Gilwern WI held their annual August summer outing ito Bowood House and Gardens in Wiltshire on what turned out to be a lovely summer’s day writes Sally Scott.

Our visit included a guided tour of the house by Peter, who was such an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide and we were then able to wander around the different parts of the 100 acres of landscaped gardens including a visit to the walled garden, Hermit and Cascade Cave, as well as having some lovely food and then being able to just wander leisurely around the amazing grounds and Arboretum. We all really enjoyed the visit and appreciate that our visit showed us only a fraction of what was there and, inspired us to return to continue to explore it further.

We are holding a Social Event on Thursday, October 1 at 7pm in Gilwern Community Centre and are inviting anyone to come and join us for a fun evening of bingo . Lots of prizes available and a great evening promised to see if you have the lucky cards to ‘get a line’ or if you have ‘two fat ladies’ or ‘legs eleven’ on your bingo cards.

For more information about coming to our monthly meeting on Thursday, September 11 or our bingo evening, please get in touch with me ( [email protected] ). Anyone interested in coming along to see what our WI is about, is more than welcome .

Our August meeting was very well attended in anticipation of the talk entitled, "To the Ends of the Earth, Where Plants Come From" writes Jane White.

Our speaker, Andrew Wyton, gave a fascinating talk on the history of the plant hunters who travelled the world in search of exotic specimens. The Tradescants, father and son, were gardeners to royalty and were, in the 17th century, among the first intrepid explorers who travelled far and wide in the search for new plants, father going to Russia and son to the New World. Once they found plants they were faced with the problem of how to get the sample cuttings and seeds back to Britain, as the journey by sailing ship took weeks and was fraught with danger.

Apart from severe storms there was the problem of hungry rats on board, helping themselves to the plants and seeds. The problem was solved eventually, by another plant hunter by the name of Nathaniel Ward, who, in the1830s, had a terrarium in his own home so had a similar one made which was portable and could be taken on board.

One of his finds in Brazil was the Ficus Elastica (rubber plant). It was illegal to bring the plants out of the country so seeds were brought our and given to Kew Gardens. Propagation was so successful that newly grown plants were sent to India and helped to develop a successful industry. These travels were dangerous as they were arriving in countries with wild animals, unknown diseases, unfriendly local inhabitants and very different climates.

The Lobb brothers from Cornwall found orchids, the Monkey Puzzle tree, tender rhododendrons, berberis and escallonia but Thomas had a very serious leg injury while David Douglas who had the Douglas Fir named after him, fell into a bull pit in Hawaii. Robert Fortune found tea plants, sent them back to Britain but was attacked by pirates. George Forest went to Tibet and fount the sorbus plant and Pieris Forestii but was chased by the Chinese, impaled his foot on a bamboo, lost everything but still continued to hunt.

Ernest "China" Wilson discovered the Handkerchief Tree, broke his leg in two places and his servant was an opium addict so not much help! These plant hunters are not the well-known explorers that we've all heard about like Marco Polo and Sir Walter Raleigh but they were no less courageous in their search for interesting species and those of us who love our gardens owe them a huge debt of gratitude for the huge range of flowers and plants that we enjoy today.

During our refreshment break Andrew judged the monthly competitions. Flower of the Month was won by Richard Vaughan's lovely rose, followed by Helen Colwell and Margaret Reardon. The Exotic Plant competition was won by Des Ruck with Judith Vicary, second and Judy Griffiths third.

The talk at our next meeting on Monday, September 15 will be given by Judith Vicary on Bailey Park and the Britain in Bloom competition. New members and visitors are made very welcome so come along and spend a few enjoyable hours with friendly people in the Mardy Hall (Llantilio Pertholey Community Hall) at 7pm.

As the long hot days of August rolled on and we entered a fourth heat wave, members of the Llantilio Crossenny WI gathered at the beautiful home of one of the members for the annual picnic writes Sheryl Westoby.

Our thanks to the family for hosting our event. The setting was sublime as we whiled away the afternoon with tea and fizz, cakes aplenty and yummy sandwiches. Some members took advantage of the fabulous swimming pool, whilst others walked around the lovely garden and admired the views.

Some were very content to sit under the pergola and relax in the gorgeous surroundings. It was a perfect afternoon of conversation and relaxation in halcyon Monmouthshire. A raffle was held and over £100 was raised for ACWW, a WI charity that supports women in rural poverty all over the world.

The warm Wednesday late afternoons of August were taken up with rehearsals for our musical theatre entry for the ‘Gwent’s Got Talent’ WI event in October. We are under the direction of Sheryl, one of our members who is a keen singer and performer of musicals. It’s a shame that most of us don’t share these talents but we have been infected by the sheer enthusiasm of our director and are improving week by week (from a bit of a low base it must be said!).

We meet on the second Wednesday of every month, 7pm at Llanvapley Pavilion. If you would like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact Sue the Secretary, at [email protected] or on 07768280251.

Please note that the talk entitled ‘Music and the Brain’ has been moved to the October meeting ( October 8 at 7pm). Consequently, our next meeting on Wednesday, September 10 at 7pm is now “Dance, Dance, Dance” with Claire and Johnny. This is a fabulous opportunity to learn some dance moves (standing up or sitting down!) and to have some fun.