Seven Days at the Hub

Yet again...we have exciting things happening and I get so involved I forget to take any photos. 


Last weekend we had the baby fair at the hub. Arabella worked really hard to pull it all together and she did an amazing job. It was an amazing collection of experts in all things bump and baby. Arabella's website is great for all things baby. 

Saturday's Baby Fair

On Saturday morning Simon Mills (our Simon) and Robin Harford ran the first of two WIld Food-Wild Medicine foraging walks that left from the hub at 10am and returned at noon. If you are interested in the second one it is on Saturday 7th July at the same time. For more details click here

Simon (left) and Robin (right) at the start of Wild Food-Wild Medicine

On Monday we welcomed award winning University of Exeter Professor Ian Cook (Associate Professor of Human Geography, College of Life & Environmental Sciences...oh er!) and his students. He was running 'Follow The Things' performance workshop. Do have a look at Follow The Things  (it's on twitter too). It's an amazing project and very thought provoking and it was put together by the inspiration Ian Cook. 


I was poorly on Wednesday so I missed Exeter Baking Club but there were lots of new members this week and Sylvia won the 'Bake of the Week' certificate with her Bubble Cake. Exeter Baking Club will meet again in two weeks on Wednesday 11th July and there will be visitors from The Olive Tree's Language Class so Lauren has given the club an international theme. I asked whether Devon was international enough and apparently not :( So I need to get my thinking cap on. You are welcome to come along. It is £3 a session from 1:30-3:30pm. Bring along a home baked something and the recipe. Don't worry about what...just come along and enjoy. Exeter Baking Club's Facebook page is here and Lauren who runs EBC has a blog too. 


Today we had our ESENCE networking meeting at the hub. It is a meeting for local social enterprises and cooperatives and I was so pleased that they met at the hub. Next month's meeting is also at the hub. Goody.


We have new classes booked in for September...pastel drawing and charoal drawing through the WEA. We also have a parenting session booked in. More details to follow soon. 


Baby Massage starts tomorrow but it's not in the hub but in the large carpeted room in our health centre right next door to the hub. It is run by ante-natal teacher Clare Lowing. Click here for more details.


This Saturday there is a party at the hub. I am clearing out the hub completely tomorrow so the party girl (lady) can make it her own. It's the perfect opportunity for a tidy up. 


This Sunday Ruth Sewell is running her Gentle Space Day. 

Gentle Space

Guided Retreat Day

Take a break from your day to day pressures and spend a tranquil day in beautiful surroundings taking part in:-

Relaxation exercises
Guided imagery
Meditations
Poetry and Stories
Gentle reflective walk on a canvas floor laid labyrinth

Retreat Guide

Ruth Sewell has many years experience of leading small group retreats and she will be your guide for this day. Ruth is interested in supporting people to find the best ways to enrich their lives by greater commitment to balancing life pressures, staying well and living life to its fullest potential. Reaching this potential can be achieved if there is a daily commitment to balancing activities, of rest, good nourishment, at all levels, and effective self-help approaches which help to reduce levels of daily stress and the fatigue that arise in busy modern life.
Date: 1st July, 2012, Sunday
Venue: The Hub on the Green, 8 Cathedral Close, Exeter
Times: 9.30am to 4.30pm.
Cost: £60 to include beverages and a 2 course vegetarian lunch.
* Places are limited early booking advisable.*
Contact Ruth Sewell: Tel: 01626-779649 or Mobile 07872907179 Email: heart@ruthsewell.f9.co.uk: www.ruthsewell.co.uk

You can now order Penny's vegetables and other groceries online and it really is easy. It's click on the pictures and pay by Paypal or card. Click here for the website.

The vegetable waiting to go to their new homes

A big thank you this week to...
to Liz who is out knitting group superstar. Thank you for teaching Jo to Crochet.

