Having experienced some difficulties with the link on our own website, we have now moved the blog to the central Emmaus UK website :
http://www.emmaus.org.uk/blog/
I will be posting a report on our Solidarity Day – Saturday 19th February – some time soon after.
Hope you follow through to the new ‘Blog-home’ - and keep the comments coming, it’s terrific to know there is so much support!
Best wishes,
Elizabeth
I am very happy to report that the all-day Coffee Morning to raise money for MacMillan Cancer last week was a huge success at at least three levels. Not only did it raise £250, which Emmaus South Lambeth are matching so £500 will be sent – but the fun that the cake-makers had (I speak here as a contributor) making a vast array of delicacies was more than matched by the pleasure in consuming them. (So I am reliably informed, not having tried – well OK, having only tried about two or three or – perhaps… hm, yes : they were gorgeous!)
The event also offered the opportunity to inaugurate our new access to the Boutique level of the Superstore, which is going to be a huge help to customers wanting to nip over from our main-road shops. Until now, the only entrance had been a trot down hill, round the corner and upstairs, to get to a point about 50 yards from the main street shop doorway! The new access has proved particularly popular this week with people trying to escape the rain but we are sure that it will be equally popular when (if?) the sunshine returns.
Actually, that’s unfair – we had a whole morning of sun yesterday. I have reason to know, because I was on the allotment, picking huge quantities of green tomatoes before they rotted; there are five litres of green tomato chutney in the store cupboard now! I also pruned the bay tree – the kitchen assures me we won’t be needing any more bay for at least six months! The cabbages are flourishing in the damp conditions and we’re in for a bumper crop in a month or two.
Off to plant some winter pansies now. Take care.
I am very happy to report that the all-day Coffee Morning to raise money for MacMillan Cancer last week was a huge success at at least three levels. Not only did it raise £250, which Emmaus South Lambeth are matching so £500 will be sent – but the fun that the cake-makers had (I speak here as a contributor) making a vast array of delicacies was more than matched by the pleasure in consuming them. (So I am reliably informed, not having tried – well OK, having only tried about two or three or – perhaps… hm, yes : they were gorgeous!)
The event also offered the opportunity to inaugurate our new access to the Boutique level of the Superstore, which is going to be a huge help to customers wanting to nip over from our main-road shops. Until now, the only entrance had been a trot down hill, round the corner and upstairs, to get to a point about 50 yards from the main street shop doorway! The new access has proved particularly popular this week with people trying to escape the rain but we are sure that it will be equally popular when (if?) the sunshine returns.
Actually, that’s unfair – we had a whole morning of sun yesterday. I have reason to know, because I was on the allotment, picking huge quantities of green tomatoes before they rotted; there are five litres of green tomato chutney in the store cupboard now! I also pruned the bay tree – the kitchen assures me we won’t be needing any more bay for at least six months! The cabbages are flourishing in the damp conditions and we’re in for a bumper crop in a month or two.
Off to plant some winter pansies now. Take care.
Hello all,
After a 10-month absence it is lovely to be back at South Lambeth again, and I have had a really warm welcome from everyone, for which many thanks.
The biggest change, literally, is the ‘new’ Superstore, which sells furniture on the ground floor from the Beadman Street side, and is a wonderful Aladdin’s Emporium upstairs, with boutique, books and bric-a-brac. This only gained its Knight’s Hill entrance door this week, and it is a wonderful bonus to be able to direct customers just across from the shops.
The allotment is naturally looking rather tiny after my Carlton experience – but infinitely more manageable, especially this side of the harvest, though the tomato plants are still doing very nicely.
Next Sunday we’re having a ‘bake-in’ to prepare cakes for the MacMillan Cancer ‘coffee and cakes party’ the following week. As for all high days and holidays, I’m doing a Carrot Cake… do drop in on Saturday 25th and try a bit of each of the wonderful cakes available – it’s ‘free’ – just a hefty donation to the MacMillan Cancer fund required!
I look forward to seeing you there,
Take care, Elizabeth
Emmaus South Lambeth was two years old on Saturday 17th October, which was also the first full day that we had the keys to our new Warehouse building. Yes, after all the struggles and delay, we now have the task of painting it before the major move (all of about 20 yards as the crow flies – but a bit of a trek by road with a wardrobe tucked under each arm !) at the end of the month.
