PAWS Archives - Page 8 of 10 - Winstred Hundred Parish Council

14th January 20138th December 2015

PAWS January – wealth through cloth trade

paws-1301-simon-gallup Our January meeting on the 8^th saw a large turn out when 41 members and 4 visitors came along to hear Simon Gallup tell us about the Histories of Lavenham and Dedham. Simon is one of 8 guides for Lavenham and he explained with the use of slides that due to the cloth trade the Stour Valley had been one of the wealthiest places in the United Kingdom 500 years ago. During 1480-1530 there was a large building spree of houses, churches and coaching inns but also there was a rapid decline in its wealth due to trade decreases, the 100 year war, huge taxes on the cloth trade etc. Today there are approximately 300 listed buildings in Lavenham which have lasted through the centuries. Simon finished the evening with a question and answer session.

Our next get together is on the 26^th February when our speaker is John Wrigley and his topic is “Carnival time in Venice.” Membership is currently full but visitors are welcome at a cost of £3.50.

Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website. If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of the following committee members: Alice Holmes 01206 735510, Jane Banks 01206 735004 or Jane Anderson 01206 735505.

Alice

18th December 20128th December 2015

PAWS November – a year of wildlife at Mersea

Our meeting at the end of November attracted 9 visitors and most of the members. The speaker was Dougal Urquhart, who has been the Ranger at Cudmore Grove Country Park in East Mersea since 1983. He showed us some wonderful slides of the photographs that he has taken over the years, to illustrate the changes in the wildlife of Mersea Island throughout the year.

He started with the winter visitors like the Woodcock, Snow Bunting, spoonbills and waxwings. There are occasional sightings of harbour porpoises and grey seals as well as the common seals that we see around our coast at this time of year.

In the spring the amphibians start to emerge from hibernation and basking adders can often be seen in sunny spots around the park. There are many butterflies and moths emerging too who can be seen all through the summer months.

Dougal explained about the plan to introduce the red squirrel onto Mersea island, as it is one of the few places that do not have grey squirrel who carry the parapox virus that can be fatal to the red squirrel. He also talked about the many prehistoric animal bones that have been found along the coast line and in the mud of Mersea Island. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and I think that we could have happily let him speak for much longer, but our wine and nibbles were waiting!

The January meeting is earlier in the month than usual on 8th January, so that we don’t clash with the Peldon Pantomime. The speaker is Simon Gallup, who will talk about ‘The Different Histories of Lavenham and Dedham’, which sounds really interesting. In fact we have a really diverse line-up of speakers for all the meetings in 2013. Our membership list is currently full, but visitors are very welcome at a cost of £3.50.

Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found in the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website. If you would like any further information about PAWS, please contact any of the following: Alice Holmes 01206 735510, Jane Banks 01206 735004 or Jane Anderson 01206 735505.

Jane

30th October 20128th December 2015

PAWS October – Hats off to Oggie

paws-oggie Well October certainly saw one of our largest turn outs this year when 41 members and 4 visitors came along to see Oggie Weldon demonstrating her Millinery skills. Oggie explained that she changed her career rather late in life, at the tender age of 57, having worked as a secretary previously. Oggie attended an 18 month course and decided to pursue this new career and she certainly demonstrated that she has a talent for this. She explained about the methods involved, the materials used etc. and she had a large display of hats and fascinators which she allowed us to try or buy at the end of the evening. Another most enjoyable night demonstrating the diversity of our speakers.

Our next get together is on November 27^th when Dougal Urquhart will tell us all about “Wildlife of Mersea Island”. Membership is currently full but visitors are welcome at a cost of £3.50.

Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website. If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on the following numbers: Alice Holmes 01206 735510, Jane Banks 01206 735004 or Jane Anderson on 01206 735505.

27th September 20128th December 2015

PAWS September – Paragon or Prude

Sheila Gray – President with Dr. Maureen Scollen

After what seemed like a long summer break (if you can call it a summer) 34 members and 4 visitors attended our September meeting when Dr. Maureen Scollen came along, wearing a copy of an early women’s police uniform, to tell us all about “Paragon or Prude”. With such an intriguing title it certainly lived up to expectations, as Maureen kept us very entertained with a mixture of stories of her life as a serving police officer and also the history of women police officers. It really was an excellent evening. We are hoping now to organise a trip to the Police Museum at Springfield of which Maureen is a trustee.

Our next get together is on October 23rd when Oggie Weldon is our speaker, her subject being “Hats For All Occasions”. Membership is currently full but visitors are welcome at a cost of £3.50.

Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found on the diary on the home page

of the Winstred 100 website. If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on the following numbers: Alice Holmes 01206 735510, Jane Banks 01206 735004 or Jane Anderson on 01206 735505.

13th August 20128th December 2015

PAWS July – Orpheus & Meze

paws-july2012-2 paws-july2012-1

30 members and 10 visitors, 9 of whom were from Layer Ladies, joined us for our July meeting which was also our special themed social night of the year. This year with it being the Olympics in London, we decided to go Greek. We were greeted on arrival with a glass of ouzo and, for the faint-hearted, a glass of home-made lemonade. After the very short formal part of the evening, we tucked into a Greek Meze, to the background music of Orpheus. Once we had eaten, the tables were cleared away to make room for Yanis to lead us in some very energetic dancing, which almost everyone joined in.

The music for this was provided by George on keyboard and, while we all took a rest from dancing, Yanis joined him with some very skilful playing on the Bouzouki. Most members dressed to match the Greek theme and, at the end of the evening, George awarded the prize for the best dressed lady to Sue Copeland.

It really was an excellent evening and it was such a shame that so many of the members missed out on it.

