Following our tradition the August meeting was replaced by an evening outing. Melanie had organised a trip to ‘Meet the llamas’ at Hillview Farm in Bradley. The weather was kind to us in this unpredictable summer and about 20 members wandered across to the fairly dry paddocks where we had a lovely warm welcome from Richard and his assistant Jason. Richard told us about how his ‘hobby’ began and gave us lots of fascinating information about his herd and how he links in to fellow llama breeders in America and enters his best llamas in virtual shows around the world.…

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8 of our members attended the annual Literary Lunch at Hartford Golf club. The whole event, for over 160 ladies, had been masterminded by our own Pat Sharp and it was a great success. Local author Sally-Anne Martyn shared her development as an author and her journey into the world of publishing. With some humour Sally-Anne confessed that she enjoys developing the dark side of any story and her first published novel, ‘The Clinic’, is a dark psychological thriller. One of our members read this book over a couple of days just after the event– she just couldn’t put it…

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The following is a brief summary, you can get detailed information about the different activities by looking on the subgroup pages. Click the coloured link to take you to the page Our Walking group enjoyed a walk around Runcorn Hill, followed by a very social stop at Runcorn Park cafe The Baking Beauties enjoyed delicious ‘Summer Fruit’ bakes The Book Group discussed Fools and Mortals’ by Bernard Cornwell  The Art, Craft and Scrabble groups are taking a break until September

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The topic for our July meeting was’ Living in Styal’ and the speaker was Ed Tarry, Community Engagement officer for Styal Women’s Prison. He has won awards for the work he does in ‘Building Bridges, Changing Lives’. Ed started by talking about the prison, its population, and the activities offered. He explained the challenges presented by significant numbers of women who have multiple problems including mental health and drug issues, abusive backgrounds and low self esteem. Ed’s job is to oversee some of the prisoner’s activities specifically designed to build skills and self confidence. Ed talked about about 2 significant…

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The following is a brief summary, you can get detailed information about the different activities by looking on the subgroup page. Lots of our walkers joined a walk around Anderton Nature Park on a glorious June day, enjoying a picnic along the way. For more information and pictures have a look on the Walking subgroup page Craft group concentrated on entries for the Cheshire Show – have a look on the Home page to see how we got on! The Baking Beauties topic was ‘Summer Fruit Baking’, lots of mouthwatering bakes were enjoyed. The Book Group had a lively discussion…

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We had a lovely ‘flower festival’ main meeting in June. Our members were asked to bring along a vase of flowers from their garden, displayed in a jam-jar or similar. What a wonderful ‘free’ display of flowers we had, many thanks to everybody for their contributions. They were used as table centres during the evening, and formed the competition which was won by our newest member Ann Toll. Our speaker for the evening was Melanie Farrow who started to develop ‘Smelanie’s Flowers’ during the Covid Lockdown. She entertained us with pictures showing the journey from a barren field to 20…

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Our Walking group enjoyed a lovely ramble around Glazebrook – see the subgroup page for more information and a picture. Craft group met to put together their exhibit for the Cheshire Show but no pictures yet, you’ll have to visit the Show to see how we get on! The Baking Beauties topic on 26th May will be ‘Summer Fruit Baking’. The Book Group did not meet in May, due to holidays. The book for discussion at our June meeting is You People by Nikita Lalwani. The Art and Scrabble groups are taking a break until September.

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A group of our WI members, with friends and partners, enjoyed a fascinating visit to this nursery. For more pictures and information have a look at the Garden Interest subgroup page

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Our President Melanie welcomed 39 members, 3 visitors and our speaker. Richard Ortyl from the Cheshire Wildlife Trust gave is a very interesting illustrated talk about the work that they do around the county and the habitat and species they protect. He spoke about species which used to be common, but are becoming endangered due to loss of habitat. Some of their local flagship reserves near to Whitley are Hatchmere, Marbury Reed Bed and Warbuton’s Wood. Other local reserves are Abbots Moss and Poors Wood in Northwich and Owley Wood at Weaverham. Helen Carey, who has been a trustee of…

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25 of our members and guests enjoyed a beautiful sunny day on our annual May outing – this year we had a more local visit to Chester. We travelled by coach, where everyone was given a map of the centre and a short talk on different aspects of the history and layout of the city. We arrived at ‘the Groves’ in time to enjoy an ice-cream, a drink, or a short stroll before taking a trip on ‘Mark Twain’ which took us on a 2hr return trip along the river, passing many beautiful riverside dwellings and then through the Eaton…

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