WI members enjoy a visit to Devon

4:53pm Saturday 26th July 2008

MEMBERS of the Broadmayne and West Knighton WI greatly enjoyed a visit to the beautiful Borrow Gardens in Devon, part of a successful outing, when blue skies and warm sunshine were the order of the day.

A brief visit to Axminster gave opportunities to purchase the delights of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage shop.

The bus driver then nobly tackled the very narrow lanes, and a bit of reversing at times was cheered by his passengers, but he brought the bus safely to Chapel Thatch at Holditch, where another hidden treasure of a garden was discovered, with a delicious cream tea awaiting.

Margaret Cushing was thanked for arranging such a very pleasant day.

The speaker at the July meeting was Mrs Elizabeth Buckler Gale, who from her childhood in a Dorset farming family, through her student days at Kingston Maurward and nearly 40 years of practical and organisational work in agriculture could easily have entertained us with her own personal experiences and photographs.

However, her theme was that of womens' historic contribution to producing food from the land, both out of sheer necessity for feeding their families and in time of wars, in helping the nation survive.

She made interesting comparisons between artists' often idyllic scenes of happy harvest workers picnicing under blue summer skies and the realities of yoke-laden women trudging through sodden fields to milk cows, or following old farm machinery to hand weed and gather crops, often with young children in tow.

For eight hours a day in all weathers, a woman was rewarded with about six "old" pence, even in the 19th century.

Margaret Mortimer warmly thanked Mrs Buckler Gale on behalf of her large audience.

Group discussions were focused on individual dreams and realities of occupation after school life.

In light-hearted mood, most felt that their working lives had been enjoyable.

Usually in warm, dry buildings and among congenial company, life had placed members in a much preferable comfort-zone than that experienced by forebears in agriculture!

On Thursday, August 14, Mr and Mrs Small have generously offered their home for a garden party, which will commence at 3pm. Members are requested to bring a small plate of food to be part of a shared tea.

The next official meeting will be on Thursday, September 11, at 7pm in Broadmayne Village Hall when Martin Fielding will be talking about "My Life as a Vet".

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