WI December Meeting.

W.I. Ditchingham ladies got together on Wednesday & had a very nice Christmas lunch & toasted each other with a drink wishing us a warm Christmas and a Happy & Healthy New Year and were presented with a present from Father Christmas.

Do come along if you are feeling lonely.  We are a very friendly bunch of ladies who like a laugh, enjoy a speaker &  have a natter over tea & biscuits.

       Our next meeting is on 10th January at Ditchingham Village             Hall from 2:30 pm. Our speaker will be Keith Grisedale -                 Norfolk Blood Bikes. 

     
Pam Lack

Ditchingham AGM 2017

The November meeting was the last time we meet at the Village Hall this year.  It has been a very busy year for the WI in its 99th year.  

At the November meeting we held our AGM as all committee members were standing again everything stays the same. The rest of the afternoon was taken up with  3 Christmas  Quizzes.

 On a personal note Sue our President said she would like to thank all the members for helping her through the year. Sue added we are now looking forward to our 100th year celebrations.

For our final meeting of the year we will all be going out for a Christmas meal.

If you feel  like joining us, for a happy afternoon, fun & friendship through out the year our meetings are held on the 2nd  Wednesday of every month at 2.30 pm in Ditchingham Village Hall.  Why not give us a try if you are feeling lonely.

Our next meeting on January 10th is Blood Bikes. 

Pam Cooper on behalf of Pam Lack

Blog Editor. 

Brian Hedge - East Anglia Coast Floods.

Our speaker at W.I.Ditchingham this afternoon was Brian Hedge, who stood in for us at the last minute.  He showed us slides with electonic voice coverage of the dreadful floods that hit East Anglia coast in 1953.  He is a photographer & probably has the biggest collection of photographs @ 14,000 of North Norfolk.  Many sadly died in these floods & homes destroyed. Boats were washed up on the quay side.  It showed how the sea is unpredictable having a mind of its own.

Our meetings are held on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at Ditchingham Village Hall at 2.30pm.  We are a fun group of ladies, who like a laugh & are very friendly.  Why don't you come & give us a try if you are feeling lonely.  Its better than a tonic!

Our next meeting is on November 8th this is our Annual Meeting and a Social. 

Pam Lack

Blog editor. 

WI Subcription 2018

 The subscription for 2018 is £41.00

•   The WI subscription year runs from January to December
  
•   New members joining the WI for the first time, i.e. who have not previously been a member of any WI in the past 10 years, will pay a pro-rata subscription
  

depending on the quarter in which they join. The rate per quarter is shown in the following table

Date of joining	Total subscription due
1 Jan-31 Mar	£41.00
1 Apr-30 Jun	£30.75
1 Jul-30 Sep	£20.50
1 Oct-31 Dec	£10.25

•   WI members can belong to more than one WI, by paying the full membership fee to the first WI, and a further £20 to any additional WIs at any time of the year. There is no pro-rata rate for dual membership
  
•   WI subscription and dual fees are paid directly to the WI/s you wish to join. 
  

Marko - Drawing workshop.

Our W.I. meeting on 13 Sept was full of fun & laughter.  We had a second visit from the amazing cartoonist 'Marko' who makes cartoons come to life with very simple lines. We were all provided with paper & pencil & Marko took us step by step to make our very own cartoon character.  We have a refreshing cup of tea with biscuit & general chatter.  Do come along if you are feeling lonely & give us a 'taster' - free for two sessions.  We are a small friendly group who have our meetings on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 2.30 pm in Ditchingham Village Hall.

         
          Our next meeting will be on October 11th - our speaker will       be Tracey Hargreaves - Timeless Florals.    


         
         Pam Lack

          

Wednesday 9th August Ditchingham W.I. had their 99th Birthday party. We had 78 guests from other institutes, including from over the border Suffolk.  Our guest speaker was Linda Scoles.  Did we have a laugh.  Her talk was about 'where have all the characters gone' -  so humorous.

This followed a superb, excellent tea with delicate sandwiches, cakes galour, & then an amazing raffle.  All supplied by a team of 20 friendly ladies, organised by our outstanding leader, president Sue.  If you feel  like joining us, for a happy afternoon, fun & friendship through out the year our meetings are held on the 2nd  Wednesday of every month at 2.30 pm in Ditchingham Village Hall.  Why not give us a try if you are feeling lonely.

Our next meeting on September 13th is Marko - Drawing Workshop.

Pam Lack
Blog Editor.

Codes Ciphers & Engima.

At our W.I. monthly meeting we were pleased to welcome a very interesting speaker, Joyce Kimber, talking about Codes Ciphers & Engima.  She had our brains working trying to decipher a secret message or word in code.  She then went on telling us about the best kept top secret site, Bletchley Park where code breakers worked to decipher enemy messages during World War 

Two.  The Enigma Cipher. Perhaps the most famous cipher of recent years is that used with the Enigma Machine. It was developed by Arthur Scherbius in 1918, but gained widespread notoriety when it was used by German Intelligence during World War II, and subsequently cracked by the team at Bletchley Park.

