W.I.

May's meeting was a discussion on the Resolutions that will be voted on at National level later this year. Every year the WI's around the country are invited to put forward suggestions on what subjects  will be campaigned for during the following year.

Out of 91,000 suggestions put forward, these were the  two chosen.

( I suddenly had a thought that there might be a reason I shouldn't blog about this but as its available to anyone who looks on the NFWI website I hope it's OK)
          

Alleviating loneliness            

"This meeting calls on every WI and the NFWI to work alongside health and social care providers and their local community to raise awareness of the causes and impacts of loneliness, thus ensuring better identification of lonely people in order to be able to offer them the appropriate assistance and support".

              

Plastic Soup: Keep microplastic fibres out of our ocean            

"Microplastic fibres are shed from synthetic clothing with every wash and are the main contributors to microplastic contamination of the oceans. The NFWI calls on Government and industry to research and develop innovative solutions to this problem in order to stop the accumulation of microplastic fibres        in        our        oceans."


The president read out the information on both subjects and then we discussed them. We had to  decide how to instruct our delegate to vote. Either for or against each  subject or to leave it to their discretion after they had heard more of the debate at the National meeting.

I really should have done some research on the subjects because I always find it difficult to take in information when being read to, preferring to read things for myself .

We discussed the fact that with funds always being cut for council health and social services was there any point in trying to work along side them as they probably wouldn't be doing anything anyway! How to identify someone who was lonely was also a point raised, not everyone wants "busybodies poking their nose in!" A fact read out was that loneliness can cost the health service more to treat than treating someone for the effects of smoking 15 cigarettes a day. 

  None of us had heard  about Plastic Soup which is different to the problems with actual plastic (bottles etc) that float around the oceans. Was there a way to capture these fibres in the washing machine so they didn't get into the water system? We all looked at the clothes we were wearing and felt guilty for fleece jackets which are made from re-cycled plastic! one of the worst things for shedding the micro-fibres.

There was too much discussion to have leave time for the quiz that one of the committee had prepared which was sad as I like a good quiz! Then it was time for coffee and cakes and home to my lonely house!! where the cat seemed pleased to see me.


Colin has gone back on the special tablets so they are keeping him in hospital for extra days to monitor him as it's over two weeks since they were stopped . The worrying thing is how quickly the signs of lymphoma returned without the tablets and how ill he is feeling now he's on them again.We both try and keep positive but it's not always easy.

 Thank you for all the comments about the garden and the aquilegia, I'm going to leave them to seed then take out the plants that are covering or too close to other things. It's lovely to have a flower garden ready made so that I just have to keep it organised. We didn't have many flowers at the smallholding, I tried to start flower gardens but too much time was always spent with animals, campsite and the vegetables and we were so dry there that water was for veg first.

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Sue