Sarah steps down from Abundance London
It is with great sadness that I am stepping down as a director of Abundance London after ten years in the role. When Karen and I founded Abundance we had no idea what we would be committing ourselves to (or we probably wouldn’t have done it!).

It started with the simple idea of fruit picking with school groups. We then supplied restaurants with local produce. Put on the annual Fruit Festival at St Michael’s which raised money for local schools. We soon turned our attention to improving the local area with a series of gardening projects. The Edible High Road and the Herbal High road added joy outside local shops and helped plant 50 new fruit trees. Herb, veg and flower beds have improved the library, Turnham Green and the Town Hall. Not to mention the ongoing guerrilla gardening and tree planting spearheaded by Karen.

Then in 2016 we took on our most ambitious project, the Chiswick Timeline. It was a combination of delight and torture for me to design and artwork the mural but the result was worth it. As was the accompanying Chiswick without Borders tapestry which hangs in the library. 2019 was the creation of the piazza and W4th Plinth (in large part thanks to Steve Nutt) with a street party drawing crowds of over 3000 to support local shops.

Most of these projects were the brainchild of Karen and I owe her a debt of gratitude for making us do them and battling the naysayers. For those of you who know us we are very different characters who bring different skills to each project. It has been a fruitful ten year partnership which has been (mostly) a joy.

It is now time to move onto other things and for me to focus on my full time job, children and elderly parents. I will remain on the judging panel for the W4th Plinth and will always support the amazing work Abundance continues to do. Finally I’d like to say the biggest thank you to Karen Liebreich but we couldn’t have done any of this without the support of Karen Wyatt our treasurer, the many loyal volunteers, counsellors, schools, shops, and long suffering husbands and family.

Sarah Cruz

W4th Plinth
The WFourth Plinth is a changing image on the railway embankment wall on Turnham Green Terrace that Abundance launched last September to celebrate the completion of the piazza relaunch. The first piece was Sir Peter Blake’s Chiswick Empire cinema – what will take its place? We had 31 high quality submissions and the panel, led by Sir Peter, have shortlisted four images. Vote now for one of them that you want to see big on that wall. Voting closes at midnight on the last day of February.

Tree planting on Turnham Green, from 9am, Saturday 8th February – come and help!
Abundance and the Friends of Turnham Green will be helping Lampton 360 Greenspace to fill in gaps in the cherry tree avenue and plant some further trees around the edges of the Green. A very generous local private donor has offered money to the Friends to launch Hounslow Council’s climate emergency plans to plant many more trees. Rebecca Frayn, Chair of the Friends said: ‘We are in the midst of a climate crisis and climate scientists are calling for millions of trees to be planted as a matter of urgency around the world since they are the most effective means of carbon capture known to man. This is the Friends’ small contribution to this environmental crisis we face. The trees we plant will support wildlife – which is in catastrophic decline and needs all the support it can get – and provide much needed shade as our summers grow ever hotter.’

Please can lots of you come, bring shovels and sturdy shoes so we can dig out the holes and plant the new trees that will bring blossom, fruit and carbon capture to the centre of Chiswick for decades to come! If you are too feeble or beautifully dressed to dig or plant, then maybe bring us a cup of tea, or just come and say hi!

URGENT – STOP PRESS! Gardener vacancies at Chiswick House and Gardens Trust – closing date 22 January, 9.30am
Chiswick is looking for two gardeners to lead in the Heritage Park and in the kitchen garden. They are looking for experienced gardeners, with a good knowledge of growing produce and general horticulture. The Kitchen Garden in particular is close to our heart as Abundance grew out of the work we did saving the walled garden! Send this NOW to any good veggy gardeners you know and tell them to get their skates on! More details at: http://www.chiswickhouseandgardens.org.uk/