Newsletter June 2020

Poringland WI Newsletter June 2020

Unfortunately still no news or hope of resuming our

 monthly WI meetings.  The community Centre has contacted all the groups who hire rooms for their activities for information of when we would be likely to restart meetings, they had listed 4 groups, unfortunately due to the average age of our members we would be in group 4 who will be the last to go back maybe November/December but no one really knows.

Thank goodness for the wonderful weather, any one lucky enough to have a garden has been able to enjoy it, also lovely walks if you are able, the worst thing has been not having contact with your family.  It is now love

Dear All

Do hope you have all kept well over the last few weeks, Michael and myself enrolled with Kings College working with St Thomas Hospital London to research Covid 19, at the beginning of the lockdown.  We have to fill in questions from them every morning, today we were asked if we would be willing to do the test, we replied yes so will have to wait and see.

ly for anyone able to meet up outside with their families although at a distance but of course there are many of our members like me that live too far apart for a quick drive to meet halfway so must continue with face time etc.

I have not done much baking since my children finished university as we ate it too quickly however this week I thought I would make a banana loaf and other cakes, bought all ingredients via on line shopping then looked for scales and loaf tins and remembered that second week into lockdown I sorted that cupboard out and threw most cooking equipment out and thought I would buy it all new, of course no shops opened.  I improvised with tin foil tins and guessed the ingredients, nowhere near perfect but edible.  Thank goodness for online shopping all new cook ware should arrive this week, must say the internet has been a blessing for me as we have celebrated our granddaughter's birthday and our daughter’s birthday in the last month so cards ordered and presents all delivered to their door.

Continue to take care and stay safe for as long as it takes.

Regards Pam.

Birthdays this month

Maureen Scott, Rosemary Wain, Diana Davey and Jenny Herne.

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you........

The Council has now launched an anti-scamming campaign during Covid 19.  Let them know if you receive any scams.  Some examples are emails regarding TV Licensing, texts re Cervical screening, or calls supposed to be from Amazon or Police Officers.  A new email going around says ‘You missed a call from .....’.Do not open it or the attached recording as it is a hacking device that could damage your laptop etc.

Stay alert, stay safe on line!

As I type this, I should be in the Albert Hall with Hilary, Pam, and 5,000 other members singing Jerusalem.  Make do with singing along when it turns up on Classic ~FM.  National have been putting craft projects and information on MyWI website, and they have now sent out an email detailing a virtual festival on Saturday 27 June –they would like members to send in their favourite song – one that makes you happy, and they will put together a playlist on Youtube on that day.  They would also like anyone to send in a clip of themselves/their partner/dog etc dancing along to a favourite tune!  They will then compile a video for social media/My WI.  Is anyone brave enough to try that????

Poems from a little book of Best Loved poems

To see a World in a Grain of sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand 

And Eternity in an hour.

                                       William Blake

I wish I loved the human race

I wish I loved its silly face;

I wish I liked the way it walks;

I wish I liked the way it talks;

And when I’m introduced to one

I wish I thought What Jolly Fun!

                                        Walter Raleigh

( Wouldn’t you like to knock some heads together sometimes?)

We have certainly had time for contemplating nature this year.

My front garden is looking absolutely fabulous.  Despite being on a bank and bone dry these plants obviously love it.  Californian poppies, osteospermum, Canterbury bells and annual poppies beginning to open.  Somewhere in there are sedum, verbena and eryngium waiting their turn to shin.  Not sure if the rudbeckia made it this year, but I have more to plant out once we get some rain.

Have you been spending time in your garden?  Even a tiny plot can make you feel better, to get out in some fresh air and look around at greenery, birds, butterflies, if you cannot go any further.

We have been outside rather than doing the jobs indoors that probably should have taken priority!  The front garden more or less has to look after itself, apart from occasional sorties to get rid of the weeds.  It has been too hot to spend long out there, the back garden is a bit cooler offering some shade.  Richard has redone the pond outside the kitchen window for nature, now the fish have been rehomed with Joan.  We have resident newts, watersnails, various little creepy things (which the newts probably eat) and the damsel flies have been laying eggs on the pond plants.  These consist of a waterlily, mint and an iris all rescued from the old pond.  We shall have to watch the iris as it had completely taken over the old pond and came out in a pond shaped lump after a struggle, where Richard fell over onto the wheelbarrow.

