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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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15 Whitley members enjoyed the Village Group Spring Lunch at Antrobus Village Hall. The Group Committee, led by our own Melanie, organised an excellent event with a delicious lunch, great company, and a Bring/Buy Sale. The meal was an enjoyable hotpot, followed by a selection of delicious desserts, with contributions from each of the WIs in the Village group. Our Whitley ladies stood out when they donned the Easter Bonnets they had made at our March Craft Group meeting.

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Baking Beauties Baking Beauties had a theme of“Nuts” in April with members incorporating a variety of nuts into their bakes. Pistachios, Brazils, almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts made for a tasty and colourful display. The advantages of using pre-shelled pistachios was discussed after one member sustained a minor shelling injury! Craft Group A great turn out for the April Craft Group. 16 members turned out to make a fresh flower display for their Easter tables. Annette brought along a great range of flowers and foliage – with a base/oasis to hold our arrangements in place. Annette gave us all a few…

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We welcomed 36 members and 4 visitors to our meeting and it was great to have one of our own members as our Speaker for the evening. Mary Lancaster spoke about ‘Numbers, Needles and Jam Butties’, sharing her story of living with Type 1 diabetes. The picture shows Mary with the off duty Air Ambulance Dr who saved her life on the flight home from Gran Canaria. Anne T thanked Mary for a very interesting and informative talk. Mary plans to donate her fee to the Air Ambulance. Members were able to sign up for a large number of different…

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Darts Group – A good season for us and we reached the Cheshire Final at Winnington, held on 12th March. We had a successful start to the evening, winning our matches against Winwick and Dutton, but the lost to Little Leigh 2-1 in the semi-final. They went on to win the Final, leaving us in joint 3rd place out of 12 teams. Congratulations to our team. Book Club – We had a change of genre, non fiction and an older book – ‘Notes from a Small Island’ by Bill Bryson. Not our favourite read, but an interesting discussion. Walking Group…

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Thirty of our members attended our March Main meeting where our guest speaker was Kim Smith from Radio Northwich talking about ‘Music is my first love’. She was a brilliant and entertaining speaker who talked about growing up in the 60s with vinyl records, black and white TV, tape to tape recorders – minimal technology but a fabulous range of music. For our May outing this year we plan visit the British Ironworks at Oswestry. Members and their family/friends are welcome and at this stage we need ‘expressions of interest’ so we can decide on the cost and viability of…

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We welcomed 30 of our members to an Afternoon Tea to celebrate Whitley WI’s 87th birthday. The committee had been busy preparing sandwiches, savoury snacks and nibbles, scones and cakes – probably the best Afternoon Tea in the area! We always have a really special cake, made by one of our members. This year’s cake, beautifully decorated with sunflowers, was again made by Ann O’B and Helen C cut the cake for us. Helen has made a huge contribution to Whitley WI, not to mention Cheshire and National, over the years. Members had enjoyed completing a table quiz during the…

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