Out & About Chiswick, April-May 2021

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APRIL - MAY 2021

EASING OUT OF

Isleworth ART GROUP

Lockdown

Jazz

AT GEORGE IV Easing out of lockdown • Chiswick Flower Market • Isleworth Art Group Jazz at George IV • Chiswick ‘pocket’ gardens Treasure Trail • Hen Corner The Royal Oak • Watermans

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2021

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APRIL - MAY 2021

Contents 22

6-8 INSIDE Regulars

Features

4

Life getting back to normal?

6-8

Letter from the Editor

20 Coffee Break Crossword

12-13

9 Discover Chiswick’s pocket

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Watermans Entertainment for all

16

Osterley gardening notes What to do in the garden in May

20-21 Jazz at George IV

Shops, pubs and restaurants reopen

What’s on in May

gardens And win some garden vouchers

12-13 Chiswick Flower Market

returns Along with two new markets

22-23 Isleworth Art Group Flourishing online

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Hen Corner Sara Ward

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All information in this edition was correct at time of publication but may be subject to change.

The Royal Oak Plans for re-opening

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ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Gerry Devine geraldineholden@icloud.com Tel: 07710 574479

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EDITOR Bridget Osborne bridget@thechiswickcalendar.co.uk

Published by: out&about Magazines.

While we endeavour to make sure that all published information is accurate, the publishers cannot be held responsible for mistakes or omissions or any loss resulting from non-publication of an advertisement. While all reasonable care is made to ensure accuracy of information, the publisher accepts no responsibility for the views or claims made by any of the contributors, advertising or editorial content included. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. The views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of ‘out&about’ or the editor. Terms and conditions apply. Please recycle your magazine.

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EDITOR'S LETTER

Welcome I’m writing this over the Easter weekend. It’s sunny and the prospects for summer are looking good, on course for everything reopening according to the plan laid out by the Prime Minister in January.

Headliners comedy club in Chiswick is celebrating with a Mayfest – two weekends of stand-up comedy on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, with some great names. I’ve been talking to Simon, who runs it, and some of the other businesses in Chiswick about the year they’ve had and the year ahead they’re hoping for. Pages 6 – 8 Chiswick is full of flowers, not just in private gardens and public parks but on odd little scraps of land, tended by volunteers with Abundance London. They’ve created a treasure trail, offering garden vouchers to those who follow the map and visit all their little ‘pocket’ gardens. Page 9 Watermans in Brentford is planning to reopen in May and meanwhile they’re still going strong with lots of interesting content and events online.

Page 11 May is the month when Chiswick Flower Market returns and the Old Market Place will also be hosting two new monthly markets – an antiques market and a Cheese market which will bring a new flavour to High Rd shopping. Pages 12 – 13

It’s also the time when we are paying most attention to our gardens as we take a critical look round to see where the gaps are and put in new plants. The professionals at Osterley Park gardens offer some tips. Page 16 Jazz at George IV returns with a great line-up of bands on Thursday nights. The programme is now weekly rather than just monthly and over the summer will range from New Orleans Jazz to Latin, Blues, Soul and Reggae influenced Jazz to Gypsy Jazz. Pages 20 – 21 We’ve got used to doing so much online and Zoom sessions have been a lifesaver over the past year for keeping us in touch. David Laskey describes how art classes online have kept him and his fellow members of the Isleworth Art Group going. They’re looking for new members. Pages 22 – 23 Sara Ward at Hen Corner in Brentford launched her online bread making courses at the beginning of the first lockdown and hasn’t looked back. She now has people taking part from Dundee and Chicago as well as continental Europe. She’s looking forward to welcoming people back to her kitchen and her garden as well as online. Page 26 Enjoy re-entry to life as we knew it and keep well and safe.

Bridget

Editor: Bridget Osborne

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Staveley Road Cherry Trees

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GETTING BACK TO NORMAL

LIFE GETTING BACK TO

normal

Shops, pubs and restaurants opening up again, we hope!

As I write this we don’t know whether we will be able to stick to the Prime Minister’s roadmap to ease the country out of lockdown, but it’s all looking pretty positive.

All being well, all the shops will be allowed to be open again, as of Monday 12 April, along with the hairdressers and beauty parlours, gyms and spas.