Liz & Jo crocheting

to Jo who read the little ones stories when my voice had packed in. 
to Rachel for baking much-loved date slices for coffee time.
to The Fruit Tree for choosing us as a venue. 
to Andy for my flowers to make me feel better. 
to Arabella for organising the baby fair.
to Ian for remembering us and supporting us when we knew noone!
to Little Stitch for spreading the word. 
to Kelly for donating things from her clear out for our bric a brac stall.
to Sal for donating cookery books.

Lastest Hub News...

So I had a cunning plan. I would capture my day in photos and then post them up meaning that I could still keep up to date with the blog without typing only I got so distracted by my day that I completely forgot to use my camera. 

So...

We had a guest yoga teacher in. She was great. Roberta will be back next week. 

Coffee time was a busy one. Jo was fabulous and read stories to the children on the sofa. Everyone seemed as high as kites. How long can we blame the weather for all that is quirky in the world? 

We were doodling for Wonfest. Henry took the doodles home on his bike, ran into his house to get waterproofs and his bike and the doodles were stolen. I am so sad that all our doodlers hard work are either in a hedge somewhere or adorning the wall of some bike thief. 

Poor Henry - no bike!

Penny turned up with a mysterious looking box. It turned out it was her fleece that she was  planning to wash with Verity. Yesterday we were asked to be a crime scene venue for an interactive murder mystery and today we are washing fleeces. You just never know at the hub. Penny thought I was cross with her but I loved it. I love that they do such random and crazy things at the hub and it gives me blog-fodder and makes me smile because it wasn’t in the business plan!

Liz christened the teapot and we had some new knitters in.  

In the early afternoon Tat from the Devon Grapevine and I headed off to Real Food to plan some cookery courses. As always happens with the magical people who work in community initiatives in Exeter, we left with a much bigger plan and all fired up.Plus I got an invitation to see Tat’s donkeys. Strap a horn on a donkey and you have a unicorn Simon Bowkett so these donkeys could come in useful. 

Later on Simon and I headed to the X-Centre down by the quay. Wren music were having a series of three collaborative meetings about music initiatives in the city in one day. 

Sue Daniels had tai chi in the evening. 

Today we started with the Devonshire Association’s welcome to new members. I redid all the boards and have figured out a new way of keeping the a-board waterproof. Very satisfying. Then Jacqueline from Mind and Body next door and I met up for a talk about World Peace Day on September 21st. Exeter City Centre’s Manager John Harvey has helped us get Princesshay Square for the day so we will have a celebration of community groups with a series of 10ish minute performances. If you would like to be involved please do get in touch. The more the merrier. And then on Saturday 22nd September we are planning a peace fair in the hub with taster sessions at Mind and Body and at The Sustainable Health Centre. Again let me know if you would like to be a part of this. 

I am now in Boston tea Party having lunch ang getting to grips with MailChimp (and blogging).  

The Cake and Craft Fair Featured in Penny's Blog

Penny's Recipe Website

A week at The Hub

Red Ball came to Exeter

We embroidered buttons in Tuesday's Craft Workshop

Lauren showed us how to make fondant roses
in Exeter Baking Club

The prizes are arriving for the Exeter Pregnancy & Baby Fair raffle
on Saturday 23rd June 10-12 at the hub

We had a good turn out for Bruce's course

Mum needle-felted a fabulous bird

The girls made their flower loom flowers into hair decorations

The girls made their flower loom flowers into hair clips

The girls made their flower loom flowers into hair clips

Penny, Rachel, Jo, David and Joey have been
story readers this week

David has dropped off more jam £5.50 for two pots

Yoyo became braver

This Saturday

Jane would love more people at her drawing classes

Community Choir had their first performance at
the Magic Carpet Exhibition

We also had:
ESCOP European meeting
Catered for our first buffet since the cafe (using Penny's bread, salads and vegetables)
Yoga Babies
Yoga with Wendy
Active Birthing Classes
Community Choir
Textile Art Craft Workshop
Knitting Group
Women's Network Yoga
Gentle Hatha Yoga
Exeter Baking Club
Tai Chi
Movement & Drama
The Brownies
Penny's order and collect scheme which now sells the yummiest bread

Fancy It's a Knockout in Topsham???

