Hinckley Canalside WI
2022 Meeting Snapshots
Some of the things we do on our monthly meetings
December
At our December meeting we had our Christmas party with a fabulous buffet and beautiful flower arrangements made my Margaret Lawrence. We had the inspirational Rock Choir provide us with our entertainment for the evening. They were brilliant and sang a mixture of songs including some well- known festive songs.
The Rock Choir had such good energy which was great for lifting our spirits and getting us all in the Christmas Food. We had the talented Cath Greenwell on the organ playing some festive tunes and a great Christmas raffle. We finished withour traditional “The 12 days of Christmas” which was as entertaining as usual.
November
Jeruselam Jammers
After our annual general meeting and election of our new President Mandy Cutler we had the pleasure of the Jerusalem Jammers attend our meeting. This is a
group of dancers who are WI members.
They wore brightly coloured dresses and props including, sticks, garlands and wooden spoons. They paraded in and danced several dances, encouraging our members to participate. The history of the dances were all explained by the very talented accordion player.
They kept us entertained and cheered us all up on such a miserable wet November evening.
October
Lynne Sharpe NAFAS Flower Arranger.
We were lucky enough to have the pleasure of meeting Lynne Sharpe, who is a talented NAFAS Flower Arranger. She did several floral demonstrations with a Christmas/Pantomime Theme. She was very entertaining telling us about all the treasures she collects from various car boot sales which she adds to her floral displays. Lynne admits she often collects the foliage for her displays from various sources. Whilst demonstrating some beautiful flower arrangements, she was able to take us on a trip down memory lane to her own childhood Christmases and how magical they were for her. Something we could all relate too. She told us some useful tips when preparing and looking after flowers. She then raffled off all the floral displays and made several of our members very happy to win them. A most enjoyable evening was had by all.
July
Paul Garner, Speaker from Hinckley District Past and Present took us on a journey through Hinckley’s past.
He had some remarkable photos of Hinckley in bygone years and was able to match them up with present day photos. This was a very interesting and fascinating talk about how much Hinckley has altered. We learnt about “The Monkey Run” where people would walk around the block in town as a way of meeting people and a place called Cabbage Row.
It made us realise how much society and architecture has changed and developed, although sometimes not always for the best..
June
We had a wonderful time at our last meeting. We started an hour earlier so we could enjoy a jubilee party. We all dressed up in red, white and blue and many ladies had made crowns for our “best crown” competition. The committee had dressed the hall with red white and blue bunting, table covers, napkins and beautiful flower arrangements. We all enjoyed a delicious scone with clotted cream and jam. We had a glass of prosecco or fruit
juice to raise a glass and toast the Queen. We had Cath on her organ playing The National Anthem and many of the Queen’s favourite songs. Thank you to everyone for making the evening
such a special one.
Later we had Speaker Judith Kinear give us a fascinating talk on the legendary Marilyn Monroe. She told us of her troubled start in life, after being neglected by her mother and never really knowing the true identity of her father. She got married aged 16
out of convenience, as her foster family moved away and did not want to take her with them. As she was a natural beauty, she became a model before a film actress. The camera loved her and she was able to mix her beauty with fragility and naivety which everybody found captivating. She quickly rose to stardom and became an international celebrity. Her life was full of heart break with many marriages and broken relationships. Her addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs took its toll on her body and eventually led to her premature death. Marilyn Monroe to this day is a fashion icon and will remain legendary.
March
At our March meeting we had the Chocolatier Tom Phillips talk to us about all things chocolate and provided a wonderful demonstration of how chocolate can be modelled and made into something special. Tom told us about the origins of the cocoa bean and where chocolate came from and how it has developed in to the chocolate that we know and love today.
He made a wonderful Easter Egg and delicious samples of his artisan chocolates that we were all able to taste. The Easter Egg will be raffled at our next meeting. A really enjoyable evening
where we were all captivated by his chocolate making skills.
February
At our February meeting we had an interesting evening with Caroline Roberts, Blue Badge Tourist Guide from Leicester. She gave a fascinating talk on Haunted Leicester. Caroline first talked about the history of Leicester’s Guildhall, The Corn Exchange and The Cathedral. She told the harrowing story of James Cook, the last man to be gibbetted in England, after being hung outside Leicester Prison.
Caroline told ghost stories of The White Lady and The Greyfriars Monk and how Roman Soldiers can be seen walking down New Walk. We learnt about Winifred and Ebenezer two resident ghosts from a building taken over by Age UK in Leicester and how the bodies of two people and a cat were found in the cellar there. After they had a proper burial Winifred and Ebenezer were never seen again.
January
At the January 2022 meeting we had an enjoyable evening, with an interesting talk by Wendy Martin. It was our first meeting of 2022 and 41 members and 5 visitors were in attendance.
Wendy gave us an amazing insight into her travels on The South Africa Garden Trail. Her stories and
photographs of her experience were fascinating. Wendy was truly inspirational and encouraged us to give it a go, get out there and travel and explore the world.
Wendy is a member of the Send A Cow Charity which does amazing work around the world to help poor communities.