We are so lucky in WOW that so many activities are on offer to members. These are the regulars:
Quiz - 3rd Tuesday each month at Simpson ground
Table Tennis - each Monday at SFX 7pm
Tai Chi - each Wednesday morning at Arncliffe Community Centre, 9.45-11.45
Ukulele classes - currently Thursdays 7-8 at Arncliffe. Ask for details.
Walking - usually about once a month always on a Wednesday. Look out for details and arrangements
Walking Netball - a national WI initiative. A couple of taster sessions have taken place, look out for further details
Craft workshops - usually one a month but with limited places. April will be Floral cupcakes, May will be handcrafted flowers, June will be needle-felted birds and insects. Look out on Whatsapp and emails for details.
Sewing group - each Friday morning 9.30- 11.30.
Craft and Chatter - was on Monday evenings at the Quarry. This may be revived and in a different venue if there is interest to do so.

Women of Woolton WI held its Annual Meeting on Tuesday 5th March. The evening was conducted inline with NFWI regulations and chaired by Angela as Jan was working in London. We had 2 'tellers' from Jam Butty Ladies WI in Knotty Ash, who carried out the voting for president. Jan has been president for 5 years and has done a fantastic job, putting her heart and soul into the position, but work commitments have been making it difficult for her of late. After introducing the committee and their roles to the membership, nominations and a vote took place with the committee leaving the room. Everyone was delighted to hear the announcement that Angela had been voted on to be our new president. Well done Angela! 
The evening was then taken up with various announcements, diary dates and a light hearted table quiz. 

The Quiz group now meet at a new venue, on every 3rd Tuesday of the month - The Simpson Ground brand new building on Hillfoot Road (some people may call it Menlove Ave, between the Derby Arms lights and Asda). It is an ideal venue and quizzers who have been are delighted with it - plenty of parking, comfy seats..... Give it a whirl! All members welcome!

A varied and exciting programme has been developed by our committee for 2019. 

Tuesday 8th January        Chauffeur's View from the Rear View Mirror
                                 Ron Hutchinson

Tuesday 5th February      Health & Hygiene and Living in Woolton
                                 John Ashton

Tuesday 5th March          Annual Meeting

Tuesday 2nd April             Tigermuffinsoaps
                                  Matthew Lepp

Tuesday 7th May              Buddy Holly & The Beatles
                                  Spencer Leigh

Tuesday 4th June              Carol Codd: Liverpool Registrar

Tuesday 2nd July              Uncle Joe's Mintballs

Friday 19th July                Summer Tea Party

Saturday 17th August          Day out to Southport flower Show

Tuesday 3rd September     Parliament
                                 Gary Hart
 
Tuesday 1st October         Pete Turner the Magician
                                 Pete Turner

Tuesday 5th November      Avon: Its history, demonstration and a surprise!

​Tuesday 3rd December      Christmas Evening with Halewood Community Choir

Tuesday 7th January         7th Birthday. Speaker tba

Tuesday 4th February      tba

Tuesday 4th March         Annual Meeting

On Tuesday 16th October Wendy, Margaret, Marje and Ann attended the Lancashire Federation Lunch followed by a talk entitled The Road to Chelsea given by Nick Bailey who won Silver Gilt with his first Chelsea garden.  To get a Gold Medal you have to 70 points. Nick and his team had 69!!

It was so interesting: we were amazed at the cost, the number of people involved, the travelling involved to choose and purchase the trees and plants.

It was interesting to learn how poor the soil is at Chelsea and topsoil has to be brought in.  The plants are put in situ in their pots.  They have special knives to remove the lips of the pots before they are put in place.

The Hotel at Leyland was really good, the room we had was beautifully presented with excellent food and service.

We also managed to win some Raffle prizes, plus the table arrangement which was beautiful.

It would be great if more WOW ladies participated in these Lancashire days: they are so enjoyable and very good value too.

Ann.

