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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41 members plus 1 visitor came along to Whitley WI’s 88th Birthday meeting. Ann O’Brien had made us a delicious and beautifully decorated cake which was cut by 2 very special members. Jean Pace has been a member for 68 years and Jean Leicester for 45 years – they told us how much they have enjoyed Whitley WI over the years. Our Speaker was Susan Ord, talking to us about ‘Secrets of Handwriting’. Susan is highly qualified in this area and gave us a most interesting and interactive talk into what can be read into people’s handwriting. She personalised the…

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Baking Beauties The brief for January’s Baking Beautieswas ‘using 4oz fat and 8oz flour’. Other ingredients were allowed and we ended up with sausage rolls, a beautiful hot water crust pork pie, various cakes and biscuits and some welsh cakes. It shows who has a sweet tooth amongst the bakers! Craft Group – A small gathering of the monthly craft group had great fun with Melanie taking the helm to show us the way to make modern paper flowers that Abigail, (our own member Deborah Walters daughter) thought that the ladies would like to make. We did and as you…

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Jean, our new President, welcomed our members as they arrived. She then opened the meeting and thanked Susan, our outgoing President, and our busy committee for the work they had put in to our Christmas Party. We had a good January attendance, given the poor forecast for the late evening. Our Speaker was Marc Byron, a professional photographer who talked to us about using our Phone to take pictures. He explained the importance of planning the photograph, deciding the best orientation (landscape or portrait) and the main point of focus. He explained phone camera features some of us weren’t even…

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Book Club – Our December book was The Hive by Scarlett Brade. A very modern book. The driver behind the story is an Instagram Group – the Hive. Charlie met her boyfriend Lincoln, a famous boxer, on the group. When she becomes pregnant he dumps her, she is attacked and loses her twin pregnancy. She follows their relationship via the Hive and and the story ends when, live on Instagram she kills his new partner, recounts what he had done, and asks the thousands of ‘Hive’ followers if she should kill as well. Not a popular book – but it…

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We welcomed 47 members to our Christmas Party. The committee had worked hard to decorate the room and tables, prepare a delicious buffet, and organise a variety of entertainment. Members were welcomed with wine or non-alcoholic punch and sat at tables of 7/8 – a popular size which made it easy to chat to our fellow members. After a leisurely meal Susan, our retiring present, was given a gift of a planter as a thank you for all she has done during 2025. We then had a variety of activities. The table decorations, which included pretty pansy plants, were taken…

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