Buns & Roses WI

Last Book Club we read The Great Gatsby and the consensus was it was both a good and (mercifully) short read. Talking about it amongst the fine environs of the Tiled Hall Café we mulled over what it must be like to be so rich you can hire a hotel suite on a whim and then decide equally on a whim to leave it and what Prohibtion and the Depression must have been like to live through.

We talked about whether or not we trusted the narrator  - not much but maybe more than the rest of the characters in the book and decided that Gatsby wasn’t the kind of man you’d want as a boyfriend. Daisy would be a fine short term friend that you’d see a lot of when she didn’t have a boyfriend but she wouldn’t be reliable in the long term. Not that she was reliable in the short term either – given the way she treats  Gatsby. His love for her was more about the ideal of her and the reality of her rather let him down. Tom might have a lot of money and superficial charm but in reality he was thoroughly unpleasant and best avoided.

We split into camps when we divided the main characters into the following categories – marry, have a brief fling with, or shove off a cliff. Some of us would have had a fling with Gatsby. Some with Tom given this description of him '…the enormous power of that body, he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat’. But as he is also arrogant, racist and rude we decided that actually the best bet was to take all of their considerable wealth off them and  then throw them all off of a high cliff.

We also wrote names of books we fancied reading on slips of paper and then whichever one was drawn out of the bag would be the next read. Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg was the one pulled out and we will be discussing that on Sunday September 15^th at 2pm. Venue to be confirmed.

It’d be great if you came along to discuss it too – don’t mind if you haven’t finished it. Only seen the film version, only read a Wikipedia entry about it, just come along and share your two-pennorth’s worth.

June's meeting was all about buttons. We had the lovely Michelle from Duttons for Buttons give us a talk about their history. The Roses learnt some really interesting facts including about French man who had pictures of his mistresses painted on his buttons (very daring if you ask me!)

Michelle also brought along examples of some gorgeous buttons which had some really intricate pictures but were all tiny. After that the Roses got the chance to swap some of their own buttons.

However, it was also a sad meeting as we said goodbye to Louise Ebrey who will be leaving us for Macau but not before she donated some fab craft stuff to the Roses. We toasted her in the traditional Buns & Roses way with drinks and cakes.

At the May workshop the Roses got a little bit active with a health and safety and first aid workshop.

We were joined by Marc Holmes from West Yorkshire Police and Ian Kendall from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service who took us through some top tips for personal safety and first aid.

Marc taught the group how to be safe when they are out and about including how to fend off attackers (which involved a little bit of shouting while poor Marc had the Roses practicing their new found self-defence skills on him!).

After Marc had "the pleasure" Ian got to deal with any "pain" (his words not ours!) and taught the Roses how to perform CPR and use a defibrillator.

Overall, a great evening seemed to be had by all and the Roses went away with some really useful skills.

We met  in the lovely but slighty echoey environs of the Tiled Hall Café to discuss My Sister, My Love by Joyce Carol Oates – a story which the Guardian has described as ‘ a lavish, cynical portrait of family dysfunction’. Inspired by the real life murder of American pre teen beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey it is the story of Bliss Rampike upcoming ice skating superstar and her murder. The depressing tale is told by her surviving brother Skyler.

The book was my suggestion as I first read it a few years ago and I’ll nail my colours to the mast now – I adore Joyce Carol Oates  - she is one of the few authors to make me cry and I find  her surgically precise evocative writing  a joy to read – even when she is writing about sad and disturbing topics.

 Re-reading it for Book Club just further confirmed my love of her writing and thankfully I wasn’t alone in my appreciation of her skill though the difficulty of the subject matter was also discussed. We also agreed about our feeling of distaste towards beauty pageants for very young children and the potentially damaging consequences of such competitions. The consensus of the group about the book was that it was  ‘grim, challenging but rewarding’.

We also discussed making a few changes to the way we run – we’re now going to meet every 6 weeks instead of once a month as that will give us a bit more time between meetings for reading and all the suggestions for books to read are going to be put on pieces of paper and put into a hat and we’ll take it in turns to pick a suggestion from the hat

We are a very friendly book club  - we don’t mind if you haven’t finished the book, only seen a film version of it or just read a Wikipedia entry about it – come along and share your opinions - next meeting will be on Sunday 21^st July 2pm when we will be discussing The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald – venue to be confirmed but likely to be Tiled Hall Cafe - but suggestions for new venues welcome.

cheers

Morticia  

May saw the first meeting with the new committee and was also a chance to help shape what the WI campaigns on over the next year - as well as seeing a welcome return of the Buns & Roses craft stash. After the usual meeting admin Gloria and Susan spoke to the Roses about the resolution going forward to this year's National Federation AGM on the decline of the our high streets and town centres.

They talked us through some of the key issues surrounding the resolution and a lively debate followed with the Roses discussing the pros and cons all the while carrying out some fab craft project. Gloria and Susan also had a fiendish quiz prepared for the group with various pictures of Leeds in the past which the Roses had to identify. Big congratulations go to Ellie who was able to identify all the pictures picking up a well deserved prize.

During the night the members also voted on whether to support the resolution at the National AGM with 5 votes in favour of the resolution and 12 against.

Our May workshop was (Knit and) Purl Jam - where the lovely Helen, Trina and Siobhan passed on their fab knitting skills to the group. The Roses who attended were split into three groups – absolute beginners who were taught how to make that all important first stitch, for those who could do the basics they were taught how to do a purl stitch and for those a little bit more advanced they had cabling demystified for them (which involves a rather interesting looking needles).