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:

Confronting Change - London Transition at the South Bank Centre

News from the Confronting Change event at the South Bank Centre last week organised by Transition Finsbury Park.  

The event was a sell-out, and proved to be an inspirational coming together of London Transition initiatives, under the title “Confronting Change”.  Polly Higgins, a barrister and author of ‘Eradicating Ecocide’ was the host - she recently returned from the COP16 negotiations at Cancun and talked about what had happened there- followed by presentations from Rob Hopkins and Michael Meacher MP.  Read a great write up by Rob Hopkins on his blog here. 

There was a fantastic outcome to the evening - Polly Higgins and a team of lawyers already working on a Transition Enabling Act!  Find