April Newsletter

Hello everyone, A very Happy Easter to you all. I hope you had an enjoyable and restful weekend. I don’t know about you, but I thought Vivien Morgan was a captivating and interesting speaker. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about those courageous women looking for excitement, experiencing some harrowing events, getting injured, killed and fighting for their country. There were some rather amusing tales too. I hope you also enjoyed the presentation. Our meeting this month is a week earlier than usual, on the second Tuesday of the month on Tuesday 9th April. We are having a craft evening and making some colourful pieces to brighten up your wardrobe for spring. As part of the Surrey Federation of WIs, Battersea WI is planning to enter a number of items in this year’s Edenbridge & Oxsted Show, We have a very talented membership and looking forward to submitting knitting, artwork, photography, preserves and cakes, all sorts! The schedule of entries is HERE. The show itself is on the August bank holiday weekend. WI News at the end of the newsletter includes the latest NFWI Annual Review and updated Talking Points from Angie Leach. Poppies made by the Knitting & Crochet group are part the Standing With Giants project. I am really proud that we are part of it, do have a look at the WI being mentioned on TV in the links below. The main upcoming events are Tuesday 9th April – Main Meeting is a Craft Evening (decoupaging coat hangers) Wednesday 10th April – Visit to Crossness Pumping Station Thursday 11th April – Supper Outing to The Table Restaurant Saturday 11th May – Biba Exhibition Outing Wednesday 15th May – Eltham Palace & Gardens Outing May Meeting 21st May – Highs & Lows of a Stuntwoman Monday 3rd June – Evening Races at Windsor I look forward to seeing you soon, All the very best Rosemary At the April meeting we will be getting involved with some decoupage by decorating wooden hangers for your wardrobe. It is a simple craft, enjoyable and easy to do. The activity involves glueing decorative tissue paper to the hangers and finishing them off with a ribbon.The result is uplifting colourful items to hang in your cupboard ready for  spring. Battersea Society Fundraising Local Walks – April dates We’d like to highlight these local walks taking place in April, organised by the Battersea Society to fundraise for  Katherine Low Settlement which is celebrating its centenary this year.  Sunday 7 April, Old Battersea Village walk with Jeanne Rathbone, details and booking: https://www.batterseasociety.org.uk/events-list/old-battersea-village-walk   Cancelled: Sunday 21 April, The Standard-Bearer walk (i.e. Battersea as a progressive borough) with Sue Demont: https://www.batterseasociety.org.uk/events-list/the-standard-bearer-walk   Rescheduled to 16th June: Green and Blue Gems (i.e. local open spaces/ Thames Path) with Clare Graham: https://www.batterseasociety.org.uk/events-list/green-and-blue-gems-walk   Sub Group Dates Art Group –  Saturday 13th April 10.30am   Battersea Bookends –  Monday 8th April 5.30pm Chapter One Reading – Tuesday 16th April 7pm Coffee Group – Wednesday 10th and Thursday 25th April 11am Exhibitions Group – Film Group – Monday 29th April Foodies Group – Thursday 11th April 6.30pm   Foraging Group – Information will be on WhatsApp for wild garlic & nettles    Knitting & Crochet Group – Wednesday 24th April 6.30pm   Swimming Group –     Photography Group – Wednesday 3rd April am   Walking Group – Friday 5th April am The Cartoon Museum Outing We had a very enjoyable outing to the Cartoon Museum  there were certainly some very amusing cartoons, lots to make you giggle, some a little more confusing! Certainly a great variety of caricatures, comics and animation, documenting the history of british comic from 18th century to the present. The exhibition of Wrong Trousers Turn 30 was very good too and of course we enjoyed coffee and cake afterwards. Despite a very wet start to the day, seven of us and two dogs met up on the platform at Clapham Junction for our March morning walk. Fortunately the weather was clearing; we were greeted by sunshine as we got off the train at Barnes Bridge, and the morning stayed dry for most of the way back to Putney, along the green and pretty south bank Thames Path. So we had a good time admiring the views, dodging the puddles, and having a good chat at the end over coffee in the Putney Pantry next to St Mary’s – a welcoming place with a nice community vibe. Seven of us met up on 27th March and spent an enjoyable evening knitting and nattering. Surplus wool was brought along to donate to a refugee charity to help them keep busy by knitting. And we enjoyed a couple of glasses of prosecco and home made Easter biscuits. Poppies – Standing with Giants The poppies made by the Knitting & Crochet Group were posted to Surrey Federation last month to form part of a large installation for Standing with Giants . They are creating a memorial for D-Day 80, a display that will be in place from March until the end of August. The images above illustrate what they are creating with the poppies, and for those on Instagram, you can see more HERE. The project was also on national news here  , the WI is mentioned about half way through. How wonderful that Battersea WI is part of this project! The Foodies Group was treated to the most wonderful Yorkshire Puddings with fillings worthy of Michelin stars: smoked salmon with creme fraîche and chives, smoked mackerel with soft cheese, horseradish and capers, Parma ham, pesto and cream cheese,  slow roasted tomatoes with gorgonzola and basil, sausage patties, creamy mushrooms with tarragon. The sweet fillings were blueberries with ricotta, Eton Mess and chocolate ganache with raspberries and cream.  