53 people attended the Village Hall for the September meeting and President, Betty Moxon welcomed 3 guests.

Betty then reported on events that had taken place since the W.I's last meeting in June.  A cream tea held in a member's garden had been well attended in early July with the beautiful garden giving welcome shade on what was to be one of the hottest days of the year.  A very successful cake stall had been manned again at the annual Elstead Marathon and members also enjoyed a coach trip to Chichester and boat trip around the harbour in August.

On 22^nd July Betty attended a reception at No. 10 Downing Street, with a number of W.I members from around the country.  This was specifically for environmental organisations with many people from wildlife trusts, conservation volunteers etc. and Betty was invited as she had just completed the building of an eco-friendly house in Elstead.  She gave an amusing description of the garden at No. 10, complete with a wendy house and trampoline for the junior Browns!   

The speaker for the afternoon was Jill Fry and her talk was entitled "Thursley Common after the Fire". Jill gave a very interesting and informative talk, accompanied by slides. The fire was believed to have been started by a spark from a bonfire on Friday, 14^th July 2006 and quickly took hold having a devastating effect on the Common with many parts being badly singed and gorse exploding. Most of the boardwalks were badly burnt but these are now being rebuilt with disabled ramps. It took firemen many hours to get the fire under control and one bride at the Frensham Pond Hotel experienced ash for confetti which had been blown in the wind!  Remarkably within a few days the grass had started to grow again, seedlings germinated after being overshadowed for so long by gorse and bracken, meadow thistle thrived and orchids bloomed.

The competition "A interesting stone, fossil or find" was won by Ursula Dunlop.

The next meeting will be on 1^st October at the Village Hall and visitors are welcome.

If you feel like a fun and happy night out, with some interesting questions,  Robin Amy will be running another of his famous Quiz Nights at The Clockhouse on