MAYFEST Simon Randall, who runs the Headliners Comedy Club in Chiswick, says performers can’t wait to be on stage again. He’s organised a Mayfest programme over the last two weekends of May – eight standup comedians each night on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of 21-23rd and 28th-30th May. Many of the comedians have been performing at the club for years – Jeff Innocent, Paul Tonkinson, John Moloney, Arthur Smith. Top class performers who you’d pay considerably more to see in the West End.

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Pubs and restaurants will be allowed to serve food and drink outside.

From Monday 17 May they will be able to serve food indoors and pubs will be proper pubs again.

Museums, theatres, cinemas and children’s play areas will be open.

Headliners celebrates its 20th anniversary this year and is lucky to have made it this far. Simon earned not a penny last year, as he was one of those, as a freelance sole trader who works from home, who didn’t qualify for any of the financial assistance available.

People don’t usually book stand-up comedy much in advance, he says, but the response when he sent out a mailshot in March was absolutely incredible: “People are desperate to go out and to get something booked up so that they have something to look forward to”.

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GETTING BACK TO NORMAL 15 MINUTE ECONOMY Things are looking up for shops and restaurants too.

High streets have been dying over the last decade, with empty premises appearing like gaps in a seven year old’s teeth. It’s depressing to walk past ugly, deserted shops and bad for the businesses on either side. In a prosperous High street the shops help each other. You think ‘I’ll just nip in for a loaf of bread, and while I’m at it I’ll pick up some batteries’. Then you notice a dress in a shop window, or a book or something else you don’t strictly need.

Hit by high rents and business rates and the impact of the internet, High streets have suffered, but trading conditions have changed in the past year.

Rents have been much more competitive, business rates have been waived and people have reconnected with their local shops.

Partly because people have been working at home, travelling far less and going out for walks, the concept of the 15 minute economy has gained

ground - the idea that you should be able to get everything you need within a 15 minute walk of where you live. But partly also because there has been a resurgence in the idea of the importance of community and a realisation that the local economy won’t survive unless we buy things locally.

Hush Hush is a ‘pop-up’ which took premises on Chiswick High Rd in August 2020 selling freshly prepared salads, filo pastries and coffee. They’ve remained open since and manager Alain says they are now looking for a long-term lease.

Origin 40 opened the doors of its Chiswick shop in July 2020, selling products which contain cannabis extract. They too opened on a short-term lease and are planning to stay. Managing Director Marcus Fox says when they opened their first shop in central London their customers were mainly people with long-term medical conditions looking for pain relief.

During the pandemic that switched to customers mainly wanting help with their stress and anxiety and inability to sleep.

Origin 40

Hush Hush

Chiswick High Rd, photograph Anna Kunst f @outandaboutmagazines

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GETTING BACK TO NORMAL “YEAR OF HELL” This past year has been really tough on retailers and those offering hospitality and other services.

Dino Kastrati, who opened his family run Italian restaurant in Devonshire Rd in Chiswick in 2019, describes 2020 as “the year from hell”. They have only been able to be open fully for two months and despite business grants, the holiday in business rates and furlough support payments, he says they have really struggled to survive.

Even businesses like Snappy Snaps and Foster Books which have been in Chiswick High Rd for decades have found it exceedingly tough. John Fitzgerald, manager of Snappy Snaps says they’ve

CONFIDENCE FOR THE FUTURE Andy Sands, who runs Chiswick Cameras, has also been operating a click and collect service and selling equipment online. He says his takings are down 50 – 60% on the previous year. But he hopes that now, people who are still in work will have money in their pockets which they haven’t been able to spend on holidays or meals out, and they will spend it on their hobbies.

been operating a click and collect service during lockdown as much as anything to provide a service to loyal customers and remind people that they’re there. They have not made a profit.

During the first lockdown Stephen Foster said: “We did nothing at all at first, but when things settled down we started getting a few orders. It has been a logistical nightmare because Royal Mail has been an absolute mess”. He too has rearranged his shop for social distancing and switched to doing most of his business online. But it’s not a patch on the trade he normally does from people coming into the shop and browsing and finding something they want spontaneously.

There’s an air of confidence about the retail and hospitality market, despite everything. Jeremy Day, Commercial Director of property agents Whitman & Co, says prospects are good, with hardly any gaps currently in Chiswick High Rd. The new, incoming businesses he is currently dealing with are all taking long term lets, he says, which bodes well for the future.

