Clement Clarke Moore (1822)

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the committee. 

Thee change was being counted from the weekly cake kitty.

The stocking were all hung from the monthly craft club. 

And on the allotment, was planted a shrub.

The women were all nestled as Jerusalem sang out.

Emma announced the agenda with no worry or doubt.

It was Thursday already and the AGM planned.

We settled our brains as the year was so grand. 

In the warm meeting hall there arose such a clatter.

The women so friendly and that’s what should matter.

Looking in through the window the year was a flash.

We listened to Karen about who spent the cash. 

The members of new ladies continues to grow.

As old entertain new by performing a show.

When, what to our wondering eyes should appear.

But Flora and Fauna, Who love Martinmere.

With a little old knotter so lively and slick.

Barry taught us a reef knot ever so quick.

More rapid than eagles Magic Pete came.

January was magical giving Emma much fame. 

Now Nancy, now Deb, now Jo and Sue.

On Pauline on Elisabeth contact these few. 

To the top of the roomwe bagged for Mad Dog.

It was busy for us but well worth the slog. 

As April approached us we took part in Tai Chi.

Daphne who taught us had a soft spot for Nancy.

So up to the house top India came into view.

With Sari’s, metal bangles and food tasting too. 

And then in a twinkling came a flash of bright green.

Hearts for our climate keep Great Britain clean. 

As I drew in my head and was turning around.

Back in time I had gone and a Tudor wife found. 

She was dress’d all in rattan from  her head to her foot.

She cook’d on a fire tarnis’d with ashes and soot.

A bundle of thread was flying in the pack,

Sewing over in Leyland and they even came back.

Our eyes – how they twinkl’d when the life mag was posted.

Cup of coffee, a biscuit on our settee we’re bolted. 

Their droll little mouth wanted Ed wina Curry.

An annual selfie but she’d gone in a hurry.

The stump of a log they sweat and bare teeth.

They dig and plant as seeds germinate beneath.

They have a broad face as the dish fills with crops.

The weather was kind and their fruit never stops.

He was chubby and plump a right jolly old Ted.

We tried crown green bowling but got easily led.

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head.

No bowling ball landed within the flower bed.

We spoke not a word and went straight to our work.

Selling cakes large and small through positive teamwork.

And laying a finger on the powerpoint created.

The year through happy photos was clearly stated. 

She sprung to her apron and to the team gave a smile.

Being a member of the Scarlets is a positive lifestyle. 

But, Emma exclaimed as she crotch’d out of sight.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

by Tina

Our Second poem by Emma

Twas the night after Christmas

All through the house

Nothing was stirring

Not even a mouse.

They couldn’t you see.

They were stuck where they sat

They’d spent so much time eating

They were feeling so fat.

They’d tucked into turkey and stuffing and sprouts.

They’d had the pudding and trifle and mince pies with no doubts

They’d eaten the cheddar and gouda and brie.

They’d feasted and snacked, no food left to see.​

They had searched and emptied

The stockings and socks

They had polished off the chocolate from every selection box.

To say nothing of the gin and port and the wine.

It would have been rude not to, it’s civilised when you dine.

So the night after Christmas as you’re sat in the quiet

It’s perhaps the time to consider a diet

Emma Gillinger

Ingredients:

Pkt of pre-made puff pastry, 1 pkt of sausage meat (but I tend to use two) available at all high street supermarkets, although I’ve never seen it in Aldi!! 1 small chopped onion, sesame seeds (decoration) Egg for coating 
I add my own extra filling .. .. .. so you decide what you would like to add to the sausage meat, it could be any of the following: ApplePaxo stuffing black pudding Haggis, Chilli, Garlic, Cranberry sauce (nice festive option) Chutney (any variety) The list is endless, enjoy experimenting!!
Oven fan oven 160 c/ gas mark 3 Approx: half and hour 

Method :

Mix sausage meat, onion and what ever extra filling you desire! Put to one side whilst you prepare the pastry. Roll pastry into a rectangle, I tend to roll thinly as to prevent a ‘soggy bottom’. Place sausage meat mixture in the middle, this needs to be a smaller rectangle, so the pastry can be wrapped over in order to form the plait. Cut four squares, one from each corner. Then fold the two end pieces of pastry over the sausage meat. The two long lengths need slicing. Cut approx 10 strips and then alternatively wrap one from each side over the sausage meat. This forms the plait. Once plaited place on a baking sheet and coat the top with egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cook until golden. This is nice both hot and cold. I serve it with a range of things, such as salad and chutney or potatoes and gravy. 

