The last meeting of Grafton CWA for the year was held on Friday, December 9. We have been in touch with our twinning branch at Emerald Hill to see how they have been affected by recent floods- surrounding areas have been hit with a number of floods, affecting cotton crops.

The CWA of NSW Disaster Relief fund will be assessing how best to distribute additional flood relief in the coming days and weeks. Branch members donated money to the flood appeal at our Christmas lunch which followed the meeting.

Also at our meeting, we heard an update from Lesley about the spread of Varroa Mite and she also reported on the Christmas tree industry and how they are doing it tough this year due to the heavy and constant rainfall. Narelle thanked members for all their cooking this year and is planning to run organised cooking demonstrations next year, on the second Monday of the month.

Lyn gave us information about the Archibald exhibition which is coming to Grafton Regional Gallery, and we hope to organise a visit and morning tea in January. She also showed us the Galah magazine, which had in it an article by locally born author Bridie Jabour, titled “Grafton’s Derry Queen”. Ruth gave a handicraft report, thanking members and letting us know about next year’s Branch entry.

We heard an interesting report from Wendy about Christmas in Latvia, our country of study. It sounds very festive, with their traditional Christmas dinner held on December 24 and comprising of at least nine different dishes. Latvia also claims to be the home of the first Christmas tree.

We would like to thank anyone who has supported us in 2022 and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Anne McLellan