Foster Books

Casa Dino

Casa Dino

Snappy Snaps

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Foll

Discover

CHISWICK’S POCKET GARDENS Credit: Barbara Chandler

CHISWICK’S POCKET GARDENS Follow the Treasure Trail to find them and win some gardening vouchers to spend on your own garden Chiswick is full of flowers, not just in private gardens and public parks but on odd little scraps of land such as beside the railway line, at the side of the road in the curve of the bridge on Sutton Court Rd, or outside the Town Hall.

If you’ve noticed them at all, you may just have assumed they’re cared for by the council, but actually they are the product of careful tending by environmental not-for-profit Abundance London and their volunteers.

Abundance London has been creating little gardens around Chiswick for the past decade.

Small corners that fell through the cracks which had become areas for fly-tipping and rubbish collection have now become small ‘pocket’ parks.

As an activity for children (or anyone else for that matter) they’ve put together a map of twelve sites they look after to make children aware that the urban environment is not just ‘there’, it needs to be cared for.

Follow the Treasure Trail around Chiswick, stamp the orienteering punch you will find in each garden in the correct square on the map. Each month Abundance gardeners will draw winners f @outandaboutmagazines

from the entries, who will receive gardening vouchers to spend at your local garden stores.

How to get a map: Either download and print out from Abundancelondon.com. Or pick up a map from: Chateau (213 Chiswick High Road W4 2DW), Postmark Cafe (2 Bedford Corner, South Parade, W4 1LD) or Sabel Pharmacy (446 Chiswick High Road W4 5TT).

Urban Planters, a wonderful local company that design, source, install and maintain indoor and outdoor plants, has generously sponsored this competition, so Abundance can offer voucher prizes to those completing their Treasure Trails.

Rules: One entry per person.

Please leave the punches in position. If a punch is missing, please email them on info@abundancelondon.

Turnham Green Terrace piazza

To send in your completed Treasure Trails: Either scan and email (make sure the punch holes show, you might need to add a black dot on each hole), along with a photo of yourself at one of the gardens. Or drop completed maps to one of the pickup points. Make sure to include your contact details.

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Treasure trail available from the beginning of April 2021

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-all-thatmmission

COFFEE BREAK

CoffeeBREAK QUIZ

1. Which brothers wrote the song Summertime?

2. What is traditionally used as the filling of a summer pudding?

3. Esther Summerson is the heroine of which novel by Charles Dickens?

4. Which European country is the most popular holiday destination for Brits?

5. Which Cornish resort describes itself as ‘The Surfing Capital of Britain’?

6. In which resort did Billy Butlin open his first holiday camp in 1936?

7. Which British seaside attraction is 158 metres tall?

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1. Without any flaws 5. Flesh 8. Examines and corrects 9. Solicit votes 10. Notice 12. Peril 15. Group of 12 18. Separated 20. Overexposure to the sun 23. Doctors

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25. Enduring 26. Places to sleep 27. Esteem

DOWN 1. Tranquil 2. Restraint 3. Livid 4. Trunk of the human body 5. Shifts 6. Theoretical 7. Doorkeeper

11. High-pitched tone 13. Midday 14. Laugh loudly 16. Chats 17. Dam extending across the Nile 19. Barren place 21. Single things 22. Republic in NW Africa 24. Dominion

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8. Which Oscar-winning actor starred in the film The Beach, based on Alex Garland’s book of the same name?

9. Which of Shakespeare’s sonnets opens: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”?

10. According to folklore, if it rains on St Swithin’s wet weather will last for how many days?

SEE PAGE 19 FOR THE ANSWERS! @outaboutmag

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W

WATERMANS

Watermans Digital success throughout lockdown It’s been a looooong year for all of us. In the arts sector, perhaps longer still with many organisations closed for over 12 months Arts and culture enrich lives, bring people together and help us make sense of the world, so it’s been especially difficult for many of us not to have that outlet during the pandemic. Although Watermans was able to open for a few short months last year, we’ve also been exploring and piloting new digital ways to engage with our audiences: those that don’t feel comfortable coming to a venue yet; those that are shielding, those that find it hard to get out of the house even in ‘normal times’ and also the many who enjoy the new possibilities that digital offers.