I have also sown all the seeds that we had, including tomatoes and cucumber now filling the greenhouse.  The runners are climbing the poles, and the courgettes are flowering.  Meg gave us some broadbean, cauliflower and cabbage plants which she got before lockdown, not sure how successful they will be on our soil.  Some of the flower seeds were from last year or even the year before, but in a fit of enthusiasm I shot them all into trays.  Quite a lot of them came up, so I have to nurture them until we get rain and I can plant them out.  As it is now June we expect rain soon – hopefully as we only have half a barrel of water left out of 10 waterbuts!  We did have to use some to fill the new pond, but that is less than one barrel full.  Happy gardening.

Week 11 of lockdown and unless you are shielding, .we can now meet family again.

Hurrah if you live near enough to meet.


 

Quiz this month on a gardening theme - these are all flowers.

1. Hurry up, pussy’s in it
2. Smart fellow with a majestic animal
3. Father’s advice to daughter.
4. Lady on a bicycle made for two
5. Boy with an old fashioned pen
6. Great city’s self esteem
7. Necessary for a kiss
8. Lucky Scottish lady
9. Birds and a happy cat
10. Pleasant veg found in a whistle got up
11. got up
12. a cold fall
13. Darling Bill
14. Two girls
15. Remember me
16. Adam’s bloomer
17. Best Policy
18. Source of light and bread
19. Drinking vessel for spreading on bread 
20. Vulgar Big Ben

Answers to last month’s quiz  Name the Country.

1. Popular bird for Christmas - Turkey
2. In need of a good meal  - Hungary
3. Where they have a lot of coffee  Brazil
4. Like the weather in winter - Chile
5. Hurry the lady - Russia
6. Not out darling - India
7. I did not walk - Iran
8. Mournful sound - Wales
9. Between 79 and 81 - Haiti
10. Not old twenty one shillings - New Guinea
11. Suitable hat for hot weather - Panama
12. the island of the Egyptian kings - Faroes
13. Freezing place - Iceland
14. A shop where the bull shouldn’t go - China
15. Makes a nasty mark on your clothes - Greece
16. Prosecute little Daniel -  Sudan
17. Where male neckwear originates - Thailand
18. Don’t cry for me - Argentina 
19. Where the melody is - Tunisia
20. Country underneath-  Netherland
    
    
     

Poringland's 100th Birthday.

Poringland WI 1920 - 2020

On May 13th Poringland WI celebrated its Centenary very differently to the plans the committee had been planning. Our local Radio station was contacted and gave us a nice mention. We also received a letter from the Queen; it appears the Queen does not send cards to organisations, only people, for special occasions. There was also a small keepsake of a special printed chocolate square.

Unfortunately the party with a cooked meal for all members and a Jazz band for the evening's entertainment had to be cancelled. Instead several members got together to make a toast to the WI going forward to the next hundred years via Zoom.

I wonder what new technology will be in place by then and how the WI will celebrate it. Thanks to the Norfolk WI News being sent vial email and many of our members contacting each other by phone, we have managed to keep in contact with our members while we have not been able to have official meetings. Congratulations to all other WIs who have anniversaries this year. Lets hope we can all be together soon but until then ‘Stay Safe’

Pam Cooper

Update during Covid

The last few months have seen Poringland WI change their way of how to keep in touch with members when the meetings had to start being cancelled.

It was agreed all members especially those who live on their own received phone calls from committee members as everyone appreciated a friendly chat. Birthday flowers have been replaced by delivering Birthday cards.

Poringland is also lucky to have 25 of its members on line which has enabled us to forward the Norfolk WI News directly to them along with our monthly newsletters, other  members have received printed copies. This method has been repeated with all the correspondence received from the office especially information on scams, our magazine editor also included a quiz one month with answers provided in the next months newsletter.

Our February meeting  was a craft evening and members designed Triangles for bunting to be used at our 100 year celebrations on May 13th. Unfortunately the party was cancelled, however the day has some nice memories; early in the morning the local radio congratulated us on our centenary, every member received a commemorative chocolate and we received a letter of congratulations from the Queen.

