Category: Diane Gill

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Can you help us? Walmer Gardens Orchard Clear Up Day Saturday 22nd August

Walmer Gardens Orchard Clear Up Day – 10am – 12pm – follow the path up to April Cottage when in Walmer Gardens W13 9TS

Walmer Gardens Map

Dear Neighbours

We have now had two successful  clear up days in the Orchard at Walmer Gardens, West Ealing, but there is still more work to be done! We are  still cutting the brambles, nettles, Ivy etc. and would love some more help to do this . If you are free then come along to Walmer Gardens with your garden gloves, secateurs and/or loppers. Clearing is quite hard work and only suitable for children over the age of 12. Please contact Diane Gill on wenabundance@gmail.com or 07736857700 for further information, otherwise we will see you there on the day!


If you can’t help with clearing, but have a car and would be willing to take garden rubbish to the dump please contact me or turn up at the Orchard on the day.

We are also looking for more expert volunteers, so if you know a bit about apples/pears and could help with picks later in the year please email me on the adddress above.

Many thanks and hope to see you there where Elizabeth and David will greet you.

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A Successful Orchard Clear Up Day!

TIMG_3528he WEN Abundance team enlisted the help of neighbours living around Walmer Gardens for the first of our monthly clear up days in the council owned Orchard  we look after.  We cut down nettles, Ivy, elder and grass over a couple of hours and took a lot of rubbish to the dump too!  With a handful of people it is amazing what can be achieved.  There’s more to do over the summer months so if you fancy getting a bit of exercise in a beautiful location, whilst doing some good then contact Diane Gill on wenabundance@gmail.com to get involved in these clear ups.

The following dates are planned all from 10am – 12pm:

Saturday 18th July
Saturday 22nd August
Saturday 26th September.

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New Clocktower Cafe opens in Hanwell W7

I know this is W7 and not W13, but I thought this new Cafe deserved a mention. Just opened last Tuesday I managed to vist at the weekend and talk to the new owner. It’s been busy since opening and looking at the decor and food on offer I can see why! We visted when the brunch was on offer, it’s a shame I was going out for lunch later otherwise I may have been tempted to order their eggs benedict or buttermilk pancakes. Instead I opted for a cappuccino. We sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine. Another welcome addition to Hanwell and a great representation of how West Ealing COULD be going forward. Check their Facebook page out and ‘like’ them.

Clock Tower Cafe Clock Tower Cafe Clock Tower Cafe1 Clock Tower Cafe2

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Where has all the fruit gone?

WEN Abundance is having a lean year for the first time since its inception 5 years ago with very little fruit on offer so far. We are by no means the only group suffering from a lack of Abundance, groups across London and the rest of the country are scaling down activities.  A mixture of a bumper year last year and mixed weather earlier on this year has resulted in fewer yields to date. 

Luckily for us we made lots of produce last year – including delicious new chutney recipes. All of which will be on sale at West Ealing Family Day on Saturday 22nd September.  Come along to our stall outside St James Church, St James Avenue from 10am – 4pm (providing stocks last!).

If anyone knows of any suitable fruit going spare, particularly apples for our fruit press to use at West Ealing Family Day please contact wenabundance@gmail.com

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Your guide to food for free at Pitshanger Park Sunday 17th June 2.00pm

Why not party the morning away at Pitshanger Party in the Park then spend the afternoon foraging for food with Ealing Transition Community Garden…

Wild Garlic Mustard, mild Linden leaves, wild spinaches and elderflowers await you by the side of the Brent in Pitshanger Park. Ealing is overflowing with free, healthy, delicious food. It’s wild and free, not in the sense of Woodstock but rather of glittering salads full of exciting new flavours. Local transition town supporter and expert forager Sam Sender will lead a wild food walk in Pitshanger Park on Sunday 17th at 2pm. Meet at the tennis courts, and bring baskets and bags.

Cost: Free

Check out their blog at http://ealingtransitioncommunitygarden.wordpress.com/, and refer to the Upcoming Events tab for dig day dates.

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Bake & Cake and Roosters Piri Piri come to West Ealing

Walking along the Uxbridge Road this morning I spotted two new shops about to open.  Bake & Cake near Cudi and Roosters Piri Piri opposite Blockbuster. I’m not sure when they’ll open so if anyone gets the opportunity to have a closer look then let me know.

It’s nice to actually see a ‘healthy’ chicken place open amongst all the fried in West Ealing!