Now running for a year, our No Ticket Required film club is, I think, here to stay. Every fortnight, film lovers come together on Zoom to discuss an eclectic range of films, hosted by our resident cinephile Jon Davies, often joined by a special guest. We’ve had Amy and Senna director Asif Kapadia, film experts from the BFI and Institut Francais, and actor Sudha Bhuchar. Doing it by Zoom makes it easier to attend, easier to get high-profile guest speakers from further afield, and to be flexible in responding to world

Dinosaurs and All That Rubbih

events with relevant films. Some have described it as ‘a lifeline’ during lockdown, so we know it’s relieving loneliness and isolation too. It’s a format we’re really excited about and, judging by the numbers coming along, so is our audience!

We’ve also commissioned two new online children’s theatre shows: Myths and Adventures from Ancient Greece (which has already been watched over 12,000 times on YouTube!) and, launching on 7 April, Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish, an adaptation of Michael Foreman’s much-loved 1972 book by the brilliant company Roustabout.

Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish is a great fun adventure taking in space travel and dinosaurs (what’s not to like!), while also delivering a relevant and empowering environmental message. We’re delighted it will be seen by far

more children than it ever would in a theatre, and be accessible for all children regardless of their income, so long as they can get onto YouTube!

As well as theatre, workshops have worked brilliantly in the digital space, and for families with disabled children they can be a godsend. We’ve run holiday and after-school creative workshops for them throughout the pandemic. Many parents have commented how, at the best of times, it’s difficult to get out of the house, so online workshops really help them to have fun with their kids without some of the stress of getting to a venue. It’s a great illustration of the positive impact digital arts can have in real lives.

Watch the premiere of Dinosaurs and All that Rubbish on YouTube at 6pm on Wednesday 7 April, for free.

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MARKETS Chiswick Flower Market, Anna Kunst

Chiswick Flower Market, Anna Kunst

Chiswick Flower Market, Anna Kunst

THE CHISWICK FLOWER MARKET

is back!

May is the month for markets Chiswick Flower Market is back on Sunday 2nd May. The Old Market Place outside George IV on Chiswick High Rd and adjacent Devonshire Rd will be full of stalls, with lots of beautiful bedding plants, cut flowers, ready-made bouquets, bulbs, house plants and even dried flowers.

The organisers have been champing at the bit to reopen.

Now is the time when we all want to get out and enjoy the garden and get planting. The market traders, some of whom grow their plants in their own nurseries,

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can’t wait to show off their carefully tended plants.

Multi award winning gold medalists at the Chelsea Flower Show, Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants, will be back, along with The Kew Plantsman, (specialising in plants which are rare or unusual), Pepperpot nursery and London House Plants. Jacques Amand will have bulbs for spring planting; LifeLike Flowers offer beautiful arrangements of silk flowers and Herboo will be inspiring a new generation of gardeners with their children’s gardening kits. f @outandaboutmagazines

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The market, which opened last September – the first new flower market to open in London in 150 years - will be welcoming some new traders in May, including: local business Nicola the Gardener, Golborne Road market trader In the Garden, and Columbia Road trader Evergreen.

CHISWICK FLOWER MARKET 9.30am - 3.00pm, Sunday 2nd May and every 1st Sunday of the month thereafter.

Old Market Place, Chiswick High Rd, London W4 2DR www.outaboutmagazine.co.uk

MARKETS CHISWICK CHEESE MARKET

for locals and visitors across London and beyond.

Covid regulations allowing, the new Chiswick Cheese Market will also be opening in May.

‘Inspired by Jamie Oliver’s ‘Save British Cheese’ campaign in 2020 we want to create a platform for cheese producers and enthusiasts to come together in the original home of cheese. The market will represent all the very best cheeses from Britain and beyond and bring the wonder of well-crafted cheese to Chiswick’.

According to local historian, the late Gillian Clegg, Chiswick was originally known as Cheesewick.

Chiswick was first recorded c.1000 as the Old English Ceswican meaning ‘Cheese Farm’; the riverside area of Duke’s Meadows is thought to have supported an annual cheese fair up until the 18th century.

Organisers Cookbook Kitchen are looking to reconnect Chiswick with its roots, bring cheese back home to Chiswick and make Chiswick a destination

CHISWICK CHEESE MARKET 10.00am - 3.00pm, Sunday 16th May and every 3rd Sunday of the month thereafter Old Market Place, Chiswick High Rd, London W4 2DR

DUCK POND MARKET, GUNNERSBURY PARK AND CHISWICK HOUSE Duck Pond Markets are now running artisan markets at Gunnersbury Park and Chiswick House.

