Don't you wish you looked this glam when you were baking?!!!

Nicole making iced lemon cakes

The result :)

Some of us were born with brains!!!

...but I clearly wasn't. It took me 50 minutes to get to work (rather than the usual 15) as I took a short cut and trusted a satnav. 

"Why didn't you ring me?" asked Jan. 

"I don't know!" was the answer. The cafe support system stretches way beyond healthcare and into dial-a-direction. That's why I love our team. As well as this we had a request for a last minute chocolate cake for a 'forgotten' birthday and pencil, paper and a recipe for a much admired soup; organising menopause cakes (not a mouthwatering title but it has been requested for a course) with ingredients that challenge even our extensive larder and support groups that have outgrown the cafe and need a new venue...we never get bored. 

And thank you to Matt who gave up a day and drove a very long way to help us with all sorts of clever things (and who got from Oxford to Cullompton in roughly the same time as it took me to get from Exeter to Cully - humph!)

Look what Jan and co have been knitting...

Go on...guess where they stuff the Creme Egg?!

Danny - the only man at Knit and Natter

Jan's egg cosy

The Devon Life Food & Drink Awards

I was lucky enough to be invited to the Devon Life Food & Drink Awards. Not because we were up for an award (!) but because I have a good friend who was. It was a fantastic celebration of all that is foody in Devon. Someone from outside the county stood up to give his speech and asked if we knew how the rest of the country viewed us. We laughed. But he genuinely meant that we are lucky to be in this part of the world with a wealth of locally grown/produced/foraged food that is fabulous. We love and support our local growers and producers and they support us :) Luscombe Organic Drinks, Maddocks Farm Organics, Pipers Farm and Hawkridge Dairy

Cafe Life

It has been a really busy week in the cafe. We have so many exciting things going on it is hard to let everybody know about everything without sounding like a stuck record. Ruth (our health facilitator) has just gone into town armed with a handful of bright orange Health Question Time posters. We have about 10 spaces left if anyone is still interested.

The community gardening group have been busy as usual. I always feel relieved when they sit down for a cup of coffee at the end as they do so much for us and I am hugely grateful for all their hard work. They are now planning to build a compost heap for the garden. They have it all in hand.

Helen Kearney who has given over some of her valuable time to get involved is also planning a series of courses on various aspects of gardening. It is fabulous that people come on board and work so hard in the name of the project and the community we are a part of and expect nothing in return. They are just all round good people.

I saw the video that was filmed here the week before last and shown at the launch of the New College of Medicine at the House of Commons. It was excellent. I can't download it as I don't have permission from the college but everyone was very impressed and it created a new buzz around what we are doing here. Hopefully it will end up in the public domain soon.

Ruth and I are beavering away on the new structure for the Health Facilitator program. We are inviting key community figures to come and get involved in what we are doing and be community links for us and us for them. I will keep you posted as to how it is progressing but we seemed to have designed a sustainable model which we have interest in from other areas of the country - fingers crossed we can make it work :)

The cafe kitchen have been busy as always. It is definitely soup weather Monday's cream of mushroom was fabulous. French onion today with a splash of something alcoholic to warm those cockles!

Friday...

What a productive morning. Jan and I have planned our 'Late Night Shopping Event' on Thursday 25th November. We planted the seed at 9am this morning and by midday it's off and running. I love that! We have invited Helen Brain who makes the fabulous garlands, Ruth Hawes who creates sugarcraft models for cakes and Jan will get our knitters busy. You see we are lucky, we have a special community around us and with a few emails and phone calls we have ourselves and team and an event. We also have some newly arrived items for our shop but we will hold them back until the 25th. We will spoil you with nibbles and goodies on the night and basically it is an excuse for a bit of a party :)

I have also been in touch with a reporter who would like some cafe stories and photos for an article she is doing on how the cafe has had a positive impact on people's health and I have spoken to the good old Express and Echo about coming to our Health Question Time on Monday 8th November. They are up for that.

We have also put the finishing touches to herb of the month to be relaunched soon. Jan has booked people on to our sessions and workshops, so those are filling up nicely, as well as the day to day baking and making.

All in all it's a good day. Spending time with old friends, special friends and poorly friends gives you a bit of a nudge to remember how lucky you are and at the cafe we have the ability to pull things out of thin air. We do things because we believe in them, because we think they are fun, because people ask us to, because we think they will help. But we do things and there is nothing more satisfying that getting a job done and doing it well.

The Big Smoke

We sat in carriage 'A' (the quiet carriage), found three seats together next to a woman who was clearly still reveling in the fact that someone in the carriage had just been moved on for being too noisy. Making sound is the biggest sin you can commit in carriage A.
Now Ruth (our health facilitator) and I are not known for our quiet voices and lack of conversation. This was going to be a torturous journey. The woman opposite glared at Simon and myself as we whispered our plans for the day. I took my new vows of silence so seriously that when Ruth got on at Tiverton, I texted her to explain my being mute. So it is off to the capital we go...

At the cafe, today is knit and natter group and I know they will be oooohing and ahhhing over Jan's fabulous knitted mince pies and Christmas puddings. Nicole has taken her new role as corner monitor very seriously and has ensured ever corner of the cafe is ordered and spick and span. Klaas has a good number for his Feldenkrais course - so all is good in cafeland.

Meanwhile Simon (our boss), Ruth and myself are off to the Bromley by Bow Centre to continue our work on the project: Integrated Self Care in Family Medicine. The Bromley by Bow Centre is an amazing place (google it) and it is one of our partners in the project. We will meet with Alex Laird (www.livingmedicine.org) to discuss future plans. Alex is running a course at the cafe on 17th November so book a space if you are interested. She is fantastic so the session will be fantastic. We will also meet with their health facilitators to swap good practice and see how the project is developing in a different area. Now the end of my forefinger is numb from typing this on my phone's keyboard so I will leave it there for now and edit all the mistakes when I reunite with my laptop :)

Oh Boy!

Right here goes on blog number 3!