End of Year Celebration!

We, at Transition Town Tooting, want to extend a genuine invitation to an end of year celebration on Wednesday 18th December at The Selkirk Pub in Tooting, from 7.30pm.

Don't know about you, but recognising the projects and partnerships we've had over the last 12 months and celebrating the work we do together to make our area more resilient, more community minded and more sustainable is so incredibly vital. I feel a deep need for celebration, particularly looking forward to what will be a massive year in 2020 and beyond. 

Come along if you can and spread the invitation out. Hats off to every one of you who have got involved this year, i whatever way! Amongst many other projects, we'll be raising a glass to...

• A Wild Place for Nature at Ravenstone Primary School, Balham! 
• Balham and Tooting Community Association and all the brilliant work it does, including the Community Heroes awards, Funday and the Peace Ceremony.
• Getting to know XR Wandsworth and looking forward to meeting and working together more in 2020. What energy XR bring! Not 1, but 2 major protests for climate in the Spring and Autumn. 
• A mobilised youth action in school strikes provoking productive in-school sessions, working alongside our great Teachers. 
• The emergence of a green new deal as an ideology and approach to jobs and economy, pushing politics forwards. 
• Events at Tooting Community Garden and Ravenstone Primary School as part of London becoming the worlds first National Park City. 
• A year of Green Drinks bringing diverse conversation on climate into the community. 
• The unanimous declaration of Climate Emergency at Wandsworth Borough Council, catalysed by the 10,000 petition of local voices encouraging the Council to declare... well, over 12,000 signatories actually... 
•  Tooting Bec and Broadway Neighbourhood Plan and the emergence of Tooting Healthy Streets making the case for more liveable streets and sustainable development ion Tooting. 
• Tooting Foodival bringing together well over 1000 people to celebrate locally grown, cooked and eaten veggie food! 
• New connections around Wellbeing to spring us into 2020 with "Come Together" wellbeing day in Tooting on Jan 4th. 
• XR Wandsworth's wonderful Woolly Mammoth... 
• Tooting Restart/Sewstart repair Parties! 
• Little Village - wow, you blow my mind! The massive role you played in Culture Declares Climate and Ecological Emergency! Not to mention the London wide (and beyond)
• Pop-Up Tomorrow at Battersea Arts Centre's Grand Hall, Tooting-on-Tour indeed. Bring Your Own! Tooting's part in the waste free revolution!

What have I missed? Of course I've missed loads, but even that bunch of projects is breathtaking, do come if you can, even for half an hour! Here's the Facebook event with all the details. 7.30-10pm, Selkirk Pub, Wednesday 18th December. See you there and have a wonderful break, when you get to it, 

Much love, 

Richard & the Transition Town Tooting gang!

A Magical Festive Feast

St Marks United Reformed Church in Balham festooned with vine leaves, fairy lights and candles, offered the perfect backdrop for a magical festive evening at TTT’s Christmas Dinner last night. The invite to “Norah’s Magical Feast” promised a festive culinary celebration and what a feast it proved to be!  Norah won the overall Top Tooting Cook competition at Tooting Foodival in September scoring not only for the taste and look of all her entries to three categories, but also for her exceptional use of locally sourced ingredients including fruit, vegetables, eggs and honey.

In true MasterChef style, Norah delighted the guests with a sumptuous three course meal starting with a platter of sharing plates of courgette and haloumi fritters and three different kinds of homemade vegetable dips. Generous mains of roast salmon, lamb shank or a winter vegetable tagine followed. Dessert was a splendid affair of sticky fig pudding with salted caramel & coconut topping, roasted fruits with black cherry sorbet or a selection of artisan sheep & goats cheeses served with a variety of chutneys and oatcakes.

Aided by her assistants Dani and Chris, Norah gave us a Christmas dinner to remember for years to come. If you want to sample the delights of Norah’s Kitchen please get in touch with her here. 
Thanks to Bryony Williams #findmeintooting for her photos.

