Hapa Zome (Botanical Pounding) & Tea Sunday at Prosper, Ely

Hapa Zome (Botanical Pounding) & Tea Sunday at Prosper, Ely

🌿 The season at its most alive. The plants at their most vivid. The perfect morning to pound them onto cloth.

Ely · Sun 28 June 2026 · Prosper Café · 10:30–12:30

Two hours · Small group · £45

There is a moment in the Chinese solar calendar called 夏至 — the Summer Solstice.

☀️ The longest day. The fullest light. Every plant, every flower, every leaf holding the maximum colour it will ever hold.

In the Japanese practice of Shinrin-Yoku — forest bathing — this is the most potent moment of the year for working with botanicals. The plants are not just beautiful right now. They are alive in a way they will not be again until next summer.

Hapa Zome makes use of exactly that aliveness.

This gathering is for that morning. Two hours. Fresh botanicals. Three teas. A warm, welcoming room in the heart of Ely.

Two hours designed around how the nervous system actually settles. Not through information. Through the senses.

🌸 HAPA ZOME · Pressing Summer Into Cloth

Hapa Zome (叩き染め) is a Japanese botanical printing technique — pressing the pigment of fresh plants directly onto fabric by pounding them with a mallet.

No dye. No paint. Just the plant itself, giving what it holds.

You'll arrange seasonal summer botanicals — roses, lavender, wild grasses and whatever the Cambridgeshire hedgerows and gardens are offering that week — on your cotton tote bag. Then pound them, gently and repeatedly, until the colour transfers.

You won't know what yours looks like until you peel back the leaves at the end.

That not-knowing is the practice.

The rhythmic pounding is also a settling body practice — the repetitive movement quietens the mind while the hands are busy making. Some women find they go very still inside. Some find things they didn't expect to find.

Both are right.

You don't control what the plant gives. You simply create the conditions for it to appear.

🍵 Tea Experiences 

Three cups. Three moments. The morning moves through them.

Arriving · 桂花茶 · Osmanthus 

Pure osmanthus flowers steeped alone — pale gold, honey-apricot scented. Gentle and warming. 

A cup that says: you've arrived. This might be a cold brews depends on the weather. 

Pounding · 麥冬玉竹茉莉茶Mai Dong, Yu Zhu & Jasmine

Two classical Chinese summer herbs — known for cooling the body, calming the mind and replenishing what the heat takes away — simmered together and finished with floating jasmine buds. Pale amber. Gently sweet. Quietly cooling. While the plants are giving their colour to your cloth, this cup gives the body what it needs in midsummer.

Closing · 鐵觀音 · Premium Tieguanyin

A cooling, floral oolong — the most seasonally aligned tea for the longest day. In Chinese medicine it clears heat and settles the mind. Served as the pounding quietens and you hold your finished tote bag for the first time.

Three colours. Three temperatures. Three moments of arriving more fully in yourself. 

🌿 Somatic Integration

Through gentle body-based guidance, we'll close the morning by noticing what has shifted. Where is there more ease? Where has something softened?

You'll use somatic noticing cards to witness your own nervous system — arriving and departing. That difference is the practice.

You'll Leave With

A one-of-a-kind botanical tote bag — pressed by your own hands from summer plants at their most alive. No two are the same.

A felt sense of what it means to work with the season rather than despite it.

A steadier, more grounded quality of presence — available anywhere, anytime.

A seasonal take-home tea kit (10g loose-leaf) and brewing recipe for your own summer practice at home.

THIS GATHERING IS FOR YOU IF

You're curious about what happens when you slow your hands enough for your mind to follow.

You want to make something beautiful — without needing to be an artist to do it.

You love the idea of working with nature and want a specific, unhurried way to do that on a Sunday morning.

You want to experience what the summer solstice feels like in your body — not as a concept, but as a morning you actually lived.

No art experience needed. No knowledge of tea or Chinese medicine required. Just curiosity and the willingness to not know what your tote bag will look like until the very end.

PRACTICAL DETAILS

Prosper Café · 16–18 Broad Street · Ely · CB7 4AH

Sunday 28 June · 10:30–12:30

Maximum 10 women

Investment Early Bird (first 3): £40 Standard: £45 TwoTogether (bring a friend): £80 for 2

Everything included: Cotton tote bag · seasonal summer botanicals · pounding tools · three seasonal teas · somatic noticing cards · take-home tea kit (10g) + brewing recipe

Your Facilitator

Pauline grew up in Hong Kong learning food as medicine from her Po Po (granddma) — ginger tea before symptoms appeared, soups for prevention. When eczema taught her to listen to her body's messages, she rediscovered what her culture always knew: the body speaks clearly when we're willing to hear.

Now an ICF Level 2 Body-Oriented Coach (The Somatic School, UK), trained in Polyvagal Theory and nervous system regulation, she bridges East Asian ancestral practices with modern body science — helping women find their way back to themselves, one slow morning at a time. 2,000+ coaching hours, including 500+ with neurodivergent professionals in workplace settings.

Kind Words

"The energy was perfect — calm, warm, and welcoming." — Charlene

"I really enjoyed the tea ceremonies and was amazed about how relaxed I felt afterwards." - Denise

"I left feeling centred and inspired."- Natalie