International Its a Knockout!

Are you looking for a challenge? We have just the thing...THE SOS GLOBAL CHALLENGE Featuring the New Generation of Its a Knockout!!!

Foam, Water, Inflatables! Music! Friends! Prizes!! And FUN! FUN! FUN!

View a video of a recent event to see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBofhhaD7KA&feature=player_embedded

An Experience you will never forget!! Fun for all the family - We have.. Music, BBQ, Fully Licensed Bar, Stalls, Raffles, Games, Health awareness organisations, Auctions and much more..

At the same time you will be supporting a great cause which will benefit the communities around Exeter.

Who is getting involved

Local Business, Pubs, Retail outlets, financial organisations, students and various other organisations competing in a two day event which will stay with you for life!

The normal entry cost is £200 for a 10 person team fee, and as much sponsorship you can raise there after ….

There will be 24 teams and the event will last roughly 4 hours, there will be two shows of 12 teams per show and an optional final.

If you require more information on entering a team or have a  question please email dawn@sosglobal.org or call 01392 247904

DON'T DELAY!! BOOK YOUR TEAMS PLACE TODAY!

Get involved with Exeter's biggest fundraising event of 2012 and make a difference!

FRIDAY 13TH & SATURDAY 14TH JULY 2012 TOPSHAM RUGBY CLUB, Bonfire Field, Exeter Road, Topsham

Application forms

• Team membership form
• Sponsorship form

Follow us on...

This Week at the Hub on the Green

This week at the Hub (in addition to all the usual classes): I am meeting with the lovely TAT to plot and scheme, on Tuesday at noon Eve is running her second TEXTILE ART session, we are welcoming the DEVONSHIRE ASSOCIATION for a meeting on Thursday morning and on Thursday afternoon there is a HATE CRIME MEETING, on Saturday we are home to EXETER PREGNANCY & BABY FAIR as well as the WILD MEDICINE HERB WALK leaving from the hub at 10am

Baby Massage in the Hub's Carpeted Room

Do you have a colicky baby? Do you believe in the benefits of positive touch for growing babies? Would you like to meet other mums and dads and chat through parenting topics such as sleep and weaning? The Hub has the perfect space: carpeted, sofas, coffee and cake to follow and it all starts Friday 29th June.
Groups are small for individual attention, so book the four week Baby Massage course early. Email clare@babieslovemassage.co.uk or call 07866 217297.

http://www.babieslovemassage.co.uk/
http://www.facebook.com/ExeterBabyMassage

The First Ever Performance...

Lovely Tat who does all sorts of great things but I know her through The Olive Tree and The Devon Grapevine which is a fab online resource. Have a nosey if you don't already know it. Tat popped in yesterday with some crafty bits and pieces for us to use at the hub. Sonia....there are sparkly bits and for our daily crafty events there are all sorts of goodies to inspire.  We will take pretty much anything from anyone. If we can't use it ourselves in the hub (which is highly unlikely) we know someone who can or it goes into our freecycle box. 
Sophie gave me some perspex boxes a while ago when she moved house. They were from Habitat when it closed down and I had no idea what to do with them but couldn't say no. It has also always bothered me that our knitting needles and wool always looks so unsightly. During Tai Chi I decided I would take out old retro knitting patterns that I collect (even though I can't knit) and I would decoupage  with them - covering the scratched perspex cubes and make knitting containers. So I will start tomorrow lunchtime. I expect we will need a coat of varnish at the end but it should look pretty cool. If we cover each container with a hint of what's inside then we will be able to find things easily. If anyone can foresee any problems with this plan - please let me know.


Today's 'Fun with Numbers' course was busier which is great news. If you are free between 9:30-11:30am on Thursdays and would like to brush up on your maths then this is the place. Next week there is a break as there was a prior booking but the week after (28th June) 'Fun with Numbers' will be back. 


