Hello and welcome to our brand new website! We are a small rural W.I. of about 20 members. The Radnage Institute was formed in 1927 and so since the movement only arrived in the UK in 1923 we are quite an old Institute. Our member's ages are unfortunately on the wrong side of forty, but we are a sprightly band and enjoy our meetings and outings. We are members of the Bucks Federation of Women's Institutes, and are affiliated to the National Federation of Women's Institutes.
We meet on the first Wednesday of each month in Radnage Village Hall at 7.15 for 7.30pm except for January when there is no meeting.
We hope that you enjoy our website, and we plan to keep it updated so that there should always be something new.
Radnage W.I. met in the Village Hall on Wednesday 5th March 2008, at 7.15pm, our Speaker, Linda Travers –Smith, Water colour Artist, was already putting out her painting equipment.
We had several visitors for the evening, some of whom wished to take part in the painting session. Many of us who had originally thought that a bit of “hands on” experience with a paint brush was a good idea, were now beginning to regret our decision, and were more than a little concerned that our “Master pieces” were perhaps not going to be so masterly!! However Linda, a very friendly person, first told us about her own artistic background.In the main she is self taught, but has attended art courses as and when they were pertinent to her style of work.She made it all sound achievable, and gave us confidence to have a go.Linda had planned a little exercise with the primary colours (red, blue and yellow) and the results obtained, when in a transparent medium like watercolour, one puts one colour over another.
Our masterpiece was an “Up Up and Away” moment, as we colour washed in a sky and painted 10 balloons, in primary colours with some partially behind others to give the colour overlap, strings were added, and hey presto a charming picture of balloons floating off into a blue skyMagic!!!We were all thrilled to bits with the results.Linda’s own inspirational work was displayed at the meeting; she is a talented lady and an excellent teacher.
After refreshments the business part of the meeting took place, plans for a visit to the Theatre at Hall Barn Beaconsfield in the summer, the possibility of some of our members attending a few more jewellery making classes, and plans for the catering of the W.I. ramble in May.Sally reported that her Fair Trade Coffee Morning had gone well, and lots of people had sampled the fair trade recipes available and were impressed by their flavour.
Our next meeting is an “open meeting” ( anyone can attend, regardless of gender; but a small admission charge is made ) which will be held on Wednesday April 2nd 7.15 for 7.30 pm. followed by light refreshments: Following our local speakers theme, on this occasion our Vicar, Linda Richardson, will give a light hearted talk entitled “Careers, Christians and Curates” .
Anyone requiring more information or wishing to join Radnage W.I. (we really are a friendly bunch) call 483879 or484493
February 6th "10 years on: the journey so far" by Clare Strange Para Olympic Athlete
March 5th "Water Color Demonstration (paint your own masterpiece!)" by Linda Travers Smith April 2nd- Open Meeting "Careers Christians and Curates" by Rev Linda Richardson A light hearted evening.
May 7th Resolutions meeting, discussion and social time. Competition: Best House Plant.
June 4th Visit to the "Plant Store" where there will be a talk entitled "Potty about Orchids" tea and biscuits prior to a 7pm start.
July 2nd "BFWI Archives" by Sue Norton Competition: An item of W.I. curiosity
August 6th "Looking back at Concord" by Jerry Rendall
September 3rd - Open Meeting "The Oldest Consumer Protection! An insight into Hallmarking of Gold and Silver" by Mr L C Clarke Bring along an item to identify.
October 1st Birthday Meeting. Quiz Night. Welcome to past and future members.
November 5th AGM
December 3rd Christmas meeting and meal, venue to be arranged
The Reading Group reading list for 2008 is with the library, they will let us have the order in which they can best obtain the books we have chosen, this will then be published in the Calender section.
Radnage W.I. met at the Village Hall on Wednesday 7th November for their AGM.
We do not usually have a problem persuading our members to attend the AGM, and this meeting was no exception.The turnout was excellent.We do however lure our members there by offering drinks and refreshments, but I am quite sure that they would attend anyway.The new committee was elected and will still be led by our President Janet .Enid our wonderful, efficient secretary stepped down after 8 years in the post.She has always been so cheerful and willing to help, we shall miss her greatly.Kay is stepping in as minutes secretary, with help from Sue as correspondence secretary.
As it was our Birthday last month, the W.I. business was kept to a minimum, thereforewe had a lot to discuss at this meeting.Our Xmas Dinner plans were finalised and menus chosen.Future catering events were discussed, and a catering sub committee formed. Janet will place the poppy wreath on the War Memorial on Remembrance Sunday.A team of W.I. volunteers will decorate the village hall for Christmas, in time for the St Mary’s Xmas Bazaar.
