June 09 Curdridge Parish News - Hampshire County Council

BOTLEY W.I.
There was an excellent turn-out of
members for the April meeting.
There are now 58 members of
this Institute – the highest
membership we have ever enjoyed.
Ten of these members attended the
Hampshire County Meeting, held in
Portsmouth Guildhall at the end of
March. Simon Weston - who was so
seriously injured in the Falklands war
– was the principal guest. He was a
most inspirational and eloquent
speaker, and deserved the standing
ovation he received at the end of the
afternoon.
In April we welcomed Miss Barbara
Selby to talk to us about the early
years of Florence Nightingale’s life.
The family had lived at Embley Park,
near Romsey – lately if has housed a
boys’ school. Florence – so it is
learned from her diaries – had a
lonely, unhappy childhood; she and
All Saints’
Flower Guild
It was wonderful to see the
church filling up on Thursday the
23rd April for our Flowers and
Music evening. Christine
Evans, our demonstrator and
David Burgess our organist had
had a brief telephone conversation
a few days previous and a
further short discussion when
David rushed in about 20 minutes
before the start of the evening but
knowing them both it did not take
long to form a strong rapport.
The title for the evening was
Flowers for All Seasons which
Christine interpreted as Spring
Summer Autumn and Winter
and David, as expected was able
to fit music to perfection. Spring
was a parallel arrangement using
a selection of foliage together
with lizianthus and calla lilies and
this set the scene for a vibrant
summer and autumn with our
her only sister did not enjoy one
another’s company. In later years
Florence was not allowed by her
family to marry the man she
loved. She had yearned to train as a
nurse from an early age, but her
family lived in a ‘ social whirl’ – which
Florence hated – and they did not
approve of her desire to work in the
medical world. Eventually she was
allowed to go to Germany where her
formal training started. Miss Selby
painted, with words, a wonderful
sketch of a determined person in her
early years of womanhood –
someone who was completely unknown
to those of us listening. We
only knew Florence as ‘the lady with
the lamp’. We look forward to the
next instalment in 2010.
At the National AGM, to be held at
the Albert Hall in June, the only
resolution to be presented will be
concerning the humble Honey
Bee. Honey Bees play a vital role in
the pollination of food crops and in
our environment. You maybe aware
that there is an accelerating decline
in the UK honey bee population and
the WI will be urging the Government
seasons finishing with a stunning
arrangement of white longiflorium
lilies with a few red tulips to herald
the coming of spring.
Christine's finale was, as promised,
a fore taste of the Cathedral
festival, 'The Greatest Show on
Earth' and this was truly worth
waiting for. She used vibrant colours,
funky accessories
and to finish she donned a bowler
hat,at a rakish angle, on which a
clown's face had been painted, a
fantastic end to a glorious evening.
Muriel Wilson kindly gave the
vote of thanks to Christine and
David and as Rosemary Fairfax,
the co-ordinator of the festival
was with us for the event, she
also up dated us on the progress
so far.
It was great to see so many
members of our congregation
supporting us together with others
from churches in Warsash,
Stubbington and Havant as well
10
to increase funding for research into
Bee Health. Botley WI has voted
unanimously to support this
resolution. Four of our members will
be going to London for the AGM,
joining others from all over
Hampshire, for what is certain to be a
stimulating day. We already know
that Maureen Lipman and Richard
Stilgoe will be two of the speakers –
so there’ll be some fun as well.
Our outing this year is fixed for 23 rd
July – we shall spend the day in
Dorset, visiting the Swannery at
Abbotsbury and then on to
Weymouth.
Visitors are invited to join us on 18th
June –in the Market Hall, at
7.30pm - when we shall welcome
Clive Jones to talk
about ‘Owls’. We’re expecting to
welcome some live specimens too!
Wendy Bassom
as members from both the
Curdridge and Hedge End floral
clubs, also to see some them fortunate
enough to be leaving with
the arrangements they had won
in the raffle. The focus of the
event was to support the BCD
church guild's participation in the
coming festival by covering our
own costs and if possible a donation
to the general festival
fund. With the help of you all, we
have done just that and in fact
raised a clear £500.
I now would like to say thank you
to all who helped during the evening
but even more important,
those who talked up the evening
and sold the tickets. Without their
efforts we would not have had an
audience of over 100 which was
outstanding.
Veronica