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Free cooking lessons for all the family at West Ealing SoundBite Festival on Saturday Sept 13th

SoundBite cookery programme

We’ve got some great free, fun cooking activities for all the family at the SoundBite Festival in Dean Gardens on Saturday 13th September.

Kids Tent: Come and join the fun with children and parents cooking together:
13.00 – 13.45 Veggie wraps
14.00 – 14.45 Crumble-in-a-bag
16.00 – 16.25 Making a simple curry paste from fresh ingredients

 

Cook Tent: For adults this time, some simple, budget-conscious and healthy meals to cook for yourself and your family:
13.00 – 14.00 Chicken and vegetable stir fry with rice/egg noodles
14.30 – 15.30 Lamb and vegetable kebabs served with couscous and spicy sauce
16.00 – 17.00 Chicken and vegetable stir fry with rice/egg noodles

Full details of the event are on our website

Follow us on Twitter@SoundBiteEaling

 

 

 

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Missing Girl – Have you seen her?

Alice Gross, the Hanwell teenager has been missing from home since last Thursday.  Please join the Facebook group set up by Alice’s sister Nina – Find Alice Gross. Currently standing at nearly 6,00 members, loads of individuals are giving up their free time to print posters, collect them (Oscars on Pitshanger Lane and Londis on Greenford Avenue) and place them all over West London.  If you are on FB why not consider changing your profile picture to the missing poster?  Use your followers on Twitter, ask celebrities to re-tweet for you – anything useful you can think of without interfering with the Police search.

Let us pray for Alice’s safe return.

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Find out about the plans to transform the area around Ealing Broadway Station

Crossrail public exhibitions for area around Ealing Broadway Station

 

Ealing Council will hold two public exhibitions of its plans for the area around Ealing Broadway station, which is going to be to be transformed with the completion of the new Crossrail station in 2016. The exhibitions next week will give you a chance to comment on ideas for areas around the station which will be modified as part of the council’s plan to improve Ealing’s town centre.

The two sessions will be held between 4pm and 8pm on Tuesday, 2 September and Thursday, 4 September at the Ealing Broadway Station forecourt on Haven Green.
Picture boards will help people to understand the improvements which will delivered once the Crossrail works inside the station are finished at the end of 2016.

The changes will improve pedestrian links with a wider crossing area for pedestrians between the forecourt and Haven Green, new pick-up and drop-off points, better cycle links and an enlarged bus shelter outside the station. The station forecourt will be closed to traffic as part of the new Crossrail station and will become a pedestrianised area with upgraded lighting, seating and an area with the potential for other features such as artwork and a café. You will have an opportunity to ask detailed questions about the proposals and will be invited to complete a questionnaire at each session. Feedback during the exhibition will be used to help inform the plans as they develop.

A Crossrail representative will also be available at the consultations to answer any questions on the improvement works taking place inside the station.

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Get ready for West Ealing’s SoundBite Festival in Dean Gardens on Saturday 13th Sept from 12noon

SoundBite 2014

 

This year’s SoundBite Festival in Dean Gardens is looking good. We’re concentrating everything in Dean Gardens this time round. The event starts at 12noon and the music runs through until 10pm. Get ready for a great day out.
Music

  • TJ ‘Holyboy’ Johnson
  • Nostalgia Steel Band
  • Bob Knight and Risky Business
  • Son Yambu (salsa)
  • Jacob and Goliath
  • Du Bellows
  • Azadeh
  • Phil Odgers of The Men They Couldn’t Hang

Children’s activities:
• Funfair rides
• Steel band workshops
• Family cookery classes
• Pedal-powered smoothie maker
Cookery demonstrations
Craft stalls including local honey, Abundance produce, hand-made fragrances and silver jewellery
Community information stalls including local history exhibition, Dr Bike, Neighbourhood Forum
Hot food stalls and beer tent – hog roast from Grasmere Farm (from farmers’ market), jerk chicken from Café Silva and sushi, noodles and more from Sumo
Find out the latest at www.soundbitefestival.org

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Resident fined for cutting branches off a street tree

I saw this story on the Ealing Today website  whereby a man was seen cutting branches off a street tree in Perivale. He was seen, reported, charged with, and found guilty of, criminal damage and then fined £2,400.  I have to say that’s a pretty hefty fine but I was pleasantly surprised that the Council took the vandalism seriously.  Similar vandalism has happened near us in a street in West Ealing.  I don’t think anyone saw it happen but it’s worth knowing that if there’s sufficient evidence the Council will take action.