We  always welcome new members being a friendly group of ladies, for a chat, cup of tea & always a varied programme of topics from speakers.  Why not give us a try, on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 2.30 pm in the Village Hall, Ditchingham.

The month of August is our Annual Garden Party.  

Our next meeting on September 13th is Marko - Drawing Workshop.

Pam Lack
Blog Editor.

The Wonderful World of Stinging Nettles.

At our monthly W.I. meeting today we had a young woman speaker named Faye Jones who was quite humorous & who really new her subject 'The wonderful world of nettles'.  The first picture showed a caution sign 'Nettles may sting'!  There are two native nettles Urtica urens & Urtica dioica both favoured by butterflies, especially the admiral .  Nettles are useful plants ie general tonic, making tea, the top is edible & many more uses.

Nettles are often underappreciated and much maligned but their many uses and merits will surprise you - from their wide variety of associated invertebrate life and why dock leaves are useless, to their first recorded use in prehistory and into the modern-day kitchen. And what exactly does happen to nettle tea when you put lemon juice in it?

 She finished off by showing us a poem about nettles by John Clare. Do give us a try if you feel like some good company with plenty of laughs, a cup of tea & biscuits.  Our meetings are held on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 2.30 pm in Ditchingham village hall.

Our next meeting on July 12th is Joyce Kimber - Code - Ciphers and Enigma.  

Pam Lack
Blog Editor. 

Sue Sursham - Trans Siberian Rail Journey.

Our W.I. mtg this a/noon was well attended & we were enthralled by our speaker, Sue Sursham, a W.I. colleague from Lodden, giving us an excellent/fascinating  talk with a wall projected video on her Trans Siberian Rail Journey, train called the 'Golden Eagle' on 14 Feb to 1st Mrch 2009, with her elderly mother, which was on her bucket list!  & probably wanting to go back, but in the summer time now!  This journey started in Moscow & ended in Vladivastok. The non stop travel takes about 7/8 days, but one can exit in several destinations to explore. Especially Lake Baitkal, the largetest & deepest freshwater lake in the world.  There was plenty of chat & laughter over tea & biscuits.  If you feel lonely, this is the place to come to where we are all friendly & welcoming.  
Our next meeting on May 10th is Jenny Gibbs - Turkey House restoration. 
Mtgs held on 2nd Wed of every month  at 2.30pm in Ditchingham Village Hall.

Pam Lack
Blog Editor.

   

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Wi Group Meeting. 

WI members from several local WI groups attended the Group Meeting held at Broome Village Hall on Thursday March 16th.

The speaker was Mark Mitchels -Classic Children's Authors hosted by Ditchingham WI, Sue welcomed a very full hall of members who throughly enjoyed Marks excellent talk.  After tea the competition which was a member dressed as their favourite childrens book character was judged by Mark.

Ditchingham was very pleased to come second, Pam was dressed as Bert a chimney sweep from Mary Poppins, well done Pam.

Maria Pennington. Pearls are my Passion

On Wednesday 8th February at Ditchingham W.I. meeting, we had a fun afternoon along with a very delightful & interesting lady speaker, named Maria Pennington whose topic was 'Pearls are my passion'.  She had been in the jewellery business for 37 years, but loved pearls.  We learnt about natural, cultured & fresh water pearls.

Maria said that a Pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shell, like the shell a pearl it is made up of calcium. The ideal Pearl is round and smooth but many other shapes of pearls occur. A "natural pearl" or "wild pearl".is one that form without any human intervention at all. There are also Freshwater and saltwater pearls, may sometimes look similar but they come from different sources like lakes and rivers.

Maria also said these days most pearls come from "pearl farming"  This limits the number of pearls at a harvest period as usually only one is grown at a time. 

Our meetings are held on the second Wednesday of every month between 2.30 - 4.15 at Ditchingham Village hall, where you will be most welcome.  Why not come & give us a try.  We are a friendly, happy, bunch of ladies.

Our next meeting, on 8th March is a 'Scrabble Day'.  So if you fancy a game of scrabble (nothing serious) with lunch, do come along.

Pam Lack

Blog Editor.

From Uni to international Netball Umpire.

Our meeting today, the first of the New Year, included a talk by a young man named Gary Burgess, talking about his career journey whose dream passion was to play sport for England, but didn't quite make it & then trained  as a  PE teacher & became deputy head for 3 yrs in Bedfordshire & then came to Norfolk, decided to change his career & now is an International Netball Umpire & now, believe it or not, is liaising with our Federation to set up 'walking netball' teams.  Anything to try & keep us fit!  Well, we did have a laugh.

 We are a small, relaxed & happy friendly bunch of ladies.  Why not give us a try, come & join us if you are feeling lonely.  We meet once a month on the second Wednesday at 2.30 in the Ditchingham Village Hall why not come along to our meeting in February when we have Maria Pennington - Pearls are my passion., we would love to see you join us as a guest to see if you enjoy our meeting.

We can also be contacted via our blog at ditchinghamwi@gmail

Pam Lack

Press Editor.