Or newest trustee & Secretary Adele Tinman was cajoled into answering a few questions about her first month (March) as a trustee (and the Mill in general). What’s happened this month? What have you learnt this month? What’s been challenging this month? What are you proud of this month?
Adele:
Friday March 2nd – leafleting local streets with Mill March programme.
Saturday March 3rd – Table Top sale at Mill: lots of tables taken.
Great atmosphere and I purchased a very sturdy wooden chopping board.
Saturday March 10th attended a volunteers meeting at The Mill.
Saturday March 13th – Conversation group starts – hosted by Cllr. Clare Coghill and myself. We have a great mixture of conversationalists from Italy, Spain, Pakistan, Poland and Hungary.
The Conversation Group will be held weekly and will focus on different topics each week. The local Walthamstow Guardian newspaper and free WFC newspaper give us lots to discuss.
After the Conversation group I interviewed two of our “recycled teenagers” for Milling Around, on line newspaper.
Sunday March 18 Mill Breakfast with focus on conversation and pancakes. Met up with Duncan and Irena and we talked about our contributions to Milling Around.
Tuesday March 27th. My first Trustees meeting.
We have some dull, functional, plastic chairs at The Mill. They are grey and red plastic and not very attractive. I think it was Mo who first suggested we did something to liven them up. I spoke to Katja Rosenberg, our local artist, who told me how I could go about changing a chair into a thing of beauty. I had some white paint at home and clear varnish. I decided that topical themes of 2012 and the Coronation of 1953 would be make an interesting chair. Tonight I finished varnishing both sides: a copy of an original Coronation Booklet on the back of the chair and a 2012 Bus on the front. I enjoyed creating the chair and hope people will enjoy sitting on it.
I wrote about the 1953 Coronation for Milling Around and my memories of the 1977 Silver Jubilee Street party. I was then living in Fulham. I remember there was a real sense of community at that time, prior to the horrendous 80’s property boom when the properties in my street became inaffordable for people on average salaries.
Conversation session took place, as usual, on Tuesday from 12 – 1.30. People who drop in for coffee and a chat are from Pakistan, Lithuania, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Hungary and Bulgaria. I have started a smaller conversation group on Wednesday evenings for people who are now working and can’t get to the Mill Tuesday daytime. This Wednesday one of the things we talked about was the New River that originally carried drinking water from Herts all the way to Canonbury. The New River, which started in Hertfordshire, was a man made water channel. It dates from 1606, at a time when it was dangerous to drink Thames water. There are lovely walks along the River and I hope some of the group will try them out.