Next in our series of interviews is a Q&A with Cllr Pippa Goldfinger who was elected Frome Town Mayor in May 2012.
Q: What is your highest priority for your time in office?
A: My highest priority is to increase public participation in all aspects of the community and with the Town Council itself.
Q:What's your vision for Frome over the next few years?
A: To improve the physical appearance of the town, especially the centre. Establish the Neighbourhood Plan so that future developments in Frome are of a high standard and we get the right economic balance – Frome must not become a dormitory town! Also to increase community engagement.
Q: What is the most challenging aspect of being mayor?
A: Dealing with stuffy protocol!
Q: What is the biggest impact the government’s austerity measures will have on Frome?
A: Both Mendip and Somerset councils have pulled back funding in many areas, leaving Frome Town Council to pick up the pieces. This often seems unfair.
Q: What do you think Frome could do to encourage greater financial investment/development?
A: We have already made a start by employing a new and talented economic regeneration officer with great experience who is both excited and enthusiastic about working in Frome. We are also one of the government’s front runners in the ‘Neighbourhood Plan’ – where the public get to shape the future development of Frome.
Q: How do you plan to engage with more people, actively get people building communities we are proud to share & live in?
A: In our September newsletter we will include projects proposed by members of the community which the public can vote on to receive grants in order to carry these proposals out. Our aim is to get people involved in rather than commenting on community projects. We also currently run ‘working groups’ where the public help us to shape policy and carry out projects using their expertise and enthusiasm. The Town Council is compiling a database of all community groups in Frome so that people who want to get involved can join an existing group.
We’ve also invited people to come and speak at the start of Full Council meetings and Committee meetings. It would be great if the W.I. came along at some point to give us a presentation on what you are upto.
Q: Why will you be different from any other mayors?
A: All mayors are individual but in recent years Frome mayors have broken from tradition to reflect both their personalities and the changing face of Frome. I intend to follow this model.
Q: Why should we be interested in a town mayor? what can you do which will make a real difference?
A: The mayor can provide a focus for the public and can communicate what the Town Council is trying to achieve to the public. It’s a community role. If you’re interested in your community you should be interested in the mayor and your town council
Q: Are you excited about waving for hours in the carnival procession?
A: I will be waving graciously as a mayor should, but please look out for my entourage!
Q: And finally, a very WI question. What is your favourite cake?
A: It’s got to be a ‘Tarte de Naranja’ a Spanish almond and orange cake from Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean Cookery.
For more information about the mayor and Frome Town Council have a look at their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/FromeTownCouncil
Thursday, 5 July 2012
Wednesday, 4 July 2012
Wells WI Summer Party
Last night a couple of us went over to Wells to visit the WI for their summer party. Lucy Silk, the Wells president, has been really supportive during the set up of the Frome branch so it was great to see her in action.
The evening was themed 'At the Races', there was Pimms, homemade elderflower, a bake off of strawberry themed items and mouse racing. Yes mouse racing, I didn't know that was possible either!
The Wells ladies were all very welcoming and it was lovely to attend another branch and see how they operate.
After a few Pimms and some cake, Frome WIer Muriel Lavender treated us to some of her poetry. She looked fab (as always) and was hilarious.
So all in all a brilliant evening - thanks Wells WI!
Monday, 25 June 2012
Competition Time - Design the Frome WI Banner!
Many WI groups have banners that they display at public events. As Frome WI is a new branch, we currently don't have a banner, and we thought that it would be fun to design and make one as a group.
The plan is to hold a competition to select the design of the banner. The chosen design will then be made by the branch at a craft-a-long picnic.
Guidelines for the competition are:
- The banner will be mounted on a T-frame (see examples in the links below)
- Maximum size of 1 metre x 1 metre
- The design should be suitable for a group project (eg different parts could be made by different people?)
- Please include brief details of how you imagine it will being constructed
- The committee will pick the top 3 designs
- These will be shown at the July meeting for members to vote on
- All voting will be done blind / by secret ballot
- Deadline - 9th July 2012
- Email designs to wi.frome@gmail.com
- Contact a member of the committee if you cannot email the design and want to submit it by hand / post
Have fun designing!!
Example photos of WI banners on the internet:
Saturday, 23 June 2012
June meeting minutes... another wonderful evening full of talented people and of course some wine and cake!
Thursday 20th June 2012
Venue – United Reform Church Hall, Whittox Lane Frome
Present: Eileen Hurd (WI advisor)
Laura Francis
Storm Fagan
1. The meeting began at 7pm and approximately 40 people attended.
2. Storm welcomed members to the meeting and informed members that there were some important dates to be shared.
3. Kilmersdon WI have invited 6 members to their annual dinner. Anyone interested to contact Storm. Storm will post details on the blog. Members without PC access can phone Storm.
