When life gets busy and you forget to write stuff – a mega-round up of the last few months!

It’s been a while since we last posted anything, but the Hackney Wicked Women are still going strong, in fact we are having our best membership year ever with nearly 40 members joining before we’ve even had our first meeting of the new membership year (which confusingly is now in April)!

We’ve been so busy having fun and welcoming members new and old that we’ve neglected our blog a bit, but it’s always nice to have something to look back on to remind us of all the things we’ve been up to, so here’s a quick rundown of what’s been happening in the HWW WI world…

December – Now it’s spring it feels weird to be going back in time to Christmas 2022 when we had our final meeting of the year with a casual session of Christmas card making (and mulled wine drinking!). We were too busy chatting and enjoying some festive beverages to take any photos, so you will just have to believe it when I say we made some INCREDIBLE sprout prints, as well as some fabulous foiled stamped cards and a various glittery delights!

January – we embarked on a bit of visible mending/decorative embroidery with committee members Nora and Chloe. After a quick intro into the basic techniques everyone was let loose with needles and thread, to see if they could lengthen the life of some slightly worn garments…

February – for our vaguely Valetine’s-themed meeting this month we tried our hands at some feminist origami with Emily from Femigami, who, despite some serious WIFI issues (ours, not hers!), managed to teach us all how to make some fabulous origami – ranging from little envelopes for empowering notes, to vulvas (with added glitter and design) and penises.

After a bit of background to what the Fawcett Society do, they led a wonderfully raucous session of feminist bingo (no “two fat ladies” and more facts about powerful women). With prizes generously donated by Yardsale pizza, Genesis and Hackney Picturehouse cinemas, Shoreditch nails, Galentines and Labour and Wait, we also raised over £300 for Bloody Good Period to support in their mission to provide period products to those who can’t afford them and provide reproductive health education to those less likely to access it.

March – this month we were joined by Fawcett East London, a group of volunteers joining forces to promote the Fawcett Society’s vision in East London: Creating a society in which women and girls in all their diversity are equal and truly free to fulfil their potential, creating a stronger, happier, better future for us all.

Yes, I only took one photo. And yes, I’m a bit OCD when it comes to colouring in my bingo card.

April – we started the new membership year with an overwhelming number of members, both new and old, after the speediest AGM ever (President Sophie wasn’t messing around) we were so excited to welcome Amarachi Clarke from Lucocoa, London’s first Bean to Bar chocolate maker. She talked us through how she first came up with the idea for her business, starting in the spare room of her Hackney flat all the way up to her current operation in a proper factory in Bermondsey. In order to avoid the child and slave labour still prevalent in many cocoa-growing farms, Lucocoa does things differently and ensures their cocoa growers are properly paid and work in decent conditions.

After learning a bit about her chocolate, we moved on to the bit we were all waiting for – tasting the chocolate! We tried four different bars, with varying levels of cocoa (including a “blonde” bar – the equivalent of white chocolate). There is even a tea made out of the leftover cocoa husks, which Treasurer Chloe may have taken the sample tin of home…

Glitter, glue and a gorilla – all the ingredients for a festive snow globe

For our November meeting, we decided to get a bit festive (otherwise we end up having Christmas fun right at the end of the year and then there just isn’t enough time left to enjoy our seasonal creations!) and try again at making snow globes (another session that got Covid-ed off last year). After some snow globe based facts we delved into a somewhat messy world of snow globe creation, starting with nothing but empty jars and some (slightly strange) Christmassy bits…

There was a bit of chaos involved in trying to get the little plastic items to glue to the polystyrene bases and then to the jar lids (a possible over-enthusiastic use of the glue led to the polystyrene starting to break down…), then after a bit of drying time, which we used wisely with a short snow globe based quiz, it was time to fill the jars with water, a bit of glycerine and a load of glitter. Then on with the lids and they were ready to go!

I think general consensus was that Jodie’s amazing miniature hiker in a test tube probably won out on style stakes (look how cute and small it is!) but everyone went home with a glittery, christmassy, magical creation.

