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Our December Meeting was also our Christmas Social. Yet again Covid intervened which prevented us being joined by a choir to sing Christmas songs. However, undaunted, a lovely evening was had by all. Linda baked a magnificent Christmas Cake and thanks to all others who supplied goodies and helped on the night. Special thanks to Sue B who made our beautiful, and unique, Christmas Tree decorations which all members received
One of the many events postponed due to the pandemic finally happened on November 27th. A large group of us went for Afternoon Tea at Lindy Lou’s. A cold grey afternoon was definitely brightened up by delicious sandwiches, scones and cakes and lots of chatter.
We had a craft evening with Jean showing us ideas for unique Christmas Cards and Caroline showing us decorative boxes for the tree or place settings. We also judges our Poppy Competition which was won by Alyson with her Poppy Hatinator, Runners up were Caroline with her Wreath and Kay with her Painting
On the 18th October we finally managed our , much delayed, visit to Trinity House, the HQ of there Lighthouse Authority. Our guide was the, always impressive, Kate Boyle and we learned all sorts of fascinating facts including the story go the poor Lighthouse Keeper who opened his mouth any the wrong moment and swallowed a lump of molten lead!!! sadly he did not survive. We saw the beautiful rooms, restored after the blitz and recreated Catford WI style a painting of the Elder Brethren who irresponsible for running the organisation.
We had a fascinating presentation from Rebecca Coker and Melissa Jo Smith from Illuminated Arts about the Pocket and its significance in women’s history followed by a demonstration of making pockets. They brought along some examples of pockets made for the project. We also celebrated 14 members birthdays (20% of our membership!)
September 30th brought the beginning of the new Darts Tournament when the Sweetpeas met the Matfield Flights. Closely fought match was narrowly won by Matfield but everyone was glad to be back.
Finally….we met altogether in person at Catford Cricket for our first live gathering since March 2020 and it was great to be together again. Our speaker was our favourite guide, Kate Boyle, who told us about her life as a tour guide and, being the WI, lots of delicious cakes were available thanks to our talented members.
On a rainy October 2nd an intrepid group met with guide Kate Boyle for tour of the sights of Dulwich. Whilst avoiding the rain they saw among many sites the original Dulwich College (an alms house for 12 young men ) saw the statue to it’s founder Edward Alleyne and visited the Dulwich Picture gallery.
On September the 11th a group went for a mudlarking experience on the Thames. After a talk about the types of finds that are regularly made along London’s river everyone had the chance to try their hand with somebintersting results.
We were treated to an interesting walk around Beckenham led by Tour Guide Kate Boyle. Taking in St Georges Church, Beckenham Green and the mansion and buildings in Beckenham Place Park it gave us a fascinating insight into our locality.
We went to DSI in Croydon who are the makers of the costumes for BBC Strictly Come Dancing. Over a glass of fizz we learned about the importance of dance not only as a physically healthy activity but as a boost to mental health. Surrounded by a seam of extraordinary colours the tour was real boost to the senses.
Our speaker was Gill Hodgekinson who gave us a fascinating presentation about Highgate cemetery, it’s history and some of the 170k people who are buried there. In addition to Karl Marx, probably the most famous, Malcolm McLaren, George Michael and Charles Cruft (Inventor of the Dog Show) are among the illustrious burials.
Our Spring Photograph competition has been won by Nicole with her wonderful shot of a Robin landing on a hand. It is a beautiful, and technically stunning, image.
Runners up were Caroline with her Dandelion Seed Head and Shirley with her Quiet Corner of her Garden.
Barry Cole, who very kindly judged the entries, has created a virtual gallery which can be seen here until the 12th July 2021
Congratulations Nicole!
Our speaker for the evening was the hugely entertaining Paulus The Cabaret Geek. He told us about the history of Cabaret as a unique form of entertainment. He also sang songs self accompanied on the Ukulele…including, of course, Cabaret! Paulus told us about his own story and how he became a performer, he also told us how hard it has been for artists during the pandemic when their industry was shut down overnight. He has a new show based on the songs of the late Victoria Wood opening in July. We all agreed that it had been a fun evening.
This was our Annual Meeting and so had no speaker. Caroline presented her report of the past year and Sue H presented our audited accounts. The NFWI Campaign for the year - Recognising the subtle signs of Ovarian Cancer was unanimously supported and we thanks Max who stepped down as our President. The Committee was re-elected and Alyson is the President for the coming year. Our membership remains at 70 with a small number on our waiting list.
We followed a Springtime theme for our activities in April. Our Spring Hat Competition was hard fought but won by Sian with Mel and Julia in the runners up spots. Caroline showed us how to make a simple PopUp card and the quiz asked you to identify the Committee members from their baby photos. The evening was rounded off with a Raffle and Bingo.
After conducting our regular business and going into the break out rooms for a quick catch up with others we were joined by Paul Robbins for his presentation on ‘Great British Eccentrics’. We learned that the majority of eccentrics are men, many were aristocrats and all were completely bonkers! We heard of a man who kept a pet bear and paid voters to elect him as their MP and then resigned after hearing only 45 minutes of the debate in the Houses of Parliament. We heard about the real ’Basil Fawlty’ and of a woman who declared herself ‘Queen of the Desert’ and walled herself into her house!
was a feast of Chocolate as our speaker was Vlora from Tony’s Chocolonely who told us about the origins of the company in the attempt to stop modern slavery in the farming of Cocoa. 60 % of the world’s cocoa is produced in Ghana and the Ivory Coast with 2.5 million family farms working in the industry, most having to rely on children to work to enable the family to make a living. The company name came from the description of the founder, Teun Van Der Keuken or Tony’s, lonely fight against the big confectionery company’s to improve the lives of the Cocoa farmers and their families.
Due to be published in March 21 this our own piece of social History.
Over the months of lockdown Catford WI have kept up a daily conversation via WhatsApp. We told jokes, admired gardens and asked for suggestions for them; shared Cocktail recommendations as well as commenting on the day to day events of the Summer of Covid 19.
The commentary has been distilled into a book which tells the story of the year in members’ own words and illustrated with our own photos. Definitely one to keep for future generations.
Our first ‘meeting’ of 2021 proved to be an unexpected treasure. Our guest speaker was Jane Grayer who works as an independent Celebrant, working with families to create bespoke occasions, Weddings, Baby Namings and Funerals. It was the latter that sparked many questions and contributions from members speaking openly about their own experiences of family funerals. This is not a subject which we often talk about but Jane’s sympathetic and empathetic manner and real enthusiasm for her work was very clear and as she works in costume under her Steampunk alter ego, Unity Ironbright, was quite eye opening. Jane also talked about many traditions she uses in her wedding ceremonies for example hand fasting and broom jumping all a far cry from a ‘traditional’ white wedding and very personal to the couples involved.
CATFORD WOMEN'S INSTITUTE