It’s Plastic Free July this month, a global initiative that aims to help all of us be part of the solution to plastic pollution and we were joined this month by the founder of local community group, Plastic Free Hackney, Bettina, who shared her top 10 tips to reduce our use of plastic in everyday life. We heard more about how Plastic Free Hackney is engaging our community to reduce the plastic waste around the borough and had a lively discussion about all things plastic.

PLUS Party In The Park on 6th
This years Party in De Beauvoir Square is on Saturday 6th (2pm – 5pm) we are running the cake stall again this year and are looking for bakers who would be up for baking and donating a cake for the stall. Do let us know if you can bake something by emailing us on debeauvoirbakes@gmail.com or at the usual WI email address. If baking is not your forte but you would like to help on the stall let us know and do come along and support the party with your friends and family. It is always such a lovely afternoon with lots for the kids to engage with and Pimms and BBQ as well as cake for the adults. The police horses (and their riders) will be there along with the fire engine (emergencies permitting) plus music, games, and more.

Dates for your diary:-
28th June BST walking group will be taking a trip down to Greenwich, walking through the tunnel at Island Gardens and walking up the hill to the observatory to witness the setting sun from one of the best locations in London, full details are on the relevant page of the website but the plan is to meet at the 277 bus stop in Dalston at 7pm to start the journey. Dogs welcome

30th June: Petertide at St Peter’s
We are all invited to a day long celebration, with a service of Thanksgiving at 10am followed by a bring and share lunch and BBQ followed by cream teas and a concert in the church featuring classical favourites from international musicians Alexandra Fletcher (cello), Anthony Kondo (cello) and Asia Paletskaya (piano). Looks like it will be a lovely afternoon, come along and join in the celebrations.

15th July Knitting group will be meeting venue tbc

16th July Book group will be discussing Hotel Silence by Auour Ava Olafsdottir, venue tbc but if anyone has any ideas of a quiet venue where the book group could meet locally, do let us know as we are looking for a new regular venue

JAMMING AND PRESERVING WORKSHOPS
we are planning a number of fruit picking excursions followed by jam making workshops throughout July, email us if you are interested in joining us, our stocks are low and we need to start gathering jam and marmalade momentum for the WI stall at the De Beauvoir Gardeners Flower & Produce show in September

SAVE THE DATE 15th SEPTEMBER
De Beauvoir Gardeners Flower & Produce Show is on 15th September, we will be running a WI stall at this event selling jams and preserves plus cakes and bakes. The infamous De Beauvoir Dog Show will no doubt be the highlight of the day, but check out the competition categories if you fancy baking, or crafting and entering the competition, you can find information about all the categories here.

Finally,
A big thanks to Gideon and Esther from Living Waterway and Wild Hackney for their guided walk around Kingsland Basin and the canal….
Here are some pictures from our walk and there is further information on the outings page, do have wander around the basin if you get a chance, some of our members had not visited the space for a number of years and were amazed by the transformation from a vile smelling rubbish dump to a gloriously biodiverse environment for insects, birds and even bats who visit at dusk