A capacity crowd attended the Christmas Shopping Evening held in the Primary School on 17th November.
  There were plenty of trade stalls offering their wares with many Christmas Gift ideas for all.
  There was a Guess the name of the Bear, which was won by Ann Rycroft and a grand raffle of over 40 prizes. Refreshments were provided which included cheese & wine.
  The Committee would like to thank everyone who helped to make it a successful evening including all the girls (big & small) who manned the refreshments and raffle, all the Stallholders with their 15 stalls, the donators of Raffle prizes, flowers and refreshments. A big thank you to Sedbergh Primary School for allowing us to have use of the Hall & Kitchen and to Dennis Whicker, Town Crier extraordinaire for his input and everyone that supported us.
  Over £400 was raised for Funds for which we are grateful.
  The following Raffle Ticket numbers were not claimed. Please call in between 0900 & 130 on Monday, Wednesday or Friday to collect your prize. Orange 86, 160, 221, 87, 21, 215 & 16 and yellow 91. The Committee

  Some thoughts on the season of Christmas from John Hartley: 'We can hardly help hevin' a gloomy thowt or two at this part o' th'year, but Kursmiss comes to cheer us up a bit, an' he's nooan ov a gooid sooart 'at can't be jolly once i' th'year.
  Ther's noa daat a lot on us finnd consolation aat o' th'Kursmiss jollification - it's just a bit ov a sweetener afooar all th'noats begin commin' in, an' aw dooan't mean five paand noats. It's th'coil noats, an' th'gas noats, an' tax papers.
  Whenivver ther's a knock at th'dooar, yo may venture to put yor hand i' yor pocket, an' happy he must feel 'at can allus finnd as mich theer as'll do.
  But it's time enuff to think abaat that sooart o' thing when it comes. We've plenty nah to think abaat plum puddin' an' rooast beef, an' aw hooap 'at ivverybody 'at reads this may hev enuff an' to spare.'
  And I echo this greeting to you all from John Fairfax-Blakeborough in his Life in a Yorkshire Village 1912:
  'Ah wish ya a merry Kessimas, an' a happy new year/A pocket full o' money, an' a cellar full o' beer/An' a gooid fat pig that'll last ya all year.'  Michael Park

  As always, the Remembrance Day service at St Andrews Church was extremely well attended. The last post was flawlessly played by Keith Wood, cornet player with the Town Band, who also played again at St Andrew's, Dent in the evening. The sermon was given by Carole Goatham the Vicar of the United Reform Church. The Rev Goatham came to this parish recently and is also a member of the town band. The roll of honour was read this year by Dennis Whicker who is due to retire shortly from the police. That's ok, as long as he is not giving up producing the Lookaround. The ceremony continued outside at the memorial. Wreaths were laid in honour of the fallen by representatives of the Armed Services, the Fire Service, Police and St John Ambulance. Sedbergh School CCF band completed the morning playing and marching through the town lead by Alan Lewis. It's marvellous to see both young and older members of the community paying their respects in this way. Long may it continue, lest we forget.                     Sandra Gold-Wood

  We met at Firbank Church Hall on November 2nd.  Mary Silva presided welcoming members.  A warm welcome was given to a new member Tanya Hoare.
  Our retiring Treasurer Barbara Axford was presented with a Thank You card signed by members for taking care of our finances so professionally for over 20 years.
  Liz Coupe was thanked for planning the 2007 programme.  It promises to be another year of interesting speakers and topics.  We were reminded of forthcoming events.  Our Domino Drive, the Carol Service at Firbank Church when our signing group will be performing, and our festive meal at Thorns Hall.
  Following the business meeting Mary introduced Janice Longmire who runs her own hat hire business near Ulverston.  In 2000 she started with sixty hats.  She now stocks five hundred.  Janice gave us tips and advice on how to go about achieving the perfect look for that special occasion by choosing the correct style to suit your face shape, and the right colour to match your outfit.  We were invited to a 'Try On' session from a selection of hats brought along by Janice, leaving us in anticipation of an event to wear 'That Hat'.  Barbara Axford expressed thanks to Janice for her expert advice.
  The competition 'My Favourite Hat' was won by Sheelagh Dennis's with Mary Stainton second.  Still on the theme of hats the social half hour was musical hats.  Bridget Postlethwaite was the winner, when she was left wearing the hat.  Next month we meet at Thorn's Hall for our Christmas celebrations on December 7th at 7.00 for 7.30 pm.  The competition is for a homemade Santa.                 A. H.

