A GOOD attendance of members with apologies from Joan Baxter and Virginia Hunt.

After a narrow vote, it was decided that in August we would visit Berkeley Castle and Butterfly House, finishing with a cream tea for our annual outing.

A list would be available for next meeting.

Maureen had brought our exhibit for the Group Rally competition taking place at Randwick WI that evening for members to see and thanked all who had contributed.

It certainly looked very impressive.

The book chosen was 'Witch on a Broom' and characters, poem and painting all related to it, with the witch in particularly looking very lifelike flying on her broom.

(We actually came third).

Molly Walker requested members to cut out vouchers from WI Life to enable her to obtain wool for knitting jumpers for children in Africa. She had some well knitted samples with her.

The speaker for this month was John Crowther, accompanied by his wife Julia who were from the Hedgehog Hospital.

As most of us know, the hedgehog population has declined over the years, mainly due to their habitat being destroyed.

One never thinks when putting up fence panels, decking, patios etc and keeping their gardens neat and tidy how if effects hedgehogs.

There are three Hedgehog hospitals locally and this winter they looked after 174 hedgehogs.

It was interesting to know that eight weeks from birth they are totally independent and their diet is mainly earthworms, beetles and insects.

Never give them bread and milk but you can give them cat food (meat varieties not fish) and water as they quickly dehydrate.

Very few of us knew that they could swim.

Julia introduced Autumn who was approximately seven months old who captivated us and we all wanted to give her a cuddle but refrained due to her spikes.

John and Julia together with other volunteers work hard to save Hedgehogs and we must all do our utmost to save these little creatures if we are so lucky to get one in our gardens.

Members had baked cakes, most with an Easter theme to sell in aid of our WI funds and due to form nothing was left when our meeting closed.

Some members had recently attended the AGM at Cheltenham Town Hall and Freda as our Delegate representative gave her own report and observations, some humorous, although of course the actual Minutes were available for anyone to look at.

It was a surprise to learn that nine Gloucestershire WIs did not send a representative, yet the WI has a current membership of 215,000 members and numbers still rising.

As we all know, the WI is celebrating 100 years next year and the AGM being held at the Albert Hall will be screened at various cinemas with Stroud Cinema being chosen as one of them.

Our meeting on May 14 is Cotswold Antiques and members can bring along an item for valuation by Lindsay Bruan.

There is also a Bring and Buy Stall.

If you would like to meet people and spend an enjoyable couple of hours, why not join us at our monthly meetings at the Congregational Church Hall, Bedford Street on the second Wednesday of the month from10.30 - 12.30m or ring Chris Phillips, the Secretary on 01453 826510.

We would love to see you.