April 2026 Main Meeting

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 on the Square, all timed to fit in with the No 9 Northwich bus service.

Following refreshments including hot cross buns the competition ‘Any Art Material’ was won by Annette with her 95 year old set of watercolour pencils. Our raffle included a number of knitted Easter rabbits/chicks, as well as the usual wide selection of other prizes.

Our May speaker will be David Poppitt telling us about the history of the Christie Hospital.

March 2026 subgroup meetings

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 a choice of blank cards and envelopes and a super selection of buttons to glue onto the cards. We even had Granny’s old tinful of buttons to sort through for something special.

Everyone had their own idea of how to decorate the card and our pictures of the afternoon show just what can be achieved in such a short time to say something special in our own handmade greeting card.

Book Club

Our March book was a Crime, Myster, Suspense thriller – ‘I did it for You’ by Jayne Cowie. An interesting novel, based around a new gene being discovered which led to a boy having very aggressive and violent behaviour – should a parent have their child tested to see if they carried the gene? Our group mostly thought the book was very interesting, and it scored highly over all. A book most agreed they wouldn’t have picked up from a library shelf, but were glad they had read it!

Walking Group

Thanks Ann for planning and leading our walk around Neumann’s Flash in Northwich on lovely Spring morning. Where the group photo was taken some small trees had been cut back to make sure walkers didn’t lose the fantastic views across the flash.

We really enjoyed seeing the some of the trees just sprouting their green leaves, and others displaying their spring blossom, the pussy willow catkins were really spectacular. The group went on to enjoy a lovely lunch at the George and Dragon in Budworth.

March 2026 Main Meeting

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 due, and were invited to sign up for the many activities on offer – Afternoon Tea at Dormouse Haven, May outing to Trentham Gardens, Theatre trips and subgroups. Volunteers were requested for our teams on the CFWI Quiz and Bowls completions.

Last month we voted for our preferred resolution, and the CFWI feedback echoed our thoughts, overwhelming support for ‘Accessible Public Toilet facilities’.

The competition was won by Chris Spittle, with a very old padlock which came from Kin Farm, dating back to 1520. Chris saved it as a treasured reminder of the farms’s delapidated state when she bought it! Our next meeting is on Thursday 2nd April when Gilll Adlington will be talking to us about ‘Art for All’

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.