During lockdown they were selling items considered as ‘essential’ only, but from 17th April they will be back to their full complement of stalls selling jewellery, cushions, cards, pottery and art as well as food and ‘eco homeware.’

Duck Pond Market

Organiser Caron Pook now has six Duck Ponds markets, at Ruislip, Highgate, Richmond and Chalfont St Giles as well as Gunnersbury and Chiswick House.

DUCK POND MARKET 10.00am – 4.00pm, Saturday 3rd and 17th April, 1st, 15th & 29th May and every 1st, 3rd and 5th Saturday thereafter Chiswick House & Gardens, Burlington Lane, London W4 2RP

DUCK POND MARKET 10.00am – 4.00pm, Saturday 10th and 24th April, 8th & 22nd May and every 2nd and 4th Saturday thereafter.

Gunnersbury Park Museum, Popes Lane, London W5 4NH

Duck Pond Market

Duck Pond Market

FOOD MARKET CHISWICK The Food Market Chiswick has been open most of the time throughout the past year. It continues with a mix of stalls selling a range of fresh food – both street food, pies and pastries ready to eat and fresh vegetables, cheese, bread, fish and meat - every Sunday morning.

FOOD MARKET CHISWICK 10.00am – 2.00pm every Sunday morning.

Pavilion, Market Drive, Chiswick W4 2RX

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W I L L I A M & J O H N L O D G E ( 6 t h G E N E R AT I O N ) S H A R E T H E S E C R E T S O F S U C C E S S I N A F A M I LY B U S I N E S S Q. Lodge Brothers is the longest serving family-owned funeral business in the local area, what do you think is the secret to success when working with family?

A. When a family business has spanned 240 years and has been developed over seven generations, the loyalty to each other is ingrained. The exchange of knowledge, mentoring and coaching from one generation to the next allows the progression of modernisation and new ideas in carrying the company forward. Over the years our reputation has been built on trust, recommendation and the quality of service we provide. Naturally, each family member strives to maintain that reputation for themselves and for each other.

It is a real team effort.

Q. What is the biggest change you’ve observed in the last few decades?

A. Many years ago, we, like our forefathers, called on our carpentry skills to build and French polish the coffins for each funeral. This was part of the service we provided.

Automated machinery for the production of coffins was not introduced until the1960s by specialist suppliers.

Although to this day our skilled staff still personally add the bespoke interior lining, handles and name plate for each coffin in our workshop.

Over the generations, we have also observed a change in trends. There has been a gradual shift in philosophy away from the traditional religious funeral service, with sombre mourners dressed in black - now we see more secular services led by civil celebrants, with families opting to ‘commemorate and celebrate’ the life of a loved one, remembering their character and hobbies, and sometimes, introducing brighter colours to the clothes the mourners wear or request a coloured tie worn by our funeral bearers (e.g football related colours of blue or red). And, of course, popular music selections are now preferable to the traditional singing of hymns. Nowadays, with the rise in natural burials and ‘greener’ funeral options, the freedom of choice for our clients is far wider than ever before and it has been very interesting to see this develop.

Robert Lodge, William Lodge, Chris Lodge, John Lodge

Q. Do you have a particular lasting memory from your years of service that has made you proud to be a Lodge Brother?

A. We were honoured to be asked to care for the repatriation of the British servicemen who had died in combat during the Falklands War. Then, a year after the war ended, along with 11 members of staff, we spent three months in the Falkland Islands, locating and burying the deceased Argentinian soldiers who had died in battle, the interments either taking place at Port Stanley Cemetery, or repatriation arranged back to Argentina.

Q. The past year has been a challenge for everyone, particularly the funeral profession. What is your biggest hope for 2021?

A. It has been a difficult year to observe, with so many bereaved families not able to invite as many family and friends to attend a funeral due to the restrictions of the number of mourners allowed, and sometimes not being able to have the funeral service in their usual place of worship. We look forward in hope that the new vaccination programmes will be successful and that infection rates will continue to drop so that we can all get back to some sort of normality, allowing our families to say goodbye the way they want to.

