Hello,
Welcome to the first TTSN newsletter.
It's not always obvious from our web site what is happening
in TTSN. so here is a short summary of to help keep everyone in touch with what
is going on and coming up. It's by no means complete or authoritative so please
get in touch if you have any questions or would like to find out more.
*Bike Maintenance Workshop*
This was one of the projects which sprang to life from the open space event. If
you haven't heard, we're planning on running bike maintenance workshops where
the idea is to teach people how to look after and maintain their bicycles
(rather than actually do it for you). The amazing Hackney Cycling Campaign have
been running workshops along these lines very successfully in east Hackney for
some time now and have offered us expertise in getting ours up and running and
to help out with tools.
The venue is likely to be St Michael & All Angels Church on Northwold Rd. We're
hoping to hold our first workshop in September and then on on a monthly basis.
If you're interested, drop Kate a line on kategobell at hotmail.com (who will be at
the Inclusion rounders game on the 15th).
*Levi Memorial Garden*
The spring plantings have flourished into a vibrant, colourful demonstration of
what can be achieved in urban, public spaces. Last weekend saw carrots, winter
lettuces and radishes planted for the coming months. Freya will be giving short
talk about the garden on 8th September at Hackney City Farm along with other
groups developing new green spaces in Hackney.
*Inclusion Group*
The Inclusion Group has had a number of meetings over the past few months to
explore at ways of involving a wider audience in Transition. In the near term
they're looking at events which appeal to a wider range of people. On that note,
one final reminder of the of the event they've organised this weekend happening
from 2pm on Sunday, in Clissold Park, somewhere near the ponds (look out for the
fabulous recycled home-made signs). If you're keen bring a dish to share and
maybe a rug to sit on.
*Hackney Harvest*
Another project which sprang to life from the open space event is already off to
a flying start. This project aims to map the fruit trees in public and private
spaces around Stoke Newington and Hackney and then making the best use of the
fruit and ensure that it doesn't go to waste. We will achieve this by helping
with the harvesting and then redistributing the excess fruit around the
community via community groups, local businesses and other partners. We are
being supported by the magnificent London Orchard Project
(http://www.thelondonorchardproject.org/) who are going to be
planting a community orchard in Haggerston Park this autumn.
So far we have had some very successful mapping days where groups of eager
mappers have hit the streets and found a huge number of fruit and nut
trees
(http://hackneyharvest.com/2010/06/30/first-stoke-newington-fruit-tree-mapping-day/).
Quite simply they're everywhere and when you start looking for them you
can't stop spotting them. One of the reasons for this is that Stoke
Newington has a long history as a market garden for London (see
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=10548#s)
Next phase is to start harvesting and redistributing the fruit. We
have harvesting and processing weekends planned
(http://hackneyharvest.com/events/) throughout the Autumn, culminating
in an Apple Day in the farmers market in Stoke Newington in October.
There is a lot of work to be done in the coming weeks and we need your help!
If you can spare any time on the harvesting weekends (and if anyone out
there owns some sort of cargo bike or trailer) then we'd love to hear from
you (http://hackneyharvest.com/contact/). Alternatively you can help by
spreading the word about the project and encouraging friends and neighbours
to register their fruit tree with us (http://hackneyharvest.com/tree-submission/)/
You can read more about the project on our website, hackneyharvest.com where
you will also find a map of the trees uncovered so far
(http://hackneyharvest.com/fruit-tree-map/).
*Buildings Group*
After a relatively quiet summer, the Buildings Group will be back up and
running as usual for the new heating season which is now just a couple of
months away (sorry!). Now it the time to be thinking about the energy
efficency measures which you will be doing this year so that you get them
done early and maximise the savings.
We'll be starting up our monthly meetings again where you will be able to
seek advice on how to cut your home's energy consumption. As ever we're very
keen to find people in the area who are considering improving their home's
energy performance so if you are thinking about doing this or know of anyone
in Stoke Newington who is toying with the idea, please put them in touch.
The RefurbN16 <http://refurbn16.com/> website is growing all the time with
practical tips on cutting carbon in our homes and if there is any subject
that you feel we should add then please let us know. There's lots of useful
information up there already so please check it out and feel free to add
comments or queries below any article.
After the success of the first Draught Busting
Saturday
(http://refurbn16.com/2010/04/02/first-stoke-newington-draught-busting-saturday/),
we're going to be rolling these out again this autumn. If you live in a leaky
house and are interested in learning how to make it much more snug and
comfortable, as well as saving money on your energy bills, then please come
along to one of these sessions. You'll be shown how to install draught
proofing (it's very easy) and will be given an opportunity to buy cost price
draught proofing materials
We are particularly interested in finding people who would be interested in
hosting a session in their home - please get in contact if you can help out in
this way.
We have other ideas for this winter bubbling away and we're very happy to
hear your ideas too so please get in contact via the
website (http://refurbn16.com/contact/) or email refurbstokey at gmail.com.
*London Transition Networking Event at London Permaculture Festival*
The London Permaculture Festival will be taking place on Sunday 22nd August
right by Regent's Park at Cecil Sharp House.
As part of programme there will be an informal networking event for Transition
Town groups from 11am to 1pm. If you are interested in meeting up and sharing
experiences with other Transition groups in London then please come along.
As part of the event there is a survey in progress to help get an overall
picture of Transition in London. A summary of results will be presented at the
start of the event (see http://www.london-transition.org.uk/survey-090810.html
for details).
The festival itself will be continuing until 11pm with a full programme of
workshops, talks, demonstrations, films, music and food and drink. For more
information please visit:
http://www.LondonPermaculture.com
*Get Growing at Home Workshops*
We've been talking so Hedvig Murray about running a series of practical home
vegetable growing workshops in the spring. Hedvig runs Get Growing
(http://www.getgrowing.org.uk/) and is an experienced Permaculture and organic
gardening teacher. The idea is we start early spring next with a workshop about
planning and preparing, followed by a more hands on workshop getting the garden
ready and then workshops on maintaining and developing the garden.
If you would be interested in participating in these workshops or have a garden
or space you would like to develop early next year (and would be prepared for
some TTSN people to come along help) please get in touch.
*Events*
The events group have taken a bit of a summer holiday but will be back later in
the year. Some of us went on a tour of to the Friends of Tottenham Mashes
Permaculture garden a few weeks ago, which was a fascinating demonstration of
the application of permaculture principles - letting nature do all the work - in
an unlikely setting. Many thanks to Phil for showing us around.
One event which is currently being looked at is a workshop/talk on home brewing.
*Documentary Feature Project*
Rowan asked if we could mention Just Do It, a feature length documentary in
production about climate change activism. It's an experiment in crowd-funding,
group production and community-engaged documentary filmmaking. See
http://just-do-it.org.uk/ for more information.
*Education Officer Job at EcoActive*
Some of you might also be interested in Part-time Education Officer position at
Eco Active (see http://www.ecoactive.org.uk).
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