Woken up by my 5 year old son at 3.00am this morning saying ”Mummy there are helicopters everywhere” the reality hit me that the rioting had come to the ‘Queen of the Suburbs’. I held my son in my arms with my heart beating fast genuinely scared at the thuggery and wanton organised violence that has now spread to West London.
Success at WEN Abundance first blackberry pick
A small team of us went out to pick blackberries on what was a very pleasant Sunday evening. Bitterns Field, Brent River Park did not disappoint. Lots were ripe and a lot more to come. Plenty for jam making and I’m sure we will be going back to get more soon.
Some pictures of the evening..
Abundance goes out to the local community
The Abundance team were contacted by Nuria Rodriguez from Catalyst Housing about a foraging and jam making event for residents of Windmill Park Estate, Southall.
Our resident expert, Elizabeth went along with the group to pick blackberries to turn into delicious blackberry jam back at the community centre. Everyone had a go and the children loved the tasting at the end!
We will be looking forward to more events this year.
Here are a few pictures of the day – Click on the pictures to open them.
Full notes of meeting about drug dealing in West Ealing available now
If you want to read up on the public meeting that took place on 11th July they are available on our main West Ealing Neighbours website.
http://www.westealingneighbours.org.uk/index.php?option=content&task=category&id=70&Itemid=95
Do you want to know where you can buy delicious elderflower cordial?
We are all working hard to make sure we have enough stock for Hanwell Carnival on 18th June at Elthorne Park. We will be there from 11am setting up our stall until around 5pm. Come early to make sure you get a bottle of our delicious elderflower cordial (£2.50). Why not stick with the elderflower theme and also buy some lemon and elderflower marmalade? (£3.00) We will also have a selection of other jams/jellies and chutneys to tempt you.
Would you like to volunteer for Elderflower picking?
Diane, Gill and some volunteers from West Ealing Neighbours’ Abundance project plan to pick several hundred elderflower heads on Saturday morning, May 14th – weather permitting at a location in West Ealing. We might do a repeat ‘pick’ on Saturday morning, May 21. We’ve found a location where they’re quite prolific, in the ‘fields’ beyond Elthorne Park, although you’d need wellies to wade through nettles in some places, and a crooked stick to pull down the high branches.
We’ll be following the recipe on the WEN Abundance blog http://westealingabundancew13.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/292/ which we used last year to produce the cordial which went down very well at Hanwell Carnival and will will be selling again at this years Carnival on the 18th June, as well as Pitshanger Party in the Park on the 26th June.
Anyone who is interested in knowing more, or getting involved, please email wenabundance@gmail.com.
Cheers for now – Gill and Diane.
Diane’s view on the LDF meeting – 9th September 2009
Regarding the meeting on Wednesday I have similar views to David; I wasn’t going to walk away from the situation and thought I may as well make the best of my time there. Most of our session was spent explaining stuff to us which we then commented on. I thought our group was very reasonable and actually enjoyed working with them unlike other occasions when the people drove me insane with their silly suggestions and harping back to the old days (yawn) I do struggle with why we were not given copies of all these documents; I cannot print them at home due to the colour maps and the length of the documents so it means me either trying to read on my laptop which I don’t like doing or sneaking the printing in at work (not too difficult if I have the time)
Regarding Sarah’s idea of engaging this lot, I truly believe we have tried this approach and we have also had a successful meeting with our own yellow stickies (way before the councils!) with all the feedback going to the council. I just don’t think Brendan Walsh and Lucy Taylor are that interested in us anymore – not sure if it is a time thing or can’t be bothered. The more I think about it the more I think the consultation is a sham. I also think that 6 weeks is NO time at all to respond to a plan that will last for at least 15 years.
Diane
WEN Committee Member