4. Gilly will be co-ordinating an entry to the Frome Cheese show. All interested to contact her.
5. Storm introduced the curator of the Bath fashion museum Rosemary Harden. She then delivered a talk to the members about the influence of sport in fashion over the last few decades. She used slides to support her talk, making links between items such as the development of ladies swim wear with lower backed dresses, riding jackets with a more tailored look on the high street and the advent of the shorter tennis skirt with the beginnings of the mini skirt on the catwalk. At the end Rosemary fielded many questions from our members. Rosemary handed out leaflets for the museum and encouraged all to visit. Immediate feedback from the talk was very positive.
You can visit the website for more information http://www.museumofcostume.co.uk/
6. The original plan was to have a cooking activity based on the sport theme, however a last minute change meant that afterwards all ladies who could knit or crochet took a group to teach others their skills. Some learnt basic knitting, whilst others learnt how to crochet flowers!
7. The meeting finished just after 9pm.
WI minutes
General meetingThursday 20th June 2012
Venue – United Reform Church Hall, Whittox Lane Frome
Present: Eileen Hurd (WI advisor)
Laura Francis
Storm Fagan
1. The meeting began at 7pm and approximately 40 people attended.
2. Storm welcomed members to the meeting and informed members that there were some important dates to be shared.
3. Kilmersdon WI have invited 6 members to their annual dinner. Anyone interested to contact Storm. Storm will post details on the blog. Members without PC access can phone Storm.
4. Gilly will be co-ordinating an entry to the Frome Cheese show. All interested to contact her.
5. Storm introduced the curator of the Bath fashion museum Rosemary Harden. She then delivered a talk to the members about the influence of sport in fashion over the last few decades. She used slides to support her talk, making links between items such as the development of ladies swim wear with lower backed dresses, riding jackets with a more tailored look on the high street and the advent of the shorter tennis skirt with the beginnings of the mini skirt on the catwalk. At the end Rosemary fielded many questions from our members. Rosemary handed out leaflets for the museum and encouraged all to visit. Immediate feedback from the talk was very positive.
You can visit the website for more information http://www.museumofcostume.co.uk/
6. The original plan was to have a cooking activity based on the sport theme, however a last minute change meant that afterwards all ladies who could knit or crochet took a group to teach others their skills. Some learnt basic knitting, whilst others learnt how to crochet flowers!
7. The meeting finished just after 9pm.
Friday, 22 June 2012
June meeting pictures
On Thursday 21st June we held our latest WI meeting.
Sport and Fashion
We had a talk by Rosemary Harden. Rosemary is curator at the Fashion Museum in Bath where she has worked for over 20 years. Rosemary has organised a number of exhibitions including Women of Style (2000), John Bates Fashion Designer (2006) and The Diana Dresses (2010).
This year the Fashion Museum have an exhibition on Sport and Fashion and Rosemary described how sports clothing has had a significant impact on the world of women's fashion, for example the link between tennis and the mini skirt, and horse riding and the tailored jacket.
(Credit: Fashion Museum)
For more information and to find out about visiting the Fashion Museum to see the current exhibition along with the incredible archive of garments, please visit the website.
Hooks and needles
We spent the rest of the evening in yarn joy, with experts showing novices how to knit and crochet. Thanks to everyone who brought along yarn, needles and hooks and a special thank you to the lovely lovely people at Future Publishing for providing us with bundles of yarn, hooks, needles and patterns. They have also provided us with a FromeWI special offer on The Making Spot. Woohoo!
A bit of needle felting with Gilly...
Ladies getting stuck in...
If you would like to join in more regular knit chat online then please join our Ravelry group. We are thinking of setting up some knit alongs/hook alongs for us to craft together from the comfort of our sofas.
If you are interested in meeting up in person to craft then please get in touch either via Facebook or email and we'll set something up.
Thanks and thanks again!
So as always, thanks to everyone who came along. It's such a lovely way to spend an evening - chatting, learning and eating cake.
Thanks to those who brought drinks and a huge thank you to the ladies who baked cakes. The cake standard is AMAZING and I for one look forward to them every month! I only managed to get 2 pictures as they were all gobbled up really quickly!
Next month
The July meeting will take place on Thursday 19th July and will be vaguely Olympics themed.
Sport and Fashion
We had a talk by Rosemary Harden. Rosemary is curator at the Fashion Museum in Bath where she has worked for over 20 years. Rosemary has organised a number of exhibitions including Women of Style (2000), John Bates Fashion Designer (2006) and The Diana Dresses (2010).
This year the Fashion Museum have an exhibition on Sport and Fashion and Rosemary described how sports clothing has had a significant impact on the world of women's fashion, for example the link between tennis and the mini skirt, and horse riding and the tailored jacket.
For more information and to find out about visiting the Fashion Museum to see the current exhibition along with the incredible archive of garments, please visit the website.
