july meeting: life beyond stress

Ever felt that you need to find a bit of peace and quiet in the tangle of everyday life? We have. So this month we are offering an introduction to meditation. Teacher Divya Rengaraian will join us to explain the impact stress can have on us and provide a perspective on how meditation can be an effective tool to maintain physical, emotional and mental stability. The session will include a 20 minute breathing technique to improve memory (yes, please!), enhance cognitive ability and problem solving capabilities. You don't need any prior experience or yoga or meditation - you can just sit on chairs or on the floor as you prefer.

Our meeting will open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start, so there's plenty of time to have a natter and some refreshment before and after the session. As usual we are at St Margaret's House, next to the Gallery Cafe on Old Ford Road (through the gates and follow the path to the hall at the back). Visitors are welcome - we ask for £4 to cover costs, but don't forget if you have one of our flyers you can get in half price for your first visit. Tea and coffee provided, and wine on offer too, though please feel free to bring along something to share if you wish.


We have lots of other events this month too, starting off with our afternoon tea this afternoon at 3.30pm. Meet by the Pavilion Cafe (north side) because before we stop for tea we'll be doing the Victoria Park tree walk.

Our July coffee morning is on Friday 18th July, 10.30am at a new venue for us, Doppio at 80 Hanbury Street, E1 5JL. Further Details of all our activities, including the events where we will be selling tea and cakes, are in the side bar.

Hope to see you soon.

midsummer meeting

We will be celebrating Midsummer  at our next meeting on Tuesday 17th June, very apt as it has been a glorious sunny weeather. In Great Britain from the 13th century, Midsummer was celebrated on Midsummer Eve (St. John's Eve, June 23) and St. Peter's Eve (June 28) with the lighting of bonfires, maypole dancing, feasting and merrymaking.

We won't be lighting any bonfires but what we thought everyone could do was bring along some food to share - perhaps you have a favourite summery recipe that others might enjoy, or you may want to try out a new one. Anything you like really and we will have a Midsummer feast. We hope to be partaking in some crafting and will also be having a food and plants swap again, so if you have any home made goodies, seedlings or produce you would like to swap please do bring it along. 

We will also be having a mini-speaker from the forthcoming Roman Road Festival, an event taking place in, yes you guessed it, Roman Road! www.romanroadlondon.com/festival

Our evening opens at 7pm, the hall at the back of St Margaret's House,  21 Old Ford Rd, E2 9PL. Free for members and £4 donation for non members. Tea, coffee and wine will be available for a small donation and hopefully there wil be plenty of scrumptious food.

Our coffee morning on Friday 20th June will be at the Gallery Cafe in Old Ford Road, next to St Margaret's House. Gather from 10.30am onwards.

For our Afternoon Tea on 7th July, we'll be doing something a little different - one of the Victoria Park Tree Walks ( ou can download the leaflet if you google Victoria Park Tree Walk 2). The circular walk takes around 50 minutes, is not at all arduous and takes us around some of the more interesting and exotic trees in the west side of the park. Gather on the north side of the Pavilion Cafe at 3.30pm. We'll stop for a cuppa at the end! at a local cafe at the end of the walk. 

Fingers crossed for more sunshine.

coffee, tea and a good book

If you haven't seen the exhibition of East London Artists at The Nunnery Gallery, Bow Road, we'd recommend it. We popped in after our last coffee morning at the Carmelite Cafe and it is absolutely charming. And you'll recognise at least one or two of the locations. There are some associated events too, including a walk around some of the locations - find out more here.

We also had a very chatty afternoon tea on Monday- with a bit of letting off steam among like-minded people at the Arts Cafe in Roman Road. Very friendly staff, your own pot of tea, and decent coffee and cake. What more can you ask?

And we rounded off with a thinking woman's discussion of Gerbrandt Bakker's "The Detour" at our book club. There may have been something stronger than tea and coffee on the table....

Keep an eye on our Diary Dates in the side-bar for info on all of our meetings this month and beyond.

...and a hello

Hello there. I just wanted to say how excited I am to be taking over the presidency from Colleen Bowen who has stepped down after an amazing few years. As some of you know I have been involved with EEWI since our beginnings although in recent years have been focussing on other projects, personal and community focussed. Now, however, I'm really looking forward to taking the EEWI reins although I have pretty big shoes to fill!

