WE like to be spontaneous in Blockley WI, and as Brenda Salmon’s garden was full of lovely tulips this year, she offered to hold an impromptu coffee morning in early May, before the tulips disappeared for another year. As many of you know, the garden at Church Gates is extremely beautiful and Brenda’s gardening talents are legendary!

We also seized an opportunity to visit Batsford Stud at the end of the month to catch some mares with new foals. Janet Jarvis lives on the stud and arranged with the Varey Family, the current owners, that a party of WI members could visit the stud and be shown the stallions, mares and foals. A couple of the stallions were very lively and had to remain in their stalls, but we were treated to beautiful Erhaab, a 24-year-old thoroughbred, who paraded round the stud with elegance and calm.

There were a number of mares and foals for us to view, which were enchanting. We followed this up with a light supper (we’d all brought a plate of some finger food to nibble) and Janet provided us with copious cups of tea and coffee and tempting cakes.

It’s worth noting that in national WI-land, Her Majesty the Queen held a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace on June 2 to celebrate the WI Centenary, with one member from each WI being able to attend. We were represented by Sheila Weir, who swelled the ranks of some 8000 women on the lawns of the Palace, and she regaled us with a few stories from the day at the beginning of our June meeting.

Our speaker for the main meeting was Dr Ann Walker, a dietician who lives in the village, who came to share with us some top tips on healthy eating, nutrition which supports healthy ageing, the Mediterranean diet and good mood food. Ann, a native of Liverpool originally, shared with us her background in nutrition and also her philosophy that a good diet is all about balance rather than constraint. As you can imagine, there were plenty of questions from the floor and Ann was able to dispel several myths on certain foods (duck fat being one of them) and offer lots of helpful advice for those present with specific digestion requirements.

Looking ahead, our July speaker will be John Cleary, a photographer with a studio in Brailes, who is going to show us how to look our best in photographs. Some audience participation will be required!

We meet on the first Thursday of every month in Jubilee Hall (Heritage Centre) at 7.30pm. We are keen to welcome new members, and anyone can come along as a guest to one of our meetings. The programme is advertised on The Blockley Blower and you’ll see posters around the village advertising our next event. We look forward to seeing you.