Family Carol Service

Please invite your friends and family to join us for our annual Family Carol Service!

Friday, December 3rd
6:30 pm at the
Crown Court Church of Scotland
Russell Street, Covent Garden
London WC2B 5EZ

Children are welcome! Refreshments will be served following the service of Lessons & Carols, so please RSVP to info@canadianwomenlondon.org, letting us know how many people will be attending. There is no cost for this event, and you don't even need to be a member of the CWC, but monies raised from the offertory will be shared between the Church and the Maple Leaf Trust.

For a larger version of the invitation, click on the image below.

A Trip to Highgrove

October 4, 2010

Not a tube strike, traffic, nor storm clouds could keep a sold-out group of CWC and Australian Women’s Club members and their friends from boarding the coach at 8:30 am for an eagerly anticipated trip to Highgrove. Our first stop, a mandatory shoppers’ destination, was Tetbury, once an ancient wool and yarn market located within the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire. Today it is renowned for its antique shops, elegant church spire and honey-coloured stones on the market square.

The Highgrove shop, situated at 10 Long Street occupies the major part of a period building thought to have been a brewery. It was just a shopping appetizer for us and a few minutes later, we reached Highgrove!

After a security and passport check, we were welcomed to the Estate by the scent of orchards and brilliant sunshine. Our 2 groups of 25, managed by Lolly Fullerton and Teresa Howe, were led by wonderfully knowledgeable volunteer guides who provided Royal anecdotes in addition to all aspects of the garden. Standing in front of the Orchard Room, a lime washed building of oak and stone designed by Charles Morris, a short history was provided.

Originally styled “High Grove”, it is the country home of The Prince, The Duchess of Cornwall and Princes William and Harry. It is also the location of the Home farm of the Duchy of Cornwall, well known for its organic foods and gardening. Built between 1796 and 1798 but due to 2 fires over the years, the buildings were restored with local Cotswolds Stones and other saved and recycled pieces. The Duchy of Cornwall acquired Highgrove House from the MP Maurice Macmillan, son of former Tory Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1980. It was indeed a blank canvass of 15 acres where The Prince has devoted much energy transforming the neglected grounds into some of the most innovative gardens existing today. Everything at Highgrove embodies the Prince’s environmental philosophy - that it is better to work with Nature than against it.

And you may wonder… What can one see in a garden in the autumn? Late season perennials such as asters, rudbeckias and sedums, add their strength in colour, as do the ripening apples and pears. And more…

Our guide explained the interlinking of various themes and gardens, each with its own character and purpose. In the Thyme Walk, a lime avenue started with a bronze of a Borghese Gladiator and ended with a dovecote, a gift from the Sultan of Oman. Weaving through the magical woodland garden full of hostas – one of the Prince’s favourite plants, we glimpsed “Hollyrood House” a Tree house where the young Princes played as children. At the southern edge, the “Wall of Gifts”, a series of quirky architectural pieces from University students, was intriguing. We smiled at the luscious green Fern Pyramid that the Prince received for his 50th birthday and the mischievous Leprechauns given by a white witch from Ireland. We learned that the Prince loves moss, ferns and hostas, and birds. There are some 67 birdhouses for natural pest control.

Then there is the Azalea Walk, a special place adorned with busts of people The Prince admires – poets, scholars, environmental campaigners and composers. In contrast, to the left is a touching memorial to Tigga, the Prince’s much-loved Jack Russell Terrier, who rolled about in these gardens.

A contemplative arboretum featuring a stunning bronze titled “ The daughters of Odessa: Martyrs of Modernism, is dedicated to oppressed people of the world and situated in the healing garden dedicated to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. How appropriate as The Prince learned so much about gardening from his grandmother. Further there is a sanctuary, a sundial garden and later we come upon the Highgrove Terraces and Cottage Gardens, full of memories and gifts – a catapa tree, a 50th birthday present to the Prince from Sir Elton John, a gateway of Indian doors from Jodhpur and a circular stone seat made by masons from Hereford Cathedral. Last we marvel at the lavish Carpet Garden, resembling a Turkish carpet, which was exhibited at the 2001 Chelsea Flower Show winning a Silver Medal. One is immediately transported to a Moroccan riad here, surrounded by olive trees, fountains, cork oaks, cypresses and vines.

