AT our March meeting Meg Farmer, the speaker for the evening kept us enthralled as she shared her her experiences as a foster-carer. From an early age she had always loved children and babies in particular and with the support of her husband and her own three young children she began caring for other children. Some needed a home while mothers were in hospital, some were about to be adopted, while others arrived in the middle of the night from abusive homes. Despite some sad tales of neglect Meg shared some very amusing stories and we felt privileged to hear of the huge difference that Meg and her family had made to the lives of almost 100 babies, children, troubled teenagers and young pregnant mothers.

Every year we award a bursary – enough for a two day course at the WI’s own college in Oxfordshire and this year Rita Booth was the lucky winner . Members were also urged to support the mobile library service, to volunteer help and cakes for the village Open Gardens event in May and to start decluttering our book shelves for the Big Book Bonanza at the April meeting. Members were also joined by up to 40 villagers for what has now become our annual litter pick on Saturday, March 7. This year volunteers reached the parish boundaries and were aghast at the volume of cans, bottles, remains of take-away meals, building materials etc in the ditches and on the verges. The ” Keep Britain Tidy” campaign which the WI started in the 60’s seems to be more relevant today than ever before.

JENNY McLEISH