Film Showing of Tomorrow, Today

This afternoon's film showing of Tomorrow (Demain) provides a comprehensive look at ways in which activists, organisers and everyday citizens are trying to make the world a better, greener, more sustainable place.

All welcome for 2.30 pm at All Saints Church Tooting, Brudenell Rd SW17 8DQ.

Tomorrow - the movie - comes to Tooting!

We face a climate emergency - but all over the globe, solutions already exist! 

Join Transition Town Tooting for TOMORROW, our first Film for Action 

with All Saints Church Tooting, Brudenell Rd SW17 8DQ
2.30 pm on 16th November 2019

 

Tomorrow (Demain) provides a comprehensive look at ways in which activists, organisers and everyday citizens are trying to make the world a better, greener, more sustainable place.

Check out the trailer for the film!

'The overriding message? It takes a community to make change.'
New York Times

Tooting Green Drinks! Roll up! Roll Up!

Lovely Green Drinks in Tooting last night at The Selkirk, thanks for hosting! 

We got to know the London National Park City initiative better and asked how we would raise London's green cover from 48% (current) to 51%???? Our answer is..., Parklets! Green up the base of trees, hand over 1 car parking space to green infrastructure! Guerrilla Garden where you can! Turn the small spaces green, lobby the council to use http://www.frontyardcompany.co.uk/products/plantlock.html...

So... where would YOU create a Parklet?

We launched Green Book Club! Whoop! Want to join in? We have 2 articles to read which will be part of the discussion at the next Tooting Green Drinks: 

• Is talk about it the most important thing we can do about climate change?

https://thinkprogress.org/end-climate-silence-cbe439a31a8e…

And...

• After plastic bag tax what should we tax next?

https://www.theguardian.com/…/six-billion-plastic-bags-cant…

So... How could Green Book Club work best for you?? Online discussion? Articles? Youtube vids and TEDtalks? Books?

AND... we talked about a programme of short, informal talks in the new year - watch this space for announcements on that.

So... who would you like to come to Tooting Green Drinks to give short talks? What themes could we cover?

AND!!!! We talked up Dipa's secret, tasty idea... but you really will have to wait to hear more about that one... yum!

Green Drinks is an International idea to create informal spaces for discussion and getting to know like minded people in your area. www.greendrinks.org

We host a Tooting Green Drinks on the third Wednesday of every month at The Selkirk Pub, 60 Selkirk Street, SW17 0ES between 7.30pm and 9.30pm

Tooting's Air Quality - community meeting Wednesday 26th Nov

We'll share the results of this local and practical 'citizen science' project to measure local air quality, and hear from knowledgeable speakers who are involved with this challenge.

All welcome to take part in this urgent discussion, look at the issues in depth, and consider: 'what's to be done?'

When: Wednesday 26th Nov, 1930-2100 
Where: Tooting United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road SW17 9NQ

Speakers:
Samantha Heath - CEO, London Sustainability Exchange
Rex Osborn - Borough Councillor, Graveney Ward
Houda Al-Shafiri - Head of Public Health, Wandsworth Borough Council
David Thorne - Co-Chair, Transition Town Tooting

TTT has been running a campaign on air pollution locally in collaboration with London Sustainability Exchange and with Battersea and Wandsworth Trade Union Council. We have carried out ‘citizen science’ measurements around Tooting, and our surveys have produced some interesting results.
See a graphic summary of the local results by clicking here.

• Some parts of Tooting High Street record levels of nitrogen dioxide that are 2 to 3 times higher than the European safe exposure limit
• The Mayor of London’s ’ultra-low emission zone’ does not include Tooting. 
• Around 4,250 people die each year from long-term exposure to fine particles in London
• Those affected lose 11.5 years of their life on average
• Much more needs to be done to ensure Tooting has a clear bill of health!

To see our recent leaflet on local Air Quality, click here
To see the event poster, click here

For more information, please email us

Part of: Furzedown Low Carbon Zone

Change Picture

Air Quality in Tooting

Starts

19:30, Wednesday 26th November

Ends

21:00, Wednesday 26th November

Location

London | Wandsworth | Tooting
Tooting United Reform Church, Rookstone Road SW17 9NQ (map)

Workshop

You are attending this event (change)

Created by Charles Whitehead

About

We'll share how we have been involved in a practical 'citizen science' project to measure local air quality
Transition Town Tooting has been running a campaign on air pollution in Tooting in collaboration with London Sustainability Exchange and Battersea and Wandsworth Trade Union Council by carrying out ‘citizen science’ measurements around Tooting. Our surveys have produced some interesting results:

• Some parts of Tooting High Street record levels of nitrogen dioxide levels that are 2 to 3 times higher than the European safe exposure limit
• Around 4,250 people die each year from long-term exposure to fine particles in London
• Those affected lose 11.5 years of their life on average

The Mayor of London’s ’ultra-low emission zone’ does not include Tooting.
Much more needs to be done to ensure Tooting has a clear bill of health!