Hooks and needles
We spent the rest of the evening in yarn joy, with experts showing novices how to knit and crochet. Thanks to everyone who brought along yarn, needles and hooks and a special thank you to the lovely lovely people at Future Publishing for providing us with bundles of yarn, hooks, needles and patterns. They have also provided us with a FromeWI special offer on The Making Spot. Woohoo!
A bit of needle felting with Gilly...
Ladies getting stuck in...
If you would like to join in more regular knit chat online then please join our Ravelry group. We are thinking of setting up some knit alongs/hook alongs for us to craft together from the comfort of our sofas.
If you are interested in meeting up in person to craft then please get in touch either via Facebook or email and we'll set something up.
Thanks and thanks again!
So as always, thanks to everyone who came along. It's such a lovely way to spend an evening - chatting, learning and eating cake.
Thanks to those who brought drinks and a huge thank you to the ladies who baked cakes. The cake standard is AMAZING and I for one look forward to them every month! I only managed to get 2 pictures as they were all gobbled up really quickly!
Next month
The July meeting will take place on Thursday 19th July and will be vaguely Olympics themed.
Special Offer for Frome WI
As last nights spontaneous knitting and crochet event was such a success the nice people over at The Making Spot have created a special offer just for Frome WI (with the patterns we used included).
From now until midnight Sunday only get any of the patterns on this page FREE with the code FROMEWI There are knitted and crocheted flowers and some beginners and simple patterns for you. www.themakingspot.com/wifrome
You can also download a lot of free patterns including the ones we had last night from Ravelry
Thursday, 21 June 2012
Old skool rules
Jessica Johnson used to work on the WI Life magazine. She now publishes her own blog The Vintage Cake Spot among other things.
Check out these very useful vintage WI cookery tips she has discovered and then visit her blog for more vintage wonder.
"During the research of The Vintage Teatime, that I’ve been only too happy to soak up the chapters on ‘Culinary’ or ‘Cookery’ Hints which were a mainstay of self-published cook books by the WI over the last sixty years. More time-saving ways with potatoes, milk, eggs and pretty much all cupboard staples available to the home-cook in her respective decade. Here’s the best of the bunch…
CABBAGE To prevent cabbage boiling over, add a small piece of dripping or lard. Adds good flavour, too.
CAKE tins. When buying new cake or meat tins, run them inside out with a little lard, then put into a cool oven for an hour or two. This prevents rust and cakes will turn out without sticking.
EGGS you’re doing the separating thing and you drop some shell. Rescue little shards with a large piece of egg shell which acts as a magnet cum lifeguard.
PANCAKES and Yorkshire puds get even tastier with 2ozs of butter thrown into the batter before cooking.
PEARS are much improved by being cooked in a little lemonade rather than water. Think Nigella and her cola ham.
MINT for your summer mojitos can be chopped much more quickly and finely with a pinch or two of sugar in the mix.
ORANGE peel dried and hung up in a paper bag can be used as an excellent flavouring stewed with dried fruit.
REVIVE a drooping lettuce by standing its roots in a little water
THICKENING Put flour in a jar and bake in a slow oven until it just starts to change colour. When cool this can be stored and used for thickening sauces and gravies as it won’t turn lumpy upon adding to hot liquids. What a relief – that’s the white sauce sorted"
(source: the vintage cake spot)
Check out these very useful vintage WI cookery tips she has discovered and then visit her blog for more vintage wonder.
"During the research of The Vintage Teatime, that I’ve been only too happy to soak up the chapters on ‘Culinary’ or ‘Cookery’ Hints which were a mainstay of self-published cook books by the WI over the last sixty years. More time-saving ways with potatoes, milk, eggs and pretty much all cupboard staples available to the home-cook in her respective decade. Here’s the best of the bunch…
CABBAGE To prevent cabbage boiling over, add a small piece of dripping or lard. Adds good flavour, too.
CAKE tins. When buying new cake or meat tins, run them inside out with a little lard, then put into a cool oven for an hour or two. This prevents rust and cakes will turn out without sticking.
EGGS you’re doing the separating thing and you drop some shell. Rescue little shards with a large piece of egg shell which acts as a magnet cum lifeguard.
PANCAKES and Yorkshire puds get even tastier with 2ozs of butter thrown into the batter before cooking.
PEARS are much improved by being cooked in a little lemonade rather than water. Think Nigella and her cola ham.
MINT for your summer mojitos can be chopped much more quickly and finely with a pinch or two of sugar in the mix.
ORANGE peel dried and hung up in a paper bag can be used as an excellent flavouring stewed with dried fruit.
REVIVE a drooping lettuce by standing its roots in a little water
THICKENING Put flour in a jar and bake in a slow oven until it just starts to change colour. When cool this can be stored and used for thickening sauces and gravies as it won’t turn lumpy upon adding to hot liquids. What a relief – that’s the white sauce sorted"
(source: the vintage cake spot)
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