THE ladies of Eckington WI enjoyed their first meeting of 2016 with a celebration of Twelfth Night. Whilst not quite following the traditional wassailing associated with Twelfth Night (a ceremony that involves singing and drinking the health of trees), we did our best by enjoying locally made lasagne, puddings and a game of Call My Bluff. We did manage a tenuous link with wassailing & Twelfth Night though in playing Call My Bluff as one of the words used was ‘MASAR’. A masar is an excrescence found on a maple tree and also describes a wooden bowl made from maple; the masar bowl use declined during medieval times as wassail bowls began to replace masars.

Coming up in January we have two evenings of social skittles and a coffee meet at Pershore. Our next meeting is Wednesday, February 3 at 7.30pm at the Village Hall where Frances Benton will be demonstrating her ‘Passion for Pearls’. Visitors are welcome £4.

For more information, visit our Facebook page (search Eckington WI) or our website at eckingtonwi.moonfruit.com

BARBARA EVANS