Tonight Lottie and I went to real food to the Magic Carpet Exhibition Open Evening. The Community Choir who meet at the hub had their first ever performance and it was excellent. I videoed it but it will take me a while to figure out how to edit them.

Yesterday at Exeter Baking Club Lauren showed us how to make fondant roses. We tried really hard. My fondant pig was a little more successful but the funniest bit was watching Dominique and Kezia eat their way through piles of fondant icing. 

They were subtle at first but by the end of the session they were confident enough to roll up a ball of icing the size of golf ball, stick it on top of a piece of cake and gobble up the whole thing. Below are their faces afterwards. I lifted them up so they could see what they looked like in the mirror. Wonderful.

This is another fab photo...this is my mum reading all the children a story on the sofa on Wednesday at Knitting group. The books were left over from the book stall at the craft fair and the children are loving them.

Tuesday at the Hub

There has been a lovely response to Saturday's Craft & Cake Fair. Lots of lovely messages on Facebook and Twitter, lots of text messages and kind words not just towards the people who helped out on the day but between people who met for the first time and that's where being able to see each others' comments of Facebook comes into its own.


I know that Wendy Brooking from The Still Rooms made a huge impact with her kitchen cosmetics demos and lots of people are keen to learn more.


We had so many donations of cakes from our wonderful hub people. I am going to see whether I can remember everyone by the order they came in but I have a sinking feeling that I am going to wake up in the middle of the night remembering someone who is not on the list...here goes...


Thank you to...
Mum Rachel for her brownies, lemon drizzle cake, oaty slices and chocolate brandy cake, carrot cake
Penny for her rock cakes
Sonia for her sparkly crispy cakes
Sean for his chocolate beetroot cake
Sarah for her potato cake
Sarah for her white chocolate and raspberry cupcakes
Sal for her carrot cake and coffee and walnut cake
Verity for her jewelled cupcakes and red velvet cupcakes
Victoria and Ollie for their chocolate brownie cake pops
Lauren for her chocolate orange cookies
Jonathan and Liz for their orange cake with lemon drizzle


All our bakers make our cake sale much more exciting and help us to make the cake sale a great success. Thank you all. 


Monday was a goody at the hub. There was Yoga Babies, Come Along and Draw, Coffee Time, Yoga with Wendy and Active Birthing. The carpet fitters upstairs and the cross driver in the car park who blocked our front door wound me up but the hub was, as always, fab with fab people. 

The highlight of my day was reading stories 

Tuesday was bonkers today. Choir was the busiest I have ever seen it/heard it. I am sure they must have known that we had flapjack for them. I had someone come and look at using a room in the Sustainable Health Centre. He is a real 'life and soul' sort so I am hoping he will join the team. Textile artist Eve Malster started her crafting sessions today by making needle-felted creatures with the group. They made some really amazing creatures. Little Mahalia aged 7 (and only just) made the most spectacular robin. Eve is a fabulous teacher. We are very lucky to have a string of such wonderful craft teachers. 
Coffee time was a busy one. This afternoon the NCT's Bumps and Babes came to their new home at the hub. It was lovely to meet Tania and Arabella was her usual fabulous organised self. 

Tomorrow we have Roberta's two yoga classes in the morning and then knitting group. I will be making flower ribbon corsages with the little ones or playing elastics...it depends how much bounce we have. Then it's Exeter Baking Club. At the last meeting we were all asked to bring along a favourite recipe. Lauren shuffled them and handed them out. I (with a little slight of hand because Lauren took pity on my pleading for an easy one) got crispy cake and I've messed it up! Lottie and I popped to High Street Tescos and the ingredients were so ridiculously expensive that we drove to one of the larger stores where we managed to pick up what we needed. I picked up what I thought were Rice Krispies but they aren't really. They are more solid and to be honest not as nice. But they were in the mix by the time I realised so I have mucked up the ridiculously simple recipe. Oh the shame!