WHITLEY WI

Book Club – Our December book was The Hive by Scarlett Brade. A very modern book. The driver behind the story is an Instagram Group – the Hive. Charlie met her boyfriend Lincoln, a famous boxer, on the group. When she becomes pregnant he dumps her, she is attacked and loses her twin pregnancy. She follows their relationship via the Hive and and the story ends when, live on Instagram she kills his new partner, recounts what he had done, and asks the thousands of ‘Hive’ followers if she should kill as well. Not a popular book – but it generated a great deal of interesting discussion about the impact of social media on the people’s mental health.

Walking Group – not a walk, but a very enjoyable social gathering. Ann offered our Walking group wonderful hospitality when entertaining us at her home for a Christmas celebration. 14 of us, old friends and new, joined her and brought along our contributions to a delicious lunch. Ann entertained us with a very different raffle – we were each given several cards from a deck of cards, then Ann worked her way through a matching deck – if she read out your card you chose a prize. If there were no prizes left, you just stole one from another competitor – all good fun. Ann also read out a poem she had on a tea towel regarding rambling that was given to her quite a few years ago from an old WI friend, Dorothy. Thanks to Ann for a lovely get together.

Craft and Garden Group – Christmas Wreath Making

Members of the craft/garden group had a wonderful afternoon at Smiths Nursery in Lymm for the annual wreath making afternoon. With mulled wine and mince pies it really got us all into the Christmas Spirit.

Keep your eyes open around the village, you may well see a craft group wreath hanging on a door or gate.

We welcomed 47 members to our Christmas Party. The committee had worked hard to decorate the room and tables, prepare a delicious buffet, and organise a variety of entertainment . Members were welcomed with wine or nonalcoholic punch and sat at tables of 7/8 – a popular size which made it easy to chat to our fellow members.

After a leisurely meal Susan, our retiring present, was given a gift of a planter as a thank you for all she has done during 2025. We then had a variety of activities

• A quiz – ‘How well do you know your committee?’ We all found out something new about them!
• A ‘steal raffle’. Names were drawn and there were 12 prizes. After all the prizes had been allocated, later winners had to steal their prize from someone else!
• A Pantomime – Committee members dressed appropriately as they took on their roles and read a ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ story, in several short acts.
• Standing Bingo – each given a raffle ticket. All stood up at the start, then had to sit down if their number was drawn, until only 1 winner remained
• Carols – To finish the entertainment each table given a carol which they sang to their audience

The tables decorations had included pretty pansy plants, and members took these home with them as their WI gift. A very enjoyable evening, we had a lot of positive feedback from those present.

Book Club – Our book for November was ‘A Tidy Ending’ by Joanna Cannon, an unusual ‘black comedy’ story. Comments about the book were very varied, with one score of 10, but mostly in the 4-6 range. We did think it gave a good insight into the main character’s autistic tendency which led to an interesting discussion.

Craft Group

Baking Beauties – anything Christmassy

We welcomed 45 members to our November meeting which included our Annual meeting.

We started the evening with the Annual Meeting. Pat shared the Financial Report demonstrating a healthy Bank Balance, while subsidising several events to ensure our members get good value for their subscription. Jean presented the annual report as a slideshow, reminding members about the very varied programmes for our main meetings, for our subgroups and for Group and County events. You can browse through this website to see how busy we have been. We now have 62 members.

Susan thanked the committee and members for their support during the year which has been a busy and successful one for our WI. She is standing down from the President role. Jean was elected as President for 2026, she thanked members very much. Sue R thanked Susan and her committee for all their work during the year.

The competition, for ”A theatre or concert programme’ (linked to our original planned speaker) was won by Annette.

Book club – our October book was ‘The Moonlight Garden ‘by Rosie Hannigan. Views on the book were mixed. Most found it an easy, fairly light read and some felt it was a bit ‘wishy washy’ with not a lot of depth to it. The average score was 6.9.

Walking Group – Several members from Whitley and Dutton WI joined the CFWI fund raising walk around Delamere on National Restart a Heart Day. After a very comprehensive demonstration on how to work the equipment we did a 2.6 mile walk on the paths in the forest. Through the trees we saw the water of The Blakemere Moss and the leaves were just changing into their autumn colours. Acorns and chestnuts were scattered all along the paths crunching under our feet with red fungi popping through the undergrowth. We finished with lunch in the Visitors Centre.

Craft Group – 9 ladies enjoyed an afternoon with Melanie learning how to make our own Cross stitch Christmas cards. We were all given a piece of 14 count Aida to mark the centre and from this worked our design outwards. We had to ensure that the finished design was centered and therefore would fit into our ready made three fold card. Although none of us actually finished our stitching, a new craft for many of us, we all took our pieces home to finish and promised to send us a photo of the finished cards.

Art Group – Last month Joan gave us a fascinating talk about Monet and the Impressionists, and this month we all had a go at copying some of their work, inspired by the wonderful book that Joan put together with her copies of their work. Some chose watercolours, some chose acrylics but we did enjoy the simplicity of this style of painting.

Baking Beauties – Halloween – We held an evening meeting so those who have other daytime commitments could join us. 20 members were there to sample a great selection of bakes with a little duplication. We did have 2 wonderful ‘ghost cakes’ – the same recipe but slightly different appearance – can you spot them in the photo? It was interesting to hear the trouble members had gone to preparing the pumpkins for their bakes – not the easiest task! A very enjoyable and tasty evening.