Holcombe Brook and Summerseat WI

The book club met in July to discuss The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness. The book had a very respectable score of 3.5 out of 5 from Goodreads and the synopsis sounded promising: 'The extraordinary happens every day... One night, George Duncan - decent man, a good man - is woken by a noise in his garden. Impossibly, a great white crane has tumbled to earth, shot through its wing by an arrow. Unexpectedly moved, George helps the bird, and from the moment he watches it fly off, his life is transformed. The next day, a kind but enigmatic woman walks into George's shop. Suddenly a new world opens up for George, and one night she starts to tell him the most extraordinary story. Wise, romantic, magical and funny, The Crane Wife is a hymn to the creative imagination and a celebration of the disruptive and redemptive power of love.' Unfortunately though, the novel didn't fare well with our readers! Some members liked the folk tale aspect of the novel b...

Some members of the craft group have been busily knitting squares to create a 'Linus quilt' for the forthcoming LFWI County Show at Garstang. All quilts entered for the show will be donated to the Project Linus charity which 'aims to provide a sense of security and comfort to sick and traumatised babies, children and teenages through the provision of new homemade patchwork quilts and knitted/crocheted blankets'.

We were lucky with the weather when it came to our recent garden sale. Building on the success of last year, one of members once again flung open the doors to her home and garden to host a book, plant and cake sale. The event was well-attended and the delecious range of scones, cakes and pastries went down a storm!

As you can see from the photos, this year's WI AGM was a very special occasion!  Not only was it held, in honour of the organisation's centenary, in the glorious surroundings of the Royal Albert Hall but it was also attended by royalty! HM T he Queen attended the event with the Princess Royal and Countess of Wessex; all three are members of their local branches or federations. So it was a good job we sent our chairwoman, Karen and Secretary, Alison along to represent us in style!

We enjoyed an enlightening talk and demonstration from commercial advertising photographer Ian Clegg on Wednesday, 6th May. Ian has recently partnered with a ceramic artist to explore how photography and ceramics might be combined. This has led to critical success and exhibitions both locally and abroad. Ian showed us the ceramic pin-hole camera he has created and took some photos of the group and location. All in all a very thought-provoking evening!

The April meeting saw the group try their hand at creating a scrapbook layout. The session was led by Nicola, one of the members, who is a keen papercrafter. The range of layouts produced bore witness to just how creative a group we are!

Our first attempt at creating a group project resulted in a beautiful string of bunting. The grand unveiling at the April monthly meeting was met with a host of oohs and aahs! Each member embroidered one of the letters and decorated a flag so the end product would spell out the name of our WI. It will no doubt be used for many years to come and will decorate both our meetings and any future show displays. Special thanks must go to Ailie, Karen and Alison who did the prep work and final assembly of the bunting.

I feel like we should have a sound effect on this blog post. A drum roll, cymbal clash or something to celebrate that we've ( finally !) taken the leap and created a blog. Woo hoo! So thanks for joining us and by way of introduction, I'd like to tell you a bit about who we are and what we do. We are the Holcombe Brook and Summerseat branch of the Women's Institute (part of the Lancashire Federation). We are a cross-generational WI and our members range from stay-at-home mums with young families to women who work full-time and retired ladies (and just about every combination in-between). We are quite a young WI - we were only established in 2012 so we are learning the ropes and still full of enthusiasm and energy!