TTT First Tuesday on January 10th: 'Just Do It'

For the first of our free monthly meetings in 2012, we looked at What are the actions you’d love to take this year to help build your own and Tooting’s resilience, sustainability, wellbeing?

This took us into the territory of New Year Resolutions - maybe easily made, and maybe hard to act on?

We shared some of our own hopes for action in 2012 - personal and / or communal.



We looked at some
meanings of resolution:
making a decision...
reaching consensus...
and getting things into
focus, as in 'high-resolution'
photographs.

We all need inspiration to make bold plans, especially in a challenging period of complex change, when we often need to act without being sure what will take place en route. To encourage us, we shared two exciting stories where Tooting people took action when 'what would happen next' was not guaranteed.

Liz described One Little Wheel, a cycle trip between Europe and Thailand last year.

Jake described his own experience of non-violent direct action, as shown in the film Just Do It.

Finally, bringing what you would love to do in 2012 back to the experience of the meeting participants, Belinda outlined a set of keys to happiness to explore what supports each of us to act.

Problem or Predicament?

Another interesting and well-attended First Tuesday event this evening at Mushkil Aasaan in Tooting was spent watching Chris Martenson's UK Crash Course; a link to the youtube video is below for those of you who missed it.  And there's more on Chris's website.  One thing he explained was the difference between a problem (which can be solved) and a predicament (which can only be suffered).

Do we want to wait until peak oil driven Energy shortages,the fallacy of an ever growing Economy and a resource depleted and changing Environment crunch us?  Or do we want to do something different?  Do we want a future shaped by disaster or design? Needless to say there was plenty of discussion afterwards.

Tuesday 1st June - Carnival Creation Event

Come and take part in creating the Trashcatchers Carnival on Tuesday 1st June at Mushkil Aasaan, 222-222 Upper Tooting Road, 7-9pm. There will be loads of creative people giving advice and tips on how to make beautiful things from rubbish, including a bunting and a plastic cloth making workshops.

We will kick start the evening by showing a short film on the development of the Carnival and what has been happening so far. We will hear from various Carnivalistas and local groups talk about what they have been creating and what they plan to do for the Carnival. Followed by your chance to get involved in one of the creative workshops and make something for the Carnival. The evening will close with shared refreshments and showing what we have produced.

It’s going to be a fun evening, all are welcome, don’t worry if you haven’t got any creative skills, this is your opportunity to learn something new and be part of a great event taking place in your local community.

If you have access to any of the following please do bring it with you:
Scraps of fabric, old clothes etc, you don't need any more
Colourful plastic bags
Good cutting scissors
Cotton tape, thick ribbon or even ticking tape if you have any.

And do bring food to share as usual!  Hope to see you there, Malsara

SEED SWAP! - A Call For All Things Seedy!!

Just a quick reminder about next Tuesday's Food Event and Seed Swap.

After looking at last year's Foodival there'll be a short film on the "Story of Food" and how you can grow for this Autumn's festival.

To get everyone kick started there will be some FREE tools to give away and also a Seed Swap at the end of the night.

I'm bringing half a pack of carrots and half a packet of tomatoes as I've not got enough pots to use all the seeds - anyone got any radish seeds I could swap??

Any seeds you have, either full packs or just lone seeds would be ace for the swap - I just hope we don't wind up with a hundred packs of brussels sprouts.... ;)

Have an amazing Easter and see you there!

TTT Food Grower's Event!

Bring your Seeds and Gardening Needs!

On April 6th TTT will be holding a Seed Swap and Food Growing event at Mushkil Aasaan from 7-9pm and the event needs YOU!

Do you have any spare packets of seed lying around from last year? Do you have any unloved gardening tools or would you like some for free?? Do you have any questions about urban growing or any tips to share?? If so, the TTT Food Grower's event definitely needs you!
There will  be a seed swapping stall with free gardening tools refurbished by inmates from Wandsworth Prison.  Alongside this will be tips on how to grow in urban environments and how to get garden equipment like plant pots from the dump (the ones I got last week were ace :)) there will also be details of how to get a special TTT 10% discount at local garden centres so don't miss out.

Bring a dish to share food and talk over your gardening successes and disasters with all of the TTT network and get inspired to grow some grub for this Autumn's Foodival.

See you there!

Palme Verte Goes to "Mine"

Last night at Transition Town Tooting's inaugural First Tuesday event, a screening of the best in environmental short films, the coveted Palme Verte was awarded to Mine - story of a sacred mountain, a moving documentary by Survival about the Dongria Kondh tribe of the Niyamgiri Hills in India. The Dongria Kondh's whole way of life is threatened by the British company Vedanta Resources' plan to decapitate their scared mountain and mine its bauxite. Read the latest information on Survival's campaign for the Dongria or watch the film here.  Second place went to the Story of Stuff by the Tides Foundation.  It was powerful first to see the impact of the consumer world's craving for "stuff" and then to understand the very specific effects that craving can have on a people who live in a much more symbiotic way with the natural world.

A successful evening was capped by lively discussion and of course tasty food - thanks everyone who helped out.  Next month's First Tuesday on April 6th will focus on Food, with a seed swap and advice on what to plant this spring.  I can't wait!  DT 

First Tuesday Film Night

We start our series of First Tuesday events on Tuesday March 2nd with a film night, where we will show several short films with relevance to transition and environmental issues.  There’ll be time afterwards for a discussion and the award of the Tooting Palme Verte to the evening’s favourite film.  Bring food to share if you'd like.

Come and enjoy The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard, Rob Hopkins TED talk: Transition to a world without oil, Jo Brand’s Save Money & The Planet, and Survival’s Mine - story of a sacred mountain, plus some random special extras!   

 Tuesday 2^nd March - 7pm Start; Mushkil Aasaan, 220-222 Upper Tooting Rd.