M is for magical, how Wandsworth Common changes with the seasons.

A is for Agreeable, and finding how friendly your Magdalen Estate neighbours really are.

G is for Grow your Own, as can be done on the local allotments.

D is for Dance-your-socks-off, at one of the live music nights that happen across Wandsworth any night of the week.

A is for Anything that you’d like to have your say on, we can help you do so in our blog.

L is for Links, to and from central London, as well as to other parts of the country.

E is for the Endurance that so many locals show, to help raise money for local charities.

N is for Night Owls, who can enjoy the range of evening-time places around the Magdalen Estate.

E is for Environment, and doing our bit around the Magdalen Estate to keep it green.

S is for Social, and getting involved in one of the many local community groups.

T is for Tasty restaurants and markets selling local produce, all within a stone’s throw of our favourite area.

A is for Always Up To Date with the latest news, courtesy of our blog.

T is for Teaching, and the wonderful choice of Wandsworth schools.

E is for Effortlessly-how we hope you’ll settle into our community.

If you’ve written a poem that you’d like to share with us, or would like more information about our Magdalen Estate property and services, please do get in touch and one of our friendly (and sensitive/romantic/artistically inclined) team will be on hand to take your call.

In Wandsworth, the borough in which the Magdalen Estate is situated, recycling is well organised and made easy for every resident, with recycling bags available at local libraries for collection, in which all recyclable materials can be put together, and information on collection days easily found on the council website. It really couldn’t be simpler to get started, and keep up the good habits.

For all that vegetable matter that won’t go in your orange bags, we recommend popping down to the garden centre and picking up a compost bin. Once you’re finished with your apple cores, orange peel and the like, simply pop it in your bin in the garden, and watch it decompose and give you something lovely to spread on your soil.

If you have any great recycling or compost-making tips for other Magdalen Estate residents, please do get in touch, as we’d love to feature your words of wisdom in our blog. We look forward to hearing from you!

- On the Northcote Road, just across Wandsworth Common from the Magdalen Estate, a host of fruit and vegetable stores are open every day of the week. You can also pick up fresh fish, delicious stone-baked pizza (if you’re cheating) and yummy cakes at the market.

- Meat lovers will adore the range of cuts from English Meat, who are based just down the road in the Wimbledon Park area. They offer great customer service, and you can order over the phone or online.

- If you’re one to entertain the notion of party/going-home bags, Tickled Pink on Bellevue Road is the perfect place to pick up trinkets and treasures at reasonable prices, and your guests will be delighted at the thought.

For more information about our Magdalen Estate property, please do get in touch and one of our team will be on hand to answer any questions you may have. We also happily accept all invitations of hospitality.

On our frequent travels around Wandsworth Common, we’ve been lucky enough to spot familiar faces such as Jack Dee cycling along with his children, Lesley Joseph cruising around in her incredibly stylish sports car, and we’ve even shared a joke or two with Ian Hislop at a drinks party. Someone once told us they also saw a MasterChef judge wandering around the area. We think we haven’t done badly, but we’d love to get the rest of the Magdalen Estate population putting on their best celeb-spotting glasses and filling us in with the latest gossip. If you’re lucky enough to actually have a conversation with one of these fantastic figures, why not ask them about some of the things they love about living around the Magdalen Estate, and the local activities they indulge in to entertain themselves. We look forward to hearing all about it.

The one-stop shop service, now open on Lavender Hill, in association with TH@W (Total Health at Wandsworth), is run by national charity In-volve and aims to assist young people who want advice about drink or drugs, want to quit smoking or need help and counselling to deal with emotional or sexual health issues. Providing support on such a broad range of issues under one roof is extremely rare anywhere in the UK; this initiative was set up with the idea that young people did not have to go and see a number of different professionals but instead could make ‘one-stop’ to get advice on the next steps they may need to take.

