edible garden stop press!

We are delighted to announce that the Edible Garden is being launched this Friday at the Growing Zone in the Children's Park, Locksley Street, E14 7EJ at the south end of Mile End Park.  The event runs all day from 9.30 until 5.  It's a great spot with lots of promise and especially child friendly.  There is a programme of activity all day - from hands-on work to prepare the space to story sharing, cooking and eating.  There is a request for contributions of salad and veg if you have some to spare as there will be some food preparation and cooking going on too.  Everybody is welcome, so do go along for a while, even if you're not a gardener because there will be a lot going on.

Hope to see you there.

later that day...

We had coffee.  We had cake.  It was oh so green and lush and exotic and all together uplifting.  We all came home happy even though the fabric shop closed too early.  And... IT DIDN'T RAIN!!!

Thank you for being our benefactor and sat-nav, Karen.  You made our day.

ETA: Read more here from Stacey about our day out  

well, well, well

Well done everyone who braved yet another rainy evening to come along to our wellness meeting.  Have to say, there were some lovely brollies.  Karen's butterflies took the biscuit, though Niki's pink brolly and Viven's patterned brolly and green mac were also rather jolly and now I'm determined to ditch my black one and get something a bit more cheerful.  Perhaps I'm feeling a bit more positive after using one of Tracy's homeopathic remedies to give me a bit more zip, or because I had oa yoga class with Amanda yesterday, or because I've been thinking a bit more about what I eat since I heard Gerry's talk about chinese medicine and food types.  Many many thanks to you lovely ladies for your time, to Veronika and Elizabeth for some healthy baking, and to everyone who shared their company.

I'm off to Kew now for coffee!

this week's meetings

Mile End Park  in March

If you've had enough of the rain, come along to our meeting tomorrow Tuesday 15th May  when we will be focusing on wellbeing. There will be a variety of activities and talks about staying well, including an opportunity to learn a little bit of gentle "chair" yoga to help those of you who spend a lot of time sitting during the day.  We'll be meeting as usual at St Margaret's House, Old Ford Road, next door to the Gallery Cafe (go thorugh the gates and follow the path).  Doors open at 7.30pm for a prompt 8pm start.  Visitors are welcome - donation  £3 to cover costs.  Tea and coffee will be provided but if you wish to share a bottle of wine or some home made goodness that would be lovely.

We'll be hoping for at least one rain-free day because on Friday 18th May we are going to be out and about with a visit to Kew Gardens.   We have 20 free entry tickets: if more than 20 turn up, we'll share the cost of paying for extra tickets.  We will meet in the ticket hall of Kew Gardens Underground/ Overground station at 10.45am and will be leaving to walk to Kew Gardens promptly at 11am.  It should take between 45 - 50 mins to get to Kew Gardens station by District Line from Mile End or thereabouts, a bit longer if you are coming by Overground.  It should be a lovely day out; and if it is raining there are all those lovely palms and hothouses to visit.

Look forward to seeing you soon.

love your women's library

Many of you will know that EEWI has worked closely with the Women's Library over the last few years, supplying tea and cakes, visiting exhibitions, and volunteering to safely record and store the Women's Institute archive.  Now we hear that the future of the Women's Library is threatened following budget cuts at London Metropolitan University.  It would be a scandal if this much-loved - and much fought for - guardian of women's history was forced to reduce opening to just one day a week, or even worse.  Please consider signing the petition to the Secretary of State for Education asking him to do something about his.

You'll find the petition here.  And an excellent articles about why it is so important here.

call out for crafters

Abbey Gardens (located here) are looking for crafters who might want to make something a little fruity - or veggie-  for their community patchwork.  For this year's Summer Fair on 9th June, they are planning to produce a community picnic rug made from patches in their colours, each with a 'plate' on which favourite fruit and veg-related foods and food stories will be embroidered, appliquéd or fabric crayoned. They will be preparing the basic patches in advance and anyone who fancies doing one (or several...) or making appliqué or crochet shapes for other people to stitch onto the patches is very welcome to join in, ahead of the event or on the day.

The Friends of Abbey Gardens think it  would be great if some of our wonderful EEWI crafters could get involved.  Email us if you want to find out more, or have a word with Lydia Thornley.

tea, cake and spoons

Alison carves a wooden spoon

We had to wear our woolly jumpers and socks on Saturday to stay warm in the cold and rain at Victoria Park, but what a lovely day we had - read about it here on Stacey's blog.  Alison made so much cake over the weekend she must have worn out her wooden spoon, because here she is making a new one at Tower Hamlets Cemetery spring event where Clare led our team of bakers on Sunday.  Between us all, we made hundreds of cups of tea, stirred bowls and bowls of cake mixtures, iced scores of cakes.

No wonder we sometimes have to sit down and have a civilised cup of tea ourselves occasionally.

Cake Break for MS at Colleen's Pop Up Tea Room

Chilly weather doesn't matter when you can bask in the warmth of EEWI made tea and cake.  Thanks to everyone who joined in the glow.

this weekend

We'll be serving tea and cakes on Saturday in our tent by the Bandstand in Victoria Park to celebrate the work that's been done to enhance the park over the last year or so...or is it longer?  I lose track.  We may even have come over all 40s, but the cakes will still be lovely.

We'll also be at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Dickensian Spring event on Sunday from 11am - 4pm serving tea and cakes.  There's always lots of green things to do there.  You might want to wear your boots...