It seems that no CWC outing is quite complete without a Canadian connection. We were fortunate to meet Head Gardener Debs Goodenough who was busy planting bulbs. Some 30,000 bulbs are planted yearly using only natural fertilizers and mulch. Mrs.Goodenough was raised on a farm in Alberta and trained in horticulture in Canada. Later while working at Kew Gardens; she met her future husband and became Head Gardener at Osborne House, and managed other historic landscapes over a twelve-year period. In 2008, she was appointed to her present position. She smiled and told us that The Prince does get his hands dirty and is very involved in all aspects of the garden.

After our 2 hour walk though 2 miles of garden, many of us relaxed over tea and cake in the Orchard Room, while others perused the beautiful gifts in the adjoining shop.

On the trip back to London, Teresa, Lolly and Flora Tan uncorked a wine and cheese party complete with games for “royal prizes”. Yes we had traffic and a long coach ride but there was new respect for the Prince’s pioneering work in organic gardening and a lovely day of delightful memories.

All profits from the shops go to The Prince’s Charities. To find out more, visit the web site at http://www.princescharities.org.

Submitted by CWC Past President Teresa Howe. Teresa wishes to thank Lolly Fullerton for all their her help and especially for flying in from Canada for this event.

Prince of Wales’ Garden Party to Make a Difference

On September 14, twenty two members of the CWC had a unique opportunity to attend the Prince of Wales’ Garden Party to Make a Difference in the gardens of Clarence House in London . The garden party was an exhibition of ideas and activities to encourage people to think about sustainability and reducing their impact on the planet. We wandered at our own pace among the exhibits, stopping and sampling the sights that were of interest to us.

Highlights were:

Learning to grow vegetables in small spaces – many unique container ideas.

• Making a reusable bag from old curtains
• Pledging at least one way to reduce the energy consumption in your home
• Sampling the food at the Farmer’s Market with lovely local and organic vegetables and unusual foods like spelt pasta
• Planning a drought resistant garden – ideas I will certainly use in my garden in Calgary
• Browsing the Red Cross’s pop up charity shop
• Watching singing and dancing on the people-powered dance floor
• Resting in the chairs made from recycled supermarket trolleys
• Learning how to recycle old clothing to make new and unusual outfits
• Marveling at the 3 meter green piggybank (being green saves you money) and the sheep climbing the ladder (loft insulation) and the bicycle-powered laptop

There were food cooking demonstrations, live music and comedy presentations, food tasting and a talk by Sir David Attenborough. Although we did not run into any of the Royal Family, it was a fun and informative morning. We all left the Garden Party full of new ideas to be more “green” and the importance of making greener choices in our everyday lives.

Lynda Opocensky

New Season of Great Events!

Time certainly does fly and I hope everyone is as excited as I am with the lineup of great events starting very soon. By now, all current members should have received their printed copy of the new CWC bulletin - and I hope to see many of you very soon!

With the new season of events about to kick off, I recently sent off an email to the 100 women who left their names with us on Canada Day at Trafalgar Square (see the previous post!). I wanted to reproduce it here in case your name isn't on our email list or perhaps you've found this blog, but aren't yet a member.

Here's the message...

I hope you have all had a wonderful summer!

I also hope that you found a moment to read the email sent to you just after Canada Day, introducing you to the Canadian Women's Club, our history and our website.

We're thrilled that some of you have already signed up as new members, but if you haven't yet had a chance to find out more about the club, now is the perfect time.

Our website calendar page now lists more than 40 events and activities for our September - January season and there truly is something for everyone! For garden lovers, the first email sent to you highlighted one of the most exclusive events on offer: a private group tour of the gardens at Highgrove. For culture vultures, we've arranged a day trip to Oxford to visit the newly renovated Ashmolean Museum, a tour of Leighton House, the Museum of London's new galleries and visits to Mansion House and Marlborough House. For cooks and gourmands, there are two cooking classes you can attend as well as two 'Let's Do Lunch' events. For book lovers, you can choose from afternoon or evening book groups - or attend both! And as usual, there are monthly bridge games held at the Canadian High Commission at Grosvenor Square, a few 'IT with Tea' sessions - not forgetting our hugely popular Wednesday morning walks through Regent's Park.

For brand new members, the best way to find out more about the CWC is to attend one of our monthly Hospitality Coffee Mornings. As well as listening to an interesting and entertaining guest speaker, you'll have a chance to mingle with other members over coffee or tea and light snacks.

