Crafty Old Buckenham WI

Garden wildlife and county competition

Members of Old Buckenham Women’s Institute were pleased to welcome Hilary Reid to their March meeting. Hilary lives in Norwich and the subject of her talk was the ”A to Z of wild life in the garden”. She gave a fascinating insight into the wildlife in her city garden and she started with ants going right through to worms. It was interesting for members to compare the differences between a city garden and the gardens in this rural area. She never experiences problems with moles or muntjac but a fox, which she had named Vicky, had become a frequent visitor over the past two years.
Five of Old Buckenham’s members were involved in preparing and presenting the entry for the Cator Cup competition which takes place annually at the Norfolk Showground. “Seasons” was the theme for this year’s competition which is organised by the Norfolk Federation of WIs and well supported with 38 entries from around the county. Five crafts were chosen by each WI from a list of eight options. These crafts ranged from preserves to knitting, photography to sugarcraft, flower arranging to embroidery. The five crafts were completed to the highest standard, each craft being marked by a specialist examiner. All had to be displayed on a baseboard and staged to show an imaginative interpretation of the subject. Alongside the yearly seasons, other exhibits portrayed the pantomime season, the football season and the London season.
The top five positions were very close, with each half-point of extreme importance. Old Buckenham WI came a very credible third overall with l261 points, just one point behind the winning entry from Erpingham WI. This county competition is the place to see WI arts and crafts of the highest standard. The Cator Cup competition is an inspiration to all those who aspire to improve their own skills.
Some time during the late autumn, Old Buckenham WI are planning to arrange a Craft Day with a seasonal theme which will be open also to non-members. Watch this space for further details.
On Wednesday 1 May there will be a WI Promotions Evening in our Village Hall starting at 7.30pm. Please come along to see what the WI has to offer. The days of “Jam & Jerusalem” have long since gone - members rarely sing Jerusalem although some members still make jam.
The next meeting will be in Old Buckenham Village Hall on Thursday 25 April when the talk will be about retired greyhounds.
At the May meeting on Thursday 23 May, the speaker will be a local man, Steven Fisher, whose talk is entitled “The history of cider” – who knows he might bring some samples with him!