A beautiful day saw us meeting in President Jane's garden. In addition to our members we were joined by District Chairman Elaine and Rotary President Paul Fleming for afternoon tea.

Ann G and Rotarian Michael Key kept us topped up with "fizz".

The candle of friendship was lit by Vice President Margaret and the International candle by ISO Jan.

After plenty of sandwiches and cake a royal themed quiz was won by Diane Fleming and her team.

A lovely afternoon in good company.

Yvette lit the candle of friendship to welcome everyone to the May Meeting.

After efficiently dealing with the business for the meeting President Jane introduced Liz our speaker for the evening. Her topic – the Heart

Liz explained her diagnostic work and explained that women's heart pains were, of course, different to men's and this, sometimes, meant a misdiagnosis at the time of the pain.

Liz went on to explain the mechanism of the heart, the diseases and symptoms and the reasons for heart problems ; what we should look out for and how we could help ourselves by knowing our own body and numbers
( i.e. waist size, weight, blood pressure, blood and cholesterol levels ).

There was hope for us if lifestyle changes were taken on board, i.e. not smoking, eating healthily, exercising and reducing stress. But be cautious doing squats while waiting for the kettle to boiler – it might be thought you are looking for the Cat!!

Ann G lit the candle of friendship to welcome everyone to the March Meeting.

President Jane then had the delightful task of welcoming our fourth new member for this Inner Wheel year, Donna Barnes.

Ann G has been an active and key member of Church Wilne for many years and President Jane was delighted to present her with a gift to mark her special birthday with a "0".

Following a lovely meal, many of us were trying to guess what the guest speaker was going to talk about, others had a slight inkling as fans of "Kirsty and Phil".
 
With business finished it was delightful to welcome Peggy and learn about her journey with Phil and Kirsty to relocate to a forever-home by the sea. A very funny presentation told us all about the wishes – Georgian, south-facing, big garden etc and then the compromises. Followed by an offer on a house and the wait for a response! Yes, in the end they did get what they wanted, which was something very similar to the property they had left behind in Ockbrook, with scope for improvement and with "a sea view", which was a bonus as they didn't originally actually ask for one. A very successful house hunt for Peggy and her husband.

The candle of friendship was lit and extinguished by Susan V.

President Jane made a presentation to Susan Stalker to mark hers and Graham's Diamond wedding anniversary

President Jane was delighted to welcome Ellie Perry the daughter of Diana Fleming who gave an interesting insight into her time in America as part of her University studies and the impact that covid had on her time.

The teams gathered together and decided on their name. The markers were ready and the quiz masters all set to go. With 9 rounds plus a picture sheet it looked as though we were set for a good night.

Our quiz masters David Corner and Ian Page but what is on the screen?

The markers Ann, Jane, Anna and (not in the photo ) John enjoy a well earnt break

Ann Austin and her team were worthy winners with Margaret Abbott and her team a close second place.

Now what has our quiz master's David and Ian puzzled?

I bet you guessed it.   Michael Key and friends of President Jane formed the team that won the tooth paste squeezer!
 
But the biggest winner on the evening is The Derby Women's Centre with the money raised by the event.

With the start of the New Calendar Year President Jane is halfway through her year as our Club President. Looking at the programme for the next few months it is going to be very busy.

Jane G and Kathleen have been attending our meetings as guests and we are now delighted to invite them to become members. President Jane welcomed them to the Club and presented them with their membership badges.

We were also pleased to welcome two representatives from Derby Women's Centre, the charity supported by President Jane in her year. They gave us an overview of the work that the Centre does. A cheque was presented together with toiletries with the promise of a further donation later in the year. Double knit wool and patterns were also given for the Centre "Knitting Group" to help us with our international work for knitted children's wear and blankets. For more details check their website at: www.derby-womenscentre.org.uk

Presentations were also made to Kathleen for a special birthday and Yvette for a special anniversary.

A busy evening was completed with seven members' reading extracts from literary works that had special significance to them.

The Candle of Friendship was lit and extinguished by Ann A.

With no meeting in December the members enjoy having a Christmas Meal together. We each bring a secret Santa present and enjoy an evening of fellowship - that is until the quiz. Split into three teams there is fierce competition between us. One of our teams came out the clear winner coming third of the teams that were taking part in the pub – well done ladies!.

Santa collected in the Secret Santa's and then said hello to President Jane.

Having gathered everything in Santa was busy making sure that everyone received a present and not the one that they brought.

Exhausted by all his work Santa was rewarded with a beer but how does he drink this and keep his beard intact??

"A Christmas Welcome" – an afternoon of flower designs with Linda Smith, a NAFAS Area Demonstrator (National Association of Flower Arranging Societies).

2pm and the chairs are filling. The raffle tickets are being sold. The mulled wine is going down well. Linda begins, hushed expectation which was richly rewarded - the audience is spell-bound.

The raffle prizes are drawn and ten very happy ladies each leave with a spectacular and very beautiful flower arrangement. Thank you, Linda. The finished arrangements:

With a happy glow at a successful event, and a good amount raised for President Jane's charity, in the spirit of Inner Wheel, the members begin clearing up. The dishwashers are ready with the last two loads full of cups, saucers, glasses and mugs - all is going well, until disaster strikes. The dishwashers will not start. After much scratching of heads, the cause is discovered - NO RINSE AID. What do you do but put on the marigolds and get out the tea towels. All hands to the task.