This event will look at the issues in depth.
Speakers:

Samantha Heath - CEO, London Sustainability Exchange
Councillor Rex Osborn - Graveney Ward, Wandsworth Borough Council
Houda Al-Shafiri - Head of Public Health, Wandsworth Borough Council
David Thorne - Co-Chair, Transition Town Tooting
To see our recent leaflet on local Air Quality, click here
To see the event flyer, click here

- See more at: http://www.projectdirt.com/apps/event/32292/#sthash.Sd6nVmrX.dpuf

Part of: Furzedown Low Carbon Zone

Change Picture

Air Quality in Tooting

Starts

19:30, Wednesday 26th November

Ends

21:00, Wednesday 26th November

Location

London | Wandsworth | Tooting
Tooting United Reform Church, Rookstone Road SW17 9NQ (map)

Workshop

You are attending this event (change)

Created by Charles Whitehead

About

We'll share how we have been involved in a practical 'citizen science' project to measure local air quality
Transition Town Tooting has been running a campaign on air pollution in Tooting in collaboration with London Sustainability Exchange and Battersea and Wandsworth Trade Union Council by carrying out ‘citizen science’ measurements around Tooting. Our surveys have produced some interesting results:

• Some parts of Tooting High Street record levels of nitrogen dioxide levels that are 2 to 3 times higher than the European safe exposure limit
• Around 4,250 people die each year from long-term exposure to fine particles in London
• Those affected lose 11.5 years of their life on average

The Mayor of London’s ’ultra-low emission zone’ does not include Tooting.
Much more needs to be done to ensure Tooting has a clear bill of health!

This event will look at the issues in depth.
Speakers:

Samantha Heath - CEO, London Sustainability Exchange
Councillor Rex Osborn - Graveney Ward, Wandsworth Borough Council
Houda Al-Shafiri - Head of Public Health, Wandsworth Borough Council
David Thorne - Co-Chair, Transition Town Tooting
To see our recent leaflet on local Air Quality, click here
To see the event flyer, click here

- See more at: http://www.projectdirt.com/apps/event/32292/#sthash.Sd6nVmrX.dpuf

Restart Party, Wed 3rd December - let's get stuff fixed!

Do you have an electrical or electronic item that needs fixing and don’t want to have to throw it away? 

After a fantastically successful evening in September we are delighted to announce that the Restart Project, a London-based social enterprise that encourages and empowers people to use their electronics longer, have agreed to run a second “Restart Party” with TTT in Tooting next month.
  
Sound interesting? Then come along to the event. 

Restart Party at Mushkil Aasaan

220 - 222 Upper Tooting Road, SW17 7EW, 

Wednesday December 3rd from 6.30 - 9.30pm.

 

Challenge the culture of built-in obsolescence and take back control of all your electronic stuff! 

Do note that Restart Parties are a community self-repair space where you take responsibility for your own gadgets and data, so please do not forget to take any back-ups beforehand, if relevant – and if possible arrive during the first two hours to allow time for fixing!

See great reports of our last event here and on How We Get to Next here.

Could we have a Tooting Restart Group so that we could hold more regular local Restart Parties?  If you are interested in the idea do come along on the night - or if you can't make it contact Hilary Jennings on transitiontowntooting@gmail.com. 

You might also be interested to know that Restart hold regular skillshare get togethers http://therestartproject.org/skillshares/

Growing, jenga, community energy and wellbeing at St George's Community Open Day, 15th Nov.

Thanks so much to St George's Healthcare NHS Trust for the invitation to have a stand at the Open Day last Saturday - our third year running.
And thanks to all who came to talk, share ideas, participate in the games for all ages, and sign up to our email lists to keep in contact. 

We chose three areas of what we do locally to share with visitors:

• The Tooting Community Garden
• Sustainable living and wellbeing games
• Our sister project, the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone

Some high points included:
 
Playing with the planet: 
plotting the sources of common foods on the world map

Giant jenga, with green living tips

There were twelve volunteers on the varied activities through the day, and there was a lot of preparation...

Sometimes action takes over

...the most valuable aspect of the day was having the time to talk to visitors about plans and ideas.

Making drinks carton wallets

Rhubarb on the St George's Allotment

Doing the day together as a team was also special.








TTT and the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone have some great events happening in the next month - see our Events Calendar on the top right of this blog homepage.  

All welcome!


  

Plus: we are discussing future projects with St George's. 
We'll share news soon..

Sustainable, Healthy and Resilient Tooting

We're hosting a TTT stand at St George's Community Open Day, this Saturday 15th Nov from 10:30 to 4pm. The event is held throughout the hospital and medical school . Do come and chat with us, and catch up with what we're doing - and we'd love to hear your ideas on what a more sustainable Tooting would look and feel like.  
We'll be upstairs on the first floor of the Lanesborough Wing, in the Ingredients Restaurant.

We're painting a new banner

We can talk about TTT plans, and about sustainable living, and about the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone. We'll have some fun on the stand too: we'll have games, activities, and things to make for all ages: so all are welcome.

We're doing three daily blog posts for the rest of this week to lead into the St George's Open Day, on three themes that make a green thread running through our activities:

1. Enjoying the outdoors in Tooting
2. Sustainable living and low-carbon games 
3. The 'Growing Tooting' project

Please read on as we explore these themes, and come and chat about them on Saturday.

Enjoying the Outdoors in Tooting - one theme for our St George's Open Day stand

Come and talk to us at our stand at St George's Community Open Day on Saturday 15th Nov. about opportunities to get outside in Tooting. Outdoor Tooting can be a surprising and rewarding place for all ages, and TTT want to encourage more young people and adults to get outside - for fun, to play, for exercise, to meet people, to learn - & more.

Four glimpses of our outdoor project with Gatton School:                                                      

This morning we hosted 70 
Year 4 children, staff and parents who were investigating what's living in six different Community Garden habitats - with the group braving showers and wind.




The end of today's session, under the holm oak.
Time to go home, and now the sun has come out.





Last week, in one of the weekly sessions with Reception children






 


A year ago, Year Six made a practice DIY drainpipe system to learn about getting water from the roof to the butts for the rainwater harvesting build project. 
It worked!


 

Back in September, just before the Tooting Foodival, teenagers from The Challenge project helped to harvest potatoes at the Garden, and much more. 
(The rainwater build now doubling as an outdoor room, nice...)


Adults are welcome outdoors! 
Another way to enjoy being outside is to try on of FanSHEN Theatre's Tootingwalks: two audio tours of Tooting that you can download to your mobile, and then walk the guided tour - or load on your computer to preview at home, like a radio programme. 
For all the details online, click here. 
Chat with us about the Tootingwalks if you come to St George's.

Or, get ideas with Project Wild Thing: click here for info. Adults or young people can be bold and pledge to spend an hour outside for every hour spent looking at a screen.....try it!

We're going to plan some Wild Days Out(doors) in Tooting in 2015, and also show the  'Project Wild Thing' film one evening - keep in touch, chat at St George's, and come and get involved.

So Much On At Foodival 2014!

The 2014 Foodival looks set to be the biggest yet. In its seventh incarnation, Foodival now involves a presence at both the BATCA Funday and Foodcycle (both on Saturday 13th) where you can drop off food donations, have your photo taken in our photo booth and maybe be a late entry for Top Tooting Cook.


On Sunday 14th at Samaj Hall, 26b Tooting High St, the line-up of bands and performers is incredible and we are really grateful for all of their offers to entertain us.  Similarly we are very grateful to the particpating restaurants cooking up your donated produce, the fabulous array of local groups who will be there, not to mention the special input of fanSHEN, Mark Watson and Tooting's Phantom Knitter.

Follow these links to head over to the Foodival website for more details.

We hope to run into you enjoying yourself this weekend in the cultural food village that is Tooting.

Restart Party Report

Tonight's Restart Party was very cool. Thank you so much to Ugo and Janet for organising this event for us at Mushkil Aasaan. Naseem I hope your intercom and kettle were fixed! So I took my TV, only two years old, and watched guitarist Ben and 11 year old schoolboy Sonny, take it apart. It took an hour or more to test every bit of it but in the end the verdict is that I can buy a £17 power supply board to fix this rather than buy a £200 replacement!  Thank you so much boys - I will try!  You can see them in this slideshow:

The Restart idea is surely the way forward. We cannot endlessly plunder our planet for finite resources to make disposable electronic and countless others products.  Had a great chat with the Gaia Foundation about their Short Circuit report which focuses on the lifestyle of electronic gadgets and the true cost to the earth.  Thanks to everyone who volunteered and attended this evening - let's do it again. David

Three weeks until Foodival!

