At our June meeting we welcomed Nell Phoenix, storyteller. Nell spent the evening telling us some uncanny stories and the audience was divided into ‘believers’ and ‘doubters’ and the task was to turn the doubters into believers. Nell told us tales of the man in the bath, the broken coffin and the night she had to open the window to let something out at a friend’s house. She also had a story about the night when the lights flashed at a restaurant, made all the more believable when the CUFOS lights flashed. By the way never accept a gift of a toy when shopping for second hand clothes!

Cakes were provided by June for her special birthday!

May Meeting – AGM – Members arrived clutching a variety of items which had been hiding in their wardrobes for a very long time!

The AGM was at the beginning of the meeting and we heard comprehensive reports from the secretary and treasurer.  Yvette Rathbone, our WI Adviser took over proceedings for the elections of the committee and the president.

The Committee remains the same (apart from Jayne who is standing down): – Gill Whitney (President) Chris Randall (Secretary) Nina Jewell (Treasurer), Norma Barnes, Rosemary Pettman and Dianne Morrison. Thank you for showing your confidence in the committee as we serve you for another year.

Yvette judged the competition, congratulations to Chris for the oldest item (the family christening robe) and Eliza who had the best story about how her parents met when her mother was wearing a very cute dress. It was interesting to see the variety of items that members came up with and the stories behind them.

We celebrated with tea and apple and cinnamon danish made by Dianne – delicious!

At our last meeting we welcomed Elki Velazquez who talked to us about edible cacti. He shared some information about his Mexican culture and heritage and also talked about his work at Wolves Lane Nursery. He became disillusioned working as a chef and is now much happier knowing where his food has come from. Members enjoyed having a taste of a large leafed variety which was similar to cucumber. Did you know if you have eaten Dragon Fruit then you have eaten cacti? Who knew?

Thanks to Jane for the wonderful biscuits!

We were joined by Susan Carter, artist and private art teacher for a training session using water-colours. Many us hadn’t done water-colour painting before so it was all very interesting. We looked closely at the flowers we were going to paint noting the intricate colouring and shape. We then drew onto the sample paper before making our final drawing on the water-colour paper. We were then let loose with the water-colour paints and what fabulous pictures we created!

We were pleased to have Joyce Sullivan and Gill Hirsch in attendance from Age UK Barnet to talk about scam awareness. It was an extremely interesting evening with lots of information about types of scams (doorstep, mail, phone, email and online, relationship, identity theft and investment and pension) and how to report them. There was lots of discussion, questions and examples of scams members had experienced.

The four WI resolutions were discussed at this meeting. Rosemary lead on ‘Let’s talk about incontinence’, Nina on ‘Bystanders can be life savers’, Chris on ‘Join the repair revolution’ and Diane on ‘Eliminate landfill of medication packaging’. Each lead provided a quiz and information about the resolution which was then discussed by the group. I think we all learned something about the different resolutions. The resolution on ‘Let’s talk about incontinence’ received the most votes.

We were lucky to have Cantamus join us for an evening of festive singing. We had a break for refreshments before we all joined in with the singing Christmas carols. This was followed by a raffle with amazing prizes that had been donated by local businesses: Dunn’s, Velasquez and Van Wezel, Martin’s, Picture House, Arthouse, Everyman, Bean and Brew, N10 Coffee, Astrid and Cook.

Clare Heal, from Sycamore Sythe, is a chef and fermentarian. She told us about fermentation and gave an introduction to lacto-fermentation with a demonstration how to make sauerkraut. We enjoyed samples of brine pickles, classic sauerkraut and pickled butternut squash. Everything was tasty with an added bonus of being good for our gut health. This was followed by a lovely selection of cakes and tea, which probably isn’t as good for our gut health!

Jane Wrafter, from JCW Holistic Fitness, joined us to provide a very welcoming and at ease exercise class. She has been teaching locally for over 25 years. Jane talked about exercise and provided advice and practice on standing and sitting exercises. Check out her website at http://www.jcwfitness.co.uk

Paulina started the evening with an entertaining and interesting talk on ‘Why Am I Here’. Other members talked about their news items. A very enjoyable evening.

At our last meeting we took a self guided walk in the grounds of Alexandra Palace. We learnt about the repurposed railway buildings, the ‘doughnut’, Leo the Lion, the Rose Garden and had great views of the London landscape. We finished off with drinks at the Phoenix Bar. We had a great evening and luckily the weather cooperated too!

We had a great evening with Anthea Zacharatos from Crouch End Calligraphy guiding us through the elegance and difficulty of calligraphy.

The AGM was overseen by Yvette Rathbone. The current committee was re-elected, though Rosemary has stepped down as President. She was thanked for all the support she provided to the WI. Gill has now taken the role of President. Diane has also joined the committee.

Our upcycling competition showed the WI at its finest with wonderful projects brought it. Jayne won the competition with a demin skirt made out of her husband’s jeans and an old blouse.

David Collins, a retired solicitor, came to speak to us about Wills, Powers of Attorney and Probate. He spoke about “things you may not know – pitfalls and the like “. Members of the group also passed on information from their experiences. Information is available from the Age UK website.

Did you know that estimates of the number of colloquial names for arum maculatum range from 90 to upwards of 150? And that one of the folklore names for viola odorata is Kiss Her In The Buttery? From geranium to galanthus, Caroline Broome gave a delightful talk about the origins, oft dubious medicinal uses, superstitions and folklore surrounding our most popular garden plants. 

We welcomed Rosie Fletcher from Slipstitch, the yarn shop on Alexandra Park Road. In addition to running the shop she holds classes and events including the knitting doctor, meet and make and knitting projects. Rosie is passionate about she does and ‘living her dream, at her wonderful shop.

There was a lively debate regarding the current NFWI resolutions – dental health, poor housing conditions, gambling advertising and criminal justice which are topics that we feel passionate about. Voting will take place at the next meeting. Member’s also gave reviews on books they recently read which included Still Life by Sarah Winman, In the Dark by Deborah Moggach, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, The Book of Lost of Found by Lucy Foley, Mystery in the Channel by Freeman Wills Croft, A Strret Cat named Bob by James Bowen, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout and Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce.

We had a lovely Christmas party with member’s enjoying playing board games, a cartoon quiz, raffle and of course mulled wine and mince pies!

A late change in our programme resulted in a flower arranging session led by WI member Chris. Members brought what greenery they could find in their garden and Chris supplied everything else one could possibly think of. What a creative display we had!

What a fabulous evening we had with Charlotte, owner of Astrid Bakery. Charlotte started out during lock down baking from her own kitchen with a delivery only service. Three years later she is now looking forward to opening her own place early in 2024 at 118A Alexandra Park Road. We were more than delighted to sample her baking, the doughnuts were amazing!