Our first Hospitality Coffee Morning is on Monday September 20th, when our guest speaker will be the Lady Mayoress of London. In October, we're excited to have forensic expert Christine King as our guest speaker, and in November our speaker is author Lady Alexandra Richardson. Our December morning will have a special Christmas theme, and in January, we'll meet Gracie Finley Stickings, who will treat us to anecdotes about her career and time playing Anne of Green Gables at the Charlottetown Festival.

Our coffee mornings are absolutely FREE to all members, but if you would like to attend as a guest you are more than welcome. The charge for guests is just £5. If you do decide to join on the day, your £5 will be refunded!

I hope that gives you a taster of some of the wonderful events to come - and I do hope you'll join us soon. I'm sure many of you already have busy and active lives, but the great thing about the CWC is that tours and events are organised for you - you just need to turn up on the day! Many of our members tell us that they simply enjoy visiting new places more when they are with others. And sometimes it's nice to just feel 'at home' with other Canadians while exploring London and all it has to offer. You might be surprised to discover that we have a few members of other nationalities who simply appreciate what the CWC has to offer and who like doing things with Canadians!

Please do drop us an email if you have any questions at all - you can email us at info@canadianwomenlondon.org. And if you're ready to join, you'll find our application form on our website along with a full list of Calendar events! If you're still not sure, have a look at some past events on our blog - or get in touch and tell us you would like to try an event as a guest.

Best wishes,

Patty Bell, President

Canada Day 2010 Celebrations in London

Once again, the Canadian Women's Club said hello to hundreds of people who dropped by our stand at Trafalgar Square on Canada Day.

A huge thank you to Chad Molleken of Rainmaker and of course to the various sponsors who created interest in the day with a fabulous website, and who provided us with a wonderfully positioned stand looking out over Trafalgar Square with Big Ben in the distance. As well as gathering up many, many names of women who would like to receive further information about the club and the Maple Leaf Trust, we answered questions about Canada and Canada Day, pointed people in the right direction to find Tim Horton's coffee, Canadian flag tattoos and of course joined in with the Canadian Tenors to sing our national anthem!

If you're finding this blog after having visited us yesterday, thanks for dropping by to say hello or for taking one of our postcards. We have a wonderful club, a superb team of volunteers who organise fabulous events, a great charity to support, and you are very warmly welcomed to join us. Our events kick off again in September - please do get in touch to find out more!

2010 Annual General Meeting

The Canadian Women's Club celebrated a year of more than 100 events for the 2009-2010 season at our AGM held yesterday! The AGM is when we review the events of the past year, take a close look at our financial situation, hear reports about our charitable work, make any changes needed to our rules and constitution, thank activity leaders and members of the executive team who are moving on to new pastures and welcome the new executive team who will lead the club going forward.

CWC 2009-2010 Executive, from left:

Kate Brundage (Vice-President for 2010-2011),

Teresa Howe (Outgoing President),

Patty Bell (President for 2010-2011),

Renee-Marie Vanasse (Outoing Treasurer),

Barbara Richards (Outoing Vice-President)

In addition to all the above, we were very pleased this year to have a presentation from Mark Ball about LIFT 2010, a London-wide International Festival of Theatre that will be taking place from 23 June to 18 July. Mark was introduced by Donna Thomson, CWC Honorary President, and both spoke about their excitement about the range of experiences, performers and adventures that LIFT will be offering this year - with ground-breaking works from Canada, Germany, Tunisia and elsewhere. Mark talked to us about just a few LIFT events that should surprise and enthrall us. You can read more about LIFT 2010 by clicking here!

Mark Ball of LIFT with Teresa Howe

There were many thank you's to various activity leaders for creating such a fantastic programme of events - but the main thank you went to our outgoing President, Teresa Howe who for the past year worked tirelessly on behalf of the club. She put her heart and soul into keeping the club fresh and exciting. We all felt enriched by the fantastic range of events she coordinated and new members were impressed by her warm welcome.

Isabelle Mignault and Teresa Howe

Heartfelt thanks also went to Margaret Wickware, our most recent Past President, who is moving on to new things after acting as Chair of the Maple Leaf Trust for three years. Margaret wasn't able to be with us at the AGM but her report was very graciously given by Fawn White.