Pumpkin Party Sunday October 28th

Come and join our autumn festivities in Tooting Community Garden!

click for pdf poster

Following on from our normal open gardening session (11am-1pm) this Sunday, we will be celebrating all things pumpkin – you can carve your own creations into the pumpkins, help make some fresh pumpkin soup and learn how to make delicious damper bread over a fire. All activities are free and suitable for children and adults. And once you’ve enjoyed our campfire feast, you’ll be able to head to the annual pumpkin parade on Tooting common!

We look forward to seeing you!
Sunday 28th October, 1-3pm 
Tooting Community Garden, 5 North Drive, London SW16 1RL

'Even When I Fall' film showing to celebrate Refugee Week 2018 in Tooting

Join us to celebrate Refugee Week 2018 in Tooting!

It's the 20th annual Refugee Week, and in TTT's 10th anniversary year we're proud to be showing 'Even When I Fall' in partnership with CARAS and St. Mary Magdalene Church, Wandsworth Common.

 

 

When: Sunday 17th June. Doors open 7:00 for tea and a samosa and the film starts at 7:30

Where: St Mary Magdalene Church, in the Main Hall. 202 Trinity Road SW17 7HP - near Wandsworth Common

Free showing: we'll ask for voluntary donations to cover costs

Queries: please contact us by email

'Even When I Fall' is an intimate, beautiful film that harnesses the visual power of circus to give a unique perspective into the complex world of human trafficking.

‘Even When I Fall’ traces the journey of Sheetal and Saraswoti, two girls from Nepal. 

 

They met as teenagers in a Kathmandu refuge, survivors of child trafficking to corrupt Indian circuses and brought back to a country they could barely remember.

 

Inadvertently these girls were left with a secret weapon by their captors - their breath-taking skills as circus artists. 

With 11 other young trafficking survivors, the girls form Circus Kathmandu - Nepal’s first and only circus.

The group continues to take circus skills and trafficking awareness workshops all over Nepal.

Awe and Wonder: TTT after 10 years

Earthrise - and planting a flag on the Moon
50 years ago, Apollo 8 launched out of Earth’s orbit to circle the moon.
Perhaps unexpectedly for us all, the ramifications of this adventure emerged from the moment astronaut William Anders announced ‘now we are going to turn the camera around and show you the Earth’. The historic image Earthrise was the first picture taken of Earth from space, showing our blue planet alive, dynamic and more beautiful than anyone could have imagined.

The awe and wonder of being able to see the Earth from space has inspired generations of humans ever since: we went to the moon but discovered the Earth. Not the intention anyone flying 250,000 miles to the stars had started out with but possibly the most important reason we did. (Its impact on astronauts is captured in this astonishing film - The Overview Effect)


The two events together triggered a new enlightened self awareness for humans: the chance to look back at ourselves and reflect on our relationship with our home planet.

A new movement of environmental global actions followed: Friends of the Earth in 1969, Earth Day in 1970; the Clean Water Act in 1971; the Environment Protection Agency; the banning of leaded petrol in 1973 and every environmental action, campaign and initiative that has followed - leading to the UN COP24 Climate Summit in Poland this December.

Planting a flag in Tooting
During the last 10 of these 50 busy, self aware years, initiators of Transition Town Tooting have been planting their own flag in terra firma here in Tooting - land of Tota the Saxon King. Their 'TTT flag’ proposed a call out to anyone interested in learning how a community can make change in how they live, where they live, to create a more sustainable, just and liveable world. Along with the rapidly growing Transition Network worldwide, they invited others to join in the ongoing experiment to see if communities could find themselves creative and capable beyond their wildest imaginings.

Here in Tooting it seemed to work 
It's been a roller coaster decade doing, making and learning together.  We look back in awe and wonder to marvel at how far we have come.  We have scrolls - soon to be unfurled once more - adding year on year not just the events and initiatives that have happened but the points at which we all joined in. We showed what marked our highs (and sometimes lows) and how these have influenced our own lives and learning.

All welcome to the Pollinator Paths Wandsworth Project Celebration, Sat 11th November

We're very pleased to invite everyone who loves urban gardening with insects and other wildlife in mind to our free Pollinator Paths Wandsworth Project Harvest Celebration. This is a celebration sharing ideas, experience, fun, citizen science and community.

