Members of Dolau Women's Institute (WI) and friends have enjoyed an engaging programme of events in the latter half of the year.

The July meeting, held at Dolau Community Hall, was marked by the making of plans for a presentation to past Dolau founder member Marjorie Ruell for her 100th birthday.

The planned visit to the Blue Moon vineyard had to be postponed due to wet weather.

On the birthday itself, Secretary Chris Jones, together with past member Annette Watkins, visited Marjorie, presenting her with flowers and a card handcrafted by Dolau WI member Debra Coombs, which was signed on behalf of all current members.

After the summer break, the September meeting took place at The Sycamores, Dolau, where artist Dawn demonstrated her diverse skills, including painting and printmaking, enamelling, photography, and more.

A tour of Dawn’s studio showcased her working environment, numerous works in progress, and examples for the members to enjoy.

Over tea, Dawn and her husband Clive shared stories of their adventures in gathering seaweed and other plants for Dawn’s artwork.

Enjoying the pies! (Image: Supplied) Christine Haslock, a member of Dolau WI, expressed the group's thanks to Dawn and Clive.

The October meeting was held at Cilmaenowydd, Llandegley, where Mair Duggan from local business Farmgate to Kitchen Plate welcomed the group to her latest venture—a relaxed café and shop on the farm.

Mair's café/shop features an open kitchen where she demonstrated how to make Hot Water Crust pastry from scratch, producing individual sausage pies.

During the demonstration, Mair spoke about the transformation of a large garage into the café/shop, which also offers her homemade cakes and coffee.

Mair concluded the visit with samples of the sausage pies and a slice of her lemon drizzle cake.

As the group left, they made frozen meat purchases for their own freezers.

Dolau WI Treasurer Janet Edmunds thanked Mair for the interesting demonstration and for sharing the recipe.

Back at Dolau Community Hall for the November meeting, the group began planning their calendar of speakers and visits for 2025 and welcomed back member Diane Lawrence.

They have a post-Christmas meal out planned for January 2025, along with the final meeting of 2024 on December 4, where they will enjoy an evening of hands-on textile crafting.

The members of Dolau WI have much to look forward to.

Anyone interested in joining Dolau WI or attending a meeting as a guest can email dolauwi@gmail.com.