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, Positive Planet, Garden Interest, Darts & Bowls. Please see Subgroups menu for more information.
This campaign is fully supported by NFWI. For more information check out.
www.theclimatecoalition.org
or just enjoy making green hearts with Annette at Craft group.
Click on the blue/green links below for more information and pictures
Book Club met to discuss ‘Am I Guilty’ by Jackie Kabler – a very different genre than last month’s Jane Eyre, but an interesting psychological crime thriller. Walking Group visited Marbury Park on a glorious Autumn day, followed by a visit to the Spinner and Bergamot. Craft Group made Christmas Stars, led by Melanie.
Art group produced an array of Chrismas labels, pictures and foliage pictures, Baking Beauties were busy creating Christmas Icing Models
Annette is organising this competition – Nature’s Beauty. It’s a great idea, and hopefully lots of you will be inspired to take some pictures, and send the best in to Annette. There are 5 Categories, and you can enter 1 photograph in each category.
1 Weather effects on a plant or tree
2 Glorious insects
3 A seed head
4 A single flower head
5 pond or stream side water
Pictures must be 6” x 4”, taken by a member of Whitley WI, with your name and the ‘category’ on the back and must be taken in the British Isles. The closing date for entries is April 23rd 2025 and there will be a prize of a garden voucher for the winner in each category.
Our November meeting was the AGM, where we received reports from our Treasurer, Secretary, and President. Pat reported a healthy financial position, albeit slightly down on last year’s balance because of increased costs and our commitment to subsidising events for our members. Susan gave us an illustrated talk reminding us of the very varied activities we offer to members, including each of the main meetings, the subgroup activities and our many successes in county events. You can browse through this website to see how busy we have been.
Melanie spoke about how much she had enjoyed being our President for the last 3 years with the support of a strong committee and is now passing the role on to another committee member. Members voted, and our congratulations and thanks go to Susan who will be our new President. Sue R thanked Melanie and the committee for all their hard work.
The evening ended with entertainment from ‘Lostock Ukes’ who distributed the words to the many songs they played, so that we could all joined in with the singing – and the actions! A lovely trip down memory lane for many of us.
There were some unusual entries in the competition ‘A musical object’ and the winner was Susan, with her cross-stitch picture. We also displayed all the pictures that our Art group entered for the Cheshire art exhibition, with Chris’s award for the Cheshire president’s favourite.
A small group of us (plus one husband) gathered on Nov 2nd to put up the WI poppy by our tree at the nature reserve on Raddel Lane. The giant poppy was made by Craft Group last year, thanks to Annette for storing and renovating this. Most of the group had a lovely Autumn stroll around the nature reserve afterwards.
Our much anticipated speaker was Louise Minchin, perhaps best known for presenting BBC Breakfast for over 20 years. She didn’t disappoint and her experience really showed. She was a fascinating speaker – telling us initially about how she went from gaining a degree in Spanish at St Andrew’s university, to working as a reporter on regional television and finally her dream job on BBC Breakfast. In this role she had amazing opportunities to meet celebrities from all spheres of life, and also the chance to take part in lots of different challenges. She also took on the BBC over the inequitable treatment of women in broadcasting, and hopefully helped make significant cultural changes there.
When she ‘retired’ from television it was to take up lots of other opportunities, particularly in the area of ‘extreme sports’ and triathlons – she represented Team GB in her age category in the Triathlon World Championships. She didn’t so much talk ‘at us’ as ‘chat with us’, and all enjoyed the meeting. She has written 3 books, her most recent is her first novel, Isolation Island. The vote of thanks was given by Marcia from Moore and Daresbury