Here's the basic info about the project which has been running all year, linking together dozens of local gardeners and four community gardens in the borough and led by the London Sustainability Exchange.

We'll be thanking participants, sharing experience, enjoying workshops and other fun activities, networking and celebrating.


We're also welcoming anyone - gardener, community garden or other group - who might like to join a future project aimed at enhancing London's green spaces and biodiversity.

Project methods will always be accessible, encouraging people to grow pollinator-friendly plants in gardens, planters or balconies.


Plenty for families, friends and neighbours of all ages to do:

• Enjoy the 'Your Local Insects Need Your Love' workshop 
• Marvel at 'Worm Composting For Salads and Herbs Indoors'
• Design and build Plastic Bottle Ladybird Houses to take home
• Play 'Match the Pollinators to their Plants'
• Design and make Insect Badges to wear with pride
• Gasp at the Pollinator Paths project map

Date: Saturday 11th November 2017
Venue: The Penfold Centre, 1 Neville Gill Close, SW18 4TJ. The venue is right in the middle of the borough, on the west side of Southside Shopping Centre facing King George's Park.
Timing: 1:00pm to 4:00pm


Delicious snacks and drinks provided

Download the Harvest Celebration invitation and venue map here 

Free entry: please register online here

For more info: contact us by email here

All welcome!

Time to celebrate!

October is our six-month anniversary as your Pips!

As well as marking our half birthday, it's a chance to catch a breath after the huge successes of the Tooting Twirl pop-up village green, our 10th annual Foodival sustainable food festival and countless other brilliant events this year.

October's meeting is about celebrating, checking in and changing things up

We have a working list of items to discuss and make decisions on but there will also be the chance to relax after the formal stuff, with some making activities, drinks and chat.

TTT is an exciting group with limitless potential and we want you to play a part in our future plans, so come along to our open meeting and find out how you can get involved.

Tuesday 10th October

7:30pm

The Wine Room

The Trafalgar Arms

148-156 Tooting High Street, SW17 0RT

We really hope to see you on the 10th!

Jeni (co-chair), Sharon (co-chair) and Eleanor (secretary)

Pollinator Paths workshops and the Community Garden's 6th Birthday: Sunday 21st May 12 - 4pm

On Sunday the Tooting participants in the Pollinator Paths Wandsworth project are collecting their plants to grow on during 2017. 
Come to the Community Garden at 5 North Road, SW16 1RN between 12:00 midday and 4:00 pm.

Some of the beautiful plants that project participants can grow on at home

We'll advise you on how to plant and look after them, and you can enjoy them all year as well as looking out for the beneficial insects that should be attracted to your balcony, patio or garden. For more info, click here - and everyone can follow progress and join in on facebook.

We've had our first card!

Plus, on the same afternoon everyone is welcome to the Tooting Community Garden's 6th Birthday!
We'll start celebrating at 3:00 with the caterpillar race (find your food plant!) and
we'll cut the birthday cake at 3:30.


Some caterpillars are very camouflaged, and some are very conspicuous - which kind will you be?








All welcome on Sunday!

Tooting Pollinator Party Sunday 21st May!

We'd like to welcome everyone to the Tooting Community Garden on Sunday 21st May from 12:00 to 4:00 for our free Pollinator Party!
Find us at 5 North Drive, SW16 1RN.

What's a Pollinator Party?
It's a lovely afternoon in the garden. We're mixing together fun and instructive activities that focus on planting, beneficial insects and sharing our own growing experience of city gardening, Tooting style. 

 

What's good for our gardens and insects is also good for us!

What can you come and do on the 21st?

• We'll celebrate the Community Garden's 6th birthday with games, volcano kettle tea - and a cake. 

• We'll offer practical do-it-yourself making opportunities - creating cloches from plastic bottles and inventing wall planters from textile and plywood for strawberries or herbs.

• We'll have quizzes and activities about insects and pollination - and Lola Godoy's geodesic dome to enjoy as a special habitat during the afternoon.

• We'll have a rolling workshop to distribute plants to the local people who have already signed up to join in with the Pollinator Paths Wandsworth project. Developed with London Sustainability Exchange, in this project 4 borough community gardens are each involving local gardeners (novices too) who will grow insect-friendly plants throughout 2017 on balconies, patios, at school, in the street and in back gardens. Over 60 local gardeners will share what they see, learn, enjoy and taste.

