In Spring 2008, we took responsibility for the planters outside our offices at 6 Paul Stacey House. Since then, community gardening has become a regular feature of our work - with the health and diversity of our little patch reflecting the goodwill and involvement of our neighbours and volunteers.

Here we take a look back at how our productive corner of paradise got established ...

Last year, Fatima attended a conference in Portugal on "how migration shapes our perception of Europe."

While she was there she was interviewed - here's a video of an extract from that interview:

Solomon Oyiengo rang this morning with news from Gambogi in Western Kenya.

"Kitagwa School, the community and everyone who FolesHillfields knows are all going along well. It is the rainy season still, so it is muddy now."

Solomon is the head of Kitagwa School there, and was part of a delegation from Vihiga district which we brought over in 2009 to visit FolesHillfields, John Gulson and Sidney Stringer schools, and many other local community groups and projects.

On Wednesday 10th November, we hosted the first inter-cultural music event we've run for a long time - too long!

We had saxophone, trumpet, djembe, keyboards, bass, guitar, tambourine, voices, violin and a veena. There was unaccompanied singing, reggae, blues, jazz, South Indian classical and East African music, among others - and many cross-fertilisations and fusions, as always. More from participants (and more pictures) below ...

On Monday 23^rd August, FolesHillfields had our first very own Men's Day to promote the rich and diverse masculinities present in the neighbourhood.

Over twenty men enjoyed ourselves - read on for details ...

During Mino's visit this August, we are also very much enjoying a visit by the Kondo family (also from Aichi, Japan) - while Pooja has recently moved on from Beijing to Shanghai, in China.

We took this opportunity to host an East Asia Friendship event today - celebrating cultures, food and languages of East Asia, and taking a FolesHillfields look at racism directed at Chinese and Japanese people in particular.

We have been flooded! There's a lot to do to clean up, replace our carpet, etc - but FolesHillfields Healthy Summer will be continuing as planned - the Festival must go on! Any small changes in the programme will be reflected in our online events calendar

We will now have the unplanned cost of replacing all of our flooring (around £1000), and we are appealing for donations of any size to contribute to that - please get in touch or just donate online if you would like to help out.

Heather and Mark are staying with Aya and Mino in Japan.

The street sirens just went off, followed by a calm Tsunami warning - the TV is broadcasting more details on all channels. I rushed to get passport and mobile, but the warning is for a possible two metres wave in three hours time, so we have plenty of time to get to higher ground.

We're writing this from our bedroom in Aya's parent's house in Nagoya, Japan. We have been well fed and welcomed, have just unpacked a little, and will be off to sleep very soon!

We have just completed another great volunteer training and activities day.

Below, our volunteers write about what we got up to and how they enjoyed it: