SI Edinburgh is a friendly club, so we try to mix our business and pleasure activities. We can have a lot of fun fund raising or increasing our profile or working with one of our projects.
SI Edinburgh frequently welcomes visitors from other countries usually Soroptimists or their families.
Summer 2023
Anyone for fish & chips?
We had a great time with Darlene and Matt, visiting via a cruise and on their way to SI Convention in Dublin.
We all enjoyed a delicious meal with them at Loch Fyne restaurant on the harbour at Newhaven.
Stitching for Scotland’s History
A visit to the Great Tapestry was the focus for our end of year outing. We are very proud of the Edinburgh members who stitched the panel in the tapestry celebrating the Suffragettes.
Orange Cafe Meetings
Raising awareness of violence against women and girls with our orange cafes also gives us a good opportunity to catch up socially every month.
Christmas 2022
As well as packing and providing gifts and cards for a women’s hostel members were able to enjoy an evening of friendship over a delicious meal. Hosted by President Nikki, past member Patricia joined us. She came to a club meeting before heading back to Spain to tell us about her amazing project which involves planting thousands of trees.
Keeping the Orange Campaign going!
Every 25th day of each month we are trying to meet socially wearing orange to raise awareness in as many public places as we can on violence against women and girls.
And what better place in Edinburgh than the Book Festival!
Face to Face at Last!
A summer outing to check how the donated shrub is growing in Saughton Park was very successful. It was so good for members to be able to meet in person and to catch up after such a long time. Zoom meetings do not give the same opportunities for spontaneous fun, laughter and friendly chat. President Nikki writes:
The weather was very kind to us with the sun shining most of the time which made the Gardens look beautiful. We had a couple of heavy showers but kindly that happened when we were already in the Bistro! The Bistro is a fantastic setting with floor to ceiling windows all around which provided a wonderful view of the Gardens as they were getting a well deserved drink!
The food was great and the company even better – it was a lovely, happy afternoon.
We rounded the afternoon off with a photo next to our donated plant which is looking extremely healthy and , I understand, attracts quite a lot of attention from those in the ‘gardening know how’ As it was the 25th of the month, you will see we also did our bit to acknowledge the campaign saying No to Violence against Women. We were also joined by a potential new member – Janet Fenton – amongst other things a Mentor to the interns at UN House Scotland and friend of Gari and Pat – we plan to keep in touch!
A big thankyou to Marjory for organising the visit and for all her tenacity in getting our plaque finalised – we hope to revisit when that is ready !
PS Have you spotted members wearing orange to mark 25th of each month when we raise awareness of violence against women and girls?
April 2021
We had another fun and friendship evening via Zoom – this time with all things Easter related. It was great to welcome guests, especially former member Carolyn who has now joined SI Kirkintilloch.
Baking Competition judged by Prue Leith and Noel Fielding! Although we couldn’t taste them the cakes looked delicious. Marjorie had provided her own birthday cake with the appropriate number of candles. Needless to say she was one of the winners with the other being Marie, one of our guests. Prizes were a Bake Off mug and a pair of oven gloves.
Easter Bonnet Parade
A variety of decorated hats were worn each of which seemed to have a great deal of history! President Elect Nikki ‘borrowed’ a hat from her husband to decorate.
And once more we had a quiz thanks to Dorothy with readings from Christine and the very funny stories from Kathleen.
Altogether an enjoyable evening with lots of laughter.
January 2021
Everyone was looking forward to an evening of enjoyment and fun. The weather had not been so great so even though we were on Zoom we tried out a virtual quiz, welcoming guests from France and Italy to join us. Dorothy devised a lethal quiz for us, with most of us finding out we didn’t know as much as we thought we did!
This was followed by readings from members, including one written by our very own published author and poet Kathleen.
Some of the quiz questions – can you do better than us?
What year was Robert Burns born? Who did he marry? How many old pennies in a guinea? Which planet is nearest the sun?
In which year did France abolish the guillotine? Which country was first to give women the vote? Who is the patron saint of housewives?
A very wet Summer Social gathering July 2020
As we are slowly coming out of strict lockdown measures some brave and hardy members met up for a picnic lunch at newly restored Saughton Park where SI Edinburgh has paid for a Loquat tree/shrub. The park is looking splendid after its makeover especially the bandstand which provided some shelter to share a socially distanced drink.
Socially distancing in the bandstand and admiring our donated loquat in the rain