• Feel free to relax, bring a picnic (we're an alcohol-free site) - and of course do some gardening if you like.

 

 

Timetable:
We'll run all the activities throughout the afternoon - and we'll stop for tea together and blow out the candles on the cake at 3:30 pm.



We're very pleased that the day is part of both the Wandsworth Arts Fringe and the Chelsea Fringe: both full of other great events.

Come to our Annual Celebratory Extravaganza Friday 28th April

On Friday 28th April we are hosting our  

Annual Celebratory Extravaganza!

Everyone is welcome to join us at:   

Derinton Community Centre
101a/b Derinton Road
Tooting, SW17 8HZ

From 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm

If you’re on our mailing list, like or follow our Facebook or Twitter accounts, have been to any of our events, or are just interested to find out what we do in Tooting – come along. And share with your friends!

Celebrating and sharing at TTT's 2016 ACE

We will be celebrating all of the past year's achievements and the partnerships that have developed to help deliver those projects.

We will also be signposting the exciting projects we have planned for the future and inviting people to get involved in their own way.

It’s a place to meet other local people who share our goals:

Making Change in How We Live, Where We Live, 

in Light of Climate Change.

What to expect:

• TTT sustenance: a.k.a tea, cake, samosas, Turkish bread & hummus
• Energy and participation: a Tooting-themed quiz & more
• A celebration of past successes
• Information about TTT’s projects
• Sharing ideas you might have to improve our neighbourhood
• Looking ahead and an invitation to get involved
• Conversations with friends new and old
• A TTT goody bag
• Please note: so we can open the door and celebrate with our whole community and all the local people and partners who support us, the celebration will be alcohol free

Eleanor writes about last year's ACE: 

"I attended for the first time last year and it was a fantastic event. The presentation of the successes really opened my eyes to what can be achieved when like-minded people get together on a common theme and don’t give up. 
Even though I was already involved and getting the regular newsletter, there were lots of activities going on under the radar that were ready to shared by the enthusiastic people leading the charge. All of the activities presented together showed an incredible achievement.

The activities included things like: workshops inspiring beginner gardeners, carbon conversations, helping to create a neighbourhood plan, running a community garden, sustainable art projects and restart parties.

The main theme that stood out to me on the night was partnerships. It was clear that it wasn’t just TTT working on their own. The strength comes from the partnerships that TTT has developed and nurtured. These partnerships were not all with other environmental themed groups either. They cross a variety of sections of society and combine the interests of both parties to create amazing results.

Last year's event inspired me to get involved in more TTT projects.
I hope I have inspired you to come along and see what is going on."

See you there on Friday 28th!

Facebook invitation to share: https://goo.gl/lviVH1

Vegetanuary

Chuck's Kale

So some of us went vegetarian for the month of January and, for me, it proved surprisingly fun to try an alternative, more mindful way of feeding myself. 80 people shared experiences and recipes on the Vegetanuary facebook group and a celebratory feast was held at Vegan Express last week. 

Vegan Express Celebration

Dipa's vegetable pastilla with feta

It would be great to try this again, maybe even risking Veganuary or Veganpril and I am sure there must be a recipe collection in here somewhere???  It's also a great way to kick off thinking about the 10th Foodival later this year.  

Well done Richard for organising this inspriring initiative and thanks to everyone who or joined in. Not sure I'll ever salivate over a bacon sandwich in quite the same way again!

Celebrating and sharing learning from our experience of 'Rooting in Tooting'

This autumn TTT is delighted to be able to contribute to events to share our learning from Rooting in Tooting (our joint project with the refugee and asylum seeker community served by CARAS)
It's brilliant to be meeting new people and groups, and sharing in different ways: thank you for the invitations!
We certainly don't 'have all the answers' but we would like to join others in asking questions and sharing practice.

There are 4 very diverse autumn 2016 events where we're celebrating or telling the Rooting in Tooting story:

1 The Royal Horticultural Society OneRHS managers conference

                  Credit: RHS / Julian Weigall

CARAS & TTT were honoured to be the only outside speakers at this event for 175 RHS managers. We had fascinating discussions about how the RHS can most effectively engage with community projects.



