Women's Institute - as made famous by Calendar Girls :D
In Scotland you have a choice of two competing organisations, called 'the Guild' and 'the Rural' - apparently it was the Guild (attached to the Church of Scotland) which let men in a while ago, not the WI as I originally thought.
And the Rural seems to have changed its official name to the 'Scottish Women's Institute', but I don't think anyone actually *calls* it that...
It is one of those things that went around and back again - like Halloween traditions. So a Church of Scotland minister began the first Women's Guild for church members, then a couple of Canadian ladies liked the idea (but not the restriction to church members) and founded the first WI in Ontario, primarily for the wives of the men in the Farmers Institute, hence the name.
Then a lady who belonged to the Canadian WI moved to Wales and began the first branch in the UK. But Scotland already had the Guilds; I am guessing they must have been like the Townswomen's Guilds in the rest of the UK, who began because the WI was seen as a rural thing. So perhaps in Scotland the Rural was a sort of opposite effect?
There used to be a TWG in Douglas, an older friend was the president at one time, but it folded about 3 or 4 years ago and the members joined their nearest WIs on the whole. For some reason the TWG never appealed to me, but I went to a number of WI things with various friends over the years until, eventually, I joined one.
Your late roses are lovely. Is Queen of Sweden a David Austin rose? But the Hesperantha win for their vibrancy. :) What a wonderful tea you had and what variety! And no one should ever expect women's groups to be clueless about current events, history and politics!
She is a David Austin rose - they have 'a look' don't they?
Hesperantha are not cheap rhizomes - they seem to cost about £3.00 each, but these ones were here before me, and seem to spread themselves around at will!
The tea was such a lovely afternoon - with very nice baked goods :)
And yes - Tony Blair's experience certainly showed him that his perceptions were very wrong.
So amazing to see the green and colours. Here it's all gone now, coated in ice a while ago and dead. Except for the purple kale, that will continue to be a happy splash out back.
And indeed, 18 m/s (40 mph) is indeed just a brisk and lively wind! When I was in Sweden the autumn always felt weird, because there wasn't ever anything resembling wind.
We will keep the green all through the winter, although it might get a bit faded, and I managed to have some colour in the garden all through the year from last spring to this :)
And yes - you understand wind speed in the same way we do - anything under 50mph is a good blow but not enough to have any effect on the plans for the day. I was disconcerted during my first winter in a city in England by the lack of wind.
Green throughout winter sounds like a fairytale! : D
I really missed falling asleep to the sound of a storm in the bushes. On the other hand, being out in the conifer forests in Sweden after a snowfall is pure magic. Everything softly blanketed in undisturbed white. All sounds muted by the snow. Something that's not going to happen in the winds here.
That's a very brisk wind--the woods roar when it's that windy here.
The garden looks so lovely. We're coming off two nights of hard freeze here, so all the flowers will be on the wane if not completely frozen this morning The nasturtiums made it through the first night; fingers crossed they made it one more. Hardy little plants, those "nasty urchins," as my dad used to call them.
What a spread! I'd have a very hard time controlling myself with all that cake within reach.
We get winds like that all through the winter, but they are a bit early this year.
We are told there might be a ground frost tonight, now that the wind has dying down, but it probably won't have too much effect on the remaining flowers just yet - and the nasty urchins should be good for another week or two at least.
All I had before I went to Foxdale were three cups of coffee - and all I had afterwards was a bowl of homemade leek and potato soup - not even a slice of bread!
Your flowers are gorgeous! Between the hot weather in the summer and the cold spell of the last week or so, we don't have many flowers. We have some roses on one bush only and the Montauk daisy bush has finally bloomed. Other than that, nothing.
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What a delicious afternoon tea! What does 'WI' stand for?
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In Scotland you have a choice of two competing organisations, called 'the Guild' and 'the Rural' - apparently it was the Guild (attached to the Church of Scotland) which let men in a while ago, not the WI as I originally thought.
And the Rural seems to have changed its official name to the 'Scottish Women's Institute', but I don't think anyone actually *calls* it that...
Reply
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Then a lady who belonged to the Canadian WI moved to Wales and began the first branch in the UK. But Scotland already had the Guilds; I am guessing they must have been like the Townswomen's Guilds in the rest of the UK, who began because the WI was seen as a rural thing. So perhaps in Scotland the Rural was a sort of opposite effect?
There used to be a TWG in Douglas, an older friend was the president at one time, but it folded about 3 or 4 years ago and the members joined their nearest WIs on the whole. For some reason the TWG never appealed to me, but I went to a number of WI things with various friends over the years until, eventually, I joined one.
Reply
Your late roses are lovely. Is Queen of Sweden a David Austin rose? But the Hesperantha win for their vibrancy.
:)
What a wonderful tea you had and what variety!
And no one should ever expect women's groups to be clueless about current events, history and politics!
Reply
Hesperantha are not cheap rhizomes - they seem to cost about £3.00 each, but these ones were here before me, and seem to spread themselves around at will!
The tea was such a lovely afternoon - with very nice baked goods :)
And yes - Tony Blair's experience certainly showed him that his perceptions were very wrong.
Reply
And indeed, 18 m/s (40 mph) is indeed just a brisk and lively wind! When I was in Sweden the autumn always felt weird, because there wasn't ever anything resembling wind.
Reply
And yes - you understand wind speed in the same way we do - anything under 50mph is a good blow but not enough to have any effect on the plans for the day. I was disconcerted during my first winter in a city in England by the lack of wind.
Reply
I really missed falling asleep to the sound of a storm in the bushes. On the other hand, being out in the conifer forests in Sweden after a snowfall is pure magic. Everything softly blanketed in undisturbed white. All sounds muted by the snow. Something that's not going to happen in the winds here.
Reply
The garden looks so lovely. We're coming off two nights of hard freeze here, so all the flowers will be on the wane if not completely frozen this morning The nasturtiums made it through the first night; fingers crossed they made it one more. Hardy little plants, those "nasty urchins," as my dad used to call them.
What a spread! I'd have a very hard time controlling myself with all that cake within reach.
Reply
We are told there might be a ground frost tonight, now that the wind has dying down, but it probably won't have too much effect on the remaining flowers just yet - and the nasty urchins should be good for another week or two at least.
All I had before I went to Foxdale were three cups of coffee - and all I had afterwards was a bowl of homemade leek and potato soup - not even a slice of bread!
Reply
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How nice to have the daisy bush in flower.
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