Meeting Reviews 2022

Monday 5th December

We celebrated our Christmas party. We were entertained by Esme and Delphi (Vicky and Jan’s granddaughters ), who sang ‘On a starry night’, and by our newly formed singing group, who sang a variety of Christmas carols.

We brought our own food, to share at our table. We enjoyed a Christmas quiz on Christmas carols and Christmas films.

  

  
  
  
We were able to donate a large amount of toiletries and Christmas goodies to the food bank. 
Monday 7th November

Our speaker was crime author Matt Johnson, who gave us an amazing talk about his life in the Metropolitan police and how he developed PTSD. He was encouraged by his counsellor to write about his career, which led him to write three crime novels.

  
His first three books involve detective Robert Finlay.

  
He has recently completed his fourth book – Crow 27.

Monday 3rd October

We celebrated our Harvest Festival. We enjoyed own party food.

  

  


We had a competition during the meeting to write an acrostic poem using the word Autumn or Harvest.

Our Harvest Acrostics – October 2020

Harvest time is here again

And squirrels gather their nuts

Red and yellow leaves, scattered all around

Voices singing Autumn songs.

Evenings cold and dark

Swifts and swallows fly to warmer climes.

The farmer gathers the Harvest home.

~~~~~~~~~~

Au is for gold, the colour of leaves

T is for time to come in from the cold

Under the leaves the hedgehogs do sleep

M is migration of birds, like swallows

Nights drawing in, so warm we can keep

                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harvest offers food to eat

Apples and blackberries give us a treat

Roasted chestnuts round the fire

Vines ferment to choicest wine

Elderberries tempt us time after time

Seeds sewn in the spring, bountiful harvests now gathered in

Time for saving, time for reaping, a time to savour – like sloe gin!      

                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~                                                                      

Arrested by fuel poverty

Unable to pay the bills

Turn the thermostat to 20

Unwilling to risk all ills

Making thick soups and stews

Never again pay the Tory dues!

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Hoary frost are looming

Amid the fading light

Russet leaves are falling

Verdant scents abounding

Expectation of the equinox

Summer slips into slumber

Tick tock the clocks turn their faces away from the sun!

​​~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Harvest happiness all around

As we view the changing scene

Relishing each mellow tone

Verdant leaves turn gold from green

Endless tins: an Autumn rainbow

Scarlet bonfires light the sky

Turning minds from summer’s heat; showing all that winter’s nigh.

​​~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harvest home

Apples ripening

Ready to eat

Vegetables growing

Everywhere

Soon to be

Time to praise.

 

 

We brought tins and packets of food for the food bank.

Our competition was to make an Autumn collage in any media. It was lovely to see so many entries. 

 

Monday 5th September

Our first meeting back after the Summer break. We had a beetle drive, which was good fun and gave us a chance to chat with lots of friends. 
As you can see from the photographs the evening involved great concentration.

Monday 4th July

American Independence Day

What could be better on this special day to have a talk and presentation by our very own American lady Rachael, who gave an exciting history lesson on the USA.


Monday 6th June

Tonight was a double celebration, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and Ponthir W.I’s 62nd birthday. (We were unable to celebrate our 60th because of covid. We sang Jerusalem, God Save the Queen and Mae Hen Whlad fy nhadau, accompanied by Jan on the piano. We had a beautiful cake made by Diane, and bubbly to drink.
   
We raised a glass to Marjorie Houghton our only original W.I. member, who joined Ponthir W.I. when it started 62 years ago.

We were entertained by ‘Ponthir Recorder Harmonies’, who played a selection of songs from the musicals.




We had a musical quiz, won by Pauline. 
As you can see from the pictures, we dressed to impress.
  

  

Monday 2nd May

Our AGM and fish and chip supper

We started with our business meeting. Vicky showed everyone the banner which has recently been made by Carol Jones  and Pauline Hindle. Well done ladies, you have made a fantastic job, the frame was made by Liz Cooke’s husband.

PlNext we had our AGM. Vicky was presented with A Jam and Jerusalem rose to thank her for her hard work as President for the last four years. Sue was elected as our new President. Well done Sue.

We then had our delicious fish and chip supper.

  

 
As you can see from the photographs, we enjoyed our food so much, we were too busy eating to smile for the camera!

Monday 4th April

We had fun this evening playing New Age Curling. It was a lot harder than we expected

  

  

The competition was ‘Something to do with Easter’.

Monday 7th March

Tonight we were entertained by ‘Ponthir Recorder Harmonies,’ who played a selection of Welsh songs, as a belated celebration of St David’s Day. We enjoyed Welsh cakes with our tea and coffee. 

 

We finished the evening by playing handbag bingo, which was won by Sharon and Jean. It’s amazing what we can find in our handbags!

  

Monday 7th February 

Our speaker tonight was Marilyn Priday, who was ably assisted by Rakhel and Iven Smith. They told us about ‘The Alice Foundation’.  In memory of her mother Alice, this charitable organisation was set up to support a Kamoanna, village in Pakistan , who were in desperate need for a building to serve as a place of education for underprivileged Christian and Muslim children and also as a place of worship for Christian families of the village. It would be a multi faith community centre. Rakhel and Ivan are responsible for fundraising events to raise money for the building. Their next challenge is to raise money to support the running of the school. 

Tuesday 4th January

This was Resolutions night. We held the meeting via Zoom because of the growing number of corona cases. We held an interesting discussion about each of the Resolutions, which helped us decide which way to vote.