The Windmill Quintet will play in a concert as well as a classical guitarist.

It is in Horndon Church and starts at 8pm. Costs are £5.-, which will include refreshments in the interval.

By Janet McCheyne

Phew! Now that the Federation of Essex WIs has moved AGM dates, we had such a lot of business to get through at our May meeting. We took time to welcome visitor Carol Moring and brand new member Dot Porter, and of course the discussion of the important matter of our wine-tasting outing to new Hall Vineyards also took priority! We will be leaving Bulphan Village Hall at 6.45pm, but places must be pre-booked with Sally. Many complimentary thank you letters were read out from visitors who had attended our birthday party Cabaret Evening last month.

We will be enjoying the bluebells at Belhus Country Park again on May 21st, leaving Bulphan Village Hall at 10am. Anyone is welcome to join us – not just WI members.

Our Annual Meeting resulted in all the original committee being re-elected, with the very welcome addition of Jan Curtis and Rose Head, who will bring some fresh ideas to the meetings.

Finally, after refuelling with tea and cakes, we debated the WI’s national concern: the decline of the local high street. There certainly was a lively debate on this, covering the reasons we thought High Streets were declining, those shops and services we did use in the High Street, those we missed, and, of course, parking issues. We felt that encouraging WI members to use all their local shops – including village shops and local parades – was a priority. Members voted to support the resolution, and also expressed support for a “Tesco tax” initiative which has worked well in Northern Ireland, where large retailers pay a local levy of 8½% which goes to support local businesses. Mary Wellman will travel to Cardiff in June to represent our views.

Programmes for our WI are available in Bulphan Village Shop and guests are always welcome to our meetings – first visit free, then £3 a time. We realise that women these days often have a great number of commitments outside the home, so if your circumstances make it difficult to become a member at this time, we would still be really pleased to see you from time to time as a visitor.

On behalf of guests, Pat Cross thanked the committee and other helpers for a splendid evening.

St. George’s Day was celebrated with a very ladylike afternoon tea at Marygreen Manor: thanks to Sally Wall for arranging this.

The Thames Group of WIs annual Spring Group Meeting was held at glamorous venue, Orsett Hall this year, with Olive Clay and North Stifford WI members in charge of arrangements. Another splendid evening, again with Peter James entertaining us.

Next month is our Annual Meeting, when we will also be debating the WI’s national concern: the demise of the local high street. I think our members will have plenty to say on that subject, and Mary Wellman will travel to Cardiff in June to represent our views.

Our wine-tasting visit to New Hall Vineyard on Wednesday, 12th June is open to non-members/anyone and will cost £10. Please book with Sally Wall on 01268 542129. We pile into cars at the village hall at 7pm – it should be a brilliant evening out.

Programmes for our WI are available in Bulphan Village Shop and guests are always welcome to our meetings – first visit free, then £3 a time. We realise that women these days often have a great number of commitments outside the home, so if your circumstances make it difficult to become a member at this time, we would still be really pleased to see you from time to time as a visitor.

The tables sold out in record time and supporters came from all over the community and thoroughly enjoyed their afternoon.

A pop-up café was created on the stage of the Methodist Hall and tea/coffee and cakes were served. Louise Wood from Loulabelle’s Cakes kindly donated incredible Vintage Rose Cupcakes which were not only a delight to look at but tasted heavenly.

Charlotte and her daughter Katie Yoxall raised another £155 for The Brompton Fountain. Raffle prizes were donated by Proctor & Gamble, Millie’s Cookie, Avon (Jane Howes), Petals & Plants (Corringham), Nando’s, St Cleres Golf Course, Sammy BeautyTherapist & Carly Todd (Zumba & Yoga classes).

Andrea Nunnery & Nancy Smith have now raised close to £4000 for Breast Cancer Campaign and in October 2013 they will be trekking the Grand Canyon to raise further funds for Breast Cancer Campaign.

