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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Book Club – Our book for November was ‘A Tidy Ending’ by Joanna Cannon, an unusual ‘black comedy’ story. Comments about the book were very varied, with one score of 10, but mostly in the 4-6 range. We did think it gave a good insight into the main character’s autistic tendency which led to an interesting discussion. Craft Group 19 ladies, yes we have broken the record again for attending the afternoon of paper box making. everyone was thrilled to bits as they could make more than one box all tied with a curly ribbon in an afternoon and thanks…

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We welcomed 45 members to our November meeting which included our Annual Meeting. Our planned speaker was unable to join us, but Christine Gould kindly came along and shared her experience as a volunteer for the Fairtrade Stall in Warrington Market. She set up a mini-stall for our meeting. We started the evening with the Annual Meeting. Pat shared the Financial Report demonstrating a healthy Bank Balance, while subsidising several events to ensure our members get good value for their subscription. Jean presented the annual report as a slideshow, reminding members about the very varied programmes for our main meetings,…

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Book club – our October book was ‘The Moonlight Garden ‘by Rosie Hannigan. Views on the book were mixed. Most found it an easy, fairly light read and some felt it was a bit ‘wishy washy’ with not a lot of depth to it. The average score was 6.9. Walking Group – Several members from Whitley and Dutton WI joined the CFWI fund raising walk around Delamere on National Restart a Heart Day. After a very comprehensive demonstration on how to work the equipment we did a 2.6 mile walk on the paths in the forest. Through the trees we…

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Thanks to our members night committee who ran the meeting and gave our Whitley Committee a night off. Deborah W was acting President, Mary L acting Secretary and they were joined by Mary H and Liz T. The committee was assisted by volunteers Caroline P and Vanessa D. The excellent speaker was Joanne Goodwin, editor of Cheshire Life. She talked to us about her early career in a daily Stoke newspaper, with the pressures of daily deadlines. This was in the days before the widespread use of technology, when women didn’t have any senior roles in journalism. She rose to…

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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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