It's just 3 weeks until the 7th annual Tooting Foodival! 

We're beavering away behind the scenes and we hope that your fruit and vegetables are growing well.  Thanks to everyone who has added their produce to the What's Growing in Tooting map.

Donate your fruit and veg on Saturday 13 Sep

If you have spare fruit, vegetables or herbs, you can donate them at two locations on Saturday 13th September from 1pm - 5pm:

• We'll be at the BATCA Community Fun Day on Broadwater Road, and at
• Mushkil Aasaan, 222 Upper Tooting Road.

Even if you only have two tomatoes or a sprig of rosemary, bring it along, so that we can offer delicious local food to many people on Sunday. Your donations will be delivered to local restaurants and to our Top Tooting Cook contestants, who will be cooking up a treat overnight, ready for the festival on Sunday 14th September at Samaj Hall, 26b Tooting High Street (by Broadway Studios).

Join us at Samaj Hall on Sunday 14 Sep from 12 noon until 5pm.

There will be plenty to entertain you - some great musicians and entertainers, games, theatre, craft activities, local stalls, and of course some very tasty food with very low food miles from our local restaurants.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's involved so far in getting the festival off the ground:

• Food donations - Tooting Community Garden, Abel & Cole, Bramford Community Garden, SHARE Community Garden and many more local growers, who will donate on Saturday.

• Restaurants - Pooja, Meza, Mis Bar Mcleczny, Ricks, Al Mirage, Fisher & Co and Mina's Grill.

• Entertainment - The Apple Cart by fanSHEN, Young Voices Choir, singers John Buckley, Dermot Jones and Vince Burke, magician Marc Kerstein, comedian Sam Quinn, the Slim Estrada Trio, Randolph Matthews, and the Bara Bara Band.

• Stalls - SMART, Furzedown Low Carbon Zone, Niamh’s Nutrition, Transition Town Tooting, Friends of Streatham Cemetery, Carbon Collaborations, Hilary’s Preserves, Transition Town Wandsworth, Tooting Community Garden and more

• Other partners - the Phantom Knitter of Wandsworth, Mushkil Aasaan, BATCA, Samaj Hall

And special thanks to the Wandsworth Eco Fund for the grant that goes towards running costs for the Foodival.  

If you'd like to get involved with Foodival, get in touch.  You can help by spreading the word, telling your friends, family and neighbours.  Or join in by donating food on the Saturday, or volunteering on the Sunday serving food or collecting food from restaurants.  There are still spaces if you'd like to enter the Top Tooting Cook competition and we will be running a final Meet & Make session to get ready for Foodival at Sprout Arts on 10th September.

Let the countdown begin!

Growing Connections as Spring Arrives

The clocks are about to go forward and it’s officially spring time!  We celebrated the start of a new growing season by donating and swapping over one hundred packets of seeds with local people on Saturday.  The event aimed to encourage and support people, young and old, in growing food and flowers in whatever space they have.

 

It was a great opportunity to bring people together. We met some wonderful characters.  Two women excitedly took handfuls of seeds to share with friends and family, and a man, we coaxed in with offers of kale, shared a beautiful tale about how the scent of broad beans takes him back to his childhood in Cyprus.

Following on straight after Foodcycle,there were plenty of activities to entertain everyone. Heather, from Tooting Library, told stories like Jack and the Beanstalk; Sharon taught us how to make origami seed pots from newspapers; Belinda helped us make flowers out of plastic bags for the story walk on 5^th May; and Stephanie wowed us all with paper making from straw collected from the wheat harvest at the garden last year.

One visitor summed it up, saying: “The paper making workshop was amazing. I’ve never seen paper made of straw! I enjoyed chatting with the gardeners and for the price of a piece of my overgrown mint plant, I left with poppy seeds, wild sweet peas, radish, sunflowers and hollyhock seeds – all grown in Tooting and so all the more special as I know that they could do well again this year. Thank you.”

People as young as five and as old as seventy five took away sunflower seeds collected from the community garden, to grow at home.  Tooting Community Garden is running a challenge this year to see who can grow the tallest sunflower in Tooting.  All you have to do is take a photo of the sunflower you have grown this summer and post it to our Facebook page.  We’ll announce the winner at Foodival (13-14 September). JT

Community Garden Open Day, Sun June 9th

The TTT Community Garden was open to the public as part of the Open Garden Squares weekend last Sunday.  Regular garden volunteer, Jenny Teasdale, reports.


