Buns & Roses WI

Beamish social trip

Wednesday, 20 August 2014 § 0

What fun we had at Beamish despite a little moisture in the air.

Zooming through the ages by foot, rail, engine or hoof was enjoyed by all, we sampled all the delights from Fish and chips fried in beef dripping to freshly made sweets still warm, yum.

It was not all about the food of course, the wonderful hands on experience of the day meant people could touch, smell, and hear the history around you coming to life including the carousel for those of us brave enough to give it a try.

There was so much to see and do it was imposable to fit it all in, but it was great fun trying.

July Workshop - Unbreak my Art

Thursday, 31 July 2014 § 0

Our July workshop named ‘Unbreak my Art’ was an intimate affair thanks to the opening event of the tour de France. However, a fantastic time was had by all. It offered an opportunity to learn how to recycle and upcycle old t-shirts into rockin new one.

Jen Cantrell, Helen Doyle and our lovely model for the evening Alix Parish, worked through some great ideas with a range of expertly made examples to inspire the group to redesign their own items.

Everybody grabbed there scissors and with the instruction of cut ‘an inch’ set to work. Some more precise than others, but with amazing results all around. So everybody left with a range of new t-shirts, dog toys and bags ready for a summer of fun.

June Meeting - Herstory

Thursday, 10 July 2014 § 0

For our June meeting we had the chance to look back at the history of the WI as well as taking a trip down memory lane to look back at the history of our very own Buns & Roses.

Lucy gave the group an informative talk on how and when the WI was formed (It was founded in 1897 in Ontario Canada fact fans but in the UK it was founded in 1915 at Llanfair PG, on Anglesey, North Wales).

We also looked back at the history of Denman College and how it was formed as well as the West Yorkshire federation which was founded back in 1983 – with the first meeting of the new federation being held at a coffee shop in Pudsey as the new offices weren’t ready. After that we moved forward to five years ago when our very own Buns & Roses was formed upstairs at Mojos by Zoe, Gloria, Georgiana and Hayley.

The Founding Committee

More committee shots

The current committee

Buns & Rose's three presidents

And now for a walk down memory lane:

And right back to now with a few pics from the meeting:

June Workshop - Cakey Breaky Heart

Sunday, 29 June 2014 § 0

For June’s workshop the Roses got the chance to test out their cake decorating skills thanks to the lovely pin up pantry and Cakey Breaky Heart (got to have a good song pun) was a huge success.

The Roses got the chance to decorate their own cupcakes under the careful guidance of Becky from the Pin-up Pantry. The Roses started by making a rainbow cloud cupcake as well as learning to pipe roses (our very own Buns and Roses!) before being let loose to freestyle their own designs.

Overall it was a really fun and informative workshop with the added addition of chocolate, sweets, buttercream and of course cake and we clearly have some very talented Roses as the finished cakes were amazing.

May Meeting - Honey to the (Bumble) Bee

Sunday, 1 June 2014 § 0

Last meeting we had the lovely Alex Brown Minster FM Presenter and Beekeeper come and talk to us about bees. He took up beekeeping 5 years ago and he told us all about the life cycle of the honeybee, what life is like for the queen bee, the drones and the workers, what inside a hive looks like and most importantly what we can do to help nurture and support the honeybee population.

Along the way we learnt that when the queen bee mates she gets enough sperm to last her for six years, that bees have little pockets on their knees that can store pollen (the origin of the phrase bees knees) and that one in three of the mouthfuls we eat is thanks to the bees pollinating the crops. Plus if you see a swarm of bees and can capture them they become yours and this is the origin of the phrase 'freebies' as bees are literally free to anyone who can catch them.

The average year for a bee goes like this:
In winter they huddle together in the hive for warmth, around February time when the crocuses come out they emerge from the hive and start foraging,and the colony begins to grow, from May to July they swarm a lot, in August they start building up their winter stores of food and by the autumn wintertime they're back in the hive to keep warm.

He explained that the biggest threats to bee populations at the moment are the damaging effects of the varroa mite, the decline in bees natural habitat and the use of pesticides.

But there are things we can do to help support the bee population:
1 Plant bee friendly plants

2 Create more natural habitats
3 Be more lazy when it comes to gardening as bees love a more natural as opposed to overclipped garden

4 Avoid using pesticides

5 Use jam and not honey in wasp traps

6 Calling the Beekepers Association (details can be found on their website: www.leedsbeekeepers.org.uk if we see a swarm.

He also told us that if we have some honey and it has crystallised then you can get it to unsolidify if you heat it up very gently in some warm water and that beekeeping is a rewarding and satisfying hobby - even if on occasion you can get stung. It was a fascinating insight into the life of the honeybee and if you weren't there you missed a treat.

April Workshop - "Run BnR" - Street Dance Workshop

Saturday, 31 May 2014 § 0

So first of all apologies - this post is a bit overdue - in the post excitement of the workshop (so much so I left my stereo in the Car Park at the Cosmopolitan, but they have kindly returned it to me thank you very much lovely Cosmo staff!) I haven't yet written about the fabulous time we had being taught how to do a Street Dance routine by the lovely Harriet Lawton who is also a textile and ceramic artist as well as a street dance enthusiast and instructor.

I have to admit that I was cynical of what Harriet might achieve with a mixed ability group of Roses (in particular my own clumsy self - I once managed to give myself a black eye walking into a wall!) and across the short space of time of just an hour and a half.

We first of all learned how to "ripple" hard to explain, but basically a very isolated movement where you "ripple" your body slowly or fast, but in one continous motion.

Harriet helped us learn a "simple" routine, which was challenging enough to be interesting, but actually looked pretty good when we fitted it all together. The workshop was pretty active work too and we were all a little glowing by the end!

Take a look at some of our Roses in action!