To celebrate, our General Manager James organised a Benefit Night for us with no fewer than four acts in Brixton on Saturday night, which was great.
As if that wasn’t enough – I was marking the end of my work at South Lambeth, for after a week’s holiday I move to Emmaus Village Carlton.
As regular readers will know, I have had the privilege of meeting a great many lovely people here and making a great many good friends, so it will be hard to leave them behind. However, I hope they - and YOU, dear reader! – will come to visit me deep in the Bedfordshire countryside. I am naturally very glad to report that the allotment here will be in good hands, and I am very much looking forward to working on the vegetable patch in Village Carlton of course!
With the new warehouse I know South Lambeth is on course for a very successful future.
So, farewell, and thanks for reading.
My best wishes,
Elizabeth
Companion Andy and I had a lovely weekend at Emmaus Village Carlton last week, when they held a Music Festival. As well as a splendid local school choir, there was a broad range of performers and fairground stalls – and even a group of Vikings giving battle displays! Leaving nothing to chance, the highly efficient organisers had applied for and received an extension to the Indian Summer weather, so everyone highly enjoyed themselves.
Back home, the new warehouse is nearing completion so soon it will be all hands to the pump painting and decorating, with the move taking place at the end of the month; all very exciting. Fortunately we have the additional help of a number of new Companions; welcome to David, Bob, James, Nick and Frank. We have also had Harry, one of our First Companions here, staying for a week, and it’s been great catching up with news.
The allotment is definintely feeling autumnal – the leeks, brussels and cabbage have all doubled as the nights have got cooler!
Take care and keep warm,
Elizabeth
Well, a busy couple of weeks have passed since the Assembly which admittedly seems five minutes ago!
For once, it’s culure vulturing that’s keeping me busy; next week, Companion Andy and I are off to the Music Festival at Emmaus Carlton, but last weekend I had a wonderful treat : my son and daughter in law took me to Belfast to see James Galway perform at Proms in the Park in the magnificent grounds of Hillsborough Castle. We stayed with their friends who were not only delightful but generous, taking us on tours round Belfast City Centre and, on the Sunday, the Giant’s Causeway.
Before that, however, we had a picnic whilst listening to glorious music under a vast cedar tree in wonderful weather, a totally delightful evening, with James Galway and his wife Jane playing duets, later joined by 7 other flautists!
Our wonderful hostess brought her two young boys (8 and 5) on the trip to the Giant’s Causeway and Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, and it was lovely to watch such unfettered fun and energy clambering the rocks. When discussing arrangements for the trip, I had been warned only to take tiny bottles of liquid toiletries for flight restrictions – so when it came to the suntan cream I had thought “Hmm, no need to trouble with that in Northern Ireland in mid-September!” I returned to South Lambeth knowing the meaning of ‘Redneck’ and can only wish the same temperatures for next week.
I returned in time to join a tour of the new Warehouse, which is on course to complete next month and it seems vast – particularly in view of the fact that we will be decorating it ourselves!
The allotment is still yielding a good supply of tomatoes and the winter greens are coming on nicely. Summer is, however, turning to conker-heaven autumn rather too rapidly for my taste – particularly regarding the shortening of the daylight. Oh well, I suppose we’re over half-way between midsummer and the shortest day now..
Take care,
Elizabeth
Andy and I were outnumbered by South Lambeth Trustees at this year’s Annual Assembly, so we enjoyed it four times as much to make up for it!
Unfortunately I was smitten with my ‘Out of the M25 Allergy’ and began sneezing as we passed St Albans and stopped when we reached Leicester on the return, but I put most of the shivering down to nerves at being co-presenter of a workshop on Saturday on the subject of Allotments. I need not have worried – my fellow presenter Mike from the Burnley Group did a marvellous job, thank you again.
Terry Waite’s ‘Welcome’ speech was inspirational as ever and the keynote speaker this year was John Bird, co-founder of Big Issue, who was strident, witty and moving in turns.
Our relatively new General Manager James had previous engagements, so decided to go up just for the Friday evening to meet people and present our Community Update. Alas he gave Rabbie Burns a chuckle as that plan almost went a-wry when his motorbike (yes, dear Reader, 200+ miles by motorbike…) got a puncture on the way up and he ended up taking seven and a half hours to get there, bolt some food down, make the presentation, meet a handful, then climb on the bike again! We ran out of brownie points to award his dedication!
It was splendid to meet up with new folk and an ever-growing group of friends and catch up on news of others not attending.