Tina

November

On Saturday 30th November, six members of Scarlets WI travelled on a frosty morning over to the annual Knitting and Stitching Show, held at Harrogate Convention Centre. We were prepared with bags for our purchases and tickets for the classes.
This somewhat quiet town had turned into an abundance of activity with coaches and cars of predominantly women all bustling into the event. I was pre-warned to watch my ankles and shins, as many had more than a bag to put their purchases in!! Four large halls were converted into an array of stalls, from cheap and cheerful to elite and high quality. There was a range of fabrics, wools and threads…where do you start? Toilet and coffee!
Not only were there many stalls, but workshops too, from basket weaving to needle felting. The classes were approximately an hour long, potentially long enough to learn a new skill. The workshops varied, as what was created (see photos). We certainly made the most of our day, in which we all had a little something to take home…so be prepared, we may be sharing our new skills at a WI meeting.

Tina

What a lovely way to celebrate one year as a member of Southport Scarlets by attending my first dining club experience. 

Due to work commitments this has previously been unachievable, however on Wednesday 23rd October I joined 11 other WI members at Volare Italian restaurant on Lord Street. 

Before selecting our preferences, (apparently some selections are predictable) I asked Jo whether reviews of the restaurants were carried out! I soon realised the main aim of these evenings were to enjoy good company, have a drink, eat, but not necessarily review the restaurant, therefore I’ve done my own personal review.

Although we waited quite a while for the starters to be served, when they were, comments from around the table resembled a night watching fireworks (lots of oooo’s and rrrrr’s). This continued as we tucked in. Clearly a good start! 

Presentation of the food was good, and we know this can be challenging especially serving pasta dishes, see photos. One particular main course, Penne Laguna, was referred to as bland, despite the mixture of chicken, courgettes and prawns, however I had Spaghetti Carbonara, which was creamy with plenty of bacon added. In addition to this, alcohol (like many restaurants) was expensive…£11.95 for two medium glasses of Rose, so as you can imagine the wine was drunk, leaving glasses empty! But were the plates empty? Generally yes, the leftovers only included bits of pasta, clam shells and bread. 

The atmosphere in the restaurant was welcoming and clearly the staff were attentive to their customers’ choices. So if you like a variety of fresh Italian food and you’re willing to wait, then Volare is suitable for you. 

As for reviewing the dinning club experience, I’m now wondering where the next event will be held, as joining the WI members on such an evening is definitely recommended, especially if you enjoy conversations that don’t include Brexit! 

Tina 

Spaghetti Vongole

Crab and Avocado starter

Carbonara

Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th September

The show was held at the Garstang Country Hotel just 10 miles north of Preston. Emma and Pauline bundled all the craft items off and deposited them on the Sunday and the process was repeated on Tuesday by Elaine for all the fresh foods, cakes and bakes.
It was a first visit to a show for me so I didn’t know quite what to expect. Needless to say it was chocker full of ladies and no sooner had I got there I bumped onto a few of my fellow Scarlets which was lovely. I think it’s fair to say we had a record number of entries into the show this year too which of course is fantastic. We all know the judging can be quite harsh – enter at your own peril as it’s not recommended for any sensitive souls who may take their comments to heart. There was such an array of items – jams (of course!) cakes, knitted or crocheted jumpers, sugar craft, knitted hedgehogs, handmade jewellery, decorated hats, rag dolls, wreaths, photos, sketches and horticulture. I managed to take some photos (just before my phone conveniently ran out of battery!) Hope you enjoy them.

I must apologise for my tardiness with this month’s blog. As a rule we Scarlets don’t meet during August but arrange an outdoor activity. In previous years we’ve done a picnic in Hesketh Park, built sandcastles on the beach and arranged a treasure hunt around the Marine Lake area with a supper after. This year we went down to the Southport Bowling Club and two of their very friendly club members talked us through the rules, arranged us into teams and were very supportive and coached us the whole time. We rounded the evening off with a cuppa and biscuits in the club house. Ted talked about the history of the club. We didn’t know it is the only Flat Green Bowling Club in the Southport and Liverpool area and actually dates back to 1937. If you fancy a new hobby bowls is great for all ages, it’s a healthy outdoor sport and very sociable. They encourage you to try before you buy – equipment is available to borrow until you are sure the game is for you. Most of all they are a very friendly bunch.

The Liver Birds!

Three weeks of wall to wall sunshine and the morning we go to Liverpool is drizzly and cloudy!

We took the lift to the 10^th floor, but after that leg muscles were needed. We all made it to the top – 15^th Floor.

Luckily visibility was good and the views from the top were spectacular.

Did you know it was built from 1908 to 1911 for the Royal Liver Assurance Company. It was designed by architect Walter Aubrey Thomas.

It’s made out of reinforced concrete clad with granite, was the tallest building in Europe from 1911 to 1932 and the tallest in Britain until 1960 – the first skyscraper in Europe!

