Time to Act on Climate Change - 7th March

A group of a dozen of us from Tooting went to the Time to Act march on Saturday in London. 

Why march? To express yourself, to be counted, to meet friends and strangers, to witness change in the making, to represent others, simply to be there. 





 
Making and feeling the weight of your message in your hands - it's unusual, active, and personal. Totally unlike holding a phone. 

The sun was hot; the wind blew the banners so they tugged like sails.

 
At one point in the march, between The Savoy and 
Charing Cross, everyone sat down on the warm tarmac of the Strand. 

For me that was a good moment - not quite touching the wild earth, but certainly feeling in touch with London, and valuing it as a physical place that shelters us. 





 
None of us wants to be preached to, and I liked these diverse messages -  direct and also complex; creative and calling up so many associations.

Why march, why do what we do locally in Tooting?

Naomi Klein from the introduction to 'This Changes Everything':

"We know that if we continue on our current path of allowing emissions to rise year after year, climate change will change everything about our world. 

And we don't have to do anything to bring about this future.  

All we have to do is nothing"

- Charles 

fanSHEN Tooting Walks

Theatre group fanSHEN took centre stage at this year's Foodival with their anarchic performance of the Applecart, which engaged young, medium and old alike.  They also sent at least 50 interested visitors around the local area on a guided Tooting Walk.  Two walks have been recorded and anyone can try them out: one a half hour loop from Samaj Hall and the other from Tooting Broadway to the Lido which lasts about 40 minutes.  Both walks are available for download at the fanSHEN site HERE.

Applecart at Foodival, Sep 14th 2014

fanSHEN director Dan Barnard says: "the sound files and route maps are free to download and you can either listen to them as you do the walks (which enhances the experience) or just listen to them as radio programmes, which works well too! You may recognise some of the voices! "

Thanks to Dan and the team at fanSHEN for producing these fascinating and enjoyable trips round Tooting.

AGM Report

The 2014 AGM and 6th birthday party took place last Tuesday.  There was a Tooting related quiz and the usual AGM formalities of re-electing co-chairs and presenting accounts before a brief update on projects past present and future. 

While we look forward to big events like the Foodival, three exciting new ideas include a drive to promote products "Made in Tooting", Carbon Collaborations to add to Conversations and an autumn Looking Out For Tooting event finding alternative viewpoints of our beloved urban nexus.  Keep a look out for more on these on this blog and social media.

Meanwhile today there's a well being walk (Sir Owain and the Lady of the Well) ending on the Common where fanSHEN will perform the Applecart, both as part of the Wandsworth Arts Festival Fringe. Get down there if you can!

Walking: Mind How You Go

"I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out I found was really going in."  John Muir

A very interesting Walking event was held on Jan 11th at Mushkil Aasaan, led by Belinda & Lucy, and featuring a variety of words of wisdom from Battersea Arts Centre Producer Lynn Goh, local GP Tom Coffey and Susie Morrow of Wandsworth Cycling Campaign.  Belinda recommended walking meditations such as those in this book, Lynn told us about a silent walking project she'd run, Tom talked about walking and health, (Walk4Life guided walks are a Wandsworth Council initiative), while Susie recommends The Energy Glut for a good read. 

Several people had brought photos of five places on their own Tooting walks which we hope to develop into a walking map.  Can you identify my inspirational Tooting places above?!  Please send us your five photos. DT

Transition Town Tooting – a history in maps

This piece was produced as a response to Rob Hopkins call for examples of Transition Towns using meaningful maps.  It seemed a good moment to post it here as a taster for next Tuesday's Open Event  where we will create ‘mini walking maps’ that may develop into official Tooting Walking Maps. See more info here.

Tooting is an amorphous area stretching between and beyond two tube stations – Tooting Bec and Tooting Broadway.  The road that runs between the two – the A24 – was originally a Roman road and is now a major arterial road leading from central London out towards the suburbs.  At one point its position as a tram interchange made it a centre for cinema – we once had 5 cinemas and now have none!  It carries 10 million cars a year in addition to several busy bus routes.  One of our earliest TTT blog posts shows a map and satellite image of the area.

Transition Town Tooting (TTT) has developed a ‘tradition’ (if you can have one in such a short history!) of using maps as a focus for activity.  This stems from the fact that, though there are ...

MIND HOW YOU GO!

MIND HOW YOU GO! 

Tues Jan 11th 7-9pm. Mushkil Aasaan, 220-222 Upper Tooting Road.

TTT’s first step in 2011 will be a confident one.  

We look at well-being and start with WALKING! Join us for an evening to celebrate this most human of activities and the manifold benefits it brings to our physical and mental well-being.

To celebrate our local area, we will create ‘mini walking maps’ that may develop into official Tooting Walking Maps. We would like you to try this activity out, and bring your 5 most relevant photographs along to on January 11^th.

Do you make time for yourself to slow down and nurture calmness? 

Here is a creative opportunity to connect with yourself, the environment and others and increase your physical activity in a way that is good for your wellbeing!

By practising the art of stopping, we can enter the present moment and be nourished by the beauty and wonder of life in and around us.

Instructions for Photo Walk: