Hello everyone,
I hope you enjoyed the impromptu quiz at our September meeting. Ruth Nieman who was going to talk to us about The Galilean Kitchen sends her immense apologies for the last minute cancellation, as you know she was suddenly taken extremely ill and couldn’t make it, so we hope to book her again another time.
Looking forward, at our next meeting on October 15th, we will have Sarah Citron from The Fine Cell Work coming to talk to us about the wonderful work they do in prisons teaching inmates creative needlework skills, then providing employment support and training opportunities to the prison leavers.
In November we will be having our AGM, followed by a hands-on activity making Christmas doves. As, usual it will be a review of the year and an opportunity to vote in your Committee and President for next year. We are looking for at least two more members to join the committee to replace members who have stood down. If this you would like to put yourself forward, please talk to any member of the committee about it.
The main upcoming events are:
Tuesday 15th October – Meeting – Fine Cell Work
Wednesday 6th November – Visit and tour of Wandsworth Re-cycling Centre
Tuesday 19th November – AGM & Seasonal Activity
Sunday 1st December – Wreath-making
Tuesday 17th December – Christmas Party
St Mary’s is looking for volunteers to serve mince pies and mulled wine at their Charity Christmas Carol Service on 10th December, please see below and let me know if you wish to help out.
SW19 WI is holding an Autumn Fair on Friday 11th October. It’s at Wimbledon Village Hall at 7.30pm. There is a flyer about it at the end of this newsletter.
We have been offered free yoga sessions by a local teacher – full details in the full version of this newsletter which is emailed to our members.
We are still making flowers for the ‘Orange Flower Appeal’. The deadline is 15th October, so still time to get creative. There is going to be a spectacular display cascading down the Surrey Headquarters as part of the 16 days of Activism against gender-based violence. If you think you can create anything knitted, sewn, plastic or otherwise please do. The display is outdoors, so they need to hardy. I will be collecting them and dropping them off for the Surrey Fed, if you have made any, please contact me. A huge thanks to those of you have made some, we already have some fabulous flowers.
I very much look forward to seeing you all soon,
All the very best
Rosemary
President Battersea WI
E: presidentbattersea@surreyfedwi.org.uk
Fine Cell Work – Tuesday 15th October 7pm Sarah Citron from The Fine Cell Work charity is coming to talk about the work they do supporting prisoners and helping them to build fulfilling crime-free lives by offering skills training in creative needlework that can be undertaken in the long hours spent in their cells. Currently working in 32 British prisons with more than 500 prisoners every year, Fine Cell Work addresses key issues affecting prisoners’ offending behaviours: establishment and reinforcement of work skills, building relationships, and mental resilience.The ultimate aim is for prisoners to finish their sentences with work skills, money earned and saved, and the self-belief not to re-offend. Fine Cell Work is a charity which makes beautiful handmade products in British prisons, it was founded by Lady Anne Tree (1927-2010), a British aristocrat, social reformer, prison visitor and prison rights activist. We will learn a bit about the history of the charity, their mission, the work they do with programmes for rehabilitation and the exquisitely-stitched products created in collaboration with leading designers.
November Outing – Morning Tour of the Western Riverside Waste Authority recycling centre, Wandsworth
WRWA beside the Thames in Wandsworth handles all the waste from our borough, as well as Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and Lambeth. Its education team have offered us a behind-the-scenes tour to see for ourselves how that gets sorted and recycled. The combination of automation and hand-picking is fascinating to experience, but please be aware that it’s also noisy and a bit smelly!
Christmas Wreath-making Sunday 1st December Venue to be confirmed, cost of event £20 (payment in advance) which includes all materials.
Charity Christmas Carol Concert 10th December at St Mary’s Battersea Church Road SW11 3NA
The concert is in aid of the KLS 100 Appeal. St Mary’s has asked if anyone from the WI could help serve mulled wine and mince pies from the gazebos outside the church. The aim is to raise £7,500 for KLS, a charity close to us in Battersea who do amazing work in the community. (Tickets for the event will be £20, and all funds will go to the Charity.)
Sub Groups Meeting Dates for October:
- Art Group – date tbc via WhatsApp Group
- Battersea Bookends – Monday 7th 5.30pm
- Boozy Books – Monday 7th 7pm
- Chapter One Reading Group – Tuesday 8th
- Coffee Group: Thursday 3rd, Wednesday 16th, Thursday 31st, 11am
- Craft Group: Saturday 5th October, orange flowers, Tuesday 22nd, Sashiko Embroidery
- Exhibitions: see WhatsApp notifications
- Film Group: Monday 28th
- Foodies: Thursday 21st
- Foraging: tbc
- Knitting & Crochet: Wednesday 23rd, 6.30pm
- Swimming – Tooting Bec Lido
- Photography: Tuesday 5th November
- Walking Group: Friday 4th and Friday 18th (extra walk dependent on weather)
September Outing: Garden Museum Lambeth. There was plenty to see with interactive displays to play on. We explored the Project Giving Back gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show with pictures and articles illustrating the diverse visionary ideas of the show gardens to convey their charity messages. This summer the Garden Museum presented the first exhibition exploring the gardens of the Bloomsbury group. Gardening Bohemia: Bloomsbury Women Outdoors centred on four extraordinary women and the green spaces they surrounded themselves with: Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Lady Ottoline Morrell and Vita Sackville-West
Walking Group
Six members and two dogs turned out on a rather damp grey morning, to travel up to Alexandra Palace for scenic views over London and the Parkland Walk. This green and pleasant linear nature reserve is in two sections. We linked the two parts by walking through darkly atmospheric Highgate Wood , a fragment of ancient woodland belonging to the Corporation of London.
The Art Group had two meet-ups in September, the first being a very enjoyable day discovering The Onion Garden in the heart of Westminster. A tiny urban garden created out of the passion for plants by Jens Jacobsen, it was the perfect backdrop for drawing and painting plants and curious forms, and definitely worth another visit.
Later in the month we spent a very jolly sunny Saturday morning sketching pomegranates, autumn leaves and sweet chestnuts at the Omnibus Cafe on Clapham Common.
Chapter One Reading Group In September we read Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. This tells the story of a man from birth to early adulthood growing up in terribly poor circumstances in and around West Virginia and Kentucky. We are also shown the harsh circumstances of a community experiencing economic deprivation, the impact of the Opioid crisis on individuals and the desperation of those affected. The story was hard hitting and informative but also somewhat depressing and not an easy read. Despite this some of us found the spirit and resilience of some of the characters very moving.
Battersea Bookends Book Group This month we read the Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk. A fantastic evocation of the sights and smells of 18th Century London and Constantinople and enjoyable to immerse yourself in the world of automata. One member sent us a link to view an 18th century automata, called The Writer, working which was so interesting to view. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0229pbp) We all felt however that the book read like a series of very interesting vignettes.
Boozy Books The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas. A tale of two sisters living very different lives, Alice, a high flyer married to a wealthy entrepreneur, Kyle, the other, Tasha, living in a Bristol suburb with her husband Harry and 4 year old twins. They do a life swap for a week. A few days in, Alice is in hospital and Kyle is dead after an apparent burglary gone wrong, but then a note arrives for Tasha saying ‘it was supposed to be you.’ This was a terrific family drama, twisty, surprising, and clever. The solution to the mystery is so clever and we agreed that we were nowhere near guessing it!
Film & Cinema Group Six of us went to Clapham Picturehouse this month to see “LEE”, which tells the story of photographer Elizabeth ‘Lee’ Miller, an ex-fashion model, living in London who became an acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue magazine during World War II. Miller was one of the first civilians to bear witness to the atrocities of the Nazi concentration camps: what she saw there was unforgettable and stayed with her for the rest of her life: this is well conveyed by Kate Winslet. Andy Samberg also does a great job co-starring as her friend and colleague, Life magazine photographer, David E Scherman. We all agreed that the film avoided being too melodramatic and voyeuristic given the grim material portrayed. It is beautifully shot with an interesting mix of pre-war bright colour scenes and wartime grey. Director Ellen Kuras had access to Miller’s private archives, which enabled a realistic portrayal of Lee’s exploits and mental state at the time. Kuras said “Lee is a great role model because she wasn’t given the opportunity to become a war correspondent. She went out and found it. She followed her own intuition in the pursuit of telling the truth and the pursuit of justice.” Inspiration for the WI.
Foodies Group’s September theme was the Buffet Table and the meet up had ten hungry members eager to participate. We feasted on quails eggs, courgette filo pie, arancini, seafood salad, Mediterranean vegetable salad and an English garden green salad. We even managed to find room for dessert and many swapped leftovers at the end of the night to take home treats for friends and family. Desserts included a pear and almond tart, gluten free chocolate cake, black forest trifle and a lemon and raspberry tart.
FEDERATION NEWS AND ACTIVITIES
Battersea WI is part of The Surrey Federation of WIs. Click here for more information. To find out more about the National Federation, click here
See the NFWI website for a full list of current campaigns including Dental Health, Clean Rivers, Autism and ADHD in Women and Domestic Violence
For information about courses visit the Learning Hub https://learninghub.thewi.org.uk/at-home/
If you would like to join Battersea WI, please complete the contact form and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.