September 2025 Main Meeting

We welcomed 38 members and 1 visitor to our September meeting. Our speaker was Peter Turner with a talk entitled ‘Through the Eyes of a Magician’. Peter talked to us about ‘ magic’, explaining his approach through the world of illusion, psychology, and perception. He demonstrated a few ‘tricks’ with the help of some volunteer members. Chains tied themselves in knots, strips of material disappeared and turned up on a member’s purse and Jonty couldn’t believe the optical illusions he shared with her. A fascinating talk

Susan and Pat were thanked for organising a very successful August outing to Adventure Golf followed by a meal at Hartford Hall. Ann Tolson and Ann Brock were thanked for organising the Adelaide Hough Bowls Trophy competition, won by Jenny with Ann O’Brien the runner up. Pat Lyons reported on a very enjoyable CFWI ‘New Members Meeting’ attended by 4 of our members.

Members were invited to sign up for a range of activities organised by CFWI, Group, and Whitley, including Theatre trips, a social event at Chang Noi to celebrate WI Day and a range of subgroup activities, we are a very busy WI!

The competition for ‘ An Optical Illusion’ was won by Janet Patterson.

Adelaide Hough Bowling Sheild Competition

This was held on Monday 1st September and was the 35th year we’ve held this competition. We had a good turn out of 16 members. Adelaide was a member of our bowls team for some years until ill-health prevented her from continuing and she donated this trophy in 1991.We had mostly good weather with just a spell of rain.

Thanks to Ann Tolson (last year’s winner) and Ann Brock for organising the competition, The finalists were Ann O’Brien and Jenny Roberts who both played well in an exciting final. Jenny won this match so her name goes on the trophy for 2025

August 2025 – subgroup meetings

Baking Beauties produced various dishes using gelatine – Panna cotta, mandarin cheesecake, a full on ‘Cheese cake’ and marshmallow dusted in dried raspberries all fit the bill. The star of the afternoon was Pat with her white chocolate panna cotta and fruit jelly combination made in her Bundt tin. It looked stunning and tasted delicious – Star Baker Pat!

August 2025 – Craft Group Willow Weaving

The Craft group had a wonderful afternoon weaving swallows from willow. 18 members listened to Robyn from Nature Makers tell us of the buying of the willow from Somerset and the soaking of it for a few days to make it supple enough to use.

We all started with a 2 metre length of willow and made the basic body shape of a bird. Admittedly some looked thin and some fat but then we began to weave the body using the basic shape and we gradually pulled it into shape. We did find that the more we worked the willow with our fingers the easier it was to bend.

With a break for tea and cake (thank you to Joan our tea maker of the afternoon) we then added the wings. All 18 members were so thrilled to have had the opportunity to try a new traditional craft and go home with a completed swallow ready to hang in preferably outside to keep moist and last for many seasons to come.

August 2025 Outing to Adventure Golf

Twenty five of us joined the World of Alice in Wonderland on a very pleasant August evening for a really fun time playing crazy golf. In groups of 5 it was a great opportunity to get to know our fellow members better.

We progressed around the 18 holes. encountering lots of Alice themed landscaping including the Mad Hatter’s top hat, Tweedledum and Tweedledee and the Teapot No particular expertise was needed, the small streams of water running though the area presented some fun challenges.

The final hole, part of the deck of cards was great fun to watch. The red area within the heart shaped wall formed a very large hole, but this had to be access by using the Queen of Hearts ramp to take the ball over the wall. The netting was very important to protect our fellow visitors! I witnessed a couple of hole in ones, and also scores of around 10 here!

We finished the outing with a delicious meal at Hartford Hall where a few other members joined us. Massive thanks to Susan and to Pat for making all the arrangements for this very different and enjoyable evening.