The Battersea Book Ends – Tomorrow and Tommorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin The book tells of 2 friends who become creative partners in the world of video game design. They achieve great success and all that brings and that leads to many questions and explorations about identity, love, relationships and more. There are many threads to the story some described with a skill and sensitivity that draws you in others were more wordy and perhaps clouded the narrative. The story is crafted as if it were a video game and introduced some of us to the world inhabited by the gamer, with its language, perceptions and ways of communication. We found it an interesting read, it had much to say but while it was for some an absorbing read for others it felt it tipped over to ‘too much’ – where the reader stops hearing the story and it becomes ‘words’, a bit like when music becomes muzak and loses its individuality. We had a good discussion and did wonder if we would read it differently if we were ‘Gamers’ Chapter One Reading Group – The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams The author writes that her novel “began as two simple questions. Do words mean different things to men and women? And if they do, is it possible that we have lost something in the process of defining them.” This book is a fictional story set within the real historical world of people involved in creating the first Oxford English Dictionary. It follows the life of a girl growing up with, then becoming a member of, the team compiling the dictionary. Through her we see the lives of other women including servants, intellectuals, an actress who is part of the suffragette movement and a destitute former prostitute all of whom have language which is overlooked by the lexicographers. The Dictionary of Lost Words seeks to restore the voices of women largely written out of history. The book covered a range of social issues particularly about the experience of women – all good topics for discussion by the group. Monster directed by Hirokazu Koreedan, music by Ryuichi Sakamoto This is a “psychodramatic, mystery thriller”, which has received widespread critical acclaim. The film provoked a good discussion, with some members noticing key elements, and alternative interpretations of the ending that others had missed, so it was really helpful to have had a big group watching it! Some found it rather hard to get into and confusing to start with, until the relationship between the two key children in the film began to develop more clearly and the overall picture became clearer. The relationships between the boys, mother and school were all portrayed in a very realistic and moving way: showing the complicated thoughts and interactions we all have in real life. Being the last art meet up before Easter we took our inspiration from chickens and cockerels with their colourful tail feathers and fantastic names: Leghorns, Lincolnshire Buff and Ardenner were especially tempting to copy. We worked using collage technique using a selection of magazines, papers and tissue to provide material which we could cut or rip and arrange to pick out the patterns and light. Ripping the papers left a white edge which worked well for feathers as did news print and an old A to Z. Tissue had a beautiful silk like quality. All the images will make great Easter cards.  Working in a group is stimulating as we all learn from each other and the morning had a creative buzz and energy. The Foraging group had a successful outing to pick wild garlic and nettles at a new site where it grew in abundance. We have been exchanging many of our favourite recipes, from pesto to risotto. A sunny and muddy excursion but all good fun. The NEW WI Learning Hub Following the sale of the Denman, the WI is pleased to announce the launch of The Learning Hub, which will provide WI members with access to a range of online courses, the majority of which will be free. There will be a small number of specialised courses delivered by external providers that will require a small fee, but these fees will be kept as low as possible. FEDERATION NEWS AND ACTIVITIESShould you ever wish to contact Angie Leach our WI advisor her email address is HERE  MARCH 2024 – the NFWI ANNUAL REVIEW  MARCH 2024 Talking Points Schedule for entries for Edenbridge & Oxsted Show in August National Federation of WIs –  There is lots of information about the WI and its aims. If you are a member, you need to create an account and password if you haven’t already done so. You must use the same email address you put on your membership form because that is linked to your membership. If you are not a member, joining information is here  The NFWI Equality, DIversity and Inclusion policy is HERE   The NFWI Charter can be read HERE  The NFWI Code of Conduct can be read HERE  CURRENT WI CAMPAIGNS: THINKING DIFFERENTLY SEEKING AWARENESS OF AUTISM AND ADHD IN WOMEN AND GIRLS  SEE THE SIGNS CAMPAIGN SEEKS TO RAISE AWARENESS OF THE SUBTLE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF OVARIAN CANCER STOP MODERN SLAVERY THE CAMPAIGN SEEKS TO RAISE AWARENESS OF MODERN SLAVERY IN THE UK  OTHER CAMPAIGNS