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.
November 2025 – Main Meeting
We welcomed 45 members to our November meeting which included our Annual meeting.
Our planned speaker was unable to join us, but Christine Gould kindly came along and shared her experience as a volunteer for the Fairtrade Stall in Warrington Market. She set up a mini-stall for our 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.
October 2025 – Subgroup meetings
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.
October 2025 – Main Meeting – Members Night
Thanks to our members night committee who ran the meeting and gave our Whitley Committee a night off. Deborah W was acting President, Mary L acting Secretary and they were joined by Mary H and Liz T. The committee was assisted by volunteers Caroline P and Vanessa D.
The excellent speaker was Joanne Goodwin, editor of Cheshire Life.
She talked to us about her early career in a daily Stoke newspaper, with the pressures of daily deadlines. This was in the days before the widespread use of technology, when women didn’t have any senior roles in journalism. She rose to the role of editor of Cheshire News, a monthly rather daily publication, just as COVID broke out.
She is committed to changing public perception of the magazine from that of ‘elitist’ for the wealthier Cheshire residents to one relevant to a much wider audience. In the Q&A session it became apparent that several of our members had made an appearance in Cheshire Life.
Our speaker had requested delicious WI cakes that all could enjoy . Our Baking Beauties provided a delicious assortment. The competition ‘What Cheshire Means to You’ was won by Mary H with a photo of her wedding many years ago in Cheshire Life.
November will be our Annual Meeting – Susan asked members to contact her if they were interested in joining our committee. We will be entertained by Ben Gage – ‘Collecting Careers’.
October 25 – Village Group Autumn Meeting
Whitley WI hosted the Village Group Autumn meeting , where Nana Funk entertained us with her quirky sense of humour and entertaining singing. She started the evening dressed as a cleaner, stripped down to her very quickly underwear and finished the evening in her sequinned dress as she accompanied herself on a ukulele as she sang songs she had created, including some which were responses to questions our group members had written down for her. A very enjoyable evening.
