WI

THERE were four meetings in February and the book club also met to discuss The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith, aka J K Rowling. On 3 February, a whist drive was held. The winning ‘gent’ was Carol Evans and the winning ‘lady’ was Judy Lile. The raffle was won by Shirley Ferguson.On 10 February, Cyril Baker of Jewellery House, Aberystwyth, gave a talk on the valuation and insurance of jewellery. It was a fascinating insight into three types of evaluation: for insurance purposes, for probate and for selling the item. The value includes a reflection of current trends as well as component materials and workmanship. Cyril showed members items from his shop, including cutlery, rings and bangles of different values to illustrate his theme. He then examined jewellery brought by members and discussed the history and collectability of each item. The competition for a favourite brooch was won by Eileen Coker and the raffle by Debbie Heath.On 17 February, members had an informal evening which included knitting blanket squares for charity and the viewing of more Ceredigion Federation digital stories.Brenda Mead provided useful information about the WI Moodle website and the Ceredigion and Llanilar web pages. Brenda also won the raffle prize. During the evening, the group was saddened to hear that Jen Horgan, a former member, was seriously ill in hospital in Bristol. On 24 February, Pat Causton came to talk about the National Gardens Scheme, of which she is the Ceredigion organiser. The NGS grew from the philanthropy of a Liverpool merchant called William Rathbone, who founded a school of nursing and later the district nursing scheme. In 1927, the NGS was founded as a charity to raise money for the district nursing scheme, private gardens were opened to the public for a small entrance fee. Later, links were established with the National Trust and the Royal Horticultural Society. The NGS has since widened the scope of its charitable donations. Members were shown lovely photos of gardens within the scheme, both locally and nationally. The NGS also includes allotments in Aberystwyth and elsewhere. Most of the venues serve tea and cakes, and sell plants. Some of the gardens in Ceredigion are idiosyncratic and would be popular with children. For example, one has a cave and a bottle house. The evening’s competition was for a small greenery arrangement, which was won by Betty Wakelin. The raffle was won by Margaret Peel.