We will be back with a bit more Christmas craft for our final meeting of 2022 on the 21st December, and then back in January for a whole new year of fun. Come along and join us!

Two and a half years late, we finally managed to blend some herbal tea (damn you Covid!)

After an extremely long delay (we originally had this scheduled for March 2020, but we all know what happened then…) we were delighted to finally be able to welcome Hackney Herbal, a social enterprise specialising in creative events which explore the beneficial uses of herbs.

We were joined by Nat who talked us through the beneficial properties of a load of different herbs, including:

• Rosemary – good for concentration, headaches and focus
• Passion flower – a heart tonic, calming, good for stress and anxiety
• Oat straw – anti-depressant, restorative, good for stress and burnout
• Peppermint – digestive aid, anti-sickness, good for nausea
• Lemon verbena – good for sleep, relaxing, stress-relieving
• Nettle – good for detox, balancing, good for hay fever
• Echinacea – tonic for immune system, good for coughs, colds and flu
• Chamomile – sedative, good for sleep, a stress and digestive aid

We then moved on to creating our own custom blends of herbs, to take home a selection of our own teabags. As someone who generally opts for a cup of strong English Breakfast (I’m very Yorkshire that way), I can testify to the fact they are incredibly delicious, and I’m even tempted to follow up some of the suggestions for places to buy more herbs now that I’ve brewed up the ones we made on the night!

Suggested blends (but really, go with what you like):

• For de-stressing and sleep – lemon verbena, passion flower and chamomile
• Uplifting and detoxing – peppermint, nettle and rosemary
• Colds and flu – peppermint, echinacea and oat straw
• Stress and anxiety – passion flower, lemon verbena, oat straw (this was my personal favourite)

It’s all fun and games until the snowman game gets going…

This month we marked the changing of the seasons with a board game evening facilitated by the brilliant local charity Universal Board Games. Universal Games are a Hackney based charity who provide education through the development and provision of games and workshops. They promote inclusion by working with groups of people who are socially excluded. They have even designed and produced their own card game (with talented and perceptive young people across Hackney) “Our World Too“, a playful and creative game that enables difficult conversations and builds resilient responses to real life extremist narratives.

Instead of tears and tantrums (just my family?), we took time to try new games, learn new rules, rotate around different themed tables and celebrate victory in our new favourite pasttimes. Personal highlights were all of the wooden games, which, for what they lacked in sophistication made up for in competitive challenge!

A number of us got involved in an extremely beautifully-designed game involving a tree and fruits and snowballs which turned out to be an incredibly vicious game in which you have to knock all the fruit off the tree, send blizzards to your opponents and generally destroy your friends – we hadn’t quite got the hang of it by the time it came for us to pack up, but that was possibly for the best as we ended the night on speaking terms and not wanting to throw icicles in each other’s eyes…

Steph and Chloe taking it all very (a bit too?) seriously…

Thanks to Universal Games for taking the time to introduce us to their work and fun new games!

Making the most of our lovely venue – by officially drinking all the beers!

For July’s meeting (yes, I realise this is rather late – fabulous Secretary Steph wrote this ages ago but less than fabulous Treasurer Chloe totally failed to post it!), we were pleased to be joined by Floris, one of our friendly hosts at the Beer Merchants Tap. We ventured outside of (some of) our comfort zones for a beer tasting and were happy to lobby Beer Merchants Tap to keep more of its great selection of alcohol free options on tap!

We started with a session pale ale from Lost and Grounded based in Bristol. The beer’s name ‘Wanna Go To The Sun’ was a reminder of the scorching weather outside and was pleasingly refreshing. The fruity, slightly hazy beer was a hit – nothing to do with its hops like cannabis we hope..!

Our next beer was a special Belgian beer at a punchy 7%. This lambic gueze is the product of spontaneous fermentation – a product of science which nearly died out in the 80s and 90s as lager took hold of the market but is back with a bang in 2022! Its best before date of July 2042 was not a misprint!