What a fabulous meeting we had on Tuesday 3rd October.! First off we heard from Caroline telling us about Project Linus, a charity which supplies blankets and quilts to children in distress or are sick. She spoke briefly and our sewing group presented her with a number of quilts they have made for the charity. They also raffled a large quilt and gave her £50 to buy more fabris for quilts which she was delighted with.. The rest of the proceeds from the raffle will go towards buying fabric for charitable sewing projects eg Linus quilts and Pyjama Fairies.
Next up we heard from Ray Roukin from Southport Flower Show. He spoke to us about the history of the show and how it is going from strength to strength since it was taken over by a consortium of volunteer businessmen some years ago- in fact it is the largest independent flower show in the country.. It will be celebrating its 90th year in 2019 having stopped during the war years. The next theme will be "The Garden Party". He promised us favourable rates if we would like to take a group there next year - summer outing perhaps? It will be on 17th - 19th August 2019 at Victoria Park.
Dates for our diaries came next
Walk - Wed October 10th. Margaret has details
Fairy Workshop - Thursday October 18th (fully booked)
Christmas Garland workshop November 29th (now fully booked)
Next meeting - Tuesday 6th November
Christmas NIght Out at Crowne Plaza Speke - Friday December 14th
Regular activities
Table Tennis - a new venture at SFX each Monday 7 - 7.40. Bring pound coins for the light meter
Quiz - at SFX 3rd Tuesday 7.30
Sewing group - Friday mornings at Woolton Community Centre 9,30 - 11.30

OUr last speaker was Mike Carney from St Peter's Church who told us about the charity Encontro com Deus in Brazil. A group from the church will visit a community in Brazil to support families who live amongst violence, gun crime and drugs. They hope to raise £20,000 by 2019 to complete many projects eg repair leaking roof in a community centre, provide rainproof covers for a rooftop football pitch and families' washing lines. Two of our members are going on this visit in February - Sue and Morfa.

Members were told that Woolton in Bloom calendars will be available at the next meeting. 

​Ladies were buzzing after the evening and all seemed to have enjoyed the great variety of information we heard about. A great atmosphere!

....WOW WOolton Wi made a big impression at this year's Lancs Show. We had 90 exhibits from 30 ladies which was a tremendous effort from our WI. Jan congratulated everybody at our members' meeting on October 3rd, with a special thanks, in her absence, to Judy who cajoled and encouraged everyone and then co-ordinated the whole venture. Many ladies helped to take exhibits up to Garstang on two occasions and retrieve them all afterwards. 21 members went to the County Show dinner in Garstang and viewed the exhibits - all of us agreed there was a fantastic display of talent from all over the county. 
We had considerable success with 4 x 1st awards, 1 x 2nd and 10 x 3rds! On top of all that, Sandra was awarded a Silver Salva for her African mask! WOW has really done ourselves proud. 
​We learned a lot by taking part and will be a little more 'savvy' next year............. get ready ladies! Let's have even more exhibits next year!
Take a look at the fabulous entries from our winners.

Two successful walks but with different weather conditions! The first September walk to Chester was a lovely sunny day. The group went to Chester by train and walked by the river and on the Roman walls. After lunch in Debenhams (it was a large group and needed plenty of space!), some ladies did a bit of shopping before getting the train back to Liverpool. The 2nd September walk in West Kirby was a different story weather-wise. It was a wild and windy day and some ladies thought they had been treated to an exfoliation after walking on the sand! A lovely lunch and good company. Look out for the next walk in October. Thanks to Margaret who organises all the walks.

What a fabulous evening we all had! Faye Kitching from Leagram Organic Dairy in Chipping, near Preston, Lancashire came to talk to us about her cheese-making dairy and to demonstrate how cheese is made. It was fascinating to watch and Faye was great to listen to - she didn't need a microphone and she was funny and very entertaining as well as being informative. Her mu Christine came too and worked continuously setting up a table of samples of cheese and items we could buy later. 
We learned some interesting facts - it takes 1 gallon of milk to make 1lb of cheese, cheese can be frozen successfully but should be brought to room temperature slowly ie in a fridge, sheep and goats cheese causes less cholesterol problems than cows, a cheese maker and cheese judge uses their sense of smell first before tasting.
Faye herself is a cheese judge at the Nantwich British Cheese Awards (the biggest in the country)
​They had brought many types of chees for us to buy - after tasting samples first! Many ladies went home with a mini paper carrier bag of cheese and home made biscuits!
You can find out more about this small family run business online. Just google Leagram Organic Dairy or look on Facebook.

On a sunny Saturday in August, a coach full of WOW ladies set off for York. By all accounts everyone had a brilliant time, enhanced by the beautiful weather. Many thanks to Janet for organising the day.
​Smiling faces below on the trip to York!
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