Our new branch in Isleworth is at 1-2 The Pavement, South Street TW7 7AJ Call 020 8194 9510 or visit www.lodgebrothers.co.uk

F U N E R A L D I R E C TO R S & M E M O R I A L S TO N E M A S O N S

Andrew & Robert Lodge with their eco-friendly hybrid funeral fleet

O U R F A M I LY HELPING YO U R F A M I LY

“The staff at Lodge Brothers have been sympathetic, understanding and supportive.

They were with us every step of the way throughout a very difficult time and we are and will be forever grateful for their support.”

For over 240 years, seven generations of the Lodge Family have been proud to help local families in their time of need. We provide all funerals, whether modern, traditional, green or alternative, with care and compassion.

Mr Robinson

N O W O P E N I N I S L E WO RT H 1-2 The Pavement, South Street, Isleworth TW7 7AJ ASK ABOUT OUR PRE-PAYMENT FUNERAL PLANS

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FUNERAL PLANS

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W I L L S & P R O B AT E 23/03/2021 13:56

HEAD

Gardener’s NOTES

Andy Eddy, Head Gardener at Osterley Park & House, writes “Now is the time to think about veg growing, whether you have a large plot in your garden, an allotment or just a few pots on a balcony. Much can be grown in these spaces and as the last year has proved can be a great solace during difficult times and also a great way of boosting our wellbeing.

This was by way of an experiment, as I knew we would not have time to look after them with just myself and my partner looking after 18 acres of formal gardens!

I decided to do absolutely nothing with them after planting – not even watering or feeding, I simply left them alone with no staking and more importantly Here at Osterley we grow a large range of organic veg which is used in our café, this is all grown on four large no pinching out of side-shoots. By the end of the season they had grown extremely well, with no plots but we also have some smaller wooden-edged raised beds which are usually for our Family Gardening problems, and were tumbling over the side of the raised beds covered in fruit. All of the side-shoots Club. had grown and were fruiting also. Now of course During the lockdown last year, knowing that it was I hoped that this might be the case as these cherry unlikely that this would return, I planted these beds type tomatoes need far less care that the larger with cherry tomatoes that had been sown earlier in fruited sorts, but the gamble paid off and we were the year and although not needed would be a shame inundated with tomatoes – and with no extra to lose. work. I guess that the moral here is that sometimes Mother Nature just need to be left alone.”

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Gardens open daily 10am – 5pm pre booking Café open daily 10am – 5pm Shop open 11am – 5pm Wednesday to Sundays from 12th April Cycle hire open every Saturday & Sunday 10am – 4pm Pre booking is essential for car park & gardens tickets Please check our website for more information and future events

Please check website for further details www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ Osterley-park-and-house

©National Trust 2021. Registered charity, No. 205846. ©National Trust Images/Hugh Mothersole

Open 7 days a week, 10am – 5pm

020 3490 3169

OPEN FOR TAKE AWAY AND DELIVERY WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, 5PM - 9PM

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AVAILABLE TO BOOK

We’re making the things we love, precisely as they are in Italy with ingredients and recipes from the highest quality of sources.

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COFFEE BREAK ANSWERS QUIZ 1. The Gershwin brothers 2. Soft fruit, such as raspberries or blackcurrants 3. Bleak House 4. Spain 5. Newquay 6. Skegness 7. Blackpool Tower 8. Leonardo DiCaprio 9. Sonnet 18 10. 40 days

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JAZZ AT GEORGE IV

Jazz AT GEORGE IV Larry Pryce does a little happy dance that live music is back!

What a joy to be able to go out and see live shows again. All being well, Jazz at George IV is back in the Boston Room of George IV pub on Chiswick High Rd from Thursday 20th May, and there will now be weekly gigs, where previously they were only once a month.

In accordance with Boris’s roadmap we are now able to offer tables of two, three and four cabaret style,

The Mississippi Swamp Dogs Thursday 20th May

“A Celebration Of The Deep South” showcasing the rich musical heritage of New Orleans and the Southern States kicks off the 2021 programme.

The marvellous Mississippi Swamp Dogs, led by top swing trombonist and vocalist Jeff Williams, together with one of London’s best Blue Eyed Soul voices Paul Miller on keys, Dan Redding on guitar and Jonno Lee on drums.

