Whitley WI hosted the Village Group Autumn meeting , where Nana Funk entertained us with her quirky sense of humour and entertaining singing. She started the evening dressed as a cleaner, stripped down to her very quickly underwear and finished the evening in her sequinned dress as she accompanied herself on a ukulele as she sang songs she had created, including some which were responses to questions our group members had written down for her. A very enjoyable evening.

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Walking Group – Starting from the Village Hall nine ladies turned right down Village Lane for our September walk passing the school and then turning right down Back Lane and eventually through the fields passing sheep, horses, squashing lots of acorns under our feet on the pathway. Cow parsley was in abundance along the way and is called a different name depending on the area you live according to Annette, who has a child thought it made a great pea shooter. We turned left into Old Mill Lane and at the first corner Julia guided us right along a grassy…

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We welcomed 38 members and 1 visitor to our September meeting. Our speaker was Peter Turner with a talk entitled ‘Through the Eyes of a Magician’. Peter talked to us about ‘ magic’, explaining his approach through the world of illusion, psychology, and perception. He demonstrated a few ‘tricks’ with the help of some volunteer members. Chains tied themselves in knots, strips of material disappeared and turned up on a member’s purse and Jonty couldn’t believe the optical illusions he shared with her. A fascinating talk Susan and Pat were thanked for organising a very successful August outing to Adventure…

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This was held on Monday 1st September and was the 35th year we’ve held this competition. We had a good turn out of 16 members. Adelaide was a member of our bowls team for some years until ill-health prevented her from continuing and she donated this trophy in 1991.We had mostly good weather with just a spell of rain. Thanks to Ann Tolson (last year’s winner) and Ann Brock for organising the competition, The finalists were Ann O’Brien and Jenny Roberts who both played well in an exciting final. Jenny won this match so her name goes on the trophy…

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Baking Beauties produced various dishes using gelatine – Panna cotta, mandarin cheesecake, a full on ‘Cheese cake’ and marshmallow dusted in dried raspberries all fit the bill. The star of the afternoon was Pat with her white chocolate panna cotta and fruit jelly combination made in her Bundt tin. It looked stunning and tasted delicious – Star Baker Pat!

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The Craft group had a wonderful afternoon weaving swallows from willow. 18 members listened to Robyn from Nature Makers tell us of the buying of the willow from Somerset and the soaking of it for a few days to make it supple enough to use. We all started with a 2 metre length of willow and made the basic body shape of a bird. Admittedly some looked thin and some fat but then we began to weave the body using the basic shape and we gradually pulled it into shape. We did find that the more we worked the willow…

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Twenty five of us joined the World of Alice in Wonderland on a very pleasant August evening for a really fun time playing crazy golf. In groups of 5 it was a great opportunity to get to know our fellow members better. We progressed around the 18 holes. encountering lots of Alice themed landscaping including the Mad Hatter’s top hat, Tweedledum and Tweedledee and the Teapot No particular expertise was needed, the small streams of water running though the area presented some fun challenges. The final hole, part of the deck of cards was great fun to watch. The red…

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Most of our subgroups took a break in July, but the Walking and Craft groups did meet. Walking Group – Ann O’B was unable to lead the full walk as she had an ankle problem, but Ann Forster stepped in for her. From the Leigh Arms the group turned right out of the car park crossing the Willow Green Lane into the road opposite and before the first house followed the footpath alongside the garden and then along the RHS of the field and through some trees to the canal, dropping down left onto the towpath and turning right following…

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Our July speaker was Sue Holden who talked to us about ‘Bringing the Law to Life with Laughter. Sue was a really good and entertaining speaker who told us the story about how her career in law developed and shared lots of humorous and interesting anecdotes and insights into our legal system. Dressed in black, as court professionals do, she certainly didn’t fade into the background! No technology, just a fantastic knowledge of her subject, and pictures to illustrate the issues raised in her talk. Melanie gave the vote of thanks. The competition, for ‘A legal joke’ was won by…

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Book Club read ‘The Burning Chambers’ by Kate Mosse. We had chosen an historical novel for a change, and this was set in the 16th century, The book was unsettling and reflected the violence of those times, with a complex story and set of characters. However the book scored 8.2 out of 10, quite a high score for our group Walking Group – A massive thank you to Ann OBrien for yet another amazing place to meet and walk. Although Ann couldn’t make it herself 10 members met Anderton Nature Park. We met people with some unusual dogs, the weather…

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