News from Szczecin

Autumn is almost here. So nice to hear from Ewa Cimochowska, who has returned to Poland to care for her mother who has had a stroke. She has sent some photos of the city we often discussed in workshops in schools earlier this year.

Ewa says she's busy running her mother's business. But she and her husband Waldek have been relaxing at weekends - picking mushrooms in the forest. Funnily enough I was thinking of mushrooms at the weekend when I went to Budapest and saw women from villages at the central market selling them on stalls.  I wondered where these mushrooms grew...

Facing the East in the West

A book arrives from Germany. Have been in touch with one of its editors, Eva Ulrike Pirker, over the course of the year. Facing the East in the West is the result of a conference in the spring and Eva asked for I Packed This Myself images to show. An image of one of the first suitcases in the show is on the cover - bottom left hand corner.

It's a weighty tome - an interesting range of themes covered, from the Cold War in the Bond series (From Russia with Love) to Marina Lewycka's A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.

A natural break for the summer

We have finished workshops and the first part of the project. Now - a long break over the summer, while we wait to see whether our work through the Migration Impacts Fund can be extended through the autumn. Fingers crossed. But it's a difficult fiscal climate.

Just launched: our new Education Pack

A key resource for schools and groups interested in working with migrant workers and local communities. To download, click here.

End of an era for the daffodil fields

In west Cornwall. The daffodil fields watched all year (see earlier entries) are being ploughed and the bulbs lifted ready to be sorted. These fields have been planted with daffs for four years which is as long as you can at one stretch ... Time for a different crop.
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Suitcase window display

Spotted in Oasis, Covent Garden. Suitcases in a window display... Idea first seen in Prada, Paris, last December (see earlier blog entry...)
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Tying up loose ends and evaluation of first stage

I Packed This Myself schools workshops over for the summer term and we're just carrying out an evaluation of the first stage. All the feedback sheets and questionnaires that we distributed will prove useful.

We'll start advertising autumn term workshops at the start of July....