2 Team London Volunteer Awards 2016
TTT is thrilled to be on the awards shortlist in the Greening & Cleaning category of the Awards. We'll be joining other voluntary groups for the ceremony. Here's the Mayor's tweet on Monday morning: @MayorofLondon @SadiqKhan will celebrate the capital's volunteering heroes at tonight's #TeamLdnAwards at City Hall.

  

3 Cause2Create: "where we find specific, targeted solutions to challenges posed by the refugee crisis"
We're invited to Cause2Create's 'hack' weekend. "We know we’re not going to solve the refugee crisis in one weekend, but we can explore some of the specific challenges and develop scalable and actionable solutions."

4 International Volunteering Conference at City Hall, celebrating London as European Volunteering Capital 2016
CARAS & TTT are co-facilitating one of the conference workshops in December. Joining in with the Greek volunteering NGO Ethelon, the aim is to explore training and community engagement aspects of working well with refugees. What benefits do both refugees and communities experience when working together?

Tour de Tooting is THIS WEEKEND

Wheels are turning down in Tooting town, the inaugural Tour de Tooting is barely a revolution away. We still need volunteers 12.30-3pm to help with road 'openings' for the parade. If you can help please EMAIL TTT

Once upon a time ... in a town called Tooting, there was big windmill whose sails had not turned for a very long time. A group of children got together and wondered - if they took to the streets asking everyone to create energy from their whistles, clicks, thumbs up, high fives and smiles ... could they get the sails to turn again? 

So they set off. As they were leaving they realised they'd forgotten two things! Some Corn - important for the windmill to grind, to make bread for all and some Water to grow the corn. Just as they were leaving an Elephant appeared to help them gather water from the River and off they went. Find out what happened to them along the way! 

Visions of Wheels - Dominic, Lucy & Richard

Join their Grand Parade of Wheels on Sunday July 3rd - departing Franciscan School at 2pm (gathering at 1pm). After weeks of workshops and preparations, the brightly coloured rickshaws are being stored in a church, a windmill is having its sails attached and a bus diversion from the Tooting Bus Turning Circle has been secured. 

Alice testing out a rickshaw

Cars and buses are being asked kindly to budge over a bit for a short while as a Pelatons of Pedalistas gather at Franciscan School from 1pm on Sunday July 3rd to help this Tooting story on its way: a grand community celebration of the people-powered wheels in our lives making good change in our town. Wheels are a symbol of change: one of the greatest of human inventions and associated with liberation and freedom. Come with your wheels to reinvent them! We need your wheeled energy to turn the sails. For more info CONTACT US

Tour de Tooting Coming Your Way

There is a real buzz of excitement in the air, a sense of something big about to happen in the streets of Tooting as the launch date nears and the Grand Parade of Wheels takes shape. From now until 3rd July we will be holding ‘Reinvent Your Wheels!’ workshops and cycle-themed events to celebrate the people-powered wheels in our lives. 

The first workshop is at Bruce Hall, All Saints Parish Church (corner of Brudenell and Franciscan Roads) this coming Saturday 4th June 11.30-4.30pm. There will be lots to learn, make and enjoy: making, storytelling and wheel decorating. Light refreshments provided. Come for the whole time or part. Everyone is welcome, it’s free to take part and it is open to all ages. 

Why don’t you come along?  Bring your wheels to decorate and see how you too can be part of this Grand Parade of wheels in Tooting. On the day itself, Sunday July 3rd, we will leave Franciscan School together at 2pm. Take a look at what’s happening and how you can get involved. 

Lucy Neal, one of the Event organisers, says: "Transition Town Tooting has been working with Transport for London and Wandsworth Council for half a year to work out a route for our Grand Parade of Wheels so that our community can celebrate together. We are SO excited that we are now a month away from the big day. But there is lots to do to make the Parade gorgeously colourful and inventive. We need everyone to get involved reinventing their wheels and joining this people-powered Parade."

Pick up a leaflet from your local cycle shop to find out more and see our poster below for further details.