March 2017

KIRTON AND FALKENHAM WI

Next meeting: Thursday April 13th at 2.00pm in Kirton and Falkenham Village Hall.
Demonstration: Suffolk Farmhouse Cheeses plus Tasting overseen by: Jason Salisbury.
Competition: A Cheese Recipe (if possible bring printed copies for members to take away.)
Trading Stall: miscellaneous.

MARCH MEETING REPORT 2017
In the committee – a group that meets a few days before our main meeting – ways to recruit new members were discussed. It was suggested that an evening get together might be more convenient for some people than the present afternoon sessions, either as an alternative or as an addition to our current set up. Members will be asked for their opinions. Ruth has not had much luck trying to find out about visits to Flatford Mill, so it was thought that a boat trip on the Orwell Lady from Ipswich to Pin Mill and back on the 29th June might be a good alternative; this could be followed by lunch at Ipswich College or Isaacs. Another possible trip on the cards is an outing to The Aldeburgh Theatre for a matinee performance of Tom, Dick and Harry on August 17th. Also, as the accounts of members’ families’ war-time experiences, which filled a gap when our February speaker did not turn up, were so successful, it was suggested we should have another similar session in which the ladies could share their ‘School-Time Memories’.

The craft afternoon – Knit and Natter – at Sue’s house, went off very well with nine members attending. The plan is for tea to be provided on a rota basis with the meetings taking place on the 3rd Monday of each month. That means that the next one will be on the 20th of March at 2pm.

March is when we celebrate our birthday, the actual date of the anniversary – November – being rather inconvenient as it clashes with our AGM when a great deal of business has to be conducted. The meeting, in which we welcomed guests from other WIs and village organisations, took the form of a party with entertainment and lots of delicious food provided by the members. As we had done in the past, Iris invited everybody to wear hats in support of her charity, Brain Tumour Research, and we managed to raise £70 with a promise of more to follow. This type of study used to be the poor relation when it came to cancer investigations although a brain tumour is the most prevalent cancer among the under 40s. These days the picture is more rosy but there is still a lot of work to be done both in raising money and also in the research itself.

The entertainment, this year, was provided by a group of musicians called Don’s Melody Makers. They go by this name in honour of their founder who, sadly, is no longer with us. Their repertoire consisted of many fine old standards including We’ll Gather Lilacs, Can’t Help Loving That Man and Honeysuckle Rose. They interspersed these with a number of novelty songs such as Yellow Bird, Hello Mother Hello Father and Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud. Halfway through the afternoon we were invited to split into two teams in order to take part in a quiz they organised which consisted of playing us the tunes of various well-known stage songs, following which we had to identify the musicals they came from. I found recognising the tunes quite easy but remembering which shows they first appeared in much more difficult. The final result was a draw.

As a break from the music the man in charge told us a story about a woman who, feeling slightly insecure in her marriage, asked her husband: ‘If I died, would you get married again? Would your new wife sleep in our bed? Would you let her use my golf clubs?’ Came the reply: ‘Oh no, dear, I couldn’t do that – you see she’s left-handed!’

V E Bines