Diane Gill – Page 2 – West Ealing Neighbours Blog

April 17, 2012April 17, 2012

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!

Sarah getting ready to take the lid off the box!

March 15, 2012

What happened at WEN’s Public Meeting?

West Ealing Neighbours Public Meeting 21^st 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 7^th 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 6^th 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 5^th 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 21^st March at OPEN Ealing, 113 Uxbridge Road (corner of Culmington) nr the fire station on the 2^nd floor Café starting at 7.30pm – wine and nibbles provided. Please come along and bring a friend too!

Diane Gill

Secretary – WEN

February 5, 2012February 10, 2012

-3.5c and we were still up for pruning our West Ealing Orchard

Oh yes we at WEN Abundance and Ealing Transition are a hardy lot! We braved the freezing cold on Saturday 4th February to be part of a pruning workshop at our lovely little Orchard at Walmer Gardens. The London Orchard Project are doing a fantastic job helping us and brought in an expert to guide us through the day.

With some dedicated volunteers and support – including Jon Skoyles, Ealing Park Ranger, this Orchard has undergone a complete transformation. It will take a couple more years of pruning, planting and caring for the place but we know it will be worth bringing this place back to life.

Next up is the beehive Ealing Transition will be setting up around April – I’ll let you know exact dates when confirmed should anyone be interested in coming along.

Here are some pictures of the day (click to enlarge).

December 6, 2011December 6, 2011

A very busy year for WEN Abundance

It’s that time of year where Abundance goes into hibernation for the winter after a season that started in August and stretched all the way to November! This year we picked around 1.5 tonnes of fruit – apples and pears were by far the most popular, however we saw a bumper crop of quinces too. We mainly picked in West Ealing, Ealing and Hanwell, but also took a trip down to Kent and managed to pick around 400kilos over a weekend.

Our apple juice has been sold by Cheddar Deli as well as The Little Art Room and they have taken the last of our apple and pear juice to sell at Xmas fairs. We have also developed 3 new chutneys this year so look out for them next year, along with yours and our favourites.

We covered more fairs this year, with the addition of Pitshanger Party in the Park. Our second West Ealing Family Day was a great success and it was lovely to see some of the tree owners popping by at the stall for a chat to find out what we had done with the fruit we picked. Talking of which we managed to pick at every location we were requested at – There were quite a few new trees from private back gardens as word of mouth spreads about our project.

We have also now taken over Walmer Gardens Orchard with Ealing Council’s permission and had a very positive response to the consultation of the local area for the renovation of this small Orchard starting in January 2012.

Of course we couldn’t have done any of this if it wasn’t for a small team of very dedicated individuals that devote an inordinate amount of their free time to this project – a big thank you to you all.

So in summary a very successful year for us – and we have plans to expand in 2012, more of which in the next Newsletter after a well deserved rest.

Signing off for a few weeks, a very shattered WEN Abundance Team!

Have a great Xmas and New Year and see you in 2012.

November 18, 2011

New Restaurant to open in W5 – TUK CHO

If you know where Edwards used to be and have noticed the re-furb, then you may be interested in a new restaurant that will be opening in 38 days time (according to their website!) called TUK CHO. It’s based on ‘asian market eating’.

You can discover what TUK CHỢ has to offer at lunch or dinner on Wednesday 21st, Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd December, or lunch on Saturday 24th December. They are offering 50% off all food on these four days.

Check out their website too http://tukchoealing.co.uk/

November 13, 2011November 13, 2011

Christmas has come early in West Ealing! – St James Craft Fair Saturday 26th November

Craft Fair 26th November 2011 — Get your Christmas shopping at St James Craft Fair!

October 27, 2011

The Forester pub re-opening on Friday 28th October

I have been eagerly awaiting the refurbishment of this lovely old building and the owners of the New Inn and the kings Arms haven’t taken long on this project and the grand opening will be this Friday. I’m away so I will miss out 🙁

If anyone does go along tomorrow then please post a comment on here and let us know what you think.

September 30, 2011

Abundance Fruit Festival Saturday 1st October 11am – 3pm Turnham Green

Come along to the Abundance Fruit Festival at St Michael & All Angels, near
Turnham Green tube, 11-3pm this Saturday, 1st October.

Abundance London, in association with six local primary schools, have collected
nearly two tonnes of fruit that would have gone to waste.
– local jam-makers and bakers have been preparing preserves, jams, fruit
cheeses, cakes and savouries
– the giant fruit press will be there, powered by child-muscle, to make lovely fresh apple and pear juice
– honey from Chiswick bees
– freshly-grown herbs from Brentford
– bike-powered smoothie machine from Hammersmith Community Gardens, pedalled by local children (and MP)
– lots of traditional apple games – bobbing, longest peel, etc
– arts ‘n crafts stall for kids to make apple aprons, bags, dolls, etc
– cookery demonstration by top chef Ian from Sam’s Brasserie from 11.45
– heritage apple tree varieties not available in garden centres, eg. d’Arcy Spice, Keswick Codlin
– apple ID. Bring in 5 or 6 of your mystery apples if you would like our expert to identify your tree
– good food from Sam’s and Outsider Tart, using local fruit and veg (eg pumpkins from Chiswick House Walled Garden)
– bring in your surplus fruit and make an a la carte pressing of your own apples
– school stalls from the local primaries using Chiswick fruit

—
Karen Liebreich
www.abundancelondon.com
Twitter: karenatgarden

September 28, 2011

5 years of West Ealing Neighbours – Let’s celebrate!

No we can’t believe we are that old either!

To celebrate this milestone you are invited to a gathering on October 13th from 7.30pm onwards at OPEN Ealing 113 Uxbridge Road, West Ealing (opposite the fire station) W5 5TL with a glass of wine and some of our yummy Abundance produce.

This is an important time for WEN as many of our committee members now have to step down after their 5 years in office – includng the chair (David Highton) and Vice-Chair (Eric Leach) Don’t worry though they aren’t leaving WEN, just taking on different roles – we are therefore keen to talk to you about how you can get involved.

We are a small group that think we have achieved quite a lot in the 5 years we have been together. We’d like to tell you some of what we have done and what we plan to do, but just as important are your ideas about what the next 5 years might look like.

And to top it all Cheddar Deli, 108 Northfields Avenue are also donating a fantastic cheese board for you to win in a raffle.

September 25, 2011September 25, 2011