Worship for All - Celebrating the Women’s Institute

On 3^rd August our WI was invited to take part in the Worship For All which  involved, amongst other things, a paper cutting competition by the whole congregation, instigated by Jenny Kendal, representing the  fellowship we have and taking it out into the community. The Church looked particularly colourful with floral decorations left from the wedding of Taffy and Rachels’ son. We felt particularly grand, when we sang our ‘theme tune’, Jerusalem accompanied by the organ, with a presentation of slides of  our wonderful countryside compiled by John Clipsom. This was extremely rousing and emotional, it was like the Royal Albert Hall all over again!

We hope the congregation were enlightened and hopefully entertained, by talks and presentations by our members about the beginnings of the WI and our work in the community and nationwide. After the service there was a display in the church hall of items of art and craft carried out by members of Sutton WI. We felt it made the WI come to life and very much appreciated the chance of promoting our Institute.

The Intrepid Scarecrows

The Ramblers Walk, on a hot and sunny Monday in July (yes there was one) took us to join members of Rainow WI. We travelled through Rainow to the meeting point, observing here and there the splendid display of Scarecrows in all sorts of guises. As we were changing into our walking gear, I saw yet another Scarecrow some distance away down the lane, sitting on a bench in a restful pose, looking at the view over the valley. At the time I thought it was a really authentic idea; turned out to be one of the walking group from Rainow WI – must go to Spec Savers!

They led us on a walk, which seemed to be all uphill, touching on Lamaload reservoir. What a strenuous walk it turned out to be, they obviously thought us Sutton and Langley ladies were used to such Commando-type walking. We only covered 6miles in 3.5 hours. We think that they were getting us back for the walk we led up Teggs Nose and then all through the forest. Maybe ‘Intrepids’ would be a more fitting title for our group from now on. A drink at the Robin Hood at the end of the walk seemed to revive us though.

Kiwi Chick

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Gawsworth Open Air Theatre to see Hayley Westonra. She started her career busking in New Zealand. I didn’t know much about her but was very pleasantly surprised by her beautiful clear, pure voice and pleasing personality. She was accompanied by a striking quartet of female violinists and cello whose individual performances were very exciting.

Not only is she the fastest selling debut classical artist to date, but she is also the youngest ever Ambassadors for UNICEF. Since her first trip to Ghana, Hayley has set up "Hayley's Bikes for Ghana", a project that has already provided 6,000 bikes for children in Ghana so they can attend school and find a better future (for more details: www.unicef.org.nz).She's is also involved in the Women's Environmental Network, a group that raises awareness of environmental issues affecting women. A budding WI member I think!