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Volunteers needed to help with exciting new roller-skating project in Dean Gardens

Are you interested in volunteering with me on the W13gets rolling project? You don’t need to skate (unless you want to) you just need to be available for a couple of weeks or until the end of August and want to be part of an exciting and innovative project.
We need people now to help with the preparations (including some admin and contacting traders, event management and sponsors etc) and also on throughout the days/evenings to help with stewarding etc.
We can’t offer a wage but we will look after you in terms of refreshment and expenses and a reference and it would be good for any CV!


We are also still looking for
1) traders,
2) people wanting advertising space,
3) businesses (ideally in W13 but not exclusively) that want to offer
a) special offers throughout the W13getsrolling period (16-29th August) that would be featured on our special offers board to encourage local shopping
b) discounts that would be part of a voucher book for each ticket purchase to encourage return custom to the area

Please contact jackiesear.cdw@live.com ASAP

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New from WEN Abundance – apricot butter now available as the perfect accompaniment to cheese

Yes, you can grow apricots in this country!  They may have come originally from China or Armenia but they have been adapted to grow in colder climates. Normally, the tree on our allotment gets hit by a late frost and that’s usually just about the end of the fruit for the year. However, this year the conditions must have been almost perfect and we had a bumper crop. So once we’d eaten some fresh and frozen some for later we still had a stack left. After a bit of experimentation the decision  was – let’s make apricot butter. Fruit butter, like fruit cheese, is a perfect accompaniment to cheese (the dairy sort). The difference is simply the amount of boiling involved. Fruit butters spread like butter and fruit cheeses need slicing.

If you fancy a treat then drop in to Cheddar Deli on Northfield Ave and buy a jar of our apricot butter and just taste how good it is with cheese. It works best, in my view, with hard cheeses and creamy ones. You may want to think twice before putting it with a blue cheese but no harm in trying it.

Cheddar Deli are also selling our elderflower cordial, apple juice, chutneys and lemon elderflower marmalade. Some of our produce is also available through Edible Ealing’s box scheme and we’ve just delivered some to The Fox Craft Barn next to The Fox pub in Green Lane, Hanwell. So, you’ll find our Abundance produce somewhere near you.  If you can’t get to any of these outlets then do please email us – wenabundance@gmail.com – and we’ll see how best we can help.

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Your chance to say how you’d like to see Central Ealing develop

As with West Ealing, Central Ealing has a neighbourhood forum. The Central Ealing Neighbourhood Forum is working on a plan for the centre of Ealing Broadway. They want to hear from as many people as possible about the issues and options that could be covered in their plan for the area. To help them with their planning they have put a survey online   Please do take a few minutes to complete it and give your views on the issues and options.  There’s a bit of background to the Forum and its work below:

‘The Central Ealing Neighbourhood Forum was set up in 2012 to give local people and businesses a voice in changing our town for the better. It brings together residents, community groups, businesses and other key stakeholders, aiming to make Ealing a vital, thriving and sustainable centre. Under the Localism Act, the Forum has the power to create a local plan. This means that all of us can have a greater say in how our area should change and develop over time, whether we live, work, shop or study here. It can affect where shops, offices, housing and community facilities should be, and how they should look and feel. A neighbourhood plan is mainly about how land should be used and developed. Its policies can influence decisions on future planning applications. But in putting it together, the Forum can also stimulate projects which help to build a stronger, more inclusive community.

To create the change we want to see in Ealing, CENF is creating a Neighbourhood Plan. The Neighbourhood Forum (local residents and businesses working together) is overseeing the delivery of the Plan.  Everyone can take part.  It’s free to all who live, work, study or just visit here to join and to contribute ideas.  The Forum wants to hear from you now.  We’ve just launched our second round of discussions, called “Issues & Options”, on what should be covered in our Plan. Do have a look at the choices we have set out under a number of topic heads.  You may think we’ve missed some obvious things, or have got the wrong idea about what people want.  Let us know, so that we can consider all ideas before the next stage of policy development.’

You can keep up to date with the Forum and its work by signing up as a member of the Forum at http://eepurl.com/p8405, or visit their website, and follow them on Facebook/CentralEalingForum or Twitter @EalingForum.

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OPEN Ealing: showcasing London artists at Westfield, Shepherds Bush 4th-10th August

Exhibition at Westfield London: We Are LDN Summer. 4th August-10th August
Benjamin Bridges – Coronal Loop. 152x122cm Oil on Canvas 2013

4th-10th August @Westfield London, Shepherds Bush.

OPEN’s curator, Jack Jones has been hard at work these last few months on a number of different projects. Coming this August, in partnership with Westfield London, Jack is curating a special showcase of artists from across London. Which include some local Ealing artists. The London Collection was created to bring together the different projects Jack is currently working with in west London. We would love for your support and to celebrate this unique project.

For more information, please visit the London Collection website, and join the facebook/twitter/mailing list to keep up to date!

www.thelondoncollection.co.uk

About the exhibition:
WESTFIELD LAUNCHES WE ARE LDN SUMMER CAMPAIGNSix Weeks of Culture and Culinary Art at Westfield LondonTo celebrate the launch of Westfield’s ‘We Are LDN Summer’ campaign, running 16 July – 31 August, visitors to Westfield London will be treated to six weeks of London’s best in class of dance, music, art, food, children and fashion themed activity.

4th-10th “The London Collection”

Curated by Jack Jones of The London Collection. The exhibition brings together a selection of established and emerging artists to promote the cultural richness and diversity that West London has to offer. This exciting collection will feature contemporary painting, photography and sculpture.