In the afternoon several members proved they are ready to keep up with  technology  and we joined up via Zoom for a toast and sang Jerusalem. Several people singing together proved to be a challenge as the singing was not in sync.
The committee has now held a meeting/chat by Zoom several times.

Other activities that have been taking place are making laundry bags for nurses and
adding additional embroidery to our top table cloth marking our Centenary Year along with stitching the bunting together on the tape ready for nexts year's delayed celebrations.
Pam Cooper.

WI GET TOGETHER AUGUST 12TH @ 2PM.

August 12th meet outside on grass behind the Community Centre weather permitting (only cancelled if raining) please bring your own chairs. Time from 2pm. Unfortunately there will be no toilet facilities in use at centre, also car sharing/lifts for members will have to be arranged by themselves as WI cannot be reasonable for lifts taking place.

Wymondham Walk January 2020

Several WI members enjoyed a walk around Wymondham and the Abbey, we finished with a very enjoyable meal at the Station Restaurant.


   

Add caption

   

Whitlingham Walk.2019

WI Jumble Sale January 11th 2020

Event.

CATEGORY                JUMBLE SALE

EVENT START.          10:30 to 11:30  (open from 9am for Donations) 

DATE.                          SATURDAY  JANUARY 11th 2020

VENUE NAME            

PORINGLAND COMMUNITY CENTRE .

OVERTONS WAY. 

PORINGLAND.

NORWICH. 

NR14  7WB

WI Subscription 2020

 The subscription is set at £43.

 The WI subscription year runs from January to December.

 New members joining the WI for the first time, i.e. who have not previously been a member of any WI in the past 10 years, will pay a pro-rata subscription depending on the quarter in which they join. The rate per quarter is shown in the following table:

    Date of joining 2020
       Total subscription fee
     1 Jan – 31 Mar
 £43.00

     1 Apr – 30 Jun
   £32.25
     1 Jul – 30 Sep
      £21.50

    1 Oct – 31 Dec
  £10.75

  WI members can belong to more than one WI, by paying the full membership fee to the first WI, and a further £21.10 to any additional WIs at any time of the year. There is no pro-rata rate for dual membership.

 WI subscription and dual fees are paid directly to the WI/s you wish to join.

Joint Visit of Wednesday Club and WI to Peter Beales Rose Gardens.on July 3rd 23019.

July's meeting was our annual outing which this year was to Peter Beales Rose Garden  for a talk and tour of gardens followed by lunch .     We were shown how to T-bud new varieties and help to keep the rose trees available for sale at the nurseries. This is a very interesting procedure you require a rootstock plant  select a flowered shoot about 30cm with three or four growth buds. Remove the foliage, cut away a healthy bud with a strip of bark extending about  2.5cm above and below bud. Cut the root stock just deeply enough to pierce the bark and make a T-shaped  incision at a height of 15-30cm, ease the flat of the T outwards, insert bud secure using a rubber binding,  when shoot develops in the spring cutoff growth above bud.   We then walked around garden with our excellent guide discussing the many gorgeous roses and learning  that they had won a gold at Chelsea flower Show again this year, bringing the total gold medals won to 20.

Walk on June 18th 2019

Several members, husbands and friends enjoyed a very informative walk by Lesley around Caistor St Edmund in very nice weather

After the walk we  all enjoyed a very nice lunch at the Dove.

Caistor St Edmund is a village and former civil parish on the River Tas, now in the parish of Caisto St Edmund and Bixley, near Norwich.  The parish covered an area of 6.55 square kilometres (2.53 sq mi) and had a population of 270 in 116 households at the 2001 census,^[1][2] the population increasing to 289 at the 2011 Census.^[3] On the 1st of April 2019 the parish was merged with Bixley to form Caistor St Edmund and Bixley.^[4]

Caistor St Edmund
St Edmund's church, Caistor St Edmund

Venta Icenorum (Classical Latin: literally "marketplace of the Iceni",^[2] Caistor St Edmund was the capital of the Iceni Iceni tribe, who inhabited the flatlands and marshes of that county and are famous for having revolted against Roman rule under their queen Boudica in the winter of AD 61.

