The Clifton Women's Institute

One hot summer’s day,   Rose (newcomer Zamira Fuller) longs to see her mum (Beth Orton) but nobody will take her.  Her father (Muhammet Uzuner), struggling to cope, disappears to work, her sister (Sophie Burton) waits to meet a boy on the local golf course and her brother (James Stuckey) is preoccupied at home communing with spirits online. Taking destiny into her own hands she sets off alone deep into England’s forgotten edge lands to reach her.  Rose’s odyssey provokes her disconnected, fractured siblings and parents into a poignant reunion to face their challenges together. Clifton WI has been asked to help support women in UK film-making by publicising a crowd-funding project. Light Years, made by independent film company Third Films, is directed by BAFTA award-winning film maker and photographer Esther May Campbell and features the acting debut of acclaimed singer/songwriter Beth Orton. It is planned to show the film at the Watershed on Saturday 24 Septem...

Just two weeks till our next Clifton WI event, which offers an excellent opportunity to try out Nordic walking with a beginners' lesson amongst friends, led by the experts! If you can walk, you can Nordic walk - but Nordic walking increases your fitness levels far, far more than 'ordinary' walking and not only burns lots more calories but will tone your entire body, especially waist and triceps, so what's not to like? To ensure there are enough instructors and poles for everybody we do need numbers by Monday morning 25 July , so it's important that you let us know by emailing cliftonwi@gmail.com if you haven't already put your name down at a Clifton WI meeting. For more information go to http://www.bristolnordicwalking.co.uk/nordic-walking/benefits Walkers meet near Cafe Retreat on the Downs (just beyond the water tower) and tuition will start promptly at 7.30pm. If you're not walking you can join us at the King's Arms any time from 8pm for a social...

There's room for a couple more from Clifton WI at the Bowls and Bakes event which Gloucester Road WI are hosting tomorrow evening from 7pm. Entry is £3 and it takes place at the St Andrews Bowling Club on Derby Road, which leads off Sommerville Road near the top corner of St Andrews Park. You can buy tasting tokens and vote on your favourite entry - categories include several types of cake and bread, biscuits and pies, so what a great chance to try out some new flavours ... and isn't it always true that somebody else's home cooking is such a treat! (Plus I've heard a rumour of Pimm's ...) Meanwhile you can lose a few of those cake-induced calories by trying out lawn bowls, tutored by the experts at St Andrews Bowling Club. You must wear flat shoes (or bare feet?) though!

The monthly e-newsletter is emailed to all current members, last year's members and visitors from this year and last year. We've had a number bounce back from the last mailing though, so if you think you should have received a newsletter but can't remember seeing it, please update your email address in an email to thecliftonwi@gmail.com The newsletter is normally sent out the weekend before each meeting of Clifton WI and even if you're just looking at this website and haven't yet visited us, we'd be very glad to send you a copy so just let us have your contact details and we'll put you on the mailing list and hope that one day you'll come to one of our meetings! No email addresses are ever passed on to anybody, and it's pretty rare that we'd send you more than the one email a month with the newsletter attached.

Our next meeting is an introduction to Nordic Walking. We've been taking names at the last two meetings but if you're not yet on the list would you please email and let us know you'd like to join in so we can ensure there are enough poles and instructors. Walkers will meet at 7.30 on Wednesday 27 July outside Cafe Retreat, near the Water Tower. After instruction and a short test walk on the Downs, we'll be quenching our thirst at the King's Arms on Blackboy Hill. However, if you would rather just enjoy a social evening without the effort of Nordic Walking then Lorna and others will be waiting in the pub from about 8pm. www.bristolnordicwalking.co.uk

Bees are under threat, but their main problem in the urban environment is not colony die-back or the varroa mite, but starvation! This is what Clifton WI learnt from David Maslin of Bristol Beekeepers, who gave a funny, idiosyncratic and hugely informative illustrated talk. David explained that the increase in urban beekeeping had exacerbated an acute shortage of food sources lost to development, but we can help them by sowing wildflowers wherever we can find space. Surprisingly, it also seems that bees cannot access the nectar in many modern hybrid garden flowers, so very often we're not helping them as we think we are. We also learnt that bees like blue flowers best, followed by yellow and white, but they do not see the colour red very well so they aren't attracted to red blooms.