For those of you who don't already know me I live in Stepney with my grown up son, Jake, and my even more grown up cat, Chewy, and spend my free time cycling, keeping fit (or trying to), working at festivals, playing music and, let's not shy away from it, drinking scrumpy. I'm passionate about EEWI which has in the past been a massive part of my life and I hope it will be for the next year and beyond.

What we need to do is continue to find fun, thought-provoking and unusual people and activities for our monthly meetings as well as spreading the EEWI word to ensure we keep our membership strong. Any thoughts or ideas you might have about how we can do this are greatly appreciated  and don't forget there is always room on the committee for you!

Anyway if you want to contact me about the above or in fact anything EEWI related please do email me on niki.stevens@btinternet.com and I look forward to seeing you at one of our meetings or events over the next few months.

Niki Stevens

President EEWI

parting words

A few quick words to say what an interesting AGM it was!  A goodbye from me as President and Elizabeth as Secretary, and a welcome back to Niki who takes over the hot seat. And what a lovely time we had sharing our advice to a future generation with Emily and Alicia from The What I See Project. Here's mine. And there's lots more words of wisdom from our lovely EEWI ladies on The What I See WI Campaign site. Do pay it a visit and be surprised.

We're truly delighted that we were invited to participate in such a fabulous project giving a voice to women from all walks of life. The project would love to hear from other WIs who might be interested in joining in. We'd be happy to pass on their contact details.

Knit & Natter 29 May

It's Knit & Natter time! Bring along your unfinished knitting projects, your tapestries and your paper-craft - or anything else you have on the go. It's March ... a great time for spring cleaning of old projects, finishing up WIPs (or PHDs as Janet calls them!) so pop along for a chat and bring a project. 

We'll be meeting this Thursday 29th of May from 6.30 – 8.30pm. 

We're meeting at The Coborn Arms, 8 Coborn Road, Mile End, London E3 2DA. Click here for a map.

This EEWI-inspired group is open to anyone who feels like popping in with a project - knitting or otherwise. It will be a casual meeting, and everyone is invited – not only knitters. Bring along your stitching or paper crafts, or simply join us for a few drinks and a good catch-up. New knitters are welcome too.

Happy stitching!

may meetings - yes, it's the AGM

It's raining outside as I write this. Again. But it's going to get warmer by the end of the week and, if we're lucky, it may actually be fine for our next evening meeting on 20th May, 7 for 7.30, St Margaret's House. Yes, it's our AGM this time round, so there's some serious business to get on with - elections and a brief look back at 2013/ 14, and an opportunity for mandating our link delegate to the NFWI AGM in June on this year's resolution on organ donation. Detailed notes on the resolution are available here.

Following the talk from Hestia in March, we'll also be collecting small new/nearly new toys for children (0-14) which may be suitable for the Tower Hamlets Hestia refuge.

Plenty of time too for socialising - a bit of natter, a drink, a snack or two, and sharing some wisdom. Our guest speaker comes from the What I See Project who will be collecting your advice and words of wisdom for future generations of women. What would you like to whisper in the ear of your sixteen year old self? What have you learnt that you want to share with the next generation of women? Why not think about it now? All women welcome (though non-members will not be able to vote). We just ask visitors for a donation of £4 towards costs.

Also on the schedule this month - coffee morning on 23rd May, Knit and Natter 29th May. Then in early June we'll have afternoon tea 2nd June; Book Club 5th June. You'll find details of times and locations in the sidebar on the blog.

And here are some virtual bouquets of gratitude to Joy for hosting a great discussion of Anne Bronte's Tenant of Wildfell Hall at our EEWI bookclub discussion; to our modest troupe of helpers and bakers who cooked up a sweet cake stall at the Museum of Childhood on St George's Day; to Elizabeth and Natasha who helped the LBTH over 50's tea dance go with a swing with a decent cup of tea. And, of course, to everyone who gives their time to EEWI so generously and graciously to keep the whole show on the road behind the scenes.

Mwah.


 Picture above from a free exhibition of Quentin Blake's paintings at Hall Place in Bexley, open until 29th Aug. 2014