Archive for April 2014

April Meeting - Buns Got Talent

Sunday 27 April 2014 § 0

Last week saw us celebrating our 5th birthday party in true Roses style - there was cheese, cake, chat, mystery present swapping, name badge making and caricatures courtesy of the very talented Mik Artistic and a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to us to get us all in a birthday party mood.

There was also the formal bit of WI business as our birthday party is also our annual general meeting - Lucy (our president) gave us a report of the year and its highlights - bricklaying stands out as an especially good workshop and the talk about the history of buttons and the talk about bones also stood out as particular highlights. She also confirmed that she'd be staying on as President, Helen as treasurer, Sam as Secretary, Gloria as Vice Chair, Siobhan as Bookclub Lady and general committee member and thanked those Susan and Tana for their help over the last twelve months but who were now standing down.



Helen gave us a finance report (we're in good shape), Siobhan reported on the recent WI Conference she attended about Inspiring Women and Gloria gave us forthcoming highlights that West Yorkshire federation are organising and also told us about the National WI Raffle and encouraged us all to buy tickets. Sadly though she didn't win the talent competition but former president Gemma did with her recorder playing. Gemma also handed over the 5th anniversary certificate which had been presented to Buns and Roses by Janice Langley CHair of the National Federation of Womens Institutes at the West Yorkshire Regional AGM held at the end of March.


If you're not a member but would like to come along to a Buns and Roses meeting we meet the third Thursday of the month at Cosmopolitans in Leeds, from 7pm for a 7.30pm start - you don't need to book you can just turn up and find out for yourself what goes on at a meeting - our next meeting is Thursday 15th May 2015 and is going to be all about bees with a talk by local beekeeper and Minster FM dj Alex Brown - hope to see lots of you there :-)



March Meeting - Talking about a Resolution

Thursday 10 April 2014 § 0



March’s meeting saw the Roses getting to grips with the campaigning side of the WI as we looked in more depth at this year’s resolutions.



What’s more our lovely vice president Gloria talked to the group about past WI campaigns and enlightened us on some of the group’s history – as the WI has been known as a campaigning organisation since it was first founded in 1915. A number of past resolutions gave the Roses a real insight into past concerns including a 1950s campaign to keep giblets in poultry and other more recognisable issues such as equal pay for equal work.




While the famous craft stash was off course out alongside instructions (and fab examples) of patchwork, Suffolk puffs and knitted bunting making for a crafty and informative evening.






April Book Club - Gone with The Wind

Wednesday 9 April 2014 § 0


Once again we met amidst the Victorian splendour of the Tiled Hall Café – and once tea and cake and scones had been purchased we settled down to discuss Gone With The Wind. The Pullitzer prize winning novel by Margaret Mitchell that was first published in 1937 and the Oscar winning film version which was made in 1939 and remains the most successful film ever made in terms of box office.

It’s both a long book and a long film and although most of us had seen the film at some point and so knew the story none of us had finished the book itself – though one of us had got to 73% and was determined to finish it as she was at the point where Scarlett marries Frank and she just had to know how it turned out.

All of us struggled with the racism in the book, the opening pages which set the scene of late 19th century southern American society are extremely shocking to enlightened 21st century eyes and it’s part of the criticism which surrounds the book and the film as neither really comment on the dreadful inequalities but just describes them. But those issues aside we all agreed it was a rattling good albeit long tale and the descriptions of Tara the plantation are so vivid we could smell and see the red earth. None of us wanted to be close friends with Scarlett but we would love to watch her machinations from a distance and we all agreed she was a survivor, it’s been argued that rather than it being a love story it is in fact a tale of survival and Scarlett does exactly that.

One of the things we do at Book Club is to compare the different covers we all have – one was a tie in to the film version with Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable in a passionate clinch, a couple of others also had a bodice ripper look about them but one had a background of burning buildings. It’s interesting to see how the covers change over the years to attract different demographics.

Our next meeting is Sunday May 18th 2.30pm Tiled Hall Café (just inside the Art Gallery on the Headrow) and we’ll be discussing The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim – as always we don’t mind if you haven’t finished the book, just seen the film adaptation or read the Wikipedia entry about it – come along, chat and have some cake with us.

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