We were able to run our programme of speakers and events online from March 2020 to August 2021, but were thrilled to finally be back to face to face meetings from September.
Monday 6th December, 7.30pm: What a fun evening we had making festive cards with Katie Farrell of The Sewcial Circle. Members produced some wonderful designs with Katie’s gorgeous papers, and the mulled wine provided by The Cooper’s Arms who kindly hosted our get-together, was deliciously hot and spicy.
Monday 1st November, 7.30pm: Our Annual Meeting. We are delighted that members voted in Natalie to continue as president for the coming year, and the committee also agreed to continue in their present roles. The president’s report and accounts were accepted, and once business was completed, we moved on to the cheese tasting with Paxton & Whitfield. What a treat that was! A huge thank you to Annie for giving us such an interesting talk all about cheese-making, in addition to tips on putting together the perfect cheeseboard. Do check out their website for some delicious cheeses or pop into their store on Cale Street.
Monday 4th October, 7.30pm: A big thank you to Isabel Losada for joining us this evening. It was great fun to meet the “joyful environmentalist” – and what a lot of ideas, wisdom and information she shared with us on all the changes – both big and small – we could each make in our day to day lives to help heal and nurture our planet. This has never been more important, and with COP26 coming up in Glasgow, it was timely to really think about how we live our lives. Maybe we could all ‘be a little bit activist’. If you’d like to learn more, in a fun, non preachy way, then do read Isabel’s latest book, The Joyful Environmentalist!
Monday 6th September, 7.30pm: Our first meeting back In Real Life! We were thrilled to be back at the Hollywood Arms for a welcome back cocktail (with delicious Parmesan biscuits made by Alison) a fun quiz, and lots of catch up chat. Hector was also happy to be back!
Monday 2nd August, 7.30pm: We had a very interesting and informative meeting with Miriam Karmali, Senior Advocacy Officer at https://www.freedomunited.org/, on the issues surrounding Modern Slavery. Thank you to all our members who were able to join us, along with those from WI Wanderers. If you’d like to learn more, the WI has produced an excellent action pack available on MY WI https://bit.ly/3ioJ9q2 – which outlines things we can all do, such as being more aware of where we buy goods/clothing, signing a petition, or volunteering. You can also look at https://knowthechain.org/ to check how a company ranks in terms of addressing forced labour in global supply chains. There is a Modern Slavery Helpline, 08000 121 700, where you can get help, report a suspicion or seek advice.
Monday 5th July, 7.30pm: We were delighted that Frances Carlaw, aka The Pearl Lady, was able to join us virtually from her home in France. Frances is a former Denman tutor, and her very professional talk was packed with information on the history and science of the world’s most secretive and only living gemstone, the pearl. Going back over 5,000 years, pearls have been associated with wisdom, power, wealth and beauty, and we will learn more about the origins and myths surrounding them, as well as their shapes and colours. Most of our members were wearing their pearls (real and faux) and Frances answered lots of questions from the secret to identifying a real pearl, to how to care for them.
Monday 7th June, 7.30pm: It was wonderful to welcome Megan Hayes as our guest this month. Megan is an author, creator of PositiveJournal.org and teacher of joyful writing habits. Her PhD explored the links between writing, psychology and happiness and her latest book is titled The Joy of Writing Things Down. In this workshop, Megan shared the research-backed benefits of positive journalling and encouraged us to try out some practical writing exercises. The main point we took away from this was to find our own ‘micro moments of positivity’ in each day – to embrace those sustaining and fortifying moments in our lives which we usually don’t notice. We also held a raffle to win a copy of Megan’s book.
Monday 10th May, 7.30pm: Ian Currie, weatherman, broadcaster and Editor of Weather Eye magazine, joined us to talk about The Wonderful World of Clouds – a guide to sky-watching. Discovering the blue plaque commemorating Luke Howard, Namer of Clouds, last year on our guided walk (pre-Covid) inspired us to learn more about our skies.
Monday 12th April, 7.30pm: Daphine Aikens MBE, Founder & Chief Executive of Hammersmith & Fulham Foodbank, kindly joined us to talk about this important issue. Daphine was awarded an MBE last year, for a decade’s work helping some of the most vulnerable residents of the borough. In 2013 she appeared on the Evening Standard’s Power 1000 list of influential people in the capital, and in 2018 she won H&F’s community hero award for outstanding contribution to the life of the borough. Our members had lots of questions for Daphine, and we will be looking to support their campaign week in June in some way.
Monday 1st March, 7.30pm: We were delighted to welcome Penny Green, ecologist at the Knepp Estate as our guest speaker. I read a book, Rewilding by Isabella Tree last year, and was blown away at what they’ve achieved on 3,500 acres in Sussex. Penny introduced us to this brilliant project and shared the extraordinary results they’ve achieved since 2001 when they began the transition from extensive arable and dairy farming to a pioneering conservation project. Natural processes have been restored with large herbivores moving freely in the landscape, as they would have a few thousand years ago. Longhorn cattle, Tamworth pigs, Exmoor ponies, fallow, roe and red deer imitate their ancestors, not to mention returning nightingales, turtle doves and purple emperors. Each species affects the vegetation in different ways which creates a mosaic of habitats from open grassland through to regenerating scrub. We hope to be able to arrange a group visit to Knepp next year,and in the meantime, you can read more about Knepp on their website, or listen to Penny’s podcast, Knepp Wildland.
Monday 1st February, 7.30pm: What a brilliant meeting! Our guest speaker Sarah Gaventa was fantastic, giving us a packed talk on this exciting project. We opened up this meeting to the WI Wanderers, so were delighted to welcome more than 80 members from WIs all over the country. Sarah is a public art expert and curator, and Director of the Illuminated River Foundation which is delivering the longest public art project in the world, which will light up to 14 bridges of central London. We learned so much about the river and bridges (did you know that London Bridge has it’s own bird of prey?), and it was good to hear how they’re reducing light pollution into the river, and encouraging buildings in the surrounding areas, to dim their lights at night. They also have a fantastic community outreach programme working with schools, charities and others to re-introduce them to the glories of the river Thames. We’re looking forward to arranging a boat trip to view the project, when we’re allowed – and this Spring sees phase 2, when another five bridges are being unveiled.
Monday 4 January, 7.30pm: We really enjoyed our taster session of Tai Chi with Tina Lloyd – she has lots of special offers for WI members – and also discussed the proposed resolutions before taking a vote. A great start to a new year.
