Art and Baking groups preparing for Christmas 2023
June 2023 Flower Festival
Ladies with Llamas on our August Outing 2023
Fun, friendship and community
Whitley WI is a large and lively group of women. We have a busy programme of meetings and events which are designed to attract and involve the varying ages and interests of all our members. For a flavour of what we do please see our monthly newsletters.
We are always delighted to greet new members and can assure you of a warm and friendly welcome. Our committee members will introduce you to fellow members and make you feel really at home.
Our meetings are held at 7.30pm in Whitley Village Hall on the first Thursday of every month. Drop in and be sure of a welcome.
Join a Sub-Group...make new friends.
Art, Walking, Craft, Baking Beauties, Book Club, Scrabble, Garden Interest, Darts & Bowls. Please see Subgroups menu for more information.
The following is a brief summary, you can get detailed information about the different activities by looking on the subgroup page.
Lots of our walkers joined a walk around Anderton Nature Park on a glorious June day, enjoying a picnic along the way. For more information and pictures have a look on the Walking subgroup page
Craft group concentrated on entries for the Cheshire Show – have a look on the Home page to see how we got on!
The Baking Beauties topic was ‘Summer Fruit Baking’, lots of mouthwatering bakes were enjoyed.
The Book Group had a lively discussion on ‘You People’ by Nikita Lalwani.
The Art and Scrabble groups are taking a break until September.
We had a lovely ‘flower festival’ main meeting in June. Our members were asked to bring along a vase of flowers from their garden, displayed in a jam-jar or similar.
What a wonderful ‘free’ display of flowers we had, many thanks to everybody for their contributions. They were used as table centres during the evening, and formed the competition which was won by our newest member Ann Toll.
Our speaker for the evening was Melanie Farrow who started to develop ‘Smelanie’s Flowers’ during the Covid Lockdown. She entertained us with pictures showing the journey from a barren field to 20 beds of beautiful cottage garden plants, including spring tulips and autumn dahlias. Her love of flowers shone through, and she finished her talk with demonstrating how a bucket of her flowers, some chicken wire and a charity shop ‘vase’ can produce a beautiful display.
Pat and Annette also organised a plant sale, with lots of healthy homegrown flowers. They raised £140 which our Garden Group will use to arrange a visit or a course later in the year. We finished with our usual business, subgroup updates and the raffle. Melanie’s flower display provided the centrepiece of prizes, but they also included a beautiful scabiosa and other flower related items.
Our Walking group enjoyed a lovely ramble around Glazebrook – see the subgroup page for more information and a picture.
Craft group met to put together their exhibit for the Cheshire Show but no pictures yet, you’ll have to visit the Show to see how we get on!
The Baking Beauties topic on 26th May will be ‘Summer Fruit Baking’.
The Book Group did not meet in May, due to holidays. The book for discussion at our June meeting is You People by Nikita Lalwani. The Art and Scrabble groups are taking a break until September.
A group of our WI members, with friends and partners, enjoyed a fascinating visit to this nursery. For more pictures and information have a look at the Garden Interest subgroup page
Our President Melanie welcomed 39 members, 3 visitors and our speaker.
Richard Ortyl from the Cheshire Wildlife Trust gave is a very interesting illustrated talk about the work that they do around the county and the habitat and species they protect.
He spoke about species which used to be common, but are becoming endangered due to loss of habitat. Some of their local flagship reserves near to Whitley are Hatchmere, Marbury Reed Bed and Warbuton’s Wood. Other local reserves are Abbots Moss and Poors Wood in Northwich and Owley Wood at Weaverham. Helen Carey, who has been a trustee of Cheshire Wildlife trust gave the vote of thanks.
After the speaker and refreshments, Melanie updated us on the many different activities currently going on for Whitley WI, including preparations for the Cheshire Show, our Chester outing, the Group meeting, subgroup meetings and CFWI events. The competition for a wildlife ornament was won by Pat Sharp. Second was Penny Cross and third was Sue Clements.
We look forward to our June meeting ‘A Flower Festival where we will enjoy a demonstration by Melanie Farrow followed by a strawberry tea. Members were asked to bring along a jam-jar of flowers from their garden for the competition.
We closed the meeting by singing ‘God Save the King’ in recognition of the special weekend ahead to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III.
