February 2026 subgroup meetings

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 below.

Craft/Garden Group – A cold windy day saw several ladies and members of the public enjoying the warmth of the greenhouse and instructions of how to crystallise primroses. Although the best flowers to crystallise are basic primroses by the end of the day we were all trying violas and primulas. They will take possibly a couple of days to naturally dry but they will last for twelve months once stored in an airtight tin.

Walking Group

We did the walk along the Whitegate Way and the weather was very kind to us, just bit overcast. The path was very dry considering all the recent rain. Although the trees were very bare, not a leaf in sight, we saw plenty of birds and I am sure I spied a bull finch. We saw the back of a little creature which looked like a mouse. Quite a few very well behaved dogs that we could have a quick stroke of. We finished our 1.5 hr walk with a lovely lunch at the Station Cafe

Book Club – Our book this month was ‘Mrs Winterbottom takes a gap year’ by Joanna Nell. A good turn out of 12 , including a new member. Most members really enjoyed this book, a change from the pscycholical thrillers we’ve read recently. The different approaches to retirement by Mrs and Mr Winterbottom, both Gps, and the description of Mrs Winterbottom’s extended break in Greece was in interesting read, with a high score from our group.

February 2026 Main Meeting

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 talk by asking each of us to follow her instructions on writing a short sentence – it was remarkable how different the results were, and what might be interpreted from them ! A very good speaker. The competition, ‘A Fountain Pen’ was won by Janet Patterson.

We enjoyed a piece of our birthday cake as part of our refreshments and members could sign up for any of the many activities we have planned, including Afternoon Tea, a trip to Trentham Gardens, Theatre visits, and CFWI activities.

We also voted for which of the 5 Resolutions proposed by National WI should be take forward. Each was briefly explained by a different committee member and our overwhelming choice was ‘Accessible Public Toilets to promote dignity, health and social inclusion. Our vote will be forwarded to CFWI.

January 2026 subgroup meetings

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 can see from the photos it was a successful afternoon. The programme for the year will be available at the next meeting.

Art Group

Instead of our usual Art meeting we had a visit to a ‘Paint and Dabble’ session in Warrington, a fundraiding event for Warrington VIPs (Visually Impaired People). The 3 of us had a very enjoyable evening painting a Wildflower Sunrise using Acrylics. The pictures show what the tutor demonstrated to us and you can see us working and displaying our finished artwork.

January 2026 Main Meeting

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 aware of – your phone may have different lenses depending on your distance from the main point of interest. He also made us aware of different apps that you can use to find and manipulate your pictures. Annette gave the vote of thanks.

Chris gave us information about the different Whitley and WI events coming up. A number of theatre visits are also planned. The dates of future events are on the Calendar, just double click to see these, or go to the Calendar menu tab at the top of the page.

Members were reminded to look at the Resolutions for 2026 in WI Life, we will be voting on them at the February meeting. They were also updated on subgroup plans for the month

The competition – a black and white photograph, was won by Alison – a nice reward for taking on the organisation of the monthly competition, but she had no part in the judging!

Jean closed the meeting with a bit of humour – reminding us of the Christmas rhyme ‘Twas the Night before Christmas’ but updating it to ‘Twas the Month After Christmas’ before we left a little early, because of the snow forecast.

December subgroup meetings

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 generated a great deal of interesting discussion about the impact of social media on the people’s mental health.

Walking Group – not a walk, but a very enjoyable social gathering. Ann offered our Walking group wonderful hospitality when entertaining us at her home for a Christmas celebration. 14 of us, old friends and new, joined her and brought along our contributions to a delicious lunch. Ann entertained us with a very different raffle – we were each given several cards from a deck of cards, then Ann worked her way through a matching deck – if she read out your card you chose a prize. If there were no prizes left, you just stole one from another competitor – all good fun. Ann also read out a poem she had on a tea towel regarding rambling that was given to her quite a few years ago from an old WI friend, Dorothy. Thanks to Ann for a lovely get together.

Craft and Garden Group – Christmas Wreath Making

Members of the craft/garden group had a wonderful afternoon at Smiths Nursery in Lymm for the annual wreath making afternoon. With mulled wine and mince pies it really got us all into the Christmas Spirit.

We were each given a moss frame and to that we added the greenery. Conifer, blue spruce green holly and variegated holly was tied into small bunches and wired onto the base. There were lots of fancy pieces to add to the wreath in the way of baubles, dried fruits, fir cones and even battery operated fairy lights. Then to finish the job a gorgeous ribbon to choose from an amazing selection.

Keep your eyes open around the village, you may well see a craft group wreath hanging on a door or gate.