Art and Baking groups preparing for Christmas 2023
June 2023 Flower Festival
Ladies with Llamas on our August Outing 2023
Fun, friendship and community
Whitley WI is a large and lively group of women. We have a busy programme of meetings and events which are designed to attract and involve the varying ages and interests of all our members. For a flavour of what we do please see our monthly newsletters.
We are always delighted to greet new members and can assure you of a warm and friendly welcome. Our committee members will introduce you to fellow members and make you feel really at home.
Our meetings are held at 7.30pm in Whitley Village Hall on the first Thursday of every month. Drop in and be sure of a welcome.
Join a Sub-Group...make new friends.
Art, Walking, Craft, Baking Beauties, Book Club, Scrabble, Garden Interest, Darts & Bowls. Please see Subgroups menu for more information.
Whitley WI members ‘Relit Their Fire’ and let it ‘Shine’ when 23 members went along to the Northwich Memorial Court to watch a musical written by Tim Firth and performed by a local Musical Theatre Company. The musical entitled ‘The Band’ follows the story of 5 teenage girls who have a love crush on a boy band. Missing the bus, they never got to see The Band but exchanged friendship wristbands and vowed to stay together for ever. This didn’t happen, but 25 years later, one of the girls won some tickets to go to see The Band in Prague. They got together again and off they all went, had too much of an adventure and again missed the concert.
So an evening full of fun Joyous uplifting and moving was enjoyed by all based on the music of ‘Take That’, with a happy ending. We weren’t allowed to take photos… So sorry none here.
Anne Toll and her family had invited all members of Whitley WI to a garden party in their beautiful garden, full of spring colour and ablaze with rhododendrons and azaleas. Anne, helped by Annette, had done a great deal of preparation with different eating areas, in the sun or in the shade, with plenty of seating for everybody and a delicious buffet which different members of our WI contributed to.
Annette provided a very generous raffle, with lots of prizes, all beautifully presented in gift bags. This raised £212.12 which will be donated to St Rocco’s Hospice, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary of opening this year and is a charity close to Anne’s heart, and much appreciated by all of us. Thanks so much to Anne, John and Harry and Annette for a really enjoyable afternoon.
Walking Group – in May we walked around Marbury Park on a lovely sunny day. The dell was full of bluebells, though some had passed their best, and the wild garlic was an array of strongly scented white flowers. A couple of dogs were having a great time splashing about in the stream. We continued down Marbury Lane and followed the path toward the Flashes but turning off to go along the leafy avenue of bushes and trees with the Flashes on the left. Eventually we reached Marbury Road again which we followed back to the car park after a lovely walk and plenty of chatter. We had our lunch at Spinner and Bergamot.
Book Club – Our May book was a crime thriller ‘The Whole Truth’ by Cara Hunter – one of series about DI Adam Fawley. A very different read for us, a detective story with two main themes, with lots of other stories going on in the background. A female Oxford professor being accused of sexual assault by a male student alongside DI Fawley retracing an old case when the perpetrator, who’s always maintained his innocence is released from prison. An interesting discussion and our group had different views – the average score was 6.5 out of 10
Art Group – the theme for our May meeting was ‘Insects’. Some of our regulars weren’t able to join us this month, but our members still produced some lovely pictures, some of them to be completed at home
Baking Beauties
Our members took a break from baking, and visited the very highly rated Poppie Rose Tearooms in Northwich. We enjoyed an exceptional Afternoon Tea with a lovely assortment of sandwiches, perfect scones with jam and cream, and 5 delicious small cakes each. 11 of us had a very sociable time, thanks to Jonty for organising this trip.
Annette has been busy organising a photographic competion over the past few months, with some technical support from Jean. She invited Sue Bentley, a trustee of CFWI and an ex President of Whitley WI , to be the judge and she came along to announce the results and to award the prizes. She told us that she had a very difficult job deciding which picture was the winner for each of the 5 categories.
We had entries from 21 different members, with a total of 73 photographs. Members were shown all of the entries in each category, and Sue then told us which was the category winner. Each winner received a beautiful ‘Hidcote Lavendar’ plant and also a £10 gift voucher for Smith’s nurseries.
Annette presented Sue with a beautiful plant, a pink variety of scabiosa especially for bees, as a thank you.
The winning entries are shown below
A single flowerhead – Sue ClementsA seedhead – Annette MinorGlorious Insects – Ann O’BrienWeather effect on a plant or tree Pat Sharp Pond or streamside water – Jean Waite
We welcomed 33 members and 5 visitors to our May meeting. Our speaker was Anna Sanders who talked about her charity “Knickers to Poverty”. She told us of how she had visited Uganda and was very moved by the poverty which she saw and was particularly affected by the conditions for the women there. Many women did not even have any knickers to wear, a particularly difficult and embarrassing situation at the time of their monthly periods.
She was moved to set up her charity and has returned to Uganda several times. She is always made very welcome and has got to know individuals leading various charities there who she knows will use any money she is able to send them very effectively. The ladies there really appreciate the gifts of knickers which she has taken/sent from donations she has been given. She showed us videos taken on her visits. Whitley WI gave her a donation
Our refreshments included a slice of special cake to celebrate VE day – cakes made by different members to the same recipe did taste different! Members were busy signing up for the many events being organised by Whitley and CFWI. After refreshments we voted on the resolution ‘Bystanders can be Lifesavers’ and a show of hands indicated we should ask our delegate to support the motion. We also announced the results of the photographic competition (see separate article).
The competition for ‘A lingerie item’ was won by Annette
