Another excellent evening hosted by the lovely ladies at Stainton in Cleveland WI.
We were served tea/coffee with biscuits and the opportunity to peruse the vast tombola stall, the rather ingenious 'pick a card and win a bottle' stall, the plant stall and the ever-popular (protect the ribs from competitive elbows) cake stall. Linthorpe WI admirably supported this event and, despite several attempts, this web mistress seemed totally incapable of striking it lucky on the tombola stall - where a very wide and tempting range of prizes were on display. Whilst Margaret won a grand total of FOUR items! (But I'm not bitter! <wink>). The evening drew to a close with the draw for the grand raffle.
As always, the chatter was friendly and engaging - and Stainton were magnificent hostesses.
Sunday, 26 May 2013
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
WI Walk at Hardwick Hall
Well, what a fabulous afternoon with some absolutely wonderful ladies!
We all met at the Sedgefield Parish Church and set off for the short walk along public footpaths to Hardwick Hall (saving us each the £4.00 parking fee if we had actually met at the Hall). The walk through a field of lambs and their mothers was lovely.
The path led into an under-road tunnel (saving having to cross the VERY busy main road) and emerging at the other end (directly into Hardwick Hall grounds) was like entering Alice's Wonderland.
The first thing we could see was the castle-like folly at the entrance.
The white structures are metal architecture of sofas and chairs with inscriptions on them. These could be found all around the park in the shape of doors, carriages, painter's easels and all manner of interesting things. You literally didn't know what you were going to come upon next!
Crossing the bridge we were now making our way along the other side of the great lake and stopped for a little while to watch some dogs frolicking in the water. We then investigated the 'mausoleum' onto find that inside it was actually an art gallery! The walls were surrounded by wonderful framed drawings and, should the fancy take you, the prices were on there too so that you could treat yourself!
Back into the wooded area we went and upon following one of the many meandering paths to choose from, we came upon this wonderful lady!
It is amazing what these wood sculptors can do! She was soooo lifelike! Amazing!
As we made our way back to the visitor centre we crossed a small wooden bridge across the stream (couldn't see any fish!) and I couldn't resist taking a photograph of the view.
Drinks, cakes, sandwiches and all manner of naughty goodness awaited us at the visitors centre and it would have been rude not to have indulged! A circuitous walk back to Sedgefield Parish Church completed the afternoon (about 3 hours) and we sat for a while on the benches to chat (even more!) and say cheerio. A wonderful day, amazing company and a magical, fabulous venue that I will most definitely be returning to!
We all met at the Sedgefield Parish Church and set off for the short walk along public footpaths to Hardwick Hall (saving us each the £4.00 parking fee if we had actually met at the Hall). The walk through a field of lambs and their mothers was lovely.
The path led into an under-road tunnel (saving having to cross the VERY busy main road) and emerging at the other end (directly into Hardwick Hall grounds) was like entering Alice's Wonderland.
The first thing we could see was the castle-like folly at the entrance.
Just behind the 'castle' emerged a great lake, complete with Neptune standing right in the middle of it.
Following the footpath around to the right we were met by an extremely cute family of ducks (I only wish I'd brought some bread with me!)
And on along the path, where a building which looked (we thought) like a mausoleum emerged from behind the trees on the other side of the lake.
A little further on and we met a single heron, who didn't seemed very accustomed to human contact as he wasn't in the least bothered by our presence there.
As we continued along the path we found that it split up to go around another little lake and then an Indian-inspired seating area appeared amongst the trees on our right hand side.
Further on around the lake we crossed a bridge over a cascading waterfall and to our right was another 'castle' building.
The white structures are metal architecture of sofas and chairs with inscriptions on them. These could be found all around the park in the shape of doors, carriages, painter's easels and all manner of interesting things. You literally didn't know what you were going to come upon next!
Crossing the bridge we were now making our way along the other side of the great lake and stopped for a little while to watch some dogs frolicking in the water. We then investigated the 'mausoleum' onto find that inside it was actually an art gallery! The walls were surrounded by wonderful framed drawings and, should the fancy take you, the prices were on there too so that you could treat yourself!
Back into the wooded area we went and upon following one of the many meandering paths to choose from, we came upon this wonderful lady!
It is amazing what these wood sculptors can do! She was soooo lifelike! Amazing!
As we made our way back to the visitor centre we crossed a small wooden bridge across the stream (couldn't see any fish!) and I couldn't resist taking a photograph of the view.
Thursday, 16 May 2013
Craft Club: Decorative Buttons
We had a great night tonight, learning a new (to us) skill of Yorkshire Button making and Dorset Button making. Once we were underway it was relatively easy-sailing and quite therapeutic to be working ith our hands, whilst simltaneously exercising our mouth. <wink>
Wednesday, 8 May 2013
May Meeting - Gertrude Bell
Tonight was our monthly meeting and we had members give their feedback on recent events they had attended:
~ Log Cabin Quilting Workshop
~ Sing-a-long-a-Sound-of-Music
~ Magistrates Court Visit (this was so good that we may be asking the guy to do a future presentation for us!)
~ Federation Quiz Night
Of course, these were all excellent events which received extremely positive feedback! :oD
The speaker tonight was Gordon Hetherington who gave a very interesting talk on local legend, Gertrude Bell (a Redcar lass!). By the time he'd finished telling us of the first female Oxford graduate and her acomplishments as a writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, archaeologist, cartographer, ambassador and spy - I think that I probably wasn't the only female in the room feeling slightly inadequate! ;o)
The Interest Competition was 'A Middlesbrough Item' and I particularly liked Babs entry - a photo of herself with the label "Middlesbrough Born and Bred". :o)
~ Log Cabin Quilting Workshop
~ Sing-a-long-a-Sound-of-Music
~ Magistrates Court Visit (this was so good that we may be asking the guy to do a future presentation for us!)
~ Federation Quiz Night
Of course, these were all excellent events which received extremely positive feedback! :oD
The speaker tonight was Gordon Hetherington who gave a very interesting talk on local legend, Gertrude Bell (a Redcar lass!). By the time he'd finished telling us of the first female Oxford graduate and her acomplishments as a writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, archaeologist, cartographer, ambassador and spy - I think that I probably wasn't the only female in the room feeling slightly inadequate! ;o)
The Interest Competition was 'A Middlesbrough Item' and I particularly liked Babs entry - a photo of herself with the label "Middlesbrough Born and Bred". :o)
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