Christmas Origami Workshop

On a cold and frosty December evening 35 members of High Levels WI met at the Reindeer Inn, Sandtoft to enjoy a Christmas social with a craft input. The evening began on a sombre note with a minute’s silence to mark the death of a very long-standing member. Cath Watson had held many positions of office over the years and tribute was paid to her wonderful contributions to the Institute and her amazing skills of entertainment too. A memorial service will be held for her on 20th January 2024 at 11.30am in Hatfield Church.

The meeting continued with a brief overview of business followed by the introduction of Anne Nichol who was to involve members in an evening of origami creations suitable for Christmas.

Anne is very able teacher and members were shown how to make a hanging circular “snowflake” by folding two sheets of paper which were provided. This simple procedure was executed well by most and there was much cheerful conversation to be heard. Next members were shown how to fold a part book into a cone shape while Anne assisted where necessary. Creating a chubby star was next. Members folded a long strip into a flat pentagon (eventually!) and many were helped to shape this into a 3D star.

At that point an assortment of Christmas nibbles was sampled and members circulated. 

Returning to the activities everyone was shown how to turn a white square of paper into a Christmas tree. This took a lot more concentration on folding in exactly the correct sequence. The triangle shapes were achieved but the cutting which followed was a little more difficult and this time the chatter was more serious. 

Lister's Crisps

Laura Platt from local company Lister’s Crisps, gave an empowering women talk about growing the business, employing only women in the factory and using local companies for their flavourings and seasonings. A selection of free crisps were offered at the end of the talk.

Austrian Evening

Following on from international day, our September meeting was an Austrian Themed evening.

Jayne Dance welcomed everyone, all of whom were dressed in red and/or white, along with costume dresses too. We sang Jerusalem and our meal of Goulash soup and roll was followed by pork wiener schnitzel and vegetables.

There was a 20 minute break before the dessert of apple strudel and cream was served. This was to allow for the brief business meeting to take place:

Celia Jones gave a report on the Nepalese-themed International Day held by SYFWI on Saturday 16th September at Dinnington. She was joined on the day by Helen M-E and Jayne D. Experiencing street-food, history and culture they all learnt a lot and enjoyed the day, shared with 91 other WI members from South Yorkshire. 

 Georgina who gave us a short history about Austria and had created a quiz for us to do in pairs whilst enjoying our dessert. The papers were swapped, marked and returned. It was a devilishly difficult one and the prize winning score was a tied 12/20! Everyone enjoyed guessing the multiple choice answers though. 

The evening was a great success with everyone enjoying the meal and the social gathering.

Summer Flowers Workshop

It was a rainy July evening for our WI monthly meeting, our speaker for the evening, Sarah Atwell, brought some sunshine to us by demonstrating to how to create a sunflower themed flower arrangement using local produce and lovely wild flower that had been picked by Sarah and family members from a ‘flowers from the field’ farm, called Eastfield Farm, Tickhill. Members were then able to construct their own version - everyone’s was different. A thoroughly enjoyable evening. Helen Smith gave the vote of thanks reflecting how the sunflower resembled the WI from the well known calendar. 

The Kings Coronation Party