Holcombe Brook and Summerseat WI

The DUCK races that is!  Building on the success of the event in 2017, we once again set up stall as part of the Rotary Club's charity fundraiser. The weather was kind and the crowds were thick as the 1940s weekend was in full swing at the same time. As you can see, some of us were inspired to don vintage clothes to join in the period fun!

As you can see from these photos, the amazing wall hangings being created by our members just keep getting better. We are excited that they are nearing completion and will soon be hanging on the walls of our monthly meeting room in the Hare and Hounds pub, Holcombe Brook.

William Catlin was our speaker at the May meeting. He gave an uplifting and inspirational talk about the search for happiness, how to frame what happiness means to us and how to work towards it. Photo by  Gaelle Marcel  on  Unsplash Members certainly left the meeting with a spring in their step!

In preparation for sprucing up our patios and window sills in time for summer, Yvonne Pinder joined us to show how to decorate plant pots. Photo by  Annie Spratt  on  Unsplash Yvonne shared some of her techniques with us including using how she uses designs on paper napkins and transfers these to the plant pots. She sometimes enhances the overall look of the plant pot by adding some handpainted details. We were so encouraged by Yvonne's enthusiasm and talent that we plan to run a dedicated workshop soon to try decorating pots ourselves!

Tom Patterson joined us in March to share his bee keeping experiences and stories. He showed us the equipment he uses and explained how a hive is made. Photo by  Annie Spratt  on  Unsplash It was an illuminating presentation about the clever world of bees and left us enthused and motivated to do what we can to halt their decline. We were also able to buy some of Tom's delicious honey!

Unfortunately the planned speaker for February was unable to attend. Nonetheless, we had a fun evening discussing forthcoming events, the WI Resolutions for 2018 and the centenary anniversary of votes for women.

Happy New Year! Our first meeting of the year saw Val Maden join us to give a talk about the history of textiles and the Textile Trail. As Ramsbottom is a former mill town the talk was of particular relevance to our members and the locality.