july meetings

Our next evening meeting is on 21st July. This month we will joined once again by Tracy Karkut-Law. Tracy is an EEWI member and local homeopath and this will be her second workshop with us.

We all look forward to summertime and deserve every minute of our well earned holidays! Whether camping with the family or sunning ourselves on the med, pop a little homeopathic remedy kit into your bag and you'll be ready for anything! Find out how non-toxic homeopathic remedies derived from known poisons such as arsenic, stinging nettle and deadly nightshade can be used to relieve the effects of bites and stings, too much sun, unfamiliar food or too much of everything!

You will make and take home your very own remedy kit, complete with instructions, ready for you to take on holiday, or to keep in the medicine cabinet for use all year round. If you weren't at the previous homeopathy talk, you can also find out about first aid remedies to add to your kit.

Tracy presents information about homeopathy in a lively and accessible way, so whether you and homeopathy are strangers or old friends, come along. 7.30pm for an 8pm start Chisenhale Gallery 64 Chisenhale Road, E3 5QZ. Free for members, £3 visitors.

Our July coffee event will be taking place on Friday 24th at La Bouche café, no 49 Broadway Market, E8 4PH (020 7923 0600). The market will not be open that day. La Bouche is located close to London Fields and the London Fields Lido. Meet in the café at 10.30am and let the cake testing commence!


Transport details: Broadway Market, E8 can be found just South of London Fields, and North of Regents Canal, West of Mare Street and East of Kingsland Road.
By bus: The 394 bus route runs from Islington (Todpuddle Street) to HomertonHospital directly past the South end of the Market, the 236 runs from FinsburyPark to Hackney Wick (Eastway) across the North end of the Market. Buses: 394, 388, 263, 55 253, 106, 48, 26, 277, D6
By tube: Central line to Bethnal Green Station. Take the exit to the right, and walk up Cambridge Heath Road until you come to RegentsCanal, then take a left after the canal and follow Andrews Road over to the market.
By train: London Fields BR station is a 5 minute walk, with Hackney Central and Cambridge Heath both 10 minutes.

Hackney City Farm

Prior to Paradise, EEWI visited Hackney City Farm on Friday 19th June for a cuppa and a slice of cake. Sadly the choice of cakes was pretty poor. We contacted the farm in advance and they replied saying they were excited about our taste testing which was why it was surprising that all we found were 5 slices of almond cake from the day before. So although the almond cake that was available achieved a unanimous 7 out of 10 we docked a couple of points for lack of choices. This means the Tower of London is still out in front in terms of cakes!

Creating Paradise

Here are a few pics of us setting up on Saturday morning. The cakestands looked gorgeous, the cakes even more so. It was a fantastic weekend and we met loads of amazing people. As Colleen said, so much thanks to the whole EEWI team for making it a fantastic success.

come into the parlure

If you missed Paradise Gardens, all I can say is make sure you put it into your diary for next year as soon as possible. The Spiegel Tent was the perfect backdrop for our exceptional cakes (notwithstanding my problems with the iced fairy cakes, but that's another story) and the perfectly honed customer service shown by all of our helpers. Eat your heart out Mary Portas.

Thanks are due to everyone involved. To the London Swing Dance Society who kept us company. To Let Them Eat Cake whose beautiful cake stands we borrowed. To everyone in East End WI who baked the wonderful cakes we sold . To all those who spent time setting up and working on our stall. And to Niki and Sorella for whipping us into order all over the weekend and getting the day sorted. Fanbloomontastic.

baking in paradise

We'll be at Paradise Gardens in Victoria Park again tomorrow Sunday 21st June selling the delicious cakes the WI bakers have made. Come and see us in the Parlour Spiegel Tent from midday onwards. Tea, cakes and dancing - Paradise!

If you have a favourite recipe you want to share, let us know.

life drawing

What a fantatsic evening! We were bursting with eager artists at our very first life drawing evening. Kate Hardy ran a great evening and its clear that there is much talent among our number. It was also great for those of us who have no ability at all in drawing as Kate has a real knack at making us all create something which is at the very least interesting. Many thanks to Maria Rodrigues who was a superb model.

Here are a few of our creations, more will be added later and many apologies to those whose pictures we didn't get a chance to photograph. Thanks to everyone for being so patient with the lack of space and for putting up with the heat - we promise to keep the doors open at all future events that don't include a naked model!

buns and life

What a great turn out for our life drawing class! Kate managed to calm us down and get us to focus on space and shape and light, helped by our brilliant professional model.

We managed to produce these before we went home.

Never was an iced bun more appropriate to celebrate our success.

Round of applause all round.

calendar girls

Were we put off by the Tube strike? Did Niki's high heels stop her cycling to the theatre? Of course not. After all, we are the East End WI and we wanted to see Calendar Girls.

Highlights of the evening? A theatre full of women. Sian Phillips' wonderful voice projection. Linda Bellingham's legs. Gaynor Faye's wonderful hair trick (head held upside down and shaken to fluff it up).

What did you love about Calendar Girls?

SOS for honey bees

Our May meeting focused on annual resolutions and we took a vote on the SOS for Honey Bees resolution: "Honey Bees play a vital role in the pollination of food crops and in our environment. In view of concerns about the accelerating decline in the UK honey bee population, this meeting urges HM Government to increase funding for research into Bee Health." EEWI members endorsed the resolution which will be voted on at the WI AGM on 3rd June. Look out for feedback soon.

We have decided to look at ways in which we can support the Bee campaign. Contact us if you have any suggestions. You can find out more about bee health here and here and here.

Post Script: Motion carried at the AGM!