A wonderful day.

The candle of friendship was lit and extinguished by Jan.

This meeting is all about Christmas and the spirit of Christmas seems to have gone to your Club correspondent's head as the photos were somewhat poor, so are few and far between, apologies for that.

Business is kept as brief as possible giving plenty of time for fun and friendship. A table laden with donations for the Salvation Army Christmas gift appeal for children between 0 and 18 years.

Pauline has been busy and demonstrates what we are aiming for while we all eye up the table of goodies available for our decorations. Lots of fake snow and candles.

Everyone gets stuck in with amazing results.

The candle of friendship was lit and extinguished by Anna.

The plan was to have a talk by Derby Women's Centre, President Jane's charity for her year. But the best laid plans go awry when illness strikes. The presentation of the cheque must wait for another day but the toiletries were gathered in. People were very generous as usual.

Two presentations needed to be made. Ann A received her prize for the star sunflower (see September) and Jan has a "land-mark" birthday to come.

Whilst we are all pretty good at chatting there is a limit and Diane stepped in to fill the void with her knowledge of "Bingo calls". But was this a fix as President Jane and Secretary Jane were both winners!!

And what, we wonder, will we be doing in November with a cleaned glass jar with a screw lid!!?

The candle of friendship was lit and extinguished by Liz.

Rotary President Paul Fleming came to talk to us, reciprocating for Jane's visit to Rotary the previous day.

It was fascinating and humbling to learn of his early military career with the army and the impressive machinery he was charged with looking after as a young man. A man born and brought up in Kent he did not let on whether he is a Man of Kent or a Kentish Man. All dependent on which side of the river you were from. Nevertheless he is now very much a man of the "Midlands" now.

The "Book Bus" is the international charity that the Association of Inner Wheel GB & I are supporting this inner wheel year. A charity since 2008 it has worked to improve literacy in Zambia, Malawi and Ecuador. As a Club we have agreed to support this charity as part of our "international" objectives. Home – The Book Bus.

In addition we will continue to support Water Aid, with a tabletop sale probably in March and NPAC with our joy bags, toy bags and knitting.

IPP Ann during her time as President set a challenge to grow the tallest sunflower. Each participant purchased three seeds from Cheryl the organiser. Some were most definitely more successful than others. Of Yvette's three seeds all germinated. One was eaten as it popped its shoot above ground, by slugs. The second grew well until it just suddenly keeled over. The third trudged ever upwards but very slowly. By the time of the judging it was tall but not a flower head in sight. Not too certain what happened to Margaret K's but save to say the one judged did not originate from any of Cheryl's original seeds. It had an impressive sixteen sunflower heads, however.

Meanwhile Anna's, Ann A's and Jane M's were cherished by their growers given copious amounts of water, food and love (?). They reached giddy heights. Ann A's measuring in at 9'1" a clear winner.

And the winner is....

On a more serious note a collection was made at International Service Officer Jan's request for the Pakistan Floods appeal and a significant sum was sent to the Disaster's Emergency Committee.

Although not meeting in the summer we still do get together.

A lovely circular walk was arranged with Rotary, the Satellite Club and Inner Wheel. Starting and finishing at Ilam Youth hostel and National Trust premises, the humans and their furry friends had a lovely relaxing walk.

August - A BBQ amongst the Graves

A rotary event to which Inner Wheel members were invited saw us together in Church Wilne for a walk around the nature reserve and a BBQ in the grounds of St Chad's Church. Thanks to Ann A for the photographs.

In the meantime, the sunflower seeds planted for Immediate Past President Ann's final event of the 2021-22 year were growing with judging taking place in late August. More details of the winners and "others" later.

The main event of the summer for President Jane and Rotary President Paul was the picnic and piano concert in the garden of Derek and Pauline Sheehy-Smith. Entertainment was provided by their daughter Ellie.

Jane was quick off the mark with the first event of her year taking place on Sunday 3^rd July – "Meet the Presidents".

A joint event with the new Church Wilne Rotary President Paul Fleming held in the beautiful garden of Pauline and Derek Sheehy-Smith. Jane and Paul made us all feel very welcomed to the Jubilee Themed event. Many of the members rose to the challenge with their patriotic garb and crowns. Many helpers made for a memorable afternoon with music by Ellie, excellent food and the rain mainly held off. We all certainly enjoyed the company.

Whilst not everyone was able to attend there was a good turnout of members.

Tuesday 26^th July 2022

It was a lovely way to start the new Inner Wheel year for President Jane when she Inducted a new member Ros.

The business meeting was followed by a Musical Chairs Quiz.

Quiz Master Ian Page had set us all a challenge with a possible total of over 50 depending on your knowledge of "James Bond". Diane well and truly rose to the challenge with a fantastic total score but she was followed closely throughout by Jane G, who came a creditable second. The majority were somewhere in the mid-range of the potential scores. I'm sorry to say that the writer of this article (Yvette) and Rosemary were not "shaken or stirred" to a spirited score but both bravely sat at the lower end with Rosemary narrowly winning the booby prize of a collapsible wine glass. (Hopefully it doesn't collapse with wine in it!) It was all enormous fun and undertaken with much laughter including the complex moving of seats between rounds – hence the "Musical chairs".
Many thanks to Ian for all his hard work with the music, the pictures and the ribbing that he endured over one particular question.

The deserving winner.

And an equally happy also ran.