Our April meeting coincided with the hottest day of the year so far, so we were able to take our drinks out onto the terrace, our first such opportunity at our new venue! The main feature of our meeting, however, was our speaker, Anne Stott, who gave us a fascinating glimpse into the life-saving work of the charity Medical Detection Dogs. It has two arms -Bio Detection Dogs who are used to detect serious illnesses in humans, including types of cancer and Parkinson’s disease; and Medical Alert Assistance Dogs who provide an early warning system for people living with life-threatening conditions such as PoTS and severe allergies. Using their amazing sense of smell, dogs are able to detect odours at very low concentrations. Attempts to replicate this ability with technology are ongoing, but, so far, unsuccessful.

In March we had a highly (pun intended) entertaining talk from Lucy Allen, stunt woman extraordinaire. In a varied career Lucy has performed in films from Artemis Fowl to The World is Not Enough via Eastenders and The Professionals. An early starter, Lucy apparently performed her first stunt as a baby, escaping from her pram and making a bid for freedom down the garden path. Inspired by Olga Korbut, the Russian gymnast, she went on to develop her own gymnastic skills, beginning as an exotic dancer and going on to become an aerialist in the circus. This naturally led her to a career as a stuntwoman in film and TV spanning 35 years and a multiplicity of roles. A fascinating insight into the mindset needed to perform the sort of hair-raising activities which happen in the blink of an eye but take hours of skill and preparation.

For our February meeting we were treated to a talk by Johanna Holmes, Chair of the Trustees of The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery. Johanna gave a fascinating account of the history of this, the first of the “Magnificent Seven” London cemeteries, from its origins in 1833 to the present day. In addition to highlighting the conservation challenges faced by those who look after the cemetery today, she gave us a glimpse into the colourful legacies of some of the women buried there, many of whom have been thus far overlooked by history. She finished by outlining future plans for the cemetery, including making it more accessible to visitors via a dedicated app with self-guided trails.

We had bumper attendance for our first meeting of 2026, the inaugural meeting at our new venue, Elders Voice. After voting on our preferred WI resolution for the coming year, the main focus of the evening was an illustrated talk by Gavin Finney, award-winning cinematographer on the Wolf Hall television series. Gavin gave us a glimpse into the fascinating world behind the cameras. It was an eye-opening experience for all of us to see the combination of technical precision and artistic vision behind every memorable scene.

Once again, members enjoyed a wonderful evening with copious amounts of food, drink, fun and party games. Congratulations to Alison for winning the Christmas bracelet competition! Thanks, as ever, to Frances for hosting and managing to fit us all in to her lovely house. This year, instead of a secret Santa, members brought dental hygiene products to donate to our local food bank, in keeping with the WI’s national campaign on dental health.

Our Annual Meeting took place on 12th November, overseen by Liz Morrell on behalf of the Middlesex Federation. The reports, presented by the Secretary, were testament to another very successful year. The Committee was re-elected, with the addition of Ros, and Caroline was re-elected as President. Following the formal meeting we held our traditional quiz, devised as is customary by Denise and her mother, and won by the smallest team. Members also took the opportunity to buy jams and chutneys which were left over from Queen’s Park Day. This was our last meeting at St Anne’s – our burgeoning membership numbers mean that we have outgrown this venue – so from next year we will be meeting at the Elder’s Voice building next to Kensal Green station.

We welcomed Jennipher Marshall-Jenkinson to St Annes for a cheese tasting evening. Jennipher gave a fascinating talk about the history of cheese making and described the various processes used to make different cheeses. We were able to sample a variety of British cheeses, including cheddar, stilton, lancashire and caerphilly as well as some brie. We also treated ourselves to some wine to accompany the cheese, which was well receved! A very enjoyable and informative evening!

We we planning to have a drumming workshop at our September meeting, but unfortunately our invited speaker had broken his finger so was unable to attend and coach us in the art of drumming, but we hope to invite him back to a future meeting. Despite the bad weather and lack of speaker, we still managed to meet and have a very enjoyable social evening. We ran through the arrangements for our stall at Queen’s Park day the following weekend, encouraging everyone to get baking and for those who couldn’t bake, there were lots of other ways to get involved, including the setting up/taking down of the gazebo and serving on the stall.

We also took the opportunity to present Alison with a gift from Darryl from Natural Elements after he had judged her wax melts to be the winner!

Our WhatsApp group was awash with positive feedback about our August meeting when Darryl and Pete from Natural Elements London came to demonstrate how to make beautiful wax air fresheners, decorated with pressed flowers and leaves and scented with essential oils. Darryl began by telling us about how he started experimenting in lockdown and how he now sells his scented candles at markets across South London. While Darryl was giving his introduction, Pete was busy heating up the soya wax and preparing little pots of a wide range of essential oils, so the room was soon smelling wonderful! We got to work designing our air fresheners using the amazing collection of pressed flowers and leaves that were provided. We then mixed our chosen fragrance into very hot oil and had to wait for it to cool enough to pour into moulds, and then quickly (in 30 seconds) transfer our pressed flowers onto the wax. The end result was a stunning array of designs which Darryl took away then finish off for us before posting them back. All in all a very enjoyable and productive evening!

The sun shone for our summer picnic in Jan’s beautiful, secluded garden. This year the Committee decided to provide all the food and drink, so all members needed to do was just turn up! There was a great turnout and everyone enjoyed a very convivial evening. At the beginning of the evening we were joined by lots of flying ants, but they soon decided to move on! Thank you to all who attended and an especial thank you to Jan for once again sharing her garden with us!