Rae Fowler, standing in for our president who was unfortunately not well, was pleased to welcome one new member and two visitors to our meeting, and went on to report that the garden party had been a great success, with fine weather and good food in a very pretty garden.

Burcot Fete was very well attended and the cakes on our stall were all sold before the close of the afternoon.

October is going to be a busy month. We held a craft fair last Saturday and our 75th WI birthday party will be held today (Wednesday) at which we are expecting about 80 guests at the village hall.

On October 25, the autumn council meeting will be held in Stourport. Our Christmas shopping outing is to Shugborough on November 30, our annual carol concert will be held on December 2 - the venue is to be confirmed - and Worcester has arranged a Christmas shopping outing to Chester on December 6, names on relevant lists, please.

Our speaker for the afternoon was Michaela Greenhalgh, on behalf of the Severn Trent Water Authority. The area it administers is entirely landlocked, serving 8000,000 customers and 3000,000 homes, collecting water from homes, schools, hospitals, factories and offices, with enough pipework to go round the world.

Severn Trent also supports Water Aid by helping to provide access to clean water in areas where it is unfit to drink. It was a very stimulating talk, full of interesting and little known facts, clearly and enthusiastically presented, with excellent slides. Our next meeting will be our birthday celebration, but our November meeting will be on Wednesday 9, to which all will be welcome.