Embracing Climate Change Month with Creativity and Fellowship

As we celebrated Climate Change Month this February, our lovely members came together, donning their finest green attire, to honor the occasion and show their support for a greener planet.

Our gathering was centered around a heartwarming and eco-friendly crafting activity, where we all had the pleasure of creating beautifully decorated green felt hearts. These charming embellishments not only showcased our artistic flair but also symbolised our commitment to the environment.

Lorraine Brookes had thoughtfully pre-cut the green felt hearts for us, making it a breeze to dive into the creative process. With her guidance, we were given a clear and concise explanation of the steps needed to complete our masterpieces and contribute to our ever-growing bunting collection.

The atmosphere was filled with joy, laughter, and camaraderie as we crafted our heartfelt tokens, reminding us all of the importance of unity in our efforts to care for our planet.

Mindful Coffee

Our first speaker for 2023 was Ben Hepworth, founder of Thorn and Thistle. Ben gave us an entertaining talk on his life journey, current and future ideas for his coffee blending business and a demonstration on how to create a mindful cup of coffee successfully! Helen Frankland gave the vote of thanks.

High Levels WI 75th Anniversary Celebration

A wonderful Afternoon Tea Birthday Party was held on 1st December2022 to mark this  special occasion. Ginney Barker hosted us in a beautifully decorated large room at Sand Hall Farm which had been the home of a long-standing member, Lucy Barker. Attended by 38 current members and one special guest all were welcomed with a glass of prosecco and seated at beautifully decorated tables, heavily laden with savouries and desserts. Our President opened the proceedings and we sang Jerusalem before we were entertained, and newer members educated, by a member reading a poem written by Lucy. Lucy must have been a larger than life character as the long poem, written some 20 years ago outlined the history and some of the antics in which she, and some current members, had been involved. There was an opportunity for members to reminisce and a couple of members modelled some beautiful hats they had made. Others told of a trip to Edinburgh, outings and visits, and fondly remembered drama activities. There was a display of archive photographs available throughout the proceedings and in true WI fashion, a competition. With special relevance for the occasion the competition was for a teapot. There were 3 winners and another member gave a short talk on the sentimentality of the teapot she entered.

The catering was organised by Gerry (Lucy’s granddaughter) and she supervised a small team of ladies who served us with tea and coffee. 

When everyone was replete there was an opportunity to enter the Tree Tombola. This consisted of labels hung on an enormous bay tree “branch” produced by the host. As with all tombolas, not every ticket was lucky!! Then before all departed into the miserable, dark winter’s night the birthday cake, decorated with a WI symbol, was cut and distributed.

It had been a truly suitable celebration and everyone looks forward to the centenary celebrations, to be attended no doubt, by some current and some new members.

On 13th December, the actual date of the anniversary, all members online received a very appropriate electronic birthday card.

Take A Gander

Our first meal out since Covid was organised by the newly formed Excursions Committee (Lorraine Brookes, Georgina Ramsden and Julie Reed), 26 members thoroughly enjoyed a delicious meal at Take A Gander, Burringham on Thursday 3rd November 2022. We chose our meal from the 3 courses for £20 menu, fabulous food and fantastic hosts.

Annual Outing 2022

We all enjoyed a fabulous day out on Thursday 15th September, we started the day with a coach trip to Wentworth House in the morning, arriving for coffee, a brief walk around the gardens and an excellent tour of the house given by very knowledgable guides, followed by lunch and time for shopping at the garden centre. Our thanks go to Ruth Stubley for organising such a splendid event.

The Chocolate Drop - A talk by Chocolatier, Alan of the Chocolate Drop, Market Rasen

Alan from The Chocolate Drop near Market Rasen was our speaker for the June meeting. After many delicious free samples were handed out, Alan gave an interesting talk on the geography and history where the cocoa nibs come from re plants, parts of the world and ethical issues of production. Lots of questions were asked and Gilly Jones gave the vote of thanks.

Our New Sign

Look out for the new signage at the entrance to our meetings held at The Reindeer.

The Forge Project

It was decided in March, that the charity High Levels WI would be supporting during 2022 was The Forge Project at Scunthorpe. (http://www.theforgeproject.co.uk/)

This is a day centre for homeless people where help with housing, health, job applications and a hot meal, amongst other support services are given five days a week.

During March, April and May, our members had been collecting items such as: Toiletries, toothpaste/brushes, sleeping bags, underwear, socks, clothing – mainly men and small/medium sized trainers. Tinned or dried food, teabags and coffee to donate.

The final collection was taken at the May meeting. Helen, High Levels Secretary, presented the said items to The Forge Project.

Platinum Jubilee Celebration

May was our Platinum Jubilee Celebration meeting. 28 members attended, many wearing hats which had been agreed at the previous meeting.

