Open Garden - Sunday 5th July 2009

The Talwrn Lite WI ladies in association with the Talwrn Playing Field Committee were invited
by Honey Tolman to provide and serve refreshments at an "Open Garden" as part of the National Garden Scheme at Bryn Seiri, Talwrn.


The gardens are absolutely stunning with herbaceous borders, sloped woodland garden, pergola, pond, unusual shrubs with views to the mountains and Red Wharf Bay. The Open Garden had been well advertised in local newspapers and even in an article in The Times. We were really uncertain to how many people would visit the garden on Wimbledon Mens final day. Fortunately the sun shone, the cakes & tea were made and we took the fantastic sum of £430.



Thank you to all who donoted cakes and their time - you know who you are!

Meeting - Wednesday 1st July 2009

To celebrate coming first with our co-operative piece on the theme of "A Gothic Wedding" at the Anglesey Federation WI Annual Show we raised a glass of champagne to the ladies who helped to make our first show exhibit such an achievement and applauded all who contributed in many and varied ways.

As it was summer we had pimms, strawberries and dips for refreshments.

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Our guest speaker for July was Benjamin Lee of Benjamin Lee Cakes.

Benjamin lives in our village. He started working in a local bakers in Llangefni, wanted to further his career so moved away to learn other skills. He has now returned to Anglesey and has been making speciality celebration cakes for some years. More recently he has purchased the Strawberrry Farm cake business and is moving it forward into other directions.

From listening and watching Benjamin demonstrating, it became apparent that he is a perfectionist and made his art look so easy. The Talwrn Lite ladies sat in awe watching him create a cake topper in the shape of a teddy and delicate rosebuds made from sugar paste.

We hope to invite Benjamin back in the coming year to demonstrate his skill with chocolate.

Anglesey Federation Annual Show - Friday 19th June 2009

All the preparations for the Anglesey Federation Annual Show were well worth the effort when we found out that we had first place for the co-operative class piece on "The Wedding" theme. We didn't want to take the usual route, so decided to go for a "Goth Wedding".

Here are the judges points and comments on our piece:

Staging & Display - 18/20 - Good visual impact.

Interpretation - 19/20 - Good for the chosen theme.

Floral Art - 18/20 - very neat c0-ordinated exhibit.

Cooked Item - 15/20 - Icing should be put on with jam not butter icing.

Craft Work - 18/20 - Great use of colour for a gothic piece.

A big thank you to Pam for creating the cake, to Anne for the sewing and floral arrangement, to Di & Marg for beading the tiara and all the other ladies who played a part in our first group exhibition.

Here is a list of our talented Talwrn ladies who were awarded 1st, 2nd & 3rd places:

1st place - Decoupage Card - Delyth

1st place - Knitted baby hat - Anne

1st place - Oil Painting - Pam

1st place - Photography - Diane

1st place - Collage - Delyth

2nd place - Poem - Diane

2nd place - Limerick - Chris

2nd place - Caption - Rachael

2nd place - Story (The day I went..) - Chris

2nd place - Yogurt Cake - Anne

2nd place - Griddle Scones - Sheila

3rd place - Oil Painting - Marg

3rd place - Paper Flowers - Delyth

3rd place - Water Colour - Marg

Meeting - Wednesday 3rd June 2009

It's hard to believe that we have reached the middle of the year already. I hope you're enjoying the sunshine and not suffering from the heat too much.

The meeting this month had several apologies - including one from our President, Delyth Jones. Delyth was not able to be with us as she was attending the WI AGM, at the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Following the business side of the meeting we welcomed Rhian from Tlws Jewellery. Rhian gave an over-view of the company, detailing it's recent growth and the countries where the items are sourced from.

Rhian had a huge selection of items for our ladies to check out - some were silver, silver plated and some even recycled from items like quality street tins which were especially interesting.

If you missed out on the meeting, or you would like to see or purchase additional items, you can visit the Tlws web site http://www.tlws.co.uk/

Thursday 7th May 2009 - The Thorn Birds Musical

Some of the ladies from Talwrn Lite WI had an outing to Venue Cymru, Llandudno to see the musical production of Colleen McCullough's "The Thorn Birds".

The only way to describe the show is that it was "unexpectedly different" having us howling with laughter. It was an excellent way to get to know other members of Talwrn Lite away from the usual village hall environment.

Meeting - Wednesday 6th May 2009

Following the main business part of the meeting, we discussed our Annual Show exhibit. Some interesting ideas were thrown into the pot and our entry is really taking shape.

This month our Guest Speaker was Alison Chapman of Rhosmeirch who teaches patchwork techniques in Anglesey & Gwynedd.

Alison brought along bags of her stunning quilts. Showing us her early creations, works in progress and more recent projects, including bags and wall-hangings. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Talwrn ladies will be joining her class in September!

Alison also provided us with a hands-on craft project. She demonstrated how to make cute bunnies and chicks from a face cloth and we also made a little draw-string bag from squares of fabric too.

Each member of Talwrn Lite received a free BusyLizzie plant to take home.

Meeting - Wednesday 8th April 2009

At this meeting there was quite a bit of business to be discussed, which unfortunately took quite a while to relay to the Talwrn Lite members.

With the AFWI Annual Show looming in June we thought we could benefit from some guidance on show etiquette. We therefore invited AFWI Chairman, Audrey Jones to be the guest speaker. Audrey has many years experience of entering and judging shows, so she was the ideal candidate to provide an insight into how to enter and present our show exhibits.