If you would like to support their fundraising please visit www.virginmoneygiving.com/andreanunnery visit their facebook page ‘Team Turtle Trek 2013’ or call Andrea on 07957 540365

Bulphan WI must be good for you! Although we have members from all ages, we presented flowers and cards to 2 more members who had reached fourscore recently: Rene Strong and Bernie Cowles.

Tracy Mackness, of Giggly Pig fame, has now been rebooked for our meeting on 10th July and we have lots more to look forward to: we will be celebrating St George’s Day with afternoon tea at Marygreen Manor in Brentwood, enjoying a visit to New hall Vineyard (with wine-tasting!) for our June meeting and we were able to book tickets for the Silver Bells Christmas Show at the Thameside Theatre before they sold out this year! The wine-tasting visit on 12th June is open to non-members/anyone and will cost £10. Please book with Sally Wall on 01268 542129. We pile into cars at the village hall at 7pm – it should be a brilliant evening out.

Rita Appleby and Marion Hatt went all the way to Colchester in the fog for the WI’s County meeting, but had such a good time: they were particularly impressed with June Ward, county chairman, and Adam Henson from Countryfile, the speaker.

Graham Bendall gave a splendid talk entitled “A Gamekeeper’s Year” and he focussed on gamekeeping past and present and the changes – good and challenging – there have been to country life and gamekeeping over the years. We also learned a lot about magpies, badgers and pheasants.

Mary had a hectic time selling Spring Group tickets – unfortunately the Orsett Hall Gold room is a small venue and we didn’t have enough tickets to go round. Apologies to those ladies who were disappointed.

Invitations were issued to our Cabaret Evening in April, to celebrate our 84th birthday. To help us with catering, this is by invitation only, but members may bring friends at £6 per head (pre-booked). We rounded our evening off by hearing some more ladies telling us about their working lives – with some surprising revelations.

Janet McCheyne
01268 543214

Bulphan WI’s February meeting was full of surprises – firstly, our planned speaker, Tracy Mackness, who was going to tell us the story of pigs, told us at the the last minute that she was unable to attend because of a bereavement. Condolences will be sent, and we are hoping to rebook her for later in the year.

Our own members leapt into the breach, and were invited by President Janet to give us a very brief outline of what jobs they had had in the past and/or have now. The responses were definitely a surprise, being fascinating and varied – and, as we ran out of time, there are more to come at a later date. However, some members revealed skills and experience we were unaware of, and those retired members who felt bored have been offered volunteering opportunities!

The next surprise was that Ann Newmeir, enthusiastic founder President of North Stifford WI – Thurrock’s only WI to hold morning meetings – is moving to Norfolk and so resigned on the morning of our meeting. She has been a WI speaker, driving force in organising quiz nights, and more recently, convenor for this year’s Spring Group Meeting. It will be a shame that she will not be able to attend to enjoy the fruits of that particular labour. Bulphan WI members wish you luck in your new life, Ann.

The final surprise was that on one of the coldest nights of the year, Bulphan ladies were becoming decidedly overheated! A fault in the heating system meant that jackets and cardigans were removed and the heating turned off – but the temperature continued to soar. We should have advertised it as a sauna session!

Members were pleased that the cryptic quiz on Deserts and Desserts which we compiled for Essex Federation of WIs, raised nearly £1,000 for county funds. It was no surprise that we have been asked to compile another one!

We have 4 outings booked, and would like to extend an open invitation to all who wish to join us in a trip to Little Bentley Hall Gardens Show on Saturday, 1st June 2013. Little Bentley is near Colchester, and features the Hall gardens, show gardens (mini-Chelsea Show!), art exhibition, craft and other stalls and refreshments. If you come with us it will be £5 entry (instead of £7) and we will book a coach at extra cost if there is the demand.

