Baking Beauties had a Valentine Theme so hearts of all shapes and sizes adorned our table. See Baking Beauties subgroup for more information. Our Walking Group had planned to visit Moore Nature Reserve as our planned December trip to there had been cancelled due to bad weather. Unfortunately the weather beat us again and we had to abandon our plans. Book club had an interesting discussion about ‘Dead Ringers, an Agatha Raisin mystery by MC Beaton. It was not a popular book, few of our group enjoyed it – but that didn’t stop a lively discussion. We are currently planning…

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Our friends at Smith’s Nurseries have a new initiative this year, a Primrose Festival, with over 30 home-grown varieties on display. Annette arranged for 2 groups to visit in March and we enjoyed a very informative talk from Sarah and then really enjoyed wondering around the displays and choosing our favourites – Raspberry Mixed won on Wednesday. Most couldn’t resist buying some for our gardens, at a very reasonable price. All finished off with light refreshments – and maybe now knowing the difference between a Primrose, a Primula and a Polyanthus!. Thanks to Annette and to Sarah for a lovely…

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We welcomed a record (post Covid) number of 45 to our meeting, it was great to have such a buzz in the hall. Our speaker was Kevin Mcfarlane, Assistant Manager at the Warrington branch of the RSPCA who are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year.. He told us about the history of the local Warrington branch and explained that they are always busy fundraising as they are a self-funded branch – linked to the national RSPCA (200th anniversary this year) but responsible for their own fundraising. They are a ‘closed facility’ and do not take animals from the public as…

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Our book club didn’t meet this month, but others were back to normal. Scrabble enjoyed a sociable evening and our 12 members of our Walking Group were lucky to have a lovely bright, if rather chilly day for their walk on The Whitegate Way – click above to see more information. Our Craft group were busy making Christmas Boxes from old Christmas Cards, Baking Beauties had a theme of Scottish Recipes and the Art Group painted some Winter Scenes

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Our first meeting of 2024 was well attended (34 members and 4 guests) despite it being a very wet and dark evening. Our speaker was Andy from Moulton Glass, who gave us a fascinating illustrated talk about how his interest in Stained and Leaded glass turned from a hobby into his main occupation. He explained about how glass making had developed over the years and the different methods used for ornamental glass – stained glass windows, lead-light windows, copper foil and Tiffany decorative glass. He showed us lots of samples and talked to us about where you might see some…

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Some of our subgroups didn’t meet in December, but the Book Club did get together to discuss Swallowtail Summer by Erica James – a nice easy read for this busy time of year. Two groups had special Christmas events – The Walking group had a lovely Christmas lunch with Ann – Click here to see more photos and information 12 members of our Garden Group visited Smith’s nursery, Lymm in December to make a Christmas wreath. Click here to find out more and see some pictures

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46 of our members had a wonderful ‘home grown’ Christmas party this year. We changed our table arrangement from previous years, with more of a ‘street party’ feel to it and more space for entertainment. Our members were welcomed with a glass of fruit punch or wine. Our local dance group from The Dyas Lishman Dance Academy opened our event with a short but very entertaining performance. Instead of exchanging presents members were asked to bring along a donation to the Northwich Food Bank – they were extremely generous and the table was filled to overflowing with their gifts. Pat…

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 Click on the links below to find out what we have been doing, and to have a look at some more pictures of our activities The Book club discussed their favourite classics. Walking group unfortunately had to cancel their walk – everywhere was very, very wet, but a few did meet for refreshments at ‘The Shed’. Scrabble had a meeting, as did Craft Group who made baubles and planned their 2024 programme. Art group and Baking Beauties both had a Christmas theme – Art group made cards and mini gift boxes and Baking Beauties made Christmas mini treats

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Whitley entered this competition to complete a 500 piece puzzle in 1hr 30min. It was so popular this year that teams competed on 2 consecutive Mondays at WI House in Chester. Our team of Ann C, Jean W, Susan B and Yvonne C enjoyed a very pleasant, sociable morning, although we found this year’s puzzle difficult – rather too much dark green foliage with small yellow/white foliage! We came 3rd with 174 pieces left -just 2 pieces more than the second placed team. Well done to the Whitley Witches.

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Annette and the Craft Group have been very busy making poppies over the last couple of months, painting ‘bottle ends’, adding black buttons and attaching 100 poppies to a board. Our giant poppy is now in place by our ‘centenary tree’ at the Nature Reserve on Raddel Lane.

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