Jenny – WHITLEY WI

January Art Group Meeting

The Whitley WI Art Group met on Zoom in January, and 9 members shared pictures of flowers that they had been working on – with 3 others sending along some of their pictures even though they couldn’t join us at the meeting. It was a great opportunity for people to share their work and describe the different techniques and resources they had used . It was good to hear how much people are enjoying painting – partly for what they are learning but also for the relaxation they are enjoying while becoming absorbed in their work. Several of our members…

Christmas donations to CARE UK

We were overwhelmed by the generosity of our members at our Christmas Party. We had decided that rather than give gifts to members this year we would ask them to donate to a local charity, CARE UK, whose mission is to help those in need wherever they are. They are working very proactively to support those referred by local agencies, those who have temporary problems because of the impact of COVid and are being helped by weekly donations from the foodbank in Appleton Thorn, refugees from Afghanistan who are currently being housed in local hotel rooms and refugee families who…

Christmas Celebration Meeting

It was lovely to see so many happy smiling WI members at our Christmas Celebration meeting. Taking Covid precautions into consideration, we all sat at Christmas decorated tables of eight. Awaiting each of us was a WI Pen, a Christmas card designed and painted by Joan and a free raffle ticket. As we chatted we were served Dorothy’s home made mince pies and a glass of mulled wine. During the evening we played Christmas Bingo and Melanie showed us how to make an origami star out of a gold coloured paper napkin. With much laughter, most of us somehow managed…

Art Group meeting

Our Art subgroup met up on Monday 8th November. Our leader, Karen, sent her greetings from Dubai so Susan and Jean led the session and shared a lesson they had recently had on their Beginners Watercolour course at Warrington College. The room was a hive of industry as everyone produced their own ‘Boat Picture’. For our beginners there were some new techniques to learn, and even our more experienced artists joined in the fun. A good time was had by all as we shared our ideas and mistakes. Everyone had a picture to take home, though some of them were…

Whitley Women’s Institute Remembrance Day

Our Sorbus tree, planted in November 2019 at the entrance to Whitley Nature Reserve, to celebrate the centenary of the Cheshire Federation of Women’s Institute, has been decorated on numerous occasions. This year, the centenary of the Royal British Legion, the craft group decided that it would be a special time to try and involve not only the group but the whole WI in doing something for Remembrance Sunday. Way back in July it was suggested that we knit 500 poppies, attach them to netting, drape and fasten to the tree. Yes, it was a big ask, but a simple…

November meeting – Annual meeting with Bollywood and Diwali

At our Annual meeting we elected our next years President Melanie Barber and thanked Chris Jones current President for all her hard work in the last three years. The rest of the evening was mainly spent celebrating Diwali including having a wonderful demonstration of Bollywood dancing performed by the Bollywood Dance for Fun group from Sandiway. As you can see from the photos most of us enjoyed having a go as well.

October meeting – Saving the Planet

Cllr Matt Bryan from Chester West and Chester Council was going to talk to us about how CWAC propose to address the climate emergency on a local scale. However due to illness he was unable to attend. Instead Joan with the aid of her daughter Susan, stepped in to talk to us about how we as individuals can help lessen the effects of climate change. She navigated us through the confusion of the different sets of recycling symbols and informed us of how we can now recycle soft plastic, which is not at the moment collected by our council.…

Big Green Week

The Positive Planet sub-group organised a plant exchange and bug hotel building to mark the start of the Big Green Week on 18th September. WI members and their families enjoyed a lovely afternoon searching for suitable materials to make the ‘bugs’ comfortable! A big thank you to Susan Lynch and husband John for opening their garden to us and providing a venue for our bug hotel. The tea and cake was a lovely reward for all the hard work.

September meeting – Chocolate!

Building on the success of our August meeting Whitley WI met again in September and were treated to hand made chocolates courtesy of our speaker Andrew Thwaite who has recently taken over the York Cookery school and is an internationally renowned chocolatier. Andrew made the whole process look effortless and the end results were certainly very tasty.

The Whitley Olympics

To celebrate our first face to face monthly meeting at Whitley Village Hall since August 2020, we decided on a topical theme – the Tokyo Olympics. Pat Sharp organised a most wonderful evening of games, quiz and much more. Lots of smiles and laughter and we optimistically look forward to meeting up again in September.