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WEN Abundance – Pesky parakeets pinch our apples!

Indian parakeets

Indian ring-necked parakeets – possible apple-eating culprits

There are all sorts of theories about how these Indian Ring-Necked parakeets came to this country – from escaping off the set of The African Queen being filmed at Shepperton Studios in 1951 to Jimi Hendrix releasing them in Carnaby Street in the 1960s. In the last few years their distinctive screeching has been a common sound and we’ve seen some in our back garden.  They love to perch right at the top of trees even when the flimsy twigs there barely seem strong enough to hold their weight. However, this year it seems they have taken a fancy to apples.

When we last visited the community orchard there looked to be a decent apple crop. When we went back to start picking we wondered where all the apples had gone? Gone to the parakeets is where they’ve gone. The owner of April Cottage next door to the orchard told us that he has seen parakeets eating the apples this year. They sit right at the top and work their way down. All part of living with nature I guess. Still, we hope to find enough apples from other trees to send some batches off for pressing in to apple juice.

We’re always keen to hear from people who want to volunteer to help with Abundance or who have surplus fruit they’re keen to see put to good use. Whichever it is you can contact us at wenabundance@gmail.com
And watch out for our stall at the SoundBite Festival in Dean Gardens on Saturday 13th September where we’ll have elderflower cordial, apple juice and chutneys on sale – all handmade from local produce.

 

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Get your skates on – Rolladome is coming to West Ealing from Sat 16th August

Rolladome 1 001

Roller-skating is coming to Dean Gardens from 16th – 29th August

  • Open-skating family sessions
  • Adult lunchtime skating sessions
  • Sessions for beginners and intermediaries
  • Hockey, Roller Derby, Speed Skating and more

Then come 7pm it will transform in to a Roller Disco. Over 12 themed nights the Rolladome comes alive with a selection of West London’s finest DJs playing great music for you to rollerskate and dance to.

Find out more – www.facebook.com/W13getsrolling

 

 

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New pop-up cafe coming to Green Man Lane Estate next week

Every now and then I take a walk by the ever-changing Green Man Lane Estate to see what’s happening. I’m particularly interested in what’s going to happen in the community cafe.  And at last there’s something happening.  A pop-up cafe is opening next week.  It’s run by Coco Labelle who describe themselves as follows:

‘Coco Labelle is a family run local catering company offering exotic foods, live entertainment and childcare.

We are now providing pop ups in London to bring you the mauritian, jamaican and italian flavours that we love! We also share with you the finest musicians in London treating you to live jazz, soul, reggae and pop.

Best of all if you have kids, this is the place to be! A place to relax, eat, catch up with your friends, catch a gig all whilst your kids play safely in our creche enjoying our structured activities.’

The cafe is near the junction of Singapore Road and Brownlow Road. Children’s activities start on Tuesday 12th August and below is a (not very good) photo of their activities for the week. A detailed schedule is on their website

 

Coco Labelle

You can find out more about Coco Labelle here

 

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Spectacular Chariot Festival in West Ealing on Sunday

Spectacular Chariot Festival in West Ealing this weekend

The Chariot Festival is by far West Ealing’s biggest annual event.  We have about 10,000 people attending this event from all over Europe and it transforms Dean Gardens and the surrounding area.

This weekend of 9/10th  August sees the annual Shri Kanagathurkkai Amman Temple (SKAT) festival come to West Ealing once again. The festival culminates on Sunday with the Chariot procession leaving the Temple around 9am, and then returning at about 12pm via Mattock Lane, Culmington Road, and the Uxbridge Road. Dean Gardens will be full of stalls with Tamil food, lassi drinks, and selling bric-a-brac to fundraise for the Temple’s activities. It’s a great day out for everyone with lots of amazing sights, sounds and tastes.