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Volunteers needed for stall at Queens’ Jubilee event 15th May

Volunteers needed for stall at Queen’s Jubilee event
The London Orchard Project
The London Orchard Project has been invited to have a stall at a big event forming part of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations in Richmond Park on Tues 15th May.The event is likely to attract 20,000 plus people and is to showcase some of London’s environmental projects. They really need some help on the day with their stall – juicing apples, children’s activities, apple bobbing and showcasing our pedal powered apple crusher.If you are interested in going along, please drop an email to kath@thelondonorchardproject.orgKath needs to let the organisers know everyone’s names and details in advance due to the heightened security. Should be a fun day and the Queen herself will be visiting their stall.

 Can’t miss an opportunity to see her madge bobbing for apples!
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The Bees have finally arrived at Walmer Gardens!

For those of you who have been keeping up to date with WEN Abundance activities you will know that we have taken the renovation of on a small orchard in Walmer Gardens W13. We cleared it and pruned the trees over January/February (ably managed by The London Orchard Project)  Ealing Transition have the rear part of the orchard where the pond is for their first bee hive and on Saturday around 15,000 bees finally arrived in their new home.  The crew donned suitable clothes before opening the box to let them into their new home.  Needless to say once I had taken a picture of this I scarpered! Pictures of the event below.

Look out for more news when the Elderflower season starts towards June!

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What happened at WEN’s Public Meeting?

West Ealing Neighbours Public Meeting 21st February 2012

OPEN Ealing

 

David Highton (Chair) provided a report on WEN’s activities:

Lido Junction

Finally WEN’s proposal for changing this dangerous junction has been approved and is going ahead. After the public consultation on the original proposals the Council have dropped the idea of loading and parking bays on Drayton Green Road.  This is a well earned success for WEN

Craft Fair

WEN have been talking to the Council for the past 18 months about a monthly craft fair in St James Avenue, after a lot of red tape we finally have the go ahead to run it and the first one is Saturday 7th April.  This is a joint project with St James Church who will be open to provide teas/coffees as well as outreach work.

West Ealing Family Day

This will happen again in Melbourne Avenue and St James Avenue. There will be a variety events scheduled.  More information will be available later in the year.

Book Swap

Chris Gilson from WEN runs this popular book swap at West Ealing station.  He has just secured permission for a book swap at Ealing Broadway station – platform 2. 

In December 2011, the campaign was the winner of the first #ideas4Mayor competition at the London Policy Conference. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said of the project:

“I think it’s a very good idea and would say something powerful about the kind of city we are and our commitment to literacy, which obviously we are trying to demonstrate in lots of ways particularly with young people”

Abundance

This project is now in its 6th year and the group have now taken on Walmer Gardens Orchard in West Ealing.  The renovation of this Orchard is fully support by Ealing Park Rangers team and expertise is provided by the London Orchard Project. Both clearing and pruning have taken place in Jan/Feb this year.  Abundance is now securing more volunteers for the project.

Book Club

This is a monthly club who meet at the Star and Anchor.  For more information email wenreadinggroup@live.co.uk

 

Eric Leach, Vice Chair provided an update on WEN’s activities in relation to planning. Eric has been heavily involved in the Local Development Framework planning process which will have a big impact on West Ealing. The Localism Act coming into effecting April 2012 will give us the opportunity to be involved with the formation of neighbourhood forums – for more information see http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/inyourarea/neighbourhood/

Eric then opened up the floor to those present regarding the future of West Ealing Neighbours. The background to this is that the constitution states committee members can serve no longer than 5 years. Several committee members are now reaching their 5th anniversary, including the Chair (David) and Vice Chair (Eric) therefore new ideas and new individuals are being sought by WEN to take us through the next phase. A fair few individuals hesitated at the thought of not being able to devote time to WEN, or have an idea exactly what they were volunteering for! – those committee members present re-iterated that involvement is not onerous and all of us have started our own projects that we believe in and therefore are prepared to put the time in for the projects to succeed.

Coming along to the meetings to see what goes on is the best thing to see what happens and offer up ideas.

More discussion took place on the nature and format of WEN meetings to make them less like work meeting and more like social ‘gatherings’ offering wine, nibbles and an informal environment.

David Highton concluded that the next 12 months should be about transition to look at how WEN can be run going forward and any new office holders would be mentored for 6 months by the outgoing office holders. The current holders would therefore stay in their posts until new individuals are in place – with either the same type of structure, or a new one to be agreed.

The next WEN social gathering is to be held on Wednesday 21st March at OPEN Ealing, 113 Uxbridge Road (corner of Culmington) nr the fire station on the 2nd floor Café starting at 7.30pm – wine and nibbles provided. Please come along and bring a friend too!

 

Diane Gill

Secretary – WEN