Fawn White

And so now we congratulate and welcome Patty Bell as our new President, and take a break for the summer until we recommence activities in September. Enjoy a few pictures from the AGM and see you all in September! And one last event to mention....please come out and say hello to us at our stand on Canada Day, Thursday 1 July - Trafalgar Square...from 10:30am until 6:30pm!

Teresa Howe, receiving a gift from the CWC,

arranged by Anne Van Gieson

Jenny Tripp Black (Chair, Veterans' Support Committee),

Kate Brundage (Vice-President 2010-2011)

Maple Leaf Trust Dinner and Auction 2010

Click image to view larger format.
Photography by David Bradfield

On 13 May, proud members of the Canadian community in the UK and their guests gathered at the High Commissioner’s Official Residence to salute Canadian musicians living or working in the UK and, most importantly, to support other Canadians living in need in this country - the mission of the Maple Leaf Trust.

For this special occasion, the formal living room was transformed into an elegant dining room with seven tables (one more than last year) each beautifully decorated with globes of red and white flowers and accented with flags of Canada and Great Britain. At each place was an Honour Roll - a list of Canadian musicians living or performing in the United Kingdom who had so generously contributed to this wonderful evening by donating their music (CDs and/or tickets to various concerts) in support of the Maple Leaf Trust. We thank you all!

During cocktails, our guests socialized in the library where our super organized, Silent Auction Co-ordinator, Natalie Kirsh had very attractively set out our first ever silent auction. The twenty-two prizes included something for everyone: travel opportunities, fashion items and tickets to at least seven different musical events. Bidding was fierce for several items: the portrait sitting donated by CWC member Phyllis Dupuy and a hockey jersey signed by Russian hockey legend Vladislav Tretiak (Canadian hockey enthusiasts readily recognize the name even if that famous ’72 Russia-Canada series took place before they were born)! A special thank you to Phyllis and Mary Ellen Jenkinson for donating these items and to Natalie for giving of her time and talents so generously.

Following a delightful performance by cellist, Christian Elliott, a 2008 Canadian Centennial Scholarship winner (funded by the Maple Leaf Trust), guests were treated to the melodic voices of the 1607 Ensemble. During their brief presentation, they sang two pieces by Clement Ishmael, a Canadian composer of great acclaim, most notably for his compositions performed on Broadway and in West End. We were delighted to have Clement as our special guest that evening. A very special note of thanks to MLT Trustee and Event Vice Chair, Fawn White who organized the musical portion of the evening and to Karen and John Murphy of Ernest and Young for underwriting this very special facet of the evening.

After a lovely dinner with excellent Ontario wines so kindly donated by Clare Barnett of the Ontario International Marketing Centre, our High Commissioner donned his Habs jersey to begin the centrepiece of the evening: the live auction. This year, the variety of items was exceptional including a highly prized photo by Canadian musician and award winning photographer, Bryan Adams, highly coveted tickets to the upcoming premiere of Sex and City 2, a lovely scarf by Canadian designer (and another Canadian Centennial Scholarship Fund scholarship winner), Erdem, tickets to Diana Krall to mention but a few. Prizes were arranged by Canadian community members including CWC members Fawn White, Kate Brundage, Donna Thomson and Lynne Flanagan Thank you ladies!

Besides our very generous bidders with us that evening, I want to thank the team who worked on the online auction. Canadian Affair’s Kathryn Munro and Anette Rayner together with CWC member, Barbara Richards organized our second online auction that concluded the previous evening. Besides travel, online prizes included VIP tickets to the recent Michael Buble and Metric concerts. (Both winners have reported truly amazing evenings!) Barbara not only liaised with Canadian Affair but also designed and produced all of communication materials for this event. My sincerest thanks to Barbara for all her work.

In closing, I would like to mention that over the past several months, I have received dozens of notes of thanks sent to me by veterans and I have read heartfelt thank you notes from our Scholarship winners. A note with a cheque from a veteran now living on a limited fixed income included a £10 cheque for his fellow veterans. I can’t put into words how inspiring these shaky handwritten notes have been to me.

With the exceedingly generous support of our High Commissioner, our fundraising dinner was a huge success - raising record proceeds of in excess of £20,000. The Canadian community stepped forward that evening in a BIG way and I am most grateful. If other CWC members would like to add their support, they are welcome to contact me. As I wrap things up and move on from the CWC and the MLT, I welcome your donations that will be included in disbursements to our two charitable causes on June 15th.

With every good wish,

Margaret Wickware

Chair, Maple Leaf Trust