President Gillian welcomed 18 members and one new member this evening. There were five apologies.
Last month’s minutes were read and duly signed.
Matters arising and forthcoming events:
Our flower festival was a great success over the two days. Over 200 people visited.
Also our open garden event was very busy and funds from cakes and flower sales were most welcome.
There were representatives from 30 WIs from Devon at the craft exhibition, held in South Moulton on the 18th June.
We discussed the possibility of visiting Denman as a group for various courses – dates to be finalised and agree and choices of subjects to follow.
Various events of interest, including BBQs, talks and days out including Plymouth, Meldon and Marwood were discussed.
Our summer outing to Marwood Gardens this year will be on August the 2nd including a tour and talk with cream teas at £5 and we meet at 2pm.
Our guest speaker this evening was a lovely gentleman who was born in Italy by the name of Gerry Marrionne. He had many memories of his early childhood growing up during the second world war. He was born 40 miles from Venice and times were so hard that he had to join a gang of road builders at the age of 12 years. His family were split up and father sent to America. Although there were many sad events throughout his early life, as you can imagine, there were good times too. One of the most eventful times was landing in England and starting a new life in North Devon. His story was very inspiring but time didn’t allow for us to listen to it all. Perhaps we will invite him back to carry on where he left off after his early childhood. Thank you again Gerry for your time given telling us of your early childhood under occupied Italy.
The FOM winner was Gillian Parker and the competition winner this month was Valerie Ashman with three delicious home made biscuits.
The next meeting will be Monday 6th September with guest from Arlington Court, Warden Sharon Ford.
Please remember new members are always welcome, so see you on 2nd August at Marwood and at the next meeting.