If you know of any great community projects running in the borough and around the Magdalen Estate, please do let us know, and we’ll feature it in our blog to help ensure locals can take advantage of it. We look forward to hearing from you!

Red Balloon Nursery: Based in St Mary Magdalen Church Hall on Trinity Road, this school is just up the road from the Magdalen Estate. Staff members have experience of working with children with disabilities, and a wide range of extra curricular activities, such as ballet and singing, are on offer.

Balham Nursery: Situated on Endlesham Road, a seven-minute walk from Balham Station (one stop from Wandsworth Common), Balham Nursery received an outstanding Ofsted report for 2009/10. The oldest state nursery school in Wandsworth, Breakfast and After-school care are also available for up to 16 children at a time.

Playdays Nursery: Just a little further out from the Magdalen Estate, on Wimbledon Hill Road, Playdays offers a huge range of activities, depending on age group. For the older children, curriculum subjects such as French and Cultural Subjects are introduced, whilst all pupils have the chance to enjoy activities such as arts and crafts and swimming, with an emphasis on confidence building and developing social skills.

We wish you luck with your nursery school hunt; if there’s anything you find that you think might be useful to other parents and carers, please do let us know, and we’ll share it on our blog.

In recent months, however, the increase in the amount of rubbish dumped in the Wandle has become dangerous, particularly to the animals that have made their home in the area. As a result group of environmentally- conscious residents of the Magdalen Estate and surrounding areas, along with members of the Wandle Trust, donned waterproofs and wellies, and took the plunge into the Lydden Road stretch of the river in King George’s Park to remove litter from the water, as well as carry out research into the growing numbers of the eel population in the river.

The Wandle Trust, which is dedicated to restoring and maintaining the health of the south London river and its catchment holds community river cleanups on the second Sunday of every month, rotating through the boroughs of Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth. If you’d like to get involved and be proactive in the community, why not get in touch with the Trust, who’ll be able to give you more details of the monthly event.

If you’d like to share your experience of living near the Wandle, or perhaps have been one of the brave souls helping with the clean-up, please do get in touch, and we’d be glad to feature your story in our blog. We look forward to hearing from you!

With so many social networking sites available for our pleasure and procrastination, it is getting so much easier to connect with people from all across the world with similar interests to our own, whatever they may be. You may (or may not) be surprised to know that for Magdalen Estate enthusiasts wanting to chat and debate about their favourite area, Facebook is a place in which they can. We already have our own page dedicated to this most beautiful of places, and this week, dear reader, we’re challenging to you to go forth and discover it. Perhaps have a few chats with other people who ‘Like’ the page, stir up some discussion- who knows what you might learn, activities and community organisations around the area you might connect with, and who you may reach. If the page is not quite to your liking, why not set your own up and begin a new era of Magdalen Estate appreciation.

For more information about our Magdalen Estate property and services, or to let us know what you’ve found or learn through the marvellous Facebook, please do get in touch, and one of our friendly team will be on hand to listen eagerly.

Andrew Smith, one of the most superb balloon modellers in the UK, has been entertaining the young and young at heart for years. Fancy seeing your favourite cartoon character made out of balloons? No problem. No character, vehicle or natural occurrence is too big for this genius to recreate.

For a more tuneful celebration, Fruity Parties, run by the same enthusiastic musician Jon Cronin that brings us the Fruity Tunes classes, give children the opportunity to sing and dance along to nursery rhymes and songs played on the acoustic guitar. There’s often time for bubbles and instruments, too!

If you’ve had a great entertainer come along to your Magdalen Estate party, and think they deserve a recommendation, why not let us know about them, and we can give them a plug on our blog.

For more information about Man and Vans, we recommend having a peek at their website; once you’ve done so, their friendly team will be happy to answer any further queries you may have. They can also advise you on how many men you might need to help move, and the costs involved in doing so. If you’d like to share your moving experiences with us, perhaps stories about how you’ve settled into the area, please do get in touch and we’ll happily feature your story in our blog.