I have just come back from helping with the refreshments at what has been a record breaking Spring Market.  We had over 80 visitors who came along to support us so thank you very much to everyone.  This year we are supporting Manorlands our local Sue Ryder home.

It was Harden WI's turn to host the Lower Wharfedale Group Meeting this year.  The weather was just like a November evening with rain lashing down and we were pleased to see how many had braved the weather to come and join us. We had asked Ian Dewhirst, MBE to come and talk to us about Life in the 1950's.  And what a wonderful talk he gave us, full of amusing anecdotes and comparisons with then and now.  He had the audience nearly rolling around on the floor with laughter and it brought back many memories to those who remembered those times. 

The competition for the Tidyman Cup this year was to write a poem about the 1950's and we are very proud to say that our entry was judged the winner by Ian Dewhirst.  We had asked our members to bring a poem to our February meeting and this poem had been voted best by all our members. 

What a successful day this was for Harden and District WI.  Seven of us set off to Pudsey on Tuesday 17th April for the Annual Meeting which we always enjoy as it's a wonderful way of finding out what is going on in our area.  The morning speaker was our NFWI chair, Ruth Bond, and in the afternoon, Coling Harding, a curator at the National Media Museum in Bradford spoke to us about the museum.
But, as well as the two speakers, there were plenty of awards and prizes to be handed out and our WI got four mentions!  Firstly, we were presented with a cup for gaining the biggest percentage of new members last year - and a very big cup it was as well - I wonder who's going to have to clean it!!  Next came the award of £30 for coming second in the Quiz last month.  The result of the Craft Competition 'Going for Gold' was eagerly awaited as one of our members had entered a wallhanging and there was tremendous disappointment when it wasn't chosen by the judges.  However, during the lunchbreak there was an opportunity for everyone to vote for their favourite entry and a big cheer went up from the Harden contingent when our entry won the popular vote!  And finally, there was a special draw for the 50/50 Club and another of our members won the top prize of £100.  So well done to everyone. 
We all came away from the meeting feeling extremely proud of our WI.

Our WI is going from strength to strength as we saw our membership go up to 43 at this month's meeting which is fantastic news.  Astrid Hansen, as usual, gave us a really interesting and amusing talk entitled The Apothecary's Apprentice.  I don't think many of us knew what to expect but it soon transpired that Astrid herself had been an "apothecary's" apprentice back in the 1950s and she told us many tales of her time working for Timothy Whites in Bradford as a pharmacist.  It made us all realise what a long way medicine has come in the years since then.

Unfortunately, there weren't many attending the walk on the morning of 16th April - perhaps it was the typical April showers that had been forecast that kept everyone away but in actual fact it was a glorious morning - the showers came later.  It was a lovely walk of about 6 miles up and around St Ives Country Park, down into Bingley then back up through Beck Foot Golf Club, the woods and back to Harden.  A coffee stop was made at Stephen Smith's Garden Centre before returning to the centre of Harden.