Driffield member Shirley Franklin gave a brief report of the national AGM held recently in Chester. Shirley was one of 6,000 delegates from throughout the country and thoroughly enjoyed her time there.

She presented an oak tree to the Hutton Cranswick WI which had been donated by a supermarket chain to every WI in the country. The committee will decide where best to plant the sapling which at present is around 18 inches high.

The minutes of the June meeting were read by Eileen Walker and arrangements made for a visit to Brodsworth Hall on August 12, and to Sledmere House on August 26.

Certificates were presented to Margaret Dodds and Jenny McLaren for achieving a Level 2 qualification in Hygiene and Food Safety.
A jumble sale is being organised for October 18 in aid of WI funds.
The speaker was Rena Scrowston who, just for the evening took on the role of 'The Lady of Crumbling Manor' along with her husband 'Sir Henry'.
Rena was accompanied by her good friend 'Dame Barbara Cartload the well-known breeder of coloured ferrets'.
Rena refuses to use the adjective old but prefers 'increasing maturity' and entitled her talk 'Increasing Maturity and How to Survive It'.

She gave many witty anecdotes about life at The Manor and with Sir Henry, whose method of communication is largely by thought transference, thus involving little need to talk.

As with many of the older generation, the couple do not do technology and there were scathing comments about mobile phones and sat navs. Coming to the end of her entertaining stories, Rena invited members to visit the 'Manor' before the end of October to have tea and cakes in the barn and to see the gift shop which has given a great deal of thought to the necessities of the 'Increasingly Mature Generation'.

It is a long time since a WI meeting evoked such genuine laughter and Rena was thanked for her hilarious look at growing older before judging the competition for a suitable limerick which was won by Gwynneth Richardson, 2 Eileen Maw, 3 Shirley Potts.

There will be no meeting in August, and so the next get together is September 9 when Nyall Adams will give a landscape history of the Wolds, and the competition will be for a handmade picture in any medium.