Our third beer was a best bitter, red ale inspired tipple from Newbarns in Edinburgh. Fun fact: Beer Merchants Tap sowed the seeds for this collaboration and it’s a good one!

Our final beer was a strong 8.4% Tripel made with three grains – a classic choice for the end of a night and a perfect way to close our tasting.

Big thanks to Beer Merchants Tap for hosting us and being our teacher for the evening. You may not have made us all avid beer drinkers, but our next orders at the bar may be that much more adventurous…

A Diamond Jubilee “Street Party” (a couple of weeks after the whole shebang and in the pub…)

This month our meeting was themed around the diamond jubilee festivities with a session painting tiny commemorative plates. Our plates came complete with their own stands for the more artistic among us whose new plates can now take pride of place on display at home. Designs ranged from the literal (60 years of HRH) to the abstract, with memories of holidays and several pets thrown in for good measure!

Our lovely Committee member Rachel provided a homemade Victoria sponge (alongside healthy strawberries) which induced a dose of baking envy. A great time was had by all.

Next month: beer tasting!

Spring fun with the Hackney Wicked Women

It’s been a while since we’ve reported on our activities, but that’s not to say we haven’t been meeting and having loads of fun! In March we learned how to paint our own dinner candles (rather than spending a fortune on shop bought ones), then in April we were joined by Foodcycle Hackney. Then our May meeting was our Annual General Meeting and the ever popular (and extremely difficult) Feminist Pub Quiz!

March was a crafty month as Secretary Steph taught us all how to paint our own dinner candles, with just a bit of paint, some masking tape and a bit of creative flair. A few people had to head home in the rain carrying still-wet candles, but there were some amazing efforts all round!

In April we were joined by Foodcycle Hackney, who talked to us about their projects and the amazing work they do providing welcoming spaces and hot meals every week for anyone who wants to come along. They primarily use food donated to them, so every week is an adventure, trying to work out how to use whatever produce has been received! They are always in need of volunteers so if you are interested in getting involved got to www.foodcycle.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer. We also put our own skills at using random veg to the test to knock up some delicious homemade pickles.

May was our Annual General Meeting, where we ran through our financial accounts for last year, heard from the Secretary and President and agreed on our Committee and President for the coming year. Sophie was voted in President again, to be supported by Chloe (Treasurer), Steph (Secretary), Rachel, Louise, Nora, Evie, Katherine and Fran.

We’ve got lots of great stuff planned for the rest of the year, so come along and join us! Click on the links for details of what we’ve got coming up and how to contact us or join!

Bringing in the new year with dancing, resolutions, Galentine’s Day fun (and a visit from the police)

We started 2022 as we mean to go on with our January meeting jam-packed with activities and general chaos!  First up we were joined by two of the Hackney Safer Neighbourhood’s Policing Team who are trying to spread the word on how we can keep ourselves safe when we are out and about.

We then moved on to our annual vote for the WI Resolutions. This year’s selection is a really interesting one (the shortlist covers a range of topics from getting sports clothes designed for girls’ needs, to appropriate sentencing for non-violent women offenders, tackling digital exclusion, support for women and girls in diagnosing and treating ADHD and ASD, and seeking equality in the law for menopause). Everyone should now have had a chance to vote, and we will see what the outcome of this is in the coming months.

Finally we got to the bit of the meeting that everyone had been waiting for – a ceilidh run by our two most Gaelic members, Nora and Evie (one Irish, one Scottish). They took us through the basic moves and soon we were (sort of) successfully dancing! An enormous amount of chaos, fun, giggling and crashing into stuff was had by all – with the main comments being “definitely need to do a bit more cardio this year”… Massive thanks to Evie and Nora for leading the session, it was amazing!

For February’s meeting we went for a Galentine’s Day theme. First up was a round of intros based on “who was your first crush” (in which everyone could remember both first AND last names of boys from infant school). Fuelled by sweet “charcuterie” boards (no meat, just a lot of sugar) we then made cards for our gal pals, decorated vulva cookies and participated in a gentle game of “airing your dirty laundry” which was mainly an opportunity to have a chat!