  The November meeting was, as usual, the Annual General Meeting.  Anne Petyt, our President, welcomed a good attendance of members and also gave a special welcome to Gillian Price, our W.I. Advisor.
  The Secretary's report gave a résumé of the excellent speakers we have been privileged to hear and reminded us that members have participated in a variety of Federation events.  Our Treasurer presented a healthy financial report which was adopted.
  Anne expressed her gratitude to Linda, our retiring Secretary, who has worked so efficiently to enable meetings to run smoothly, also to Dorothy, our Treasurer, who has resumed duties following her illness.  The rest of the Committee and other members were thanked for the essential jobs they do.  Anne stressed that every member is important and thanked Jenny and Florence for their commitment over the years.
  Gillian Price guided us through the next part of the meeting and we were all happy when Anne agreed to be our President for another year.  There are three new Committee members - Pauline Mather, Pat Ramsden and Denise Thomson - who, we are sure, will bring in new ideas.
  Pat Ramsden thanked the outgoing Committee warmly for ensuring that meetings are well-organized and interesting, also for well-planned social events.
  Following the business we were all ready to enjoy a Jacob's Join supper.
  Our festive meal this year is on December 13th at Thorns Hall.  The new W. I. Year begins in January so, if you are interested in becoming a member, do come along and join us.  It has been decided to change the monthly meeting date to the FIRST Wednesday in every month, so the January meting is on 3.1.07 at 7.30 pm in the People's Hall Committee Room.                                    M. F.

  It was time for reflection as President, Catherine Sugden opened the November meeting and also the AGM. We listened to excellent reports from Catherine and Secretary, Gill Iannou. It reminded us just what a busy and interesting year it had been. Treasurer, Dorte-lis Powell confirmed that our finances were in a healthy state due to some hard fund raising during the year. The elections for new committee and President, kindly presided over by Mrs Sally Blackburn, were fairly straight forward. Three members stood down from the committee namely Gill Iaonnu, Freda Meakin and Wendy Cooke. Catherine Sugden agreed to stand again as President and Kate Cairns is joining and taking on the role of Secretary. Stella Bannister expressed thanks to the committee and to everyone who ensured the smooth running of Dentdale WI.
  Nancy Murdoch gave the report on the Competitions and said that seventeen members had entered the competitions over the year and one member had entered every competition. The cup was presented to Pat Allen. Nancy then gave the report on the Memorial Hall refurbishments. Nancy was thanked by Rita Corpe.
  Following on from the more formal half of the evening, we were then treated to a talk and demonstration by Pip Hall on Stone Carving. Pip had carved the stones for the Poetry Walk in Kirkby Stephen and talked through the design and procedures with us. She spoke briefly
about her commissions and then carved one of the letters on stone that she was currently working on and we all marvelled at the accurate and rhythmical way her hands tapped out the letter. During our tea break we shared pieces of a Taylor's of Harrogate fruit cake which Gill Iaonnu had won in the monthly puzzle in the Federation News letter. News was given that a few days previously the Dentdale team had gained third place in the pub quiz and just two points behind the winners. So, again we are keeping to our very high standard!
  The competition during the evening was won by Jenny Pilgrim and our visitor Sally Blackburn won the raffle prize.
  Our last meeting of the year will be a dinner in Stone Close with quizzes and a small present for everyone and we hope it will be a good start to the festive season.
  Our proposed programme for the New Year promises some good evenings ahead in 2007!

  Humble pie!! Humble pie!! Large helpings for me, and lots of apologies to two of our lovely members. We did not celebrate Mary Bateman's 80^th birthday at our last meeting, we celebrated Mary Cargill's 90^th birthday! I can only say that I had the right Mary in my mind's eye and I certainly find 90 hard to believe. I made another mistake in my last report too but so far nobody has picked me up on this one. Tom Lehrer did not sing "The Leaping Nuns". Peter Cook did.
  This month we held our AGM, so this will be a very long report! After approving the minutes of the last meeting which were read by our super-efficient Minutes Secretary, Valerie Cann, we moved on to business matters and news of some recent activities Some of us had recently enjoyed the autumn quiz at The Bull and although the competition this year was too stiff for us we had lots of good laughs and a good supper. Dent WI were among the runners up. Congrats to them. Clearly they were better than us at identifying the pictures of historical figures. We did find it really difficult (NB not 'really, really difficult'), to distinguish between Henry VIII's many wives. We had thought that we would try a new venue for the quiz this year and opted go to the Cross Keys at Tebay for a change, but they were full so it was Sedbergh's Bull again. We heard reports later that the 'eats' there were not nearly as good as at our usual venue. Thus we were quite pleased at the outcome and have vowed to curb our wanderlust next year.
  The next report was from our very reliable Treasurer, Anne Macer. Everything in her report was 'hunky-dory', though as Anne explained we had a smaller amount to carry forward to next year as we had spent a considerable sum this year on making sure that Sedbergh folk had boiling water readily available. We firmly believe that money is for spending and not for sitting in the bank. Anne has ensured that our finances have been in good order for the last ten years but with many other calls on her time has reluctantly decided to step down. Thank you Anne. for your dedication and tolerance of us lesser mortals. You certainly deserve a well-earned break and I will try not to make too much of a mess of the books from now on.
  The next report was from our bell-ringing Secretary, Sue Sharrocks. Year after year Sue almost single handedly devises a wonderful programme of activities for us. She reviewed the past twelve months for us with grace and humour. She reminded us of what fun we have had (as if we could forget!) and had us looking forward to treats in store. Thank you, Sue!
  It was a hard act to follow but that is what our President, Shirley Richardson had to do. How often have you heard it said "It's all down to the man (or in this case 'woman') at the top"? We are so lucky that Shirley is willing to take the helm for yet another year of fun, friendship and service (and baking birthday cakes). We really do enjoy ourselves and are always happy to welcome new members. Indeed, three of our new members are joining the committee. Welcome to Barbara Kooper, Edith Robinson and Avril Hobson.  Don't say you weren't warned! Shirley thanked everybody for their support and especially retiring committee members, Anne Macer who had looked after our finances, Majorie Bramley who had looked after our competitions and gently kept us on the strait and narrow, and Joyce Swann who had made sure that no important occasions were overlooked.
  Following all this serious business we were entertained by one of our own members demonstrating the prestigious skill of arranging flowers while explaining how she had made many resolves in her life among which were,  a) never to join a WI, and b) never to give a flower arranging demonstration. She shall be nameless! Persons paid money to buy raffle tickets to win these creations. The lucky winners were Joyce Swann, Pam Fenton and Brenda Nolan. We enjoyed a delicious tea provided by the committee, contemplated our forthcoming Christmas Lunch at Thorns Hall, and voted Majorie Henson winner of the competition for a pressed leaf. (I have just telephoned my informant for this information, and I asked her "What kind of a leaf was it?" To which she replied, "Oh, I don't know. It was brown, dead and pressed flat!!"
  Now, we look forward to seeing lots of you at our open meeting on January 9^th at 2-00pm in the People's Hall when we shall welcome Nick Henderson and his Birds of Prey. Please come.                                                   WFU