The town itself was probably laid out, and its first streets metalled, approximately in the first half of the second century.and a mile or two from the Bronze Age henge at Arminghall.  It lies on the River Tas.

Best foot forward

Bad back so taking a rest

Church in back ground

Lesley waiting for rest of us to catch. up.

Hidden Tunnels and Walk around Norwich. May 2019

Journey below the streets of Norwich to discover curious tunnels and hidden undercrofts

12 of us travelled below Norwich’s streets to discover what lies below The Missing Kind headquarters in Castle Meadow.

Its a perfect example of the city’s hidden history, two flights of stairs below the street are tunnels which may or may not lead to Norwich Castle, a 15th Century undercroft and evidence of two houses which date back to medieval times.

There’s also lots to discover above ground where you learn about the history of Ponds shoe shop, which used to be located in the building.

The picture below is a view from the Ribs of Beef where we had lunch

Dragon Hall

Dragon Hall is a Grade-1 listed medieval merchant's trading hall located in King Street, Norwich, Norfolk close to the River Wensum, and since 2015 home to Writers' Centre Norwich. It is thought to be unique in being the only such trading hall in Northern Europe owned by one man. The building stands close to the River Wensum on King Street, the main road through the city in the fifteenth century, with excellent river transport links via Yarmouth to the Low Countries, Flanders and the Germanic states. Dragon Hall is now acknowledged as one of Norwich’s medieval architectural gems and an iconic building in the city.

The Great Hall on the first floor was built in the 15th century, but some parts of the site are much older. Archaeological research shows evidence of a Saxon hut c. 1000 beneath the Hall. On the northern part of the site, in the late 13th century, the Abbey of Woburn in Bedfordshire had a fish processing operation with various outbuildings and a track to a staithe or quay on the River Wensum. There was also a boundary wall with a large brick arch to give access to King Street. In about 1330 an L-shaped domestic 'hall house' owned by John Page, was built on the southern part of the site with an undercroft and an entrance on the south side from Old Barge Yard.

In about 1427 Robert Toppes, a Norwich merchant, re-developed the site as a commercial complex. He built his first floor trading hall on top of part of the 14th century domestic hall house and on top of the existing boundary wall and brick arch. He retained the 14th century entrance to the hall house for his customers. From the entrance passage his customers went up a new staircase to the first floor trading hall. This was a timber construction of seven bays with a crown post roof, decorated with carvings in the spandrels of 14 dragons. The hall was constructed with English oak, using some 1,000 trees. Clearly Toppes wanted to impress his customers. At the rear of the building he created a yard space with access to the river for his imports and exports, a warehouse area under the hall and a new stairway down to the extended undercroft from the yard. Part of the hall house was retained as a ground floor reception area.

Centenary Salver - Saturday 6th April 2019

THEME CELEBRATION

A freestanding display to include your choice of five items from the following classes, which will be judged individually. 1 Fresh floral exhibit 2 Handmade card (no envelope or inside greeting) 3 five decorated fancies 4 Piece of hand embroidery 5 six confectioneries in a box 6 Item of crochet 7 Handmade jewellery (any medium) 8 Gift wrapped item (any medium)

Poringland WI. 5th Place

1st.

3rd

2nd

4th

WI Walk March 2019

After meeting at the church in Mulbarton we set off for a circle walk through very pleasant farmland, we crossed over a lake walking over very old wooden planks where the swan pictured was majestically swimming, a large tree had fallen during the high winds a few weeks ago hence another photo.  The banks were full of yellow flowers and the weather was very kind to us. The walk finished with a very enjoyable lunch and natter and everyone saying they had enjoyed themselves. 

February's WI walk around Norwich

Several members and 3 husbands enjoyed this months walk around Norwich on a lovely warm sunny day.
We met outside John Lewis and walked down Timberhill and learnt the history of the Gardeners Arms (Murderers).The licence of the pub can be traced back to 1841.
Down to London Street into Princess Street to Tombland via all the small lanes that we walk pass daily. Walked along the Quayside into Cowgate, passed the Art collages back up to  Bedford Street, stopping at St John Maddermarket where we were lucky to  meet a guide 
who gave us a short talk  on the church ending the walk with lunch at the Guildhall Cafe.