We will also be celebrating St George’s Day with afternoon tea at Marygreen Manor in Brentwood, enjoying a visit to New hall Vineyard (with wine-tasting!) for our June meeting and hoping to be able to book tickets for the Silver Bells Christmas Show at the Thameside Theatre before they sell out this year!

On Wednesday March 13th we meet in Bulphan Village Hall from 7.30 – 10pm to hear Graham Bendall talk about “A Gamekeeper’s Year” Heating will be sorted – so no need to bring a fan.

TWO more new members were welcomed to Bulphan Women’s Institute in January: Michaela Waite and Jan Menzie, and Pam Bowles was presented with a card and orchid on the occasion of the 80th birthday.

Our December meeting had been held at the Shepherd and Dog, Shepherd’s Hill, where the whole institute enjoyed a wonderful Christmas meal, in very smart surroundings and with excellent service. Also on a Christmas theme, Carol, Joanne, Linda and Monica had decorated a tree at Hyde Hall with coloured pine cones and teasels and it looked splendid. Rosemary Head had read the lesson on our behalf at the Thurrock WI Group Carol Service at Orsett, and Sarah Mortlock had read (from her iPad!) at the Bulphan Carol Service.

Back in the village hall for our January meeting, we found out all about Thurrock foodbank from volunteer Victoria Windus, who is the local organiser. Members had bought donations of suitable food for the foodbank. If you would like to donate or volunteer, visit

thurrock.foodbank.org.uk

Victoria was thanked by new member Lesley Crisp. The competition was for a joke from a cracker. Each member read their’s out which proved very amusing. Unbelievably, the joke in my cracker at Bulphan School’s Christmas dinner was: “What do you call a cow who plays the accordion?” You can imagine what many memers answered but the correct answer was in fact “a Moo-sician”.

Next month our speaker is the eccentric Tracy Mackness, who has had a very varied lifestyle and is coming to tell us all about her very successful pig-keeping. There will be the opportunity to buy her seasoned sausages and other pork products. Tracy does not fit the image of a WI speaker, so do come along and enjoy something a bit different.

So much happening at Bulphan WI: at the November meeting we took part in box-making, Christmas Pudding Truffle-making, Christmas Garland making, gave a short concert to demonstrate the musical skills learned at our recent course of singing lessons, applauded as Iris Aedy was awarded the Competition Cup for this year, and welcomed 2 more new members: Rita Appleby and Michaela Waite.

Pam gave a very comprehensive report on the county meeting at the Civic Hall, Blackshots, Rose volunteered to do a reading at the Thames Group Carol Service at Orsett Church in December, and Pat asked us for all our old bras, as apparently they are worth money to charities!

Most of our members are off to the Shepherd and Dog next month for a lovely Christmas meal, so our next meeting in Bulphan Village Hall is on Wednesday, January 9th, 7.30 until 10pm, and Victoria Windus will be telling us all about Thurrock Foodbank. Members and visitors are invited to bring donations for the foodbank (list of suitable contributions available).

We already have an exciting programme of speakers and activities booked for next year: come along In January for a visit and find out more.

By Janet McCheyne

OCTOBER has been a very busy month for members of Bulphan WI: there was a hugely enjoyable coach visit to Kensington Palace and many of us have been meeting weekly for our hilarious singing lessons with Doreen Potter. We decided we would feel more like a choir if we were colour-co-ordinated, so we were visions in pink, then purple, then red and finally black and white. Doreen not only improved our musical skills, but provided inspirational anecdotes between songs: a wonderful lady.

We ran the raffle at the County Autumn Meeting, which saw hundreds of WI members congregating at the Civic Hall at Blackshots from all over Essex. Mayor Yash Gupta welcomed everyone, Jerusalem and the National Anthem were accompanied by the accordion and the speakers were varied and interesting. County Chairman June Ward ran the meeting in her usual friendly and efficient way and we met Essex Federation’s new finance officer: Mr.Pay!

