THE way people dot their i’s and cross their t’s means more than people might think, says leading graphologist Christina Strang, speaking at West Buckland WI’s September meeting.

Positioning of the dot above the letter ‘i’ can reveal clues about personality traits, as members discovered when analysing a short paragraph of their own writing.

Much discussion and laughter followed as members looked with fresh eyes at their handwriting to discover if they were meticulous, creative, inclined to rush or were perhaps forgetful.

However this was just one element in understanding handwriting and would not usually be considered in isolation.

Christina said that handwriting is more than just words, and is a tool that can be used to understand human behaviour.

She explained that handwriting reflects personal history and development as well as the current way an individual sees the world.

Analysing all the different elements of writing, including positioning on the page, relates directly to personality and behaviour. To illustrate this she provided real but anonymous examples that showed a person suffering with mental anguish, a person who kept people at a distance and a person with abandonment issues.

Despite living in the digital age, Christina explained that handwriting and its analysis continues to play a key role in education and recruitment. To prevent the use of AI and plagiarism some universities are beginning to ask for handwritten dissertations and employers are turning to hand written applications for the same reason.

As a graphologist for many years Christina uses her expertise to help individuals with personal development and gave examples of how writing can change to reflect both mental and physical conditions.

In particular she has studied the way handwriting changes for people with Parkinsons, with handwriting becoming very small, very quickly. She also carried out research with Poole Hospital working with patients with potentially early signs of heart disease. She discovered that early or pre symptoms could be detected in the patients handwriting.

While keen to undertake more research of this type, funding has not been available.

Carole Smith thanked Christina for a fascinating talk on the way aspects of our personality are revealed through handwriting.

West Buckland WI president Christine Wombwell thanked members for their support at the afternoon tea party in August to celebrate 110 years of the National Women’s Institute.

Members were reminded that all the usual WI activities now resume following a short summer break. These include the craft club, coffee and chat, indoor kurling, the book club, the walking group and the monthly board games meet up.

The WI skittles team will also swing into action during the autumn led by Di Goring.

Long serving memberJean Morrish invited all members to attend the annual Macmillan coffee morning at Dukes Court retirement homes in Wellington, 10 am on September 25.

The meeting closed with tea and biscuits.

West Buckland WI meets at 7.30 pm on the second Tuesday of each month at the village hall, and new members are always welcome. The next meeting is on Tuesday, October 14, and the speaker will be expert cake maker Anne Pickard from The Icing Centre in Weston -Super-Mare, who will be demonstrating how to decorate cakes to leave a lasting impression, in easy steps.

If anyone would like to visit or join West Buckland WI, contact Christine Wombwell on 01823 652863 or 07736712273.

THE council met on Monday, September 8. Draft minutes from that meeting can be found on the Council’s website: www.wellingtonwithoutparishcouncil.gov.uk

Meetings normally take place every second Monday of the month throughout the year (other than in August) at Sampford Arundel Village Hall, from 7 pm. Members of the public are welcome to attend and are invited to raise any issues related to the parish.

The next meeting is scheduled for 7 pm on Monday, October 13.

The following areas are within the parish: Ford Street, Voxmoor, Thorne St Margaret, Standle, Wrangway, Wellington Hill (including Monument Road), Pleamore Cross, Middle Green and Holywell Lake.

Contact details can be found on the Council website or you can email Parish Clerk Neil Dalton on: [email protected]

Wellington Monument – A brief reminder that children aged 16 and under can visit Wellington Monument for free until the end of September when accompanied by a paying adult. See the Council’s website for further information.

HAVING taken its usual August break, the Sampford Arundel Gardening Club started its 2025/26 programme with an insightful talk by David Usher on Gertrude Jekyll, a pioneering plantswoman, garden designer and gardener; a huge influence on the cottage garden style of gardening during the early years of the 20th century, and still impacting garden design today.

David has extensive knowledge of Gertrude, having spent 21 years from 1983 at Hestercombe (18 as head gardener), during which time the restoration of the gardens was undertaken, and with specific responsibility for the Jekyll/Lutyens Edwardian garden. Hestercombe is unique as a Jekyll garden being one of the few (of over four hundred commissions) she designed and planted outside a 30-mile radius of her gardens at Munstead Heath, near Godalming, Surrey.

Gertrude (1843-1932) was a very talented woman who trained as a painter. Her paintings and sketches took inspiration from nature, particularly from visiting Mediterranean gardens in her early twenties. She was influenced by William Morris and became an early exponent of the Arts and Crafts style. Gertrude was also an accomplished silversmith and jeweller, and interior designer. She took up photography and developed her own pictures, using many of these as illustrations in her books, and was a prolific author of 1,000-plus articles contributed to magazines such as Country Life and The Garden.

Gertrude met Edwin Lutyens in 1889 and commissioned him to design her house Munstead Wood a collaboration which lasted throughout her life. Lutyens’ work embraced private houses, government and bank buildings, office blocks, new towns and museums. He designed the Cenotaph in London and was selected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to design and build memorials, tombstones and graveyards.

Gertrude used her own garden at Munstead as a laboratory for trying out new ideas and gardening techniques, such as planting in layers to enable plants to scramble through each other, and developing plant varieties . Overall, she favoured larger plants in borders laid out with cooler pastel-coloured plants at each end moving to hotter (reds and yellows) in the middle. Jekyll’s use of blue and yellow flowers to create a sense of light, and the contrast of cool blue flowers and grey foliage with vivid reds and oranges are recurrent themes in her planting. Some of her signature plants are bergenia, nigella, cardiocrinum, yucca, dianthus, olearia, nicotiana, lilium and magnolia.

Other club business was conducted during the evening, including the presentation of the Margaret Bowen Cup to Patsy Caplan for gaining the most points from entries into the monthly creative corner.

On October 8 the team will participate in the annual gardening quiz for the Pottinger Cup, being held at Hemyock village hall.

The next club meeting is on October 9, starting at 7.30 pm in Sampford Arundel Parish Room, when our talk will be on perennial vegetables, followed by our AGM. Further details on these and all activities from Sue and Nick on 01823 672662.

AT the start of the new Inner Wheel year, district chairman Fran Allen presented a 50th anniversary collar to the president of the Inner Wheel Club of Wellington, Rosemary Wharton.

As a result of the club’s fundraising during the previous year, £450 was given to the League of Friends of Wellington Hospital, £250 to Hamlin Fistula Hospitals in Addis Ababa and £125 to Hope & Homes for Children. Members also donated knitted children’s clothes and quality used clothes and household goods to CR2EE (Christian Response to Eastern Europe) to be transported to Moldova and Ukraine.

CHAIRMAN of the Wellington and District Townswomen’s Guild, Mrs Joyce Jones, welcomed this month’s speaker, Sarah Lithgow, to the monthly meeting at Lodge Close Hall on Monday, September 8.

Sarah is the St John Ambulance Somerset county president as well as its youth lead for Wellington, and gave us an informative, knowledgeable and extremely useful talk on first aid in the home, complete with practical demonstrations.

The vote of thanks was given by the secretary, Jenny Banton, and after refreshments, during which the raffle was held, it was time for the business part of the meeting. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved, the Treasurer gave her report, and we discussed a possible date for our Christmas lunch. One member suggested, and it was agreed, that we actually schedule the lunch for after New Year, as it’s a quieter time.

The next monthly meeting will be our Harvest celebration, complete with silent auction, at Lodge Close Hall at 2.30 pm on Monday, October 13. We welcome potential new members, so do come along as a visitor if you are thinking of joining us.