Every 2 years we have a joint meeting with our friends at Dutton WI – this year it was their turn to host it. They gave us a really warm welcome and an excellent speaker, Ma Bread (Liz Wilson) who talked to us about making our own bread. She mixed together all the ingredients at the beginning – you only need strong flour, salt, water and dried/fresh yeast. She then ‘talked as she kneaded’ as this process takes 20 min to move from a very sticky mix to smooth, stretchy dough. Liz explained how she fell in love with breadmaking,…

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Thanks to Pat for arranging our May outing to the museum at Warrington Police Station. Pat anticipated CFWI’s Green Month in June – the trip was arranged to fit in with the No 9 bus, with members joining at Whitley, Stretton and Hatton. A slight hiccup with roadworks, but a great idea. Volunteers showed us round the museum which is spread over many rooms – a very interesting display.funded by voluntary donations We learned about how the police force developed, and its history – the Warrington Police force was established in 1847. We heard about how the role and equipment…

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Baking Beauties Our theme for May was Choux Pastry. Members brought along an interesting and tasty selection of bakes – sweet and savoury. Jonty, as ever, kept us entertained. She not only brought along a very tasty looking choux ring but also her first attempt – rather flat! Craft and Garden Group At our last two meetings we have been busy building Mr H and Mrs L Whitley. Our two scarecrows are now in situ by our Sorbus Tree at the Nature Reserve in Raddel Lane. The few members of the craft group (and Archie) that joined in the fun…

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Our May speaker was David Poppit talking about Christie Hospital. He had worked there as a senior doctor for many years, and described the special atmosphere at ‘The Christie’– a place where all the staff interacted well, without the hierarchy that exists in many hospitals. He reminded us how the understanding of Cancer had developed – the introduction of Xray images and scans enables specialists to have a much clearer picture of what they are dealing with. An interesting and informative talk – the vote of thanks was given by Chris, whose experience in the NHS gave her a good…

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Whitley had a good turn out at this annual event and all enjoyed good company and an enjoyable hotpot lunch followed by a delicious selection of deserts provided by different WIs in the group. Our own Melanie opened and closed the event as Chair of the Village Group and guests included the new Chair of the Cheshire Federation, Ann Beckett. The event included a Bring and Buy stall – there wasn’t a lot left on that at the end of the meeting!

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Book Club – Our novel this month was ‘The Queue’ by Alexandra Heminsley. ‘The Queue’ was for the Lying In State of Queen Elizabeth II. Four strangers met in the queue, each with their own reasons for being there, and each facing issues in their personal lives. They got to know each other as they queued and walked past many significant landmarks in London and established a good relationship with each other that we agree would continue – everybody enjoyed the book, an interesting light read. Walking Group – Several ladies joined the walk for this month in the wonderful…

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Jean, our President, welcomed 41 members to the meeting. She thanked Jonty for organising the successful Afternoon Tea and reminded members that our committee would welcome input from members in planning our 2027 programme. Our speaker was local artist Gill Adlington who soon had her audience totally engrossed as she transformed a canvas, pre-prepared with some black/white background, into a landscape painting, using oil paints and a ‘wet-on-wet’ technique. Unfortunately there was insufficient interest in our planned coach trip to Trentham Gardens. Instead, on the same date 13th May ,we will visit Warrington Police Museum, followed by lunch at Grill…

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Art Group – Painting in the style of LS Lowry Our Art Group had a go at painting in the style of LS Lowry – thanks to Sheila for the idea and for leading our group. Joan had also done some homework and shared some of her thoughts. An interesting change of genre. We each chose a Lowry print to inspire us. Craft Group – Button Card What a wonderful way to spend a spring afternoon. Not only did we have the doors open to let in the sunshine the finished colourful button cards reflected the weather. Melanie gave us…

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We welcomed 45 members and 3 guests, an excellent turnout. Our speaker was Philip Lawrence talking to us about Cyber Safety, an important issue for everyone.He delivered a practical talk where he introduced us to websites where we could safely check out some of the concerns we might have about messages/websites that we have concerns about reading/accessing. We had been encouraged to bring along our mobiles/tablets so we could check out issues with his help on hand and this proved very useful. The Vote of Thanks was given by Pat Sharp Members were reminded that subscriptions for 2026 are now…

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Baking Beauties We explored baking with vegetables this month. We had a mixture of savoury and sweet bakes with parsnips, courgettes, beetroot and butternut squash featuring in the bakes. They were all very tasty and helped everyone meet their ‘5-a-day’ target! Art Group Ann Cookson led our session and gave 8 members tips on how to reproduce a squirrel picture she had found for us and which colours to use. We were encouraged to trace the original, transfer to our watercolour paper and paint our image. Thanks to Ann for a very enjoyable session, some of our results are shown…

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