Tuesday 25 September 2012

Today at the hub...


Phew...hub life was quite something today. Choir was fabulous (mum was a very happy bunny afterwards), Sonia's laminated art was genius. Very effective and there are some mobiles in the pipeline. Liz popped by to finalise the details for her up-and-coming knitting competition. Babyccino was busy-tastic. A picnic of mums and babies on the green got rained on so they came in to coffee time and staye
d for Babyccino. ESENCE meeting for social enterprises was great. We are moving forward and the plans are big. I think ideas were fuelled by mum's date & oat slices. Simon is welcoming Carolyn's Choir as we 'speak' and I have just collapsed with a poorly Lottie and a fishfinger sandwich. We are looking forward to The Great British Bake Off and a good night's sleep.

Monday 24 September 2012

Starting this week...

Carolyn's Women's Choir 7-9pm on Tuesdays in the back room at the hub.
Learn to Draw with Charcoals & Pastels 10:30-12:30 on Thursday in the hub.
Baby Massage 10-11:30am on Fridays in the back room at the hub. 
BirthSPACE 7-8:30pm on Fridays at the back room at the hub.


Carolyn's Women's Choir: 
A weekly meet to develop voice and some vocal harmony.  I encourage women who believe they can't sing and those who would like to explore their natural singing voice.Taster session on Tuesday 25th September 7-9pm upstairs at the Hub on the Green, Exeter   07950 961751 Weekly sessions from Tuesday 2nd October 2012.
 Learn to Draw with Charcoals & Pastels:
This is a WEA course and it is fully booked. For more information on similar courses please go to www.wea-sw.org.uk
Baby Massage:
Please go to www.babieslovemassage.co.uk for more information
BirthSPACE:
 



Sunday 23 September 2012

Peace Day Fair on Saturday

This is my kind of celebration. After the unknown of putting on an event in Princesshay Square...the peace fair on Saturday seemed like an old friend. We rearranged the hub so it felt different to our monthly fair. We had the cake table as usual with Cathy, Lauren, Sarah, Rachel, Hannah and myself baking for the day and we did well. Thank you everyone. We judged it just right which is really satisfying and the Uncookable Brownie which kept me out of mischief all of Friday evening was fabulous. Phew!

The recipe for the best brownie is here or come to the Cake & Make Fair on 6th October and it'll be there. I'll just start baking earlier in the day next time (an hour and three-quarters in the oven!).

We made oodles of badges and we had Viking longboats, strongman weights and door decorations in the making corner (and a big thank you to Scrapstore for their support). Hannah came with lots of Magic Carpet goodies and to share the magic of Magic Carpet with people who may not be aware of the fabulous work they do. Sarah Hewlett was giving acupressure treatments and next door at Mind & Body Jacqueline and Cathy had organised an array of taster sessions.

It was a short fair from 10am-1pm and at about 11:30am we started to get lovely and busy. Clearly Saturday wasn't an early-start sort of day for the people of Exeter. In the afternoon there was a birthday party. We cleared up in 45 minutes thanks to Lauren, Luke, Neil, Mahalia, Kesia, Dominiue, Rachel, Sarah and Hannah. You were amazing. Thank you everyone for a very special morning.

I spent the afternoon with baking club's Lauren with the sole intention of discussing children's baking events for half-term week. We walked to the quay, took a look at the controversial graffiti, played Scrabble in The Angel and the plans for half-term are still half-baked. Watch this space!

Magic Carpet Hannah's fabulous
Peace Fudge Cake - what a star!








Kat's creation

Ailla on badge #1


Lauren's badge which she gave up on
but Lottie has plans to snaffle
Kat making badges for Baby Jocelyn
Sam and his strongman weights
Alex, Lowen, Candice, Sam, Tara in the making area
Up until now Kat's kept it quiet
that she had this sort of talent
Ailla's fabulous badges


Lowen's Viking longshop that
started life as a sea monster


World Peace Day in Princesshay Square

I was really nervous about World Peace Day celebrations. I collaborated with Exeter Mind & Body next door for the first time and the success of Friday's celebrations relied upon all the local performers turning up and having the guts to perform in Princesshay and all to raise awareness of World Peace Day. And you know what...most of them did and for that I will be forever grateful and remember them all fondly. There were some real highlights. For me they were watching Cathy & Sean dance the Argentine tango along with others in their group. I know Cathy & Sean but I rarely see them dance. I was transfixed. I loved Dudley and his hurdy gurdy. The sound carried so well and I had the best company with me. And Rob from Magic Carpet who stepped up to the stage after a bit of a gap but was fabulous. I loved his REM cover.

It was a great day meeting lots of new people and sharing good times in the name of peace.
Please do take a look at the videos on www.peaceoneday.org

























Thursday 20 September 2012

Baking Club & World Peace Day...

Oh boy...I need to build up some stamina for Wednesdays. I met Bex this morning from Love Local Food. Their food van is on the Cathedral Green on Tuesdays from noon for half an hour. So you can grab some bits on the way to coffee time. Then we had double yoga and I whizzed off to the wonderful Scrapstore to collect the badge-maker for Friday and Saturday. We are making peace badges using offcuts of beautiful silks and satins donated by Sarah Treble (the wedding dress designer who works above the hub).

Coffee time and a busy knitting group started at noon. It was a hive of activity today with all sorts of knitting and flower looming going on. This isn't always the case. Often we just chat! Liz did a great job.

The lovely lady, D, whose grandmother used to live in the building popped by with an amazing old postcard showing our alley (the view from my outside sofa). It was great to see her and I phone Darren who wrote the article on the history of the building and who interviewed D when we first heard her link to the building. Darren was next door at the D&E Institution so popped over. It was so good to have him back in the hub again. It had been too long.













So many people turned up for baking club day and all with baked goodies on the theme 'chocolate'. Liz had made gluten and dairy free goodies so the little ones could try so. Incredibly thoughtful of her as some of the children can't try a lot of the cakes. Sam came who is deaf. I had to speak slowly. That's hard for me! There were a lot of names to learn and so we wrote them down and as I had already explained who everyone was and a little bit about them they all had easy associations. Washing up Geraldine, Knitting Liz, Red-Shoed Dominique, Green-Shoed Kesia and so it went on. Baking club are a very special group of people. Well done Lauren for creating such a gem. Sue won Baker of the Week with her amazing heart shaped chocolates with caramel in the milk chocolate ones and elderberry and some other berry in the dark chocolate one. They were quite incredible. Lauren has given us the theme of 'The Great British Bake Off' for the next session in two weeks.


There was a quick bit of washing up and hoovering up the crumbs that missed our mouths and then we welcomed The Intercom Trust for their first session at the hub.

One more quick turnaround for Tai Chi which is still on now.

It's Peace One Day tomorrow...We are celebrating from 11:30am in Princesshay Square and then having a Peace Fair (lots of tea and cake, making corner, mini treatments, Magic Carpet bric-a-brac...all good fun) from 10am-1pm on Saturday at the hub.