“This exhibition is about showcasing artists work rather than working under a curatorial theme. I think this is an opportunity for the artists to demonstrate their talents to an entirely different spectrum of viewer and I didn’t want that opportunity to get interrupted by a concept. Each of these artists are incredibly talented and with their own distinct ideas. for more information about the artists and the upcoming event, please visit  www.thelondoncollection.co.uk for more information.”
The London Collection was started to develop more opportunities to  exhibit artists in West London. In partnership with OPEN Ealing and HF-ArtsFest the London Collection works across multiple west London Boroughs working with local authorities and private businesses to establish a platform for Contemporary art. 

Below are some of the Artists exhibiting at Westfield London. From left to right: Martin Lau, Durbin Lewis, Benjamin Jasper Buckley, Alex Baker and Nick Pearson.

In association with:          

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150 days of community in West Ealing: Week 16

Welcome to Week 16 of our 150 days of community project. Don’t know what we’re talking about? Then click here. Here are a few things that we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks:

https://twitter.com/muse_oye/status/476353269363904512

 

Tracy Vize – 8:18am Jun 16

Don’t forget the Hanwell Carnival is on next Saturday

http://hanwellcarnival.co.uk/cms/

 

 

Felicity Sandford
Felicity Sandford 8:05pm Jun 14
Dropped a pile of cards and a £10 in a cab on Thursday night- bank, credit, library, gift voucher, Tastecard etc. All have just been returned to me by the taxi driver who managed to track me down via LinkedIn! Technology is both spooky and splendid! – feeling lucky.

 

Daniel Raven-Ellison
Daniel Raven-Ellison 8:15pm Jun 14
I live near Blondin and am campaigning for London to become the world’s first National Park City, a new kind of national park.The campaign is building momentum and, if you like the idea, I would love to have your support. Please take a moment to sign our petition here:http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/let-s-make-london-the-world-s-first-national-park-city-glnpThis article on the Guardian website provides an overview of the idea.http://www.theguardian.com/local-government-network/2014/may/27/greater-london-national-park-city

Please do let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.

 

Gill Adams
Gill Adams 11:20am Jun 18
‘Shops you may never have tried in West Ealing’ – has anyone got any ‘secret’ shopping tips for users or potential users of what the Broadway has to offer? I need encouragement to move beyond Sainsbury’s…and I don’t just mean Lidl! Has anyone tried any of the many fresh fish shops for example and, if so, what do you recommend?

_

Did we miss anything? Let us know!

We have another great list of seven ‘acts of community’ for this week – see how many you do – maybe you already do them!

  • Cut back on screen-time
  • Help carry something heavy
  • Plan a reunion of family, friends, or those with whom you had a special connection
  • Find out what’s going on at your local library
  • Read the local news faithfully
  • Buy a BBQ and invite others over for a meal
  • Fix it even if you didn’t break it
  • Pick it up even if you didn’t drop it

We’d love to hear from you if you do any of these things, or anything else that makes people smile in West Ealing. We have loads more suggestions of things you can do, if you want to jump ahead!

Ways to send us your contributions:

Send us an email – 150daysofcommunity@gmail.com
Write on our Facebook wall – https://www.facebook.com/groups/124290860921562/
Tweet at us – @WENeighbours
Add a comment to this blog post (below)

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Visit the WEN Abundance stall at the Hanwell Carnival this Saturday

Saturday is the longest day of the year so there’s plenty of time to come and visit our Abundance stall in the Artisan Food Tent at the Hanwell Carnival this Saturday from 12noon – 6pm.  We’ll have elderflower cordial, lemon and elderflower marmalade, and a selection of chutneys on sale.  All our produce is made from locally sourced ingredients and hand-made in small batches.

There’s loads more to enjoy at the carnival:

  • craft tent
  • dog show
  • children’s activities
  • live music
  • sports zone
  • animal zone …and much more

Full details here

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Is West Ealing on the edge of change?

I wrote this short piece for our June newsletter:

‘One sure sign of regeneration?
Walking along Northfield Avenue the other day it struck me that a sure sign of an area changing is when estate agents come in to or leave a high street. Northfield Ave has loads of estate agents with new ones moving in regularly. Will a sign that West Ealing is on the up be when a new estate agent opens on the high street? Anyone willing to say when this will happen in West Ealing?’

Crossrail is already having a significant effect on house prices. You’ve only to look at the estate agents’ adverts in the Ealing Gazette to see the regular mention of Crossrail. Then someone recently said to me ‘we’re being gentrified’ referring to the nearly refurbished Grosvenor pub (which I like).  Change is a slow process but it’s happening in West Ealing.

What are the other signs of regeneration – an artisan baker, new restaurants, improved schools, more affordable housing?  I’m curious what others think or whether I’m imagining change is in the air.

Then I read an article in yesterday’s Sunday Times ( 15th June) about spotting the signs of gentrification.  Apparently, if there’s already a Waitrose and Carluccio’s you’re being gentrified. The signs it’s starting to happen include:

1. ‘When the local boozer suddenly gets rebranded as a gastropub’

2. Cupcake stands

3. Organic food outlets

4. Shops billed as ethical or sustainable open up

5. Companies that trade on being cool or hitting a zeitgeist

6. Charity shops moving out to make way for higher-value occupiers

7. Solicitors and accountants noving from the ground floor to the upper floors as rents rise

I can think of two such signs in West Ealing recently. The tired old boozer The Grosvenor being bought up and refurbished and offering decent food. The Warren Evans ‘green’ bed and furniture store opening in the last space on the ground floor of the old Daniels site.  What next?