As we don’t have a meeting in August ur next get together is on September 25th when Dr. Maureen Scollen is our speaker and her subject is “Paragon or Prude.” Membership is currently full but visitors are welcome at a cost of £3.50.

Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website. If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on the following numbers: Alice Holmes 01206 735510, Jane Banks 01206 735004 or Jane Anderson on 01206 735505

12th July 20128th December 2015

PAWS June – Golden Amritsar and an auction

paws-june2012 36 members and 3 visitors attended our June meeting on the 26th, when Mrs Paula Short came along and told us all about “Golden Temple – Amritsar India”. Paula has developed a passion for India and its temples, culture and history since her first visit in 2000 and was able to give us quite an insight into it. She had a fantastic array of slides which she used to highlight her very interesting talk.

We also had our silent auction of New and Nearly New items which raised just over £35 for our funds.

Our next get together is on July 24^th which will be our July themed social and this year it is a “Greek Night”. We have a professional Duo coming along to entertain us with music and a dancing demonstration and we will be having a light Meze supper and suitable refreshments .The cost is £7.00 for visitors. Numbers are limited so please book by contacting one of the committee members listed below.

Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website.

Membership is currently full but if you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on the following numbers. Alice Holmes 01206 735510, Jane Banks 01206 735004 or Jane Anderson 01206 735505.

27th May 20128th December 2015

PAWS – May, Confessions of a mass caterer

paws-jane-malyon-may12 At our May meeting on the 22nd, we welcomed back Jane Malyon to tell us about “Confessions of a Mass Caterer”. Jane and her husband have been running Country Cuisine for some 34 years catering for various events from Wedding Receptions to Birthday celebrations. She relayed a number of amusing stories about the types of people she has catered for from Mr. X, an East-Ender with Mafia connections, who had 200 guests to his Ruby Wedding party together with security and dogs (in case anything got nicked) to a very rowdy (food throwing) party at a Medic’s Annual Ball at a London teaching hospital. From drunks, uninvited guests, tearful brides to broken items, Jane has dealt with them all.

Our next meeting is on June 26^th when Ms. P. Short will tell us all about “Golden Temple Amitsar, India” and we will be having a silent auction of New and Nearly New items.

Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website.

Membership is currently full, but visitors are very welcome at a cost of £3.50.

If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on the following numbers. Alice Holmes 01206 735510, Jane Banks 01206 735004 or Jane Anderson 01206 735505.

Alice

26th April 20128th December 2015

PAWS – April Gerald Durrell’s Legacy

At our April meeting on the 24^th, we welcomed back Barry Kaufmann-Wright to tell us all about working with Gerald Durrell. Barry has been a naturalist all his life and had the good fortune to work with Mr. Durrell at Jersey Zoo during 1964-1971. He told us all about the breeding programmes that he had been involved with at the Zoo together with showing us a selection of some of his 64,000 slides. We are losing 10,000 species a year due to extinction. He also relayed some stories about being bitten on the head by a lemur and having to have 75 stitches only for these to be unpicked in a “grooming session” by one of his favourite chimps. Mr. Durrell died in 1998 but his legacy lives on.

Our next meeting is on 22^nd May when Jane Malyon returns with “Confessions of a Mass Caterer”. Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website.

Membership is currently full, but visitors are very welcome at a cost of £3.50.

If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on the following numbers. Alice 01206 735510, Jane 01206 735004 or Julia 01206 735053.

Alice

4th April 20128th December 2015

PAWS – March St Trinians Experience

At our recent March AGM/St. Trinians evening on the 27^th March 44 members came along to select the new President- Sheila Gray. Sheila replaces Gen Fretwell as President and Pam Foakes will be her Vice-President for the forthcoming year. 9 of the existing committee were re-elected with Sue Copeland standing down having served many years on the W.I. committee before forming part of the new committee for P.A.W.S. Both were presented with flowers to thank them for all their hard work.

It was a very enjoyable evening with the majority of the members getting into the spirit of the evening by dressing up in “school attire” and we all tucked into some excellent Fish and Chips. We rounded the evening off with a quiz based on “Who Did What” which were fun questions supplied by the committee for the members to guess who did what.

Our next meeting is on 24^th April and we will be having Mr. Kaufmann-Wright back to tell us all about working with Gerald Durrell. Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website.

Membership is currently full, but visitors are very welcome at a cost of £3.50. If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on the following numbers. Alice 01206 735510, Jane 01206 735004 or Julia 01206 735053.

2nd March 20128th December 2015

PAWS – February 1st Ladies report

paws-john-knight PAWS’ February meeting on 28^th February was when Ann Hardy was due to reveal the “Secrets of the Royal Jewels”, but unfortunately due to ill-health she had to cancel and we were fortunate to enlist John Knight for the evening who told us about “America’s First Ladies.”

John proved to be a very able and knowledgeable speaker who has spent a lot of time in the U.S.A and indeed had a photo of his wife and himself with Bill Clinton taken in 2004, together with photographs of the portraits of the 13 First Ladies that are in the gallery of the Whitehouse. He told us a lot of background information about the First Ladies from Eleanor Roosevelt through to Michelle Obama and that the average age of an incoming President was 58 with his wife being 52. When most of us are thinking about taking things easy, or retiring, these people are taking on the most powerful job in the USA if not the world. A most interesting evening and hopefully we’ll see Ann next year.

Our next meeting is actually our AGM and therefore it is for Members only and is on 27^th March. We will be having a St. Trinians Night (so get out all the old school uniforms ladies). A Fish and Chip Supper will be provided and a Quiz. Details of all our meetings and speakers can we found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website.

Membership is currently full, but visitors are very welcome at a cost of £3.50, at any other meeting other than March.

If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on any of the following numbers. Alice 01206 735510, Jane 01206 735004, Julia 01206 735053 or Sue 01206 735212.