We also managed to fit in an outing to the Palace Theatre in Westcliff to see the Full Monty live on stage, and there were plenty of invitations to parties and events at other local WIs.

We welcomed 2 new members: Lesley Crisp and Margaret Gladwell, and Joanne Coles provided a lovely flower arrangement in a pumpkin for our harvest window in the village church.

Jean Fullerton, billed as an East End author, told us her story. She is a former metropolitan policewoman and is now a district nurse. She was such an engaging speaker that many members later bought copies of some of her many books.

On Wednesday, November 14th three of our own talented members (Joanne, Sally and Iris) will provide workshops on making Christmas garlands, macaroons and Christmas boxes. Visitors and members are asked to bring old Christmas or birthday cards – not too small and the best ones are square cards – for the boxes.

Visitors will of course be welcome (free for the first visit, then £3 after that – includes tea/coffee and cake). Have a look at our website (bulphanwi.weebly.com) or pick up a programme from Bulphan Shop to find out what’s going on, or ‘phone for a chat

BULPHAN WI members who took part in the “Escape the Olympics” challenges at their August meeting were rewarded with barbecued sausages in freshly-baked rolls with optional onions. It was a lovely summer’s evening, and ladies exerted themselves on the outdoor gym equipment, the tennis court and the croquet pitch, tried to beat each other at sorting sweets with chopsticks and sucking jelly beans (via a drinking straw!) into bowls and seeing how many clothes pegs they could fit into one hand. Finally, there was an Olympic quiz sheet to complete and a shape-sorting challenge.

The hotdogs were followed by strawberry cheesecake and cream and our plans to go to the Orsett Show, Kensington Palace and The Full Monty live on stage were finalised.

4 of our members acted as stewards at the Orsett Show, promoting the WI movement. And 4 members also entered items into the Handicrafts and Hobbies section of the show. At our September meeting we were able to see a display of their entries and learn how successful they had been: all 4 won a number of rosettes, and Jo Seymour also won 2 cups: one for needlework and one for knitting. We are hoping that these ladies will inspire more of our members to enter next year.

We were delighted to present Olive Molineaux with an orchid and a birthday card to mark her 80th birthday – congratulations, Olive.

The theme of the September meeting was “Inspiring Women”: Doreen Walker was unable to attend, but one of her inspirational poems was read out; Rose Head was also unable to be with us, as, following her exciting stint as a Gamesmaker at the Olympics, she has now flown to Mombasa to work in an orphanage: we will hear all about it next month. Members were then asked to share something about themselves that was inspiring, extraordinary or simply something that the rest of us didn’t know about them. There were many fascinating revelations, from a member who bumped into Prince Harry in McDonald’s just before he went to Afghanistan, to one who had spent 6 scary hours in an African prison. We heard stories about evacuation, giving birth on the lounge floor, swimming with eels and learning to ski at 66 and to scuba dive some years later! With our increased membership, we didn’t manage to hear everyone’s contribution, so that is a treat to come in the future.

An East End author, Jean Fullerton, tells her story at our next meeting on Wednesday, October 10th and visitors will of course be welcome (free for the first visit, then £3 after that – includes tea/coffee and cake). Have a look at our website (bulphanwi.weebly.com) or pick up a programme from Bulphan Shop to find out what’s going on, or ‘phone for a chat

AT our June meeting, Jo Seymour welcomed Bulphan Women’s Institute members and 11 visitors who all then sat back and enjoyed a delightful fashion show from Sainsbury’s Chafford Hundred. Models ranged from tiny Abbie, modelling toddler clothes, through Tom and Shannon – junior school age, and younger and more mature adults, of every size and shape. They showed us holiday wear, casual clothes, maxi dresses, dressing up for the evening and finally the “Gok for TU” range. The whole show was enhanced by Lisa’s very professional commentary.

Rosemary Head thanked everyone from Sainsbury’s and said the show had been a great promotional event for the store’s fashion range.

