Cainscross WI

IT WAS great to see some visitors join us for our early June meeting, which took place, as usual, in St. Matthew’s Church Hall, Cainscross.

We thanked Val Dalby for her lovely table flowers, featuring some gorgeous early roses.

After the previous meeting’s minutes, and Linda’s financial update, we moved onto some correspondence and discussed details of our outing to Uffington, Oxford next month for our Birthday Party meeting.

Some of us are also going to the Centenary Picnic at Highnam Gardens in a couple of week’s time, with a talk on Hubert Parry included, so I hope the weather is kind to us for that.

We then settled back to enjoy a very informative talk by Tom Price, who has been Treasurer of Cheltenham & District Orchid Society for a number of years.

Tom is indeed a mine of information on the subject and brought along some lovely specimens to show us, including a beautiful yellow dendrobium with seven spikes of blooms, which was delightful, as well as cymbidiums, pleonies and phaleanopsis which, as Tom said, has become one of the most popular house plants of recent years, with them being available at nearly every garden centre and supermarket.

Nonetheless, they are an attractive plant and with a little extra care and attention can be made to re-flower and last for many years.

We enjoyed refreshments, called the raffle, and announced the monthly competition winners for ‘A flowering houseplant’ as:-

First - Mary Jarrett

Second - Mandy Sutton

Third- Tina Hewgill

As already mentioned, we are away to Oxford next month, but will be back in action at St. Matthew’s for Tuesday, August 4, when Mr George Yiend will talk to us on ‘Dylan Thomas’.

We enjoyed a talk by Mr Yiend last year on ‘Laurie Lee’, with musical interludes by his wife Frances, so I’m sure this talk will prove as popular.

The meeting starts at 7.15pm and new members or visitors would be very welcome to join us.

We have a varied programme for the rest of the year, including a well-known Jazz Singer joining us for our Christmas Party Social.