, an adult lucky dip, our very popular marzipan fruits and lots of other lovely gifts. Thank you to the ladies who braved the cold to stand on the stall selling these wonderful items.
Once again, our WI decorated a Christmas tree in St. Saviour Church. The theme this year was wood and paper and some beautiful handmade wooden decorations and paper parcels adorned the tree. Well done the decorating team!
This year Gwen very kindly laid a wreath on behalf of Tetbury WI, following the Remembrance Sunday service.
Following a good look round at the delightful items to buy at The Malthouse Collective, the ladies enjoyed a spot of lunch!
This month’s meeting was Harvest Supper and Circus Skills. Linda and Angela prepared and served delicious homemade soup and a roll for every attending member – no small feat! Our ladies were also ‘surprised’ with an opportunity to try circus skills including spinning plates, balancing a peacock feather, juggling scarves, Diabolo and Poi. It turns our some of the ladies were rather good at some of the skills – perhaps from previous careers! Our circus skills demonstrator was Andy Fowler who can be contacted on fowlerad@googlemail.com if anyone knows of groups who may be interested.
Our annual summer trip this year was an exclusive guided tour of Rodmarton Manor and Gardens. We began with a very informative and interesting tour of the house, followed by lunch. After lunch we were able to spend time admiring the beautiful gardens and soaking up the sun. It was a fantastic trip where we learned a lot about the Arts & Crafts movement and how this could be seen in Rodmarton and about the history of the house. For instance, it had been home to 100 children during the war! And best of all, we had the place all to ourselves!
A lovely meeting with the other two WIs in our group – Avening and Kemble & Ewen. The evening began with a fantastic speaker John Volanthen, who was a lead diver in the successful but very difficult rescue of the Thai youth football team who got trapped in Tham Luang caves in 2018. John’s presentation was very inspirational and moving. Our groups also enjoyed a light supper and the usual inter-WI competitions with Avening being very successful in both the individual competition and the group competition.
Sunni hosted the first our her Wine Appreciation evenings. This time the theme was Chardonnay and it was interesting to find that there is a lot of variation in the different Chardonnays. Overall we agreed that we did not like the Australian or Chilean Chardonnays we tasted as these were fermented in oak barrels and the oak influence was not generally liked. Sunni then gave us a German Chardonnay to try which was well received and we were surprised as none of us had heard of German Chardonnay. Our final wine was a Chablis – also a surprise as none of us realised that Chablis was in fact a Chardonnay! A great fun evening. Look our for more Wine Appreciation events later in the year on 26th July, 4th October and 15th November.
Our speaker this month, Nick King from Goats of the Gorge, was extremely entertaining with his story of how he gave up a career in the police force to start his own business making cosmetic products from goats milk; even owning and milking his own goats at one time! Nick’s business has been so successful, his sons have joined him on his journey and they have even appeared on Dragons Den.
Letter of thanks from TTC following our contribution to the 80th Anniversary D-Day Celebrations.
Tetbury WI celebrated the 80th anniversary of D-Day with a stall demonstrating the small amount of basic rations allowed for each person for a week. Cakes were made for people to sample and were made following war time recipes – which involved using little or no eggs or butter! Even so, the cakes were very well received and were served by our very own WI ‘land girls’! Love the outfits ladies!
Another trip to Westonbirt with our ladies appreciating the good weather and beautiful rhododendrons.
Some of our ladies made the most of the lovely weather with a walk around Westonbirt Arboretum.
We had a large turnout for a gentle Introduction to Tai Chi with Jaki Hood, a local Tai Chi instructor.
The first of our Sunday Lunches was at the Trouble House. The lunching ladies enjoyed superb food and a lovely chat.
At the beginning of March, four of our ladies represented Tetbury WI in the Gloucestershire WI Quiz Tournament. They came a very respectable 4th out of 12 teams – well done ladies.
Some of our ladies enjoyed the first of our lunches for 2024, which was a delicious meal at The Close Hotel.
Pictures by kind permission of Mr William Reddaway.
Our February speaker was William Reddaway who came to give us an informative and very entertaining talk about his travels with his horse Strider. Mr Reddaway and Strider travelled to the four corners of the country covering 2700 miles and visiting 30 cathedrals along the way, where Strider was often invited in and blessed. Mr Reddaway has, to date, raised nearly £100K for two charities – the Wormwood Scrubs Pony Centre and the Family Holiday Charity.