Jane and new members Nicola and Kay had prepared very tasty homemade cakes to have with our tea. Sally still had some seats available for our coach outing to Beth Chatto Gardens on July 4th, and our next meeting on July 11th will be a car-sharing outing to Hullbridge: a gentle walk along the river, then into the pub! We leave the village hall at 7pm.

To mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, her majesty was in attendance at our meeting (in cardboard cut-out form!) and supervised the distribution of lovely Jubilee souvenir cups in posh boxes to every member.

Carol had completed our 100m of bunting, which we will be holding up along the Olympic Torch route in Grays on Friday, 6th July. Please contact me if you would like to help!

Janet McCheyne

Despite very unsettled weather on Jubilee Saturday, a team of young dads, Thurrock Scouts and me put up the Scouts’ Gala tent and Dave Hale set up the lights and PA system. We were optimistic that Proms in the Park would be able to be held outdoors!

And although it was quite a chilly evening, people turned up, went home for blankets, and came back and enjoyed a lovely evening of traditional Proms pieces, including a set especially in honour of the Olympics and all our favourites, including the Dambusters March. Compere Dave Bowman welcomed promenaders from America, Germany and Scotland, as well as those who had travelled all of 50 metres to attend!

Towards the end of the second half, rain threatened, and a few items had to be omitted so that our amazing soloist, Emily Martin, could lead us in singing Land of Hope and Glory (which she did splendidly) and John from MLE Pyrotechnics could finish our evening with a spectacular fireworks display.

We are very grateful to Essex Legacy who provided us with a grant towards running this event, and towards producing the Olympic bunting and flags. Thanks also to Fiona and Dave Bowman and Becontree Brass, Romford Lions for lighting, Colin Pankhurst for kindly allowing us extra parking space, Bulphan School for PA, Rod Addison for waving his really big flag, Stuart for leading us in the National Anthem and everyone for supporting the event.

By Janet McCheyne

Women’s Institutes all over the country are informing themselves about the rapidly-rising birth-rate in some areas – and particularly within M25 – more complex pregnancies and deliveries and ongoing problems in recruiting, training and retaining midwives. If agreed by the majority of WIs at their AGM at the end of May, the campaign for the coming year will be to urge the government to commit resources to improving midwifery services.

We invited a very experienced local midwife, Janet Wilkins, to come and explain the current situation to us, and to answer our questions. Janet gave us a very valuable insight into current recruiting and training systems, and the workload and pressures on midwives at the moment.

All Bulphan WI members were happy to vote for this resolution.

In September, Rosemary Head, one of our own members, is returning to Tumaini Home of Hope in Mombasa. At this orphanage, up to 70 children who are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS lead happy and constructive lives, thanks to the vision of Mrs. Joan Smith, a retired probation officer from Kent who went out to Kenya as a nurse. Rosemary will be volunteering in the orphanage and the associated school, and will take with her funds she has collected to help provide much-needed equipment for the home.

After our usual tea with a selection of cakes and the chance to buy Stewart’s happy hens’ eggs, we heard about all the Thurrock, Essex and national WI activities we will have the opportunity to take part in during the coming month. WI members will also help to produce 200 metres of bunting to be used at the Jubilee celebrations and to line the route when the Olympic torch comes to Grays.

At 7.30pm on Wednesday 13th June in Bulphan Village Hall, Sainsbury’s will be promoting their clothing range by staging a fashion show. This is open to anyone to attend, so do feel free to come along and spend an hour or so with us and maybe pick up some ideas for your summer

Award winning Becontree Brass play all your Proms favourites, and the traditional Last Night of the Proms finale is accompanied by spectacular fireworks.

Starts 7.30 on Saturday, June 2nd 2012. Tickets are still only £15 (thanks to some funding from Essex Legacy) and under 12′s are free.

Bring your own seating and supper.

Email info@bulphancf.org.uk for tickets (Bulphan Village Community Forum).