VICE-president Beryl Parsons took the chair at the recent summer meeting and asked members to observe a minute's silence for Brenda Dainty, who died in hospital after a short illness.

Brenda had been the hard-working and inspirational president of Drakes Cross WI for almost 11 years and will be greatly missed.

Margaret Anderson, of the Woodland Trust, gave a talk and showed slides. Today, less than two per cent of Britain's ancient woodlands remain and with the help of its 137,000 members, the trust works hard to maintain and restore the more than 1,000 woods in its care, all of which are open to the public.

Millions of native trees have been planted in the last 30 years.

The next meeting will be at 2pm on September 28 when Netta Pearson will talk about WI holidays.