Brightwell-cum-Sotwell WI

Group Meeting:

Farm Visit:

Denman Day - 30th November 2007

Group Meeting:

Farm Visit:

	Past Events, Outings & Garden Visits

	Denman Day - 30th November 2007


		We organised another Denman Day visit. For those who don't know what this is, it is a taster day at the WI's own, Denman College, which is very close to us in Marcham. A group of us from the branch went earlier in the year and we had a great time. For our visit this time, we had a slightly different programme - two practical, hands-on sessions in the day, one on cookery ( with Margaret Williams again) for half the time, and the other on painting in watercolours (with Pat Gove), for the other half. We will put some photos of the event on the website soon.

We are part of the Didcot Group and hosted our first group meeting on 4th October. Our speaker was Paul Mayhew-Archer who co-wrote The Vicar of Dibley with Richard Curtis. Astleys of Wallingford kindly loaned a large screen and video equipment to us on which we were able to see clips from some of the comedies that Paul had helped to write. Paul told us about himself and how he got into writing comedy. Click here to see some photos of the evening and Paul himself

	Middle Eastern evening: here are some photos of the practice.

On 6th June Angus & Patricia Dart very kindly showed us round Sherwood Farm in Mackney - click here to see some photos

Garden Visits:

Rofford Manor Click on the title to see a few photos of the garden visit. We hope to have a return trip next year in April to see the Spring bulbs.

Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons The gardens include a Japanese water garden, 17th century pond and a 2 acre vegetable garden. Lots of beautiful sculptures. (You can view Viv's photographs of the visit by clicking on the title in blue.)

Folly Farm at Sulhamstead . One of the few remaining gardens where Luytens architecture remains intact. Garden, laid out by Gertrude Jekyll. Truly beautiful gardens and fabulous tropical greenhouses. There is also a large organic vegetable garden. (You can view Viv's photographs of this visit by clicking on the title in blue.)

Greenways, Osler Road, Headington - spacious 30 year old town garden. 2/3 acre with mature specimens of exotics. Passion for design and planting, use of decorative pots, mosaic paths, whitewashed walls, shutters. Mediterranean fantasy in cold climate.

Filberts garden in North Moreton - some photos


		Fund-raising Events: Fairtrade Coffee Morning - On Saturday 10th March we held another successful coffee morning this time in the Free Church to promote FairTrade Fortnight - the National Federation of WIs was one of the founding members of Fair Trade. We raised over £200 on the day and hope to add to this by selling more books and home-made jams at our next monthly meeting. Many thanks to the Free Church for letting us use their facilities and to everyone who helped and supported this event on the day.

					Click here for more photos

	Zoe Hanlon showed us how to make beautiful Christmas wreathes:

	Pampering Evening - click here to see some photos taken just before the doors opened. Over £700 raised so far and we have donated £400 of this to our local Allsorts Pre-school to help towards their new building.


	Middle Eastern Dancing by Hathor At our September meeting the sound of Egyptian pop music and the Bollywood beat filled the village hall. Heavens knows what the Parish Council thought we were up to! Hathor (www.hathor.org.uk) a middle eastern dancing group based in Oxford demonstrated dances from Algeria, across the Arab world to an excerpt from the West End musical Bombay Dreams, taking in a solo dancer balancing a sword, sharp side down, on her head. Each dance involved a change in costume, with stunning colours and loads of glitz. Everyone wanted to have a go, and wear one of the hip sashes covered in small coins which make such a delicious sound when you shimmy. Click here to see more photos.

	Brightwell Vineyard. Carol Nielsen kindly offered to show us round their vineyard with wine tasting afterwards. Click here to see some pictures of the evening.



			Sushi Classes - Eiko Cherry taught us how to make sushi and Viv kindly let us use her kitchen. Click here to see pictures of the class that took place on Thursday 7th July. The classes were so popular that another was held on 25th August at Mais' house. Eiko is also running some evening classes at Wallingford for anyone wanting to learn more - For a booking form/further details please contact the centre on 01491 836710 or email wallingford.acl@oxfordshire.gov.uk.

	Summer Picnic - after a wonderful meal we tackled a quiz called The Sweet Quiz (because all the answers are well known sweets) and several people asked for copies so you can download it here: Sweet Quiz and the answers Sweet Quiz answers

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