At the February meeting, with nothing more than a sheet of white paper clipped on to a frame so that we could see easily every stroke and four palettes of paint, it was hard to imagine that our speaker for the evening would hold us spellbound, but she certainly did.

At the end of the hour, we realised that not only had the time passed very quickly, but that we had watched and listened in silence.

Sue Cartwright is a water colour painting specialist who teaches groups of every age, besides producing her own art.

As she spoke, she produced a most beautiful picture of an iris with a touch here and a touch there' and we all enjoyed every minute as she built up the picture using only purple, violet, Prussian blue and green.

During the business part of the evening we were pleased to congratulate the team who entered the county show and came sixth out of 20, a vast improvement on last year, and we were reminded of the forthcoming Cheshire Show and the need for volunteers for stewards.

Our secretary also gave details of outings for an evening canal cruise, an afternoon visit to gardens in Great Budworth, and a whole day outing to Dorfold Hall.

The winners of the competition for a water colour painting, judged by Sue were: 1 Joan Williams 2 Joan Gleave 3 Betty Howard.