Expect an exotic gumbo of swinging soul, jazzy blues, New Orleans Rhumba, Cajun-Funk & Gospel

with tables still socially distanced, and seating for six in the comfy booths at the back. You no longer have to be in the same household to sit together at a table.

If you have a Chiswick Calendar Club Card – see www.chiswickcalendar.co.uk – there’s a 20% discount on all food and drink and the price of the tickets.

rhythms from these musical masters. Punchy brass riffs together with rolling piano and funky organ grooves bring a unique flavour to the music of BB King, Bill Withers, Sam Cook, The Crusaders, Fats Domino, Dr John, the Neville Bros, Alan Toussaint, Louis Armstrong, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and other renowned artists associated with the colourful musical tapestry of the American South.

Tickets £14 (£12 Chiswick Calendar Club Card members) + Eventbrite %.

Google Eventbrite Mississippi Swamp Dogs to find where to book.

www.georgeiv.co.uk

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JAZZ AT GEORGE IV Jo Harrop trio presents Jazz at the Musicals Thursday 27th May

This special show explores some of the stand-out jazz standards that have emerged from musicals along the decades, written by many of the greatest composers. Featuring numbers such as Summertime and I Loves You Porgy from Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess, Cole Porter’s So In Love from Kiss Me Kate, Rogers & Hart’s My Funny Valentine from Babes In Arms, and Somewhere from West Side Story as well as Lerner & Loewe’s The Street Where You Live and Harold Arlen’s Stormy Weather.

Artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson and Sarah Vaughan have all recorded definitive versions of songs originally meant for Broadway productions.

Known collectively as ‘The Great American Songbook’, in some cases the individual songs are now better known than the musicals themselves.

Jazz vocalist Jo Harrop: “Warm, smoky and capable of the most delicate dynamics, her mellifluous voice reveals an intimacy few singers are capable of

THE CHISWICK

generating….” BBC 6 Music, is joined by top pianist Alex Hutton and noted bassist Jihad Darwish.

Tickets £12 (£10 Chiswick Calendar Club Card members) + Eventbrite %.

Google Eventbrite Jo Harrop to find where to book.

Doors open 7.00pm for 7.30 start. George IV, 185 Chiswick High Rd, Chiswick, London W4 2DR

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ISLEWORTH ART GROUP

‘A FOR ‘ORSES, T FOR TWO – BUT WITH SOCIAL DISTANCING David Laskey March 2020 was the last physical meeting of the Isleworth Art Group in St. John’s Church Hall, Isleworth, before Covid19 hit.

The art group, around fifteen to twenty enthusiastic amateur artists, was not only a weekly art class but a social event, so a few of us carried on meeting twice weekly throughout the past year on Zoom to spend a pleasant forty minutes discussing professional artists’ work, followed by a not too critical look at each other’s homework.

Louise Anderson, the group tutor, set us the alphabet project. We would each in turn choose an artist for the group to study and then create a piece

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of work based on a letter of the alphabet, loosely in their style.

I remembered Bob, a work colleague from the distant past, would come out with letters from the Cockney rhyming slang alphabet: ‘B for mutton’, ‘C for yourself ’, ‘F for vescence’. I decided my art alphabet would be in Cockney rhyming slang.

My first week’s homework: ‘A for ‘orses’, vaguely in the style of Vincent Van Gough, was received as a bit of an oddity by my fellow students. The letter ‘O’, in Cockney rhyming alphabet, ‘O for the rainbow’, fitted very well with the new rainbow emblem of the NHS. I produced this one in the style of Grayson

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WATERMANS

Perry. The letter ‘T’ was ‘T for two’, but in this case ‘with social distancing’ and in the style of Banksy.

There are two variations for ‘Q’: ‘Q for the loo’ or ‘Q for the cinema’. That week’s inspiration was the installation specialist Louis Bourgeois, the artist who designed the giant spider that was exhibited at Tate Modern. With no people around to form a queue due to lockdown, I resorted to using my children’s old toys, stored for many years in the attic.

The larger soft toys formed the queue for the cinema, to see the film Toy Story before Covid. Playmobil people became the queue for the loo, with social distancing during lockdown.

Hopefully, the Isleworth Art Group will be able to commence physical lessons again soon. If there are any budding artists out there, no matter what ability, please get in touch and come along and join us.

Meanwhile our Zoom art group is still going strong.