It was a time of excitement and reflection when we opened the garden to celebrate our second birthday, linking up with Open Garden Squares weekend and the Chelsea Fringe.  All the volunteers had been busy bees preparing for the big day and what a big day it turned out to be with nearly 100 visitors, young and old, enjoying the garden with us. People came out of curiosity and community, exploring the range of spaces we have created over the last two years, including the vegetable beds tended by volunteers and local school children, the new herb garden, the secret garden, the willow house and the play area. It was great to see young children taking such delight in throwing themselves into the tall grass, before settling down to hear a story from Emily in the secret garden or printing plants with Chuck under the holm oak.

I know I speak for all our volunteers when I say that we came out of the day with a strong feeling of community and a desire to open up the garden more often for special events. We are already planning another story session, a composting workshop and some harvest days, and will be creating a new wildlife and wild flower space in the coming months.

Everyone is welcome to come along to the garden on any Sunday this summer between 11 and 1 whether you are interested in getting involved or just curious to see this fantastic space.

Fresh & Refresh

On 13 April 2013 Mushkil Aaasan in the Upper Tooting Rd hosted "Fresh and Refresh" co-curated by Amee Ramesh and Jeni Walker. This event was designed to be a Spring Festival to inspire people to turn a new leaf and initiate new and positive changes in their lifestyle.

The Tooting Bec Lido & Zumba trainers demonstrated ways that exercise can help, while information was also on hand about stopping smoking, blood pressure monitoring and cholesterol checks. Information on how to eat healthily and grow your own food, alongside the latest from the Friends of Streatham Cemetery bees, rubbed shoulders with delicious free tasters from Tooting Market’s Portuguese Café, Minashop, and Indian delicacies kindly donated by Tooting Pharmacy. Crafty Pint helped people create wonders from discarded plastics, while pop-up kindness and recipe swaps were also on offer. The event was very busy with a diverse audience, some who just wandered in off the street to investigate.

Amee Ramesh was delighted at how the event turned out and said: “The day itself was lovely and everyone came together, generating a really enthusiastic and positive atmosphere. It was lovely to meet new people and foster an 'onwards and upwards' mentality in the local community, especially after such a long winter!”

Once again thanks to Amee, Jeni, Mushkil Aasaan and all who contributed to making the event such a success.

Fresh & Refresh

A diverse and interesting experience was on offer this afternoon at TTT's Fresh & Refresh with quite a few new surprises, such as great Portuguese natas, bhel puri, a wishing tree, seeds, compost, craft, how to stop smoking and even a free Zumba class (see below)!

Fresh and Refresh Spring Festival - Saturday 13th April 11am to 2pm

Come along to Transition Town Tooting's Fresh And Refresh spring celebration from 11am to 2pm at Mushkil Aasaan, 222 Upper Tooting Road.. Fresh ideas to refresh the spirit - lots of fun and free activities for all ages! 

Things to do include:

• the Fresh and Refresh Walk (leaves Tooting Lido at 9am and meanders through places of interest in Tooting), ending at the venue)
• local food tasting
• sowing and growing stall - free seeds to pot up and grow on then bring your produce back to the Foodival in September
• media forum
• zumba taster session
• carbon cutting
• bee keeping with the Friends of Streatham Cemetery
• upcycling workshop by the Crafty Pint
• quitting smoking

Come along and join us - drop in at any time during the day or come early and try everything.  All welcome.

Events This Week

Don't forget that tomorrow, Transition Town Tooting is running an an interactive discussion event at Tara Arts - Studio in Earlsfield entitled "Imagining Tooting in 2030, a positive vision of life beyond oil". It's FREE! Come along & bring your imagination!

If you missed The End of the Line, the film about overfishing and the threat to fish species, it will be screened at 10pm on More4 tonight, Tuesday 20th October.

The New Economics Foundation is running The Bigger Picture Festival of Interdependence this Saturday 24th October at the Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf on the South Bank. They promise "learning, making, doing, celebrating and debating" with plenty of speakers, films and things to try out. It's free too!

The festival is part of the 350 international day of climate action 350 is 350 parts per million - what scientists estimate to be the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There are loads of other events on Saturday tying into this.

On 27th October the All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil has an event entitled: Will Global Oil Production peak Before 2020? Anyone can register to attend. Claudia is a veteran I believe and can recommend!

Tim Lang & Andrew Simms in Tooting

Last Thursday, TTT & Transition Town Wandsworth organised a discussion event with Tim Lang, Professor of Food Security at City University and Andrew Simms, Policy Director of the New Economics Foundation at Mushkil Aasaan. There was then some time to chat, brainstorm ideas and ask questions. A really enlightening evening with a good turnout. This video contains brief excerpts from the speakers.

And here are the post-it boards: