CLUB NEWS

Wriggle Valley Players

The Wriggle Valley Players amateur dramatics group has been running for over 30 years, over that time producing countless plays and pantomimes to entertain the benefice. With no activity through the lockdowns, members were keen to get back on stage and the Peter Pan pantomime in January this year broke all previous records for ticket sales. Although Covid outbreaks in the cast made rehearsing tricky, and no one knew if it would actually go ahead until the last minute, luckily it did, and received very good feedback from the sell-out audiences. The next pantomime will be Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with rehearsals starting in September. Club members normally rehearse on Wednesday evenings at Leigh Village Hall.

Their next performance, ‘An evening of short plays,’ will take place at 7.30pm on 15 and 16 July at Leigh Village Hall; the entertainment includes performances by all ages within the club. Tickets are £10 each and include a two-course ploughman’s supper; they are available from www.wrigglevalleyplayers.co.uk or Leigh village hall on Wednesdays 6 and 13 July 7.30pm–9.00pm.

The adults will be performing short comedy sketches and a play from the Little Grimley series, ‘Strictly Sex Factor on Ice,’ a side-splitting comedy based on the Little Grimley Amateur Dramatic Society who face yet another threat to their existence – reality TV shows have ravaged their Saturday night audiences. Never one to take these things lying down, Chairman Gordon has devised a cunning plan to compete head on – their very own live Saturday blockbuster, combining the best of all TV formats. What could possibly go wrong …

Our youngest members will be performing a magical tale inspired by the movie, ‘A night in the Museum.’ The exhibits come to life and go on an adventure to save the museum and themselves but is it all too late?

The teenage group have been devising their own play influenced by the game and movie Jumanji but, in their version, the most unlikely group of school children get sucked into a game of Cluedo. Can they solve ‘who did it’ so they all get to go home? The younger members have developed and rehearsed their plays with ‘Power of Performing’ run by Amy Parker, which is closely affiliated with the Wriggle Valley Players and runs on a Friday evening in Leigh during term time, for children aged 5 to 17.

For more information about the club please contact: wrigglevalleyplayers@ gmail.com

Or for more information about the Power of Performing contact: powerofperforming@gmail.com

At our May meeting, Amanda Whitlock came and spoke to us on ‘Health & Wellbeing’. Amanda has her own company, Total Wellbeing Matters, covering Mental Health and wellbeing consultancy work and training. The issue of mental health is very current, so it was good to hear her views on how we can improve our own mental health. She was keen to emphasise that self-care is not the same as selfish. She explained that if we can try to think of good events which have happened to us and not let our brains keep reminding us of things that are negative, we would be much happier. She recommended that we think of three positive things before we go to sleep at night. Amanda highlighted four areas:

What is mental health (it is not a mental illness)

The impact of mental health

What is stress?

How anxious do we all get? She emphasised that ups and downs in life are normal, but we must manage our anxieties and try to develop resilience in dealing with negative aspects of our lives. Often, women are better are talking about their mental health than men; the WI is a good place for us to share our hopes and fears.

We were then given a quiz to do, ‘How anxious are you currently?’ Each section had four questions (a), (b), (c), (d) and then we counted the number of a, b, c, d, answers we had to show our level of stress. This was entirely confidential so none of us knew the others’ answers; I wondered how truthful we all were! She then outlined ‘Five ways of wellbeing’: Connect; Be Active; Take Notice; Learn; and Give out.

Amanda gave each one of us food for thought about how we can improve our mental wellbeing. Thank you, Amanda.

The meeting on Tuesday 26 July is at 2.30pm, when Deborah Clare talks to us on a ‘tiles practical demo’ and on Tuesday 30 August at 2.30pm, Bonny Sartin will be talking on ‘The Labourers Lot. Do come and join us.

Anne Reason

Wriggle Valley Mother’s Union will be holding a Coffee Morning in the Jubilee Hall, Yetminster on Wednesday 14 September 2022 from 10.00-11.30am Come and enjoy delicious coffee and cakes! in aid of MU charities

The Countrymen’s Club Rylands farm, Dorset

10th Anniversary celebrations, Thursday 28 July

We are organising a fun packed day to celebrate 10 years of the Countrymen’s Club here at Rylands farm. Do come

along and help us celebrate. In the evening, Symonds & Sampson will be running an auction of promises.

Auction of promises.

On behalf of the Countrymen’s club and Future Roots. Thursday July 28th

Auction starts 6pm Buyers can arrive from 5pm. Lots of wonderful gifts, unique experiences and vouchers for you to bid on! The Countrymen’s club, Ryland’s farm, Boyshill, near Sherborne. DT9 5PS.

Ph: 01963 210789 for details.

Yetminster & Ryme Garden Club

If you are going to spend an afternoon walking round a garden with the specific purpose of exercising your olfactory receptors, exploring and enjoying a garden that specialises in aromatic and scented plants, then it is important that you have good weather. So, when we went to Keyneston Mill, we were indeed fortunate to have one of June’s beautiful, sunny days with clear blue skies.

Keyneston Mill is home to the fragrance company Parterre. It was difficult to believe just how young this enterprise is. The fifty-acre estate was only acquired by Julia and David Bridger in 2015, initially to grow cut flowers but quickly developing into this unique botanical enterprise which grows plants and herbs to produce a range of fragrances. In addition to the perfume crop fields (where the plants that are grown in commercial quantities, to be harvested and distilled on site), the gardens, which

are open to the public, show case and trial some 1,500 different plants.

To find our way round the parterre – a classical geometric design with six departments for different families of plants – we had a guided tour led by Julia Bridger and one of the gardeners, Rebecca. This was, as they say, a handson experience and we were encouraged

to sniff and to pick and handle the leaves of plants to release their scents.

We were guided round the Padua Gardens where many of the flowers have scented petals. The garden featured the two varieties of rose traditionally used in perfumery, the Rose Damascena and the Mai Rose and were surprised, if not to say in awe, to be told that it takes 4,000kg of rose petals to produce one single litre of rose oil. No wonder perfumes are expensive.

The other gardens are the Fougere where the plants produce more masculine fragrances, such as lavender, moss artemisia and vetiver, and the Spice Garden which produces the ingredients associated with the oriental family of perfumes. Many of the plants here were familiar to use as culinary ingredients, such as fennel, cinnamon and coriander.

It was a fascinating tour and full of surprising information. We saw irises that must grow for four years to develop the rhizomes that will be harvested for distillation and – wait for it – then must be stored for three years before they are used. Indeed, not an enterprise for the faint hearted.

Keyneston Mill is well worth a visit; if it is raining you can always visit the Scented Botanist café which aims to use some of the exotic ingredients produced on the estate. And, of course, there are plenty of buying opportunities. The geranium gin was particularly memorable.

Carol Debell

At the entrance to the Jubilee Flower Festival in St Andrews Church in Yetminster, was this beautiful wheelbarrow display representing the Yetminster & Ryme Garden Society, arranged by Jane Hartwell and Kate Oram.