Tuesday 18 August 2015


Welcome to the EEWI August Newsletter

So much to tell you 

As ever the summer weather is sending us on a merry dance from chilly to humid and back again and, as ever, things are busy at EEWI HQ. Well there isn't an actual HQ (I wish there was!) but we are busy all the same. We had a 'great day' at Victoria Park's Great Day Out and made just under £200 selling cakes at what was a really fun event. A big big thank you to all of our bakers and helpers who are always amazing.

EEWI Bursary
We asked you all to have a think about what courses you would like to do and apply for one of the two EEWI £100 bursaries and we pulled two names out of the hat at our July meeting - well we asked our Thames 21 Speaker to pick the names out anyway. Embarrassingly my name was one of them along with Karen Defoe. Each of us have made a commitment to either give a talk at a meeting or write something for the newsletter and website. More on what we are both going to do soon. And please don't worry if you had a course you wanted to do though as there will be at least two bursaries next year too.

EEWI Cook Book
We are still welcoming recipes for our cook book so if you would like to take part please submit your stories, bakes, pots, pies and whatever to this website right here. More info about the book will be coming soon.

Love the Lea event 23rd August 11 til 7
On that note, and following on from our July meeting where Thames21 came to talk to us about the river and how we can help to preserve it, we need bakers and helpers again for our next event which is Love the Lea on Sunday 23rd August on Walthamstow Marshes, behind the ice skating rink on Lea Bridge Road. This is the same site as Countryside Live and is reasonably easy to get to on public transport. More info here. There is also a car park if you prefer to drive and we ask that if you do drive you consider giving someone else on the helper's list a lift. If you are able to help or bake then it would be great if you contact Clare Barnet, one of the EEWI committee, who will be leading on this event. Clare's contact is clare.barnett1511@gmail.com. As usual we welcome all baking and always need more and if you can help even for an hour that would be amazing. It actually looks like it is going to be a really good day, including live music and lots of river themed activities. A good day but a long day so the more helpers we have the better in order to ensure everyone gets breaks etc. If you can help please drop Clare a line.

August Meeting Tuesday 18th August 7pm for a 7.30pm start
This month we will be welcoming Caroline from Growing Concerns to our meeting to talk about gardening - not just in gardens, but on balconies, allotments and window ledges and learning about the independent garden centre's history. It's an oasis of planting on the canal at the north eastern edge of Victoria Park and a garden centre that is rooted (do you see what I did there) in the community having been involved in lots of projects over the years to improve and enhance Tower Hamlets. We are really excited about this one.
As usual we will be meeting in the hall at St Margaret's House, 21 Old Ford Road E2 9PL. Members are free and visitors are £4. You are welcome to come and see what we are all about. There will, as always, be refreshments and nibbles and our donations tin is always on the table for contributions towards the next lot! We look forward to seeing you there.

August Coffee Morning Friday 21st August 10.30am 
This month we are going to go to Chesterfield, a new cafe at the junction of Roman Road and Grove Road next to St Barnabas Church. They say, 'Speciality coffee shop now open. Loose leaf tea, award winning hot chocolate. Cakes, beigels and ciabattas. Dairy and gluten free products. Service with a smile.' So let's go and find out!

Shoreditch Sisters Summer Meeting Tuesday 25th August 7pm 
We are sooo excited as Shoreditch Sisters have invited us and a number of other local WI groups to their August meeting to celebrate the summer. And how are they going to celebrate the summer? By learning how to Charleston! We, EEWI, have been trying to get together with Shoreditch Sisters for a long time to do something together and so if you are free you should definitely come along. They meet at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club on Pollard Row which is really easy to get to on the bus or tube. I will be there and I hope you will come along too.And the best thing of all is that if you are a member of EEWI it is free entry!! How great is that? All non-members can attend for £5.

Afternoon Teas
Our Afternoon teas happen on the first Monday of the month and are at 3.30pm. Like our coffee mornings they are a chance to chat and explore new venues. The upcoming afternoon teas are as follows;
Monday 7th September Museum of London Docklands
Monday 5th October The Coffee Room, Mile End
Monday 2nd November Marks and Spencer's Cafe Westfield, Stratford (not the one on the bridge!)

AND THERE'S MORE....

September Meeting - Celebrating the Centenary Tuesday 15th September
We just wanted to let you know that at our September meeting we will be celebrating 100 years of the WI. The actual centenary is just one day later. We thought we might ask you to thing about the WI past present and future and bring along something that represents that - something baked, something knitted, embroidered, a poem, something from a book, a photo, an anecdote, a cocktail ANYTHING. There will be prizes and lost of other celebratory things but we wanted to give you all time to have a think about it.

Countryside Live Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th September
Don't forget this is our last tea and cake stall of the year and we need LOADS of cakes! More details here.

Target Ovarian Cancer Walk October 17th 
This is the national ovarian cancer charity working to save lives and help women diagnosed with ovarian cancer live their lives to the full. They are holding a fundraising walk and run at Queen Elizabeth Park in October and EEWI are considering entering a team. Entry is £10 per person and they ask that we each raise £100 sponsorship by walking or running 5K or 10K and we don't all have to do the same thing. Also men are welcome to join the team and there is no minimum age limit so everyone can join in! If you are interested in taking part there will be another email about it early in September.

Jack the Ripper Museum
Some of you may already be aware of the kerfuffle around a museum that was supposed to open in Cable Street. I attended the first of a number of protests outside the Jack the Ripper Museum last week - not on behalf of EEWI - and was shocked to learn that the person responsible for the museum told Tower Hamlets Council when seeking permission to change the premises from residential to commercial use that he intended to open, 'the only dedicated resource in the east end to women's history.' And when the scaffold came down last week or the week before it was a Jack the Ripper museum. There is not enough time to go through it all here but there is plenty of information on the internet. I would like to suggest that EEWI gets behind the campaign to boycott this museum but not before we have discussed it and had a chance to debate it. So if you are interested have a look at the articles online and we will discuss this briefly at the next meeting.

Celia Hammond Needs Our Help
The Celia Hammond Animal Trust is currently inundated with cats and kittens seeking homes. They are currently very short of cat/kitten food and toys. Any creative people among you - you can make some catnip mice out of old fabrichttp://www.thepracticalherbalist.com/crafts-for-kids/how-to-sew-a-catnip-mouse/ or you can knit them yourself and perhaps send them to the charity?
For food donations there is a Amazon wishlist
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/2N6NW621HXPZ9/ref=cm_wl_rlist_go_o

Thanks for reading this far - apologies for any typos and omissions and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Niki
President of EEWI
on behalf of the committee.