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Open Days Register for one of our upcoming Open Days to find out more about our courses, explore our campus and discover how West Thames College can help you succeed. #StartHereGoFar We have a range of April Start Courses! Scan our QR code to explore the range of courses available f @outandaboutmagazines

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HEN CORNER

Brighter

DAYS AHEAD Sara Ward Already we are enjoying the longer days that bring with them signs of spring: tulips and daffodils, bird song and the feeling of sun on our backs. This year has started with a slower pace, and sometimes that’s not a bad thing. Time to reflect, learn, appreciate and plan is a real gift.

It’s time to get our planting plans together, and this year I have two growing spaces to prepare for, here in the garden and down at the allotment. I was thrilled with all that we achieved on the plot last year. There’s still a lot to do, but with good planning and hard work, we can have food ready to harvest right throughout the year.

I’m using the allotment for crops that need time and space, such as brassicas, root vegetables and squashes. In the garden I’m growing easy to pick salads, herbs and tomatoes.

With more sunlight to encourage them, the hens are back in lay and it won’t be long before one or two of them become broody and attempt to hatch their eggs - even though I continue to remind them of the futility of the idea since we have no daddy chickens here. Collecting warm eggs from a bed of straw on a sunny morning is a life experience I will never grow tired of.

As the early blossoms open and spring bulbs unfurl their petals, our honey bees send armies of foragers out of the hives searching for precious pollen and nutritious nectar. The kiss of the bee is the

Let’s focus on that which is certain, the changes of the seasons, the promise of spring, and that fruit will come in its proper time. beginning of pollination and very soon we will see baby peaches, apricots and almonds forming on our trees.

Last year we secured our first full harvest of figs and made some delicious jam. When the squirrels decided to nab all our olives I managed to pick the remaining kilo which was promptly cured with salt to remove bitterness and preserve them.

Back in the kitchen, we continue with our Friday Micro Bakery and look forward to welcoming guests for in-person courses sharing skills such as chicken care, bee keeping, baking and preserving.

Whilst there is still uncertainty in many other areas of life, let’s focus on that which is certain, the changes of the seasons, the promise of spring, and that fruit will come in its proper time.

Recipes & films, see: youtube.com/HenCorner All courses, virtual & face to face, can be found at HenCorner.com

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THE ROYAL OAK

THE ROYALOak

Adrianne and Simon share with us their plans for re-opening this April

We can’t believe that it’s over a year since we were first forced to close our doors with 7 hours’ notice on Friday 20th March 2020.

By the time we reopen in April 2021 we will have been closed for 36 out of 55 weeks in 3 separate national lockdowns which is something we never would have believed was possible a year ago.

Whilst it has been tough to have the pub sitting empty, we have not been sitting around twiddling our thumbs and during the time we have been closed, have tried to keep busy helping the community and offering entertainment online.

•O ur customers and the local community generously donated food supplies, grocery items and Christmas gifts which we delivered to local charity kitchens, food banks and to the wonderful team at West Middlesex hospital.

•O ur Quiz went virtual during each lockdown and has been well attended via Facebook Live every Sunday night. We will have hosted 35 virtual quizzes when finished for now on 11th April. We are looking forward to having the quiz back in the pub again from 23rd May 2021.

•W e linked up with our fabulous musician friends to bring our customers live streamed music nights and look forward to having live music back in the pub every Saturday night once we are able to welcome customers indoors in May.

• Takeaway meals have been prepared every weekend during lockdown since November and we delivered Mother’s Day takeaway meals for the second time in March.

• We have coped with the ever-changing rules around actually being able to have our pub open between July and December and cried once again when we were forced to close our doors just before Christmas.

It has been a year we never thought we would live through but thanks to the support of our lovely friends, neighbours and the local community, we have survived and look forward to being able to open with a sense of renewed anticipation for a better year ahead!

We are excited to be opening from Wednesday to Sunday over the summer and will be throwing open the doors to our terrace from Wednesday 14th April.

The terrace is covered, heating is installed, our spring menu is being finalised and drinks are ready to be served!

We can’t wait to open outside first and inside as well from the middle of May (fingers crossed).

Don’t forget, until we are open again you can still order a meal from us every weekend and join our virtual quiz every Sunday night!

We look forward to welcoming you to the pub again very soon, Adrianne, Simon & all the team at the Royal Oak.

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