Victoria sponges cakes had been baked by volunteer members and were enjoyed by all during refreshments. Before the business meeting started, we all sang ‘God Save The Queen’ and gave three cheers.

Carole O'Neill - Talk by former High Sheriff of South Yorkshire

Our speaker for the April meeting was Former High Sheriff of South Yorkshire Carole O’Neill.

She outlined the unpaid job, appointed by the Queen, with over 1000-year history as being independent non-political law enforcement officers working for the community.

Carole was the first High Sheriff woman to be declared in Doncaster Borough Council 2019, then lockdown arrived, therefore most of her time as High Sheriff was by Zoom meetings.

Lorraine Brookes gave the vote of thanks.

'Show the Love' - Madison Palmer | Peace With The Wild

For February ‘Show the Love’ month, our speaker was Madison Palmer, who runs a Zero waste refill store called ‘Peace With The Wild’ in the town of Epworth.

‘Peace With The Wild’ is a family run business which started in 2018 in their garage selling eco-friendly products on the internet, with the sales rapidly increasing if wasn’t long before they had to move to larger premises, now they have over 2500 zero waste/eco-friendly products for sale on-line, mainly stocking products that are made by small independent businesses from the UK. The business expanded in May 2021 when they opened a refill store in a former pub called ‘The Mowbray Arms’. 

Madison gave an excellent detailed presentation on how you can make simple eco friendly cleaning swaps using the products they stock in the store and online. 

Explaining how the refill store has a full range of items for you to complete your zero waste shopping needs.

Numerous products fill the shelves in self dispensing shoots and containers, with a wide range of dried foods such as pasta, rice, legumes, cereals, dried fruit, herbs, spices, teas, coffee beans and chocolates, to include Gluten Free products too. Refill for toiletries and cleaning with many non-food items.

The store is all about reducing the amount of single plastic being used when purchasing your products. They encourage customers to REUSE their cleaned containers to REDUCE landfill, or you can use one of their RECYCLED paper bags or purchase a bottle.

Thank you Madison for all your tips and encouragement to help us with our zero waste journey.

https://www.peacewiththewild.co.uk/


Easter Goody Bags!

Keeping in touch with our members, the committee delivered Easter Goody Bags to everyone at High Levels WI.

Each Goody Bag contained Easter quizzes, craft ideas, a packet of wild flower seeds and important business updates.

'No More Violence' Campaign

As part of the NFWI ‘No More Violence’ campaign, we were asked to take part in the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence from 25th November - 10th December. At our Christmas Zoom meeting on 8th December, we held a candlelight vigil from our homes and then shared the photo on social media.

The Switch to Zoom!

With a lot of our members feeling lonely and the current situation worsening, we felt the necessity to continue our monthly meetings using Zoom. We had some laughs and fun along the way setting up our members to meet in a virtual environment. After a few attempts we are now up and running and digital meetings are now being held with success.

The positive with a Zoom based meeting is that it has allowed us to invite guest speakers from around the UK that we would of usually not been able to invite to our monthly meetings, we have throughly enjoyed hearing their stories and asking various questions.

Hopefully soon we will be back to seeing our members in real life and have a chat over a hot cup of tea!

High Levels WI 1st online zoom - meeting April 2020.jpeg

February Floral Workshop

The February meeting was a floral workshop, 26 members attended. Sarah Atwell, our workshop demonstrator gave us an interesting insight into the floral industries attempts to go green with sustainable products. Oasis does now have an alternative but it isn’t as good. Our trays were made from re-cycled materials and could be re-used. Sarah showed us how to use the flowers and container she had given us all. By the end of the evening, everyone’s arrangement was different. To end the workshop, Sarah brought out a recent very striking arrangement she had entered into a show in the Japanese Ikebana style. Tammy Bramhill gave the vote of thanks.

Tea Leaf Reading

Joanne Huckett aka Madame Saszar who came to read tealeaves. Joanne introduced how she would conduct the evening and a bit about herself and how she had arrived at this vocation. Six members volunteered, via a raffle ticket draw, to come and have their tea leaves read. First the tea cup had to be chosen from a large selection, Joanne showed how to hold and then upturn the tea cup and she would then proceed to read the message inside. She also did two just tea cup readings chosen by numbers which were equally revealing. Everyone enjoyed the entertaining and interesting evening. Sara Potter gave the vote of thanks

July Outing 2019

The July meeting for High Levels was our outing. This year we all enjoyed a delicious meal that had been prepared for us by The Old School Inn at Messingham. Thanks go to Gilly Jones for organising the evening.

Softpots Workshop 2019

Five ladies enjoyed the Softpots workshop afternoon, 18/5/2019, by Annie.

An environmental plant pot was created using a black stocking and colourful, sparkly accessories, each pot being unique. The pots can be used for indoor or outdoor plants, we completed our pot with seasonal plants. We were all amazed how the materials blended together to create delightful plant pots.