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.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
This meeting is our biennial joint meeting with Dutton WI, and NOT on our usual Meeting Date.
Its Tuesday 9th June, 7.30pm at Preston Brook Village Hall.
Members requiring a lift, please contact any committee member.
Competition: An unusual kitchen utensil.
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 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.
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.
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.
We welcomed 47 members to our Christmas Party. The committee had worked hard to decorate the room and tables, prepare a delicious buffet, and organise a variety of entertainment. Members were welcomed with wine or non-alcoholic punch and sat at tables of 7/8 – a popular size which made it easy to chat to our fellow members.
After a leisurely meal Susan, our retiring present, was given a gift of a planter as a thank you for all she has done during 2025. We then had a variety of activities.
A quiz – ‘How well do you know your committee?’ We all found out something new about them!
A ‘steal raffle’. Names were drawn and there were 12 prizes. After all the prizes had been allocated, later winners had to steal their prize from someone else!
A Pantomime – Committee members dressed appropriately as they took on their roles and read a ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ story, in several short acts.
Standing Bingo – each given a raffle ticket. All stood up at the start, then had to sit down if their number was drawn, until only 1 winner remained
Carols – To finish the entertainment each table given a carol which they sang to their audience
The table decorations, which included pretty pansy plants, were taken home by the members as their WI gift. A very enjoyable evening, we had a lot of positive feedback from those present.
Book Club – Our book for November was ‘A Tidy Ending’ by Joanna Cannon, an unusual ‘black comedy’ story. Comments about the book were very varied, with one score of 10, but mostly in the 4-6 range. We did think it gave a good insight into the main character’s autistic tendency which led to an interesting discussion.
Craft Group
19 ladies, yes we have broken the record again for attending the afternoon of paper box making. everyone was thrilled to bits as they could make more than one box all tied with a curly ribbon in an afternoon and thanks to Jean, templates were ready and a choice of a super collection of paper was waiting to be cut and folded.
Jean also brought along her homemade wonderful advent calendar – showing how small patterns of cross stitch which was the craft afternoon in October can be used. Could this be next years long term project?
Baking Beauties – anything Christmassy
A small group of bakers met to discuss Christmas bakes. Stollen was the clear favourite. We also took the opportunity to discuss ideas for 2026. Our next meeting will be the 30th January. Jonty has given us a technical challenge ! Your recipe must include 4oz fat and 8oz flour (you can add other ingredients to this).
Art Group – Art
We had a theme of ‘Christmas’. Some of us painted a Christmas scene/card but others, led by Chris S, made Christmas Angels. Chris brought along a small olive tree from her garden, beautifully decorated with angels she had made. She showed us how to fold a piece of Chrismas paper (or a very plain loaf tin liner) to make our own angels. Very pretty – Chris will bring her decorated tree along to our Christmas Party to share with our members.