The Liver Birds were designed by German sculptor Carl Bernard Bartels and cost £70 each with an extra £10 per bird to fix them in place! It is 322 feet or 98 metres tall.

The clock faces are 25 feet or 7.6 metres in diameter, bigger than those on Big Ben in London.

In today’s money it cost £58,000,000 to build.

We finished the day with a lunch at Zizzi’s in Liverpool One.

National Federation of Women’s Institutes Annual Meeting

Bournemouth Wednesday 05 June 2019

Report from Southport Scarlets, Link delegate for 

Formby, Woolton, Woolton Wanderers and Knotty Ash WI’s.

After a rousing rendition of Jerusalem NFWI Chair Lynne Stubbings drew attention to some continuing activities planned for the year. These include walking netball which is a collaboration between England Netball and the NFWI that will see Walking Netball sessions provided to WIs across the country, the National Gallery study day which has the female nude as its theme, and the Performing Arts day on Friday 13th September 2019. Important campaigns to note are ‘Make Time for Mental Health’ post card action and the ‘Times Up’ mass lobby on climate change on the 26th of June. There is also a Team Federation project to encourage more volunteers to work for the WI. The WI has had a good financial year and attention was drawn to the new gift aid guidance and declaration forms.

Guest Speakers

The guest speakers were Lord Bradley from the Care not Custody Coalition and Maggie Philbin from Teentech.

Lord Bradley referred to his report on vulnerable offenders with poor mental health and learning disability and their experiences of the Criminal Justice system. He reminded conference that a WI resolution in 2008 based on the principle of care not custody voted to support the introduction of a diversion service based on the use of liaison officers in custody suites as part of a National Liaison and Diversion Service focusing on diverting vulnerable people away from the Criminal Justice system. Lord Bradley was confident that this service was operating effectively and was hopeful that it would continue to expand. He thanked the WI for our support.

Maggie Philbin gave an interesting speech about Teentech, a company of which she is CEO that goes into schools to encourage pupils to find technological solutions to social problems. Maggie gave some interesting examples of outcomes from this initiative which can be found on the Teentech website.

The Resolutions

The speakers for the resolutions were excellent and made the issues very clear.

First was the resolution against the decline in bus services. This resolution is extremely significant to the many WI’s in villages where privatisation of bus services has seriously affected bus timetables and village life. LCC funding has been cut to one third and the result is that services are sporadic, slow and impractical when people need to get to appointment. The result is that there is an increasing cost to the NHS transport system. Solutions offered are the promotion of a national bus investment strategy as well as a call that bus deregulation should include more use of technology in order to be more efficient.  Against these points the argument was made that instead of expecting a bus service it would be better to create systems of shared taxis and self-driving vehicles. The vote for the resolution was 5,729 and against 262 meaning that the resolution was carried by 96%.

The second resolution was Don’t Fear the Smear which has been tabled against a background of an inexplicable 21 year low in uptake of smear tests. Several delegates spoke passionately and movingly for this resolution and there was no real opposition to it. The main points were that appointments are hard to arrange, especially where women could not take time from work; there were calls to expand the HPV vaccine programme to include 12 to 18 year olds and to increase screening beyond the current cut off age of 65 as older women are still prone to develop cancer; most of all it was agreed that all women should talk to each other, their daughters, their relatives, their work mates and fellow WI members to remind women to go for the smear. The vote for the resolutionwas 5,788 and against was 194, meaning that the resolution was passed by 97%.

This very successful and enjoyable conference drew to a close with Jerusalem sung in English and then Land of our Fathers in Welsh and with God Save the Queen.

• 

The evening was well attended with 12 of us enjoying Carol’s hospitality on a lovely evening with cake and wine to keep us going. 
We had a lively discussion about this months book, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet written by David Mitchell.
It was deemed a hard read but one which provoked much discussion partly because of the use of so many foreign names.  It was a story set on a Dutch trading trading post on a tiny man made island off the coast of Nagasaki in 18th century Japan. It was a long and complicated story but on the whole the consensus was that it was well written and worth the effort.

• 

Vegan Banana Cakebread muffin recipe

I don’t know what to call these – they are an vegan alternative for the banana bread I was making for one of our meetings.  They have turned out great, so I thought I’d write the recipe down before I forget.  It’s an alternative to a vegan blueberry muffin recipe.

Ingredients

• 275g flour
• 175g unrefined sugar
• 2tsps baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 50ml vegetable oil
• 160ml non-dairy (soy or oat) milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup squashed very ripe banana

Instructions

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Mix the vegetable oil, milk, banana and vanilla essence in a jug then add the mixture to the dry ingredients. DO NOT overmix – it should just be combined.
3. Put the mixture in muffin cases (makes 9ish depending on how big you like your muffins)
4. Cook in preheated oven at 200C/400F for 18-24 mins