Happy Christmas from the Hackney Wicked Women WI!

As another crazy year draws to a close, I’m taking a quick look back over the last couple of months – festive fun that was had, and festive fun that was planned and at the last minute had to be flipped back, 2020-style, to virtual fun…

In November we were happily out and about, making a distinctly sticky mess in the back room of the Beer Merchants Tap! In true WI style, we were making our own mincemeat ready to be turned into mince pies once we were all back in our own kitchens. First up though, as anyone who has been a member for a while will know, we all love some good facts so a bit of learning was involved…

Mincemeat facts!

• Mincemeat has been around since the 15^th century and originally involved actual meat (plus spices – clove, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon) and was used for savoury pies.
• Originally mince pies were shaped like Jesus’ manger and some people believe that the inclusion of the spices were a reference to the magi who brought spices when they came to visit the baby Jesus.
• They only started to become meat-free in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.
• And in 2011 Greggs sold 75 million mince pies during the festive season!!

We then teamed up to make big bowls of mincemeat together. Using President Sophie’s Grandmother’s recipe (those who were around for November’s Christmas pudding session will know Sophie’s family recipes are EXCELLENT), apples were chopped, nuts, dried druit, sugar, suet, lemons, spices and brandy were all added in and mixed well. We then battled to fit all the mincemeat into our jars so that none would go to waste! Then the craft basket was raided for festive fabric for lids, ribbons and labels.

Our plans for December had then remained Christmas themed, and we were all set up and ready to make our own glittery snowglobes! But then Covid reared it’s ugly head again and we decided that to keep everyone safe and well for Christmas we should go back to Zoom. The snowglobe stuff went back in the cupboard for next year, and a traditional HWW Christmas Quiz happened instead. Typically rock-hard questions, STILL no-one could remember all the reindeer and no prizes for winning, but fun all the same (and we all learned some new Christmas facts – who knew eggnog is originally from the UK?!).

Back on Zoom – and it’s still impossible to take a good screenshot where everyone looks nice at the same time!

From all of us at the Hackney Wicked Women committee, we wish you a very happy Christmas and a lovely new year. We hope you all stay safe and well, and we are keeping everything crossed for a return to “normal” in 2022. More details to come on our plans for January and onwards in the new year!

Dia de los Muertos – All Souls, skulls and lots of sparkly bits…

October saw the Hackney Wicked Women back in the pub (classic HWW), with a Halloween craft theme. We started out learning loads of fascinating facts from Katherine about the history of Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations, and followed it up with a bit of crafty fun!

Katherine sharing all the facts

Dia de los Muertos is celebrated across Mexico on the 1^st and 2^nd of November (it’s not really Halloween, it’s more associated with the Catholic celebration of All Souls Day). It’s a joyful celebration, rather than a day of mourning, full of colour and showing love and respect for deceased family members and loved ones – keeping their memories alive.

The centre piece of the celebrations is the family altar, decorated with offerings of food and water, flowers (especially marigolds) and incense. Skulls and skeletons were not a common part of Day of the Dead celebrations until the early 20^th century, when political artist Jose Guadalupe Pasada created an etching of a skeleton dressed in traditional fancy French clothing. In 1947 artist Diego Rivera featured a stylised skeleton in his mural “Dream of a Sunday afternoon”. He named her Catrina (slang for the rich) and she is now the most famous image associated with Dia de los Muertos.

The Day of the Dead holiday was recognised in 2008 by UNESCO as an “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” (read more about it here).

And top fact – one of the more recent representations of the celebration in the 2015 James Bond film “Spectre”, where thousands of people throng the streets in costume, actually never happened until the film came out. The celebrations are traditionally more based around the family home. However, after Spectre’s release, the people of Mexico City decided it looked like fun and now a parade happens every year!

We then got a bit creative with cute ceramic skull-shaped tealight holders, paint pens and lots of sparkly bits…