We had a magician to entertain us on Saturday night; he produced 3 sponge ladybirds, put two in my hand, told me to close my hand and when I opened it again, 3 popped out – then he put those three in my neighbour’s hand, and a dozen spilled out when he opened : I wish I knew how to do that with the ladybirds on the allotment!
Back home, the warehouse progresses rapidly and we’re just a month away from moving in, so thoughts turn to the transition. It’s going to be quite a tight timetable, since the builders will be leaving just a shell which we have to decorate ourselves – so if you’ve ten minutes to spare, please give us a ring and we’ll make sure we have a spare paintbrush to plonk in your hands.
I look forward to chatting with you over the paint pot soon!
Best wishes,
Elizabeth
| We have a nice new influx of Companions recently – welcome to Martine, David, James and Bob.
Three other Companions joined me with Trustees Lorna and Julian and his wife at the Allotments Open Day, which was a great success; though it only ran for 3 hours, we made some money, met lots of new people and enjoyed delicious burgers whilst we gazed at the stunning view. The allotment has been busy providing us with 38 kg onions, 45 kg potatoes, 9 summer puddings of red and black currants, stacks of radishes and turnips – and so far 7kg of runner beans! We are now in the midst of a glut of Tom Thumb tomatoes – sweet, juicy and – surprisingly, quite a few even manage to make it all the way back to the Community!
Congratulations to our former Companion Mike who moved to Emmaus Village Carlton in June; he has landed the job of Administrative Deputy there, starting 1 September, and we all wish him the best in his new job.
Commiserations to our former doughty volunteer Shelagh MacMaster, who retired (aged… over 79!) after 3 years helping to set up the bric-a-brac shop and retired in February. She went for an outing with a friend to Brighton and slipped boarding the bus home – and broke her arm in the process. We all hope she makes a speedy recovery – as we do General Manager James’ partner, from a major operation this weekend.
We are once again without a Community Leader, as Mike left on holiday at the beginning of the month and will not be returning. However, we are in good hands with the addition to the Deputies of James, our General Manager, Trustee Lorna, who has stepped into the breach as ‘Everything-Else’ Manager!
The warehouse building comes on a-pace and we are hoping to get a Grand Preview soon; meanwhile, the house continues to be knee-deep in builders sorting out the snagging; um, seem to have a familiar ring, that sentence!
We are holding a b-b-q to celebrate Bank Holiday Monday – so apologies to all readers who live within cloud-burst distance – don’t plan anything after 7pm, it’s tempting fate for us to announce an outdoor event!
Apart from that word of advice, have a lovely break,
Best wishes,
Elizabeth
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The journey started off with an overnight stay at Emmaus Coventry, who made us warmly welcome. They have a lovely vicarage for the Community home, and quite a vast Superstore, complete with a well set-up workshop. The arrangements prior to the journey did not, however, go quite to plan….
You are probably bored to tears with the minutae of our continuous snagging issues, but – we’ve had the plumbers in again. They arrived on Wednesday morning. Again. Meanwhile, I innocently (Vanity, thy name is Woman…) decided to dye my hair prior to departure to Coventry. Which went fine, until the moment I put the shower on to rinse my hair… to discover the water was cut off. Which caused me to invent a lexicon of words I couldn’t replicate.
30 seconds later, a scarecrow appears at the office door, asking if it had missed the announcement that the water was due to be cut off; apparently the plumbers gave zero notice of intent. Scarecrow then zips across the car park, praying for once that the shop is empty (it is), suggesting to the surprised Companion running the shop that “Don’t Ask” would be a good move, and whips to the basement, to an ancient boiler system, to rinse hair. Lady with towel around head emerges some time later and returns to finish packing, changing (still no chance of shower), and heading down for lunch before departure. Not ALL of West Norwood witnessed the sight, I am assured…. it just felt like it.
We have had stunning success with the onion crop on the allotment, and hope to be self-sufficient for at least 3-4 weeks, with potatoes following shortly. We also had masses of black- and red-currants which topped off several sponge cakes for about a month, and gooseberries are now on stream – but oh, are they a viscious crop to harvest?! The wig-wams are now nicely twizzled with beans, and Jorge did a wonderful job of planting out the tomatoes a while ago as well as leek and lettuce seedlings which are thriving.
And that just about brings things up to date.
Take care,
Elizabeth
