THE Aberhonddu Angels recently hosted a ‘camp’ style weekend, offering WI members a weekend’s ‘Angelic Tonic’!

The brainchild of Sarah Ross, president of Aberhonddu Angels, the weekend brought together the twinned groups of the Powys Angels and the Devon group calling themselves ‘Gin and Jam’. Links had been forged between the two when Sarah met members of Gin and Jam at the annual WI ‘Tea and Tents’ event.

The event was staged over the weekend from Friday, September 15 to Sunday, September 17.

WI members from several clubs in the Brecon area, the wider Powys area and Devon were welcomed with a hot meal, on their arrival at Garth Village Hall on the Friday evening. This was soon followed by a ‘speed dating’, getting to know each other session, a mind boggling quiz and finally and aptly enough a gin tasting hour presented by Gin and Jam.

Tents and woollies at the ready, after a very sociable evening of fun and laughter, the ladies braved the elements and fell exhausted into their makeshift beds for the night.

A 7 am wake-up call started Saturday off promptly followed by a dawn yoga session led by local instructor, Rob Baldwin. With little time for breakfast the ladies were soon busy involved in a flower workshop, making flower crowns tutored by Louise a member of Gin and Jam. Following a tasty lunch, members enjoyed further flower crown making, yarn bombing, embroidery of a keepsake tablecloth and medieval board games. During the day and evening were welcomed local WI members to participate in the activities. Later in the afternoon, five members of the recently disbanded Garth WI visited and as well as enjoying afternoon tea, retold memories of their past club days. The excitement of the evening was soon upon members, bringing a medieval banquet, a hog-roast style meal with many members dressing in the costume of the period. During the meal members were entertained by speaker Mark Griffin, who, dressed as a medieval courtier retold members the etiquette and stories behind participating in a medieval banquet.

Sunday saw a very excited group mastering the skills of archery tutored by Wolfie and his partner, from Hero Horse Archery, Wolfie, a professional archer, regularly secures roles in film and TV as a result of his archery skills. Throughout the weekend there were competitions in the regular WI style – decorate a goblet; design a banner; and of course bake a cake! Each member was asked to bake and bring along a cake which not only served as dessert each meal but which were judged by fellow members. 25 cakes arrived and over the course of the weekend most members sampled most cakes. Not a good advert for the waistline and everyone was caked out by Sunday afternoon! After the votes were counted the winning cake, a lovely lemon drizzle with amaretto and marzipan was baked by Lydia Jenkins, a member of Aberhonddu/Brecon WI.

Finally it was time for everyone to say goodbye and sadly everyone packed up their belongings, cleared the hall, and left for home. But not before paying a final visit to Garth local primary school, where the gate and fence were yarn bombed in appreciation, for the use of their car park over the weekend.

The weekend was a resounding success, enjoyed by everyone who attended. Thanks must go to Sarah and all the girls from Aberhonddu Angels who worked so hard to make the weekend a success. Thanks also to the members from across Devon and Powys who travelled to enjoy the weekend with them.

An Angelic Tonic it certainly was!

Aberhonddu Angels meet on the 1st Wednesday of every month. You can find us on FB Aberhonndu Angels WI. https://www.facebook.com/pg/AberhondduangelsWI/posts/?ref=page_internal