Plans for our Bursary Day on Saturday 26th January have been finalised.The Morning is exclusively for members of the W.I. and will have sessions on Floral Art, demonstrated by Jane Kimber.Novelty sugar craft ornaments demonstrated by Carol Wheeler and jewellery making demonstrated by Linda Kelly.There will then be a break for lunch, followed by the afternoon program which will be open to the public.Mr W Guidery and Mrs C Hands will give a talk about the history of Radnage and St Mary’s Church. This will be followed by an English Wine Tasting between the hours of 4 to 6pm.Nigel from Daws Hill Vineyard Radnage will bring wines (Reds, Sparkling wine, Whites and Roses to taste from amongst others Plumpton Estate East Sussex and Brightwell Vineyard Oxford. There are tickets available for the Wine Tasting costing £5.00 each.
The afternoon session will be open to the public.For more info about this event call Janet 01494 483879 or Deidre 01494 482414
Radnage W.I.’s meeting on the 7th March was an “open meeting” meaning that anyone of either gender could attend, and we had a over half a dozen gentlemen were present!. Janet, our President, welcomed two new members, Kay and Claire, and the numerous guests, and thanked those members who had helped her “Fair Trade taste-in” to go with a swing. The sum of £63.80 was raised on the day, which will be donated to the Charity “Trade Craft”. Everyone had an enjoyable day and the event was very well attended.Janet would like to thank everyone in the village, and other friends, who gave their support.
Elizabeth gave an interesting account of a W.I. “Water Colour Class”, which she and another member had attended. Three members of our W.I. will be attending the “inter county W.I. Quiz” this month, we wish them good luck.On 21st March, there will be a Slade Group meeting at “The Ridge evening W.I.”.Jenny Voss will give a talk about India.
The Speaker at our March meeting was Dr Gill Ayres, a Geologist, who gave a very interesting insight into the geology of The Chilterns and Radnage, explaining the reason for the topography of the Chilterns and showing slides of geological features in the surrounding area.This was a relaxed and informal talk which was enjoyed by everyone and was followed by many questions from the audience.
Afterwards everyone enjoyed tea and delicious cakes provided by two of our members. (Bridget and Stella). Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 4th April, when the speaker will be Mrs J Dineen telling us about “Easter Traditions”.The competition is a handmade Easter Card.
We enjoyed our first meeting of the New Year, on 7th February 2007, and although it was a very cold night, the village hall was warm and welcoming and we had lots of news to catch up with. The meeting was taken by Margaret our Vice President. The reading of the minutes of the meeting revealed that we had all forgotten lots about the previous meeting,so it was good to be reminded. We were all surprised to hear that the collection in December for the Air Ambulance netted an amazing £106.56p!! Outings and walks are being planned, and our president Janet is holding a Fair Trade tasting event on 6th March between 10am-12md. W.I Members will be making Fair Trade recipes from Fair Trade produce. Your correspondent is making "Fair trade Golden Sunrise Pancake Surprise" and there will be other exciting recipes to try. It is sure to be fun so why not join us? email c.wheeler1@btinternet.com for more information. Carol introduced the newly refurbished Web Site to be found at *www.radnagewi.co.uk*, visit this if you wish to read along with the reading groups book choices, or just want to find out what is going on in our meetings. We hope to update it regularly.
The speaker at the meeting was Andy Hughes, News Reader and Reporter, we were all convinced we could easily do his job, we can certainly talk a lot! but there are hidden depths to news readers, which include being able to read, write, add and subtract news items, watch a clock second by second,and use a computer all at the same time!! This gives a whole new meaning to multi-tasking. An excellent talk and an insight into the world of news, given by a talented young man.
Our next meeting is an Open Meeting, (anyone of either gender can come along), on Wednesday by 7th March. 7.15pm for 7.30. The subject is the geology of Radnage by Dr Gill Eyers.
Hello to all reading group followers. The book which we should begin reading in March has now been changed, it was going to be H Murakami " Norwegian Wood", but there were insufficient copies available in the Bucks library system. This has been substituted by "The Pact" a love story by Jodi Picoult. we begin reading this book on 13th March. The Venue for this meeting has also change it is now at CW's.
2007-01-08 The Reading Group, which meets on the second Tuesday of each month, is still going strong. Just view the calander to read along with our choices month by month.
We meet at different venues, moving around our members houses. At the moment we are a group of 10, but we are prepared to increase this number should anyone local to us wish to join. (They do not necessarily need to be members of the W.I.) The group reserves the right to decide on the final number of members. contact c.wheeler1@btinternet for more information.
NB. I have added links to to Amazon .co.uk on the calander for each book. This is not particularly to encourage anyone to buy, (most of us borrow our copies from the library's reading Group Scheme) only to facilitate finding a review of the book, and discovering what other readers have thought of it. Just click the underlined tittles on the calander each month, to follow the link.
