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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Our speakers at our main meeting in June, Gill and Lynda gave us an insight into the origins of afternoon and some of the etiquette surrounding the practice. How ladies managed to eat anything trussed up in corsets is amazing. With the aid of technology we were all able to get a Birds Eye view of Lynda making some scones as she talked us through her recipe which included buttermilk and lard. We all sampled the scones with our tea and took the recipe away to try at home. Pat S had a go and said they turned out really…

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Whitley WI members ‘Relit Their Fire’ and let it ‘Shine’ when 23 members went along to the Northwich Memorial Court to watch a musical written by Tim Firth and performed by a local Musical Theatre Company. The musical entitled ‘The Band’ follows the story of 5 teenage girls who have a love crush on a boy band. Missing the bus, they never got to see The Band but exchanged friendship wristbands and vowed to stay together for ever. This didn’t happen, but 25 years later, one of the girls won some tickets to go to see The Band in Prague.…

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Anne Toll and her family had invited all members of Whitley WI to a garden party in their beautiful garden, full of spring colour and ablaze with rhododendrons and azaleas. Anne, helped by Annette, had done a great deal of preparation with different eating areas, in the sun or in the shade, with plenty of seating for everybody and a delicious buffet which different members of our WI contributed to. Annette provided a very generous raffle, with lots of prizes, all beautifully presented in gift bags. This raised £212.12 which will be donated to St Rocco’s Hospice, which is celebrating…

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Walking Group – in May we walked around Marbury Park on a lovely sunny day. The dell was full of bluebells, though some had passed their best, and the wild garlic was an array of strongly scented white flowers. A couple of dogs were having a great time splashing about in the stream. We continued down Marbury Lane and followed the path toward the Flashes but turning off to go along the leafy avenue of bushes and trees with the Flashes on the left. Eventually we reached Marbury Road again which we followed back to the car park after a…

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Annette has been busy organising a photographic competion over the past few months, with some technical support from Jean. She invited Sue Bentley, a trustee of CFWI and an ex President of Whitley WI , to be the judge and she came along to announce the results and to award the prizes. She told us that she had a very difficult job deciding which picture was the winner for each of the 5 categories. We had entries from 21 different members, with a total of 73 photographs. Members were shown all of the entries in each category, and Sue then…

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We welcomed 33 members and 5 visitors to our May meeting. Our speaker was Anna Sanders who talked about her charity “Knickers to Poverty”. She told us of how she had visited Uganda and was very moved by the poverty which she saw and was particularly affected by the conditions for the women there. Many women did not even have any knickers to wear, a particularly difficult and embarrassing situation at the time of their monthly periods. She was moved to set up her charity and has returned to Uganda several times. She is always made very welcome and has…

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15 Whitley members enjoyed the Village Group Spring Lunch at Antrobus Village Hall. The Group Committee, led by our own Melanie, organised an excellent event with a delicious lunch, great company, and a Bring/Buy Sale. The meal was an enjoyable hotpot, followed by a selection of delicious desserts, with contributions from each of the WIs in the Village group. Our Whitley ladies stood out when they donned the Easter Bonnets they had made at our March Craft Group meeting.

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