Buns & Roses WI

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 19^th century southern American society are extremely shocking to enlightened 21^st 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 18^th 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.

"If I had a Hammer" - March Workshop - Bricklaying

Sunday, 16 March 2014 § 0

Bricklaying is probably one of our more unconventional workshops and probably not one that you would imagine as a typical WI activity, but our ladies and honoury gentleman (yes men are allowed at our workshops although not at our meetings) had a great time learning this classic skill.

We learned all about how to measure if our mortar and bricks were at the right height.

We then learnt how to manipulate the mortar and "butter" a brick (not much different to putting butter cream on a cake!)

It's very important to make sure that your wall is level and we used a spirit level to check.

Some intense concentration on brick laying!

Some of our ladies looking very proud with their excellent walls!

The end of the workshop culminated in judging of each walls on how level they were, number of bricks laid, finish (had it been pointed well) and how accurate the spacing was by laying a flat surface along the edge of the wall and seeing if it touched every brick.

And so who was the winner? It was our honoury gent who received the brief moment of glory to hold the "Golden Trowel"

For more information and for a great place to learn bricklaying and a number of other DIY skills, please visit Build Skills Academy

February Meeting - Dr Bones

Wednesday, 12 March 2014 § 0

For February’s meeting we were joined by the lovely Dr Janet Fletcher, an osteoarcheologist at Sheffield University who is a specialist in neonatal and perinatal remains.

Janet treated the group to a fascinating talk about the Chapel Wood Ritual Landscape site. Janet even let the group get up close and personal with some human remains including two skulls!

The Roses were then taken through some of the basics of identifying individuals from their bones as well as teaching us about the site as a whole. Overall, it was a good evening for all.

February Workshop - Dr Hook

Sunday, 9 February 2014 § 0

The February Workshop ‘Dr Hook’ quickly descended into Croaky Crochet, with Helen losing her voice, but this was not to put a dampener on the evening.

After receiving there hooks and yarn the fabulous Victoria and Trish worked the room masterfully supporting and guiding everybody regardless of starting level.

As the beginners were getting to grips with their hooks and starting to chain stich the advanced students started developing the use different patterns to make some beautiful squares.

At the end of the night everybody had learned a little something, with complains of hurting heads and fingers following the intense concentration and work. People left the Cosmo with a big smile and a little crochet to take home.

A big well done to everybody who came, and a huge thanks to our lovely volunteers for donating their time and skill to give something back to Buns & Roses.

If you think you might like to volunteer to help out or lead a workshop, please email or talk to us at any point.

January Meeting - Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Coach)

Sunday, 26 January 2014 § 0

It was a packed room of Roses who assembled for the first meeting of the year, membership subs were gathered in, committee members introduced themselves and what they do. Plans for the WI Centenary Baton’s Trip round West Yorkshire along with the yarnbombing plan for the Regional HQ were revealed – before a trip to the bar to refresh the glass and then it was on to the topic of the evening – Courageous Conversations.

Led by Tilla Brook a Lifecoach with many years of experience in enabling people to reach their full potential, we looked at the conversations we avoid, why we avoid them and what we can do to have them successfully.

We looked at how conversations may feel more risky than they actually physically are and strategies for dealing with this, what ways we can have those kind of conversations eg by using non judgemental language, by writing the points we want to make down so we don’t forget what we want to say but also perhaps most importantly of all how if we want it to be a conversation as opposed to a one way discourse then we need to listen and respond appropriately too.

It was an engaging and thought provoking start to the year J