• Irish Eyes are Sighing
  While returning to the house after opening the church one day we met Bill Worthington from South Zeal taking his constitutional stroll. In this picture you'll see Michael pretending to attack Bill with the rather large and very old set of church door keys! We invited Bill in to the house to see the great bargains we had purchased at the Hatherleigh Auction rooms the day before. I do love to chat to Bill as he too is from Ireland and we always have much to reminisce about...sigh!

• Grapevine, Mashed potato, Scissors!

No, these are not answers to crossword puzzle clues! If I had added words like Ankle Rock, Ramble, Heel strut right, you may have guessed I was talking about 'Line Dancing'. I only know this because line dancing was suggested to me as a fun way to keep fit. Although full of good intentions I did not do anything about it until one day while Michael and I were standing at the gate a lady approached. She introduced herself as Jane Peckham from South Tawton - the instructor for the line dancing class at Fairplace Church ! ( South Tawton is such a small village I could not believe I had not met her before!). Jane enthusiastically told Michael that some men also attended her class to which he replied 'I would rather have my eyes gauged out with hot pokers' (don't you find that husbands can let you down sometimes???). Thankfully she had a sense of humour! Not knowing what to expect I brought a friend along to my first session for moral support. Everyone was very friendly and helpful. They had clearly read the line dancing Rules of Etiquette. What a laugh we had for two hours and boy did my leg muscles ache! Undeterred by my two left feet and slow brain cells, I plan to go back for more. It will be a while though before I'll be entering for the Crystal Boots Award!

• Line dancing.to the 'Washday Blues'!!!

South Zeal W.I. meets on the second Thursday of every month at 7:30 p.m. in Victory Hall.

The programme for 2005 is as follows:

February 10 th - Michael Thayer: ' Desert Island Discs'

March 10 th - Janet Shilston: 'Living with burns'

April 14 th - Geoffrey Weymouth: ' The Moor '

May 12 th - Resolutions & Dorothy Stevens: 'Simple Exercise & Nutrition'

June 9 th - Peninsular Medical School

July 14 th - Animal Rescue

August - Outing-Date to be advertised

September 8 th - Lush for life-'Pamper Session'

October 13 th - Margaret Ireland: 'Flower Arranging'

November 10th - AGM & Annabelle Reynolds: Harpist

December 1 st - Christmas Social-Shelly Chapel

Alongside the monthly meeting with speaker, members enjoy a range of other events such as coffee mornings, Cabaret, Carnival and Craft Fair. New members always welcome or pop along as a visitor (50p) to any of the above. For further information telephone Frances Hucker Hon. Secretary, 840347.