November 2022 Main Meeting – AGM and ‘Mersey Beat’

Our President Melanie welcomed 33 members to our AGM meeting. The Financial Statement was presented by our Treasurer, showing a healthy balance.

Our Secretary presented our annual report as slide show of our activities throughout the year, and also included a short video of the Whtiley Village Platinum Jubilee celebration.

The Financial Statement and Annual report were approved by those members present.

Melanie then welcomed new members who had joined during the year and thanked subgroup leaders for their work in developing these groups which are a very strong part of Whitley WI. Our September Show meeting really demonstrated the talents of our members, which we will hopefully highlight in the Cheshire Shown next June. Other successes were our outings to Shrewsbury in May and to Knutsford in August. Life and meetings are returning to normal after the difficulties of the Covid pandemic.

The committee were thanked for their hard work, and Sue who is retiring from our committee was given a gift in recognition for all her work in various roles. Janet is joining the committee.

Melanie was re-elected as President for her second year in office

We were then entertained by Frankie Connor with his ‘Mersey beat Sound’. He talked about his career in music, including as a composer and performer and his connections to the Cavern Club in Liverpool. During this career he has met and befriended many famous musicians including Gerry Marsden, the Everley Brothers, Billy Fury, Elton John and Freddie Star. He then treated us to songs and guitar playing with well known numbers from the 1960’s, which had many of our members singling along.

Art Group Meeting – October – ‘Autumn’

Our Art Group enjoyed a lovely painting session in October and it was great to welcome 2 new members. We were surrounded by leaves and fruits which members had brought with them to inspire our session.

We all had a go at ‘autumn themed’ paintings/drawings, either independently or following on-line tutorial hints.

We enjoyed sharing different ideas and learning from our more experienced members.

October Craft Group meeting

What an eye opener. Sue Roberts spent the afternoon with the craft group and showed us how to weave with a selection of dried garden and roadside greenery. We shall never look on dandelions as a weed again. It became a material that can be dried and twisted into a rope.

Sue was the perfect teacher and we all went home with our efforts – could this be the new parcel string and not costing a penny?

Thank you Sue and Dorothy for the lovely mince pies

‘REFLECTIONS’ of a LOVELY WALK

REFLECTIONS ON THE WEAVER
HYDROELECTRIC POWER!

On a lovely day, which was mild for the time of the year, nine walkers from Whitley WI started from the Leigh Arms to venture along the River Weaver and back along the Trent and Mersey Canal. The sun shone above with very little wind giving us wonderful reflections of the river. The leaves on the trees were still very green with only a few beginning to change colour and there was a bountiful crop of acorns carpeting the pathway. We walked for just under a mile intending to turn right at a signpost to Dutton when a fellow walker who was passing by suggested we did a slight detour and go and see the Dutton Locks hydroelectric plant which we did. We were very impressed as we watched the water passing through an Archimedean screw adjacent to the sluice gate on the southern bank of the river, with flow controlled by an automatic sluice gate. The Hydro scheme has a total installed capacity of 200W, generating approx 900m Watts/Year of renewable energy, saving 514 tonnes of CO2 per year. We also saw a bank of wooden sleepers which looked like very large railway sleepers which we were informed that during very heavy rain can be used to divert the flow of water hopefully avoiding flooding in the surrounding areas especially Northwich which has been happening over recent years.
After watching the operations of the hydroelectric plant for a short time we re-traced our steps turning left at the signpost and went on our way up the slope to the bridge and then down onto the canal turning right along the tow path for three quarters of a mile. We came across quite a few narrow boats that were occupied and you could see that they must have had a great time with their BBQ this summer. When we got to bridge 210 we turned right up a slope away from the canal turning left at the bottom then a further right until we came to the road. We carried on along the path till we met the River Weaver again then left under the swing bridge up a path on the left back to the Leigh Arms. We had a lovely meal with great hospitality after a very nice and informative walk.
This was a great day out… THANK YOU ANN

EXTRA REFLECTION from Jean… Magnificent Thank You

October 2022 Main Meeting – Gentle Yoga

37 members attended our October meeting. Our President, Melanie, reported that she had made an entry in the WI condolence book for the Queen.

A truly inspiring woman who gave her life to serving this country. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be greatly missed but always remembered with love and affection.

Our sincere condolences to her family.

Melanie Barber, President Whitley WI Cheshire

Helen reminded us that the Queen had herself been an active member of Sandringham WI for almost 80 years.

Our Quiz team took part in the heats of the Cheshire Federation competition, thought they did not get through to the final

Our original speaker had to cancel so Kirsten Flynn, who teaches ‘Gentle Yoga’ locally, stood in at short notice. Members really enjoyed her talk about the origins and types of yoga and how it aids relaxation and well-being. We then all took part in some armchair yoga. It is not often that you can hear a pin drop at our WI meetings, but Kirsten managed this for a few minutes during the relaxation session at the end of her talk! Several members were sufficiently motivated to book on to try one of her classes.

After a reminder of the various group and subgroup activities planned for the next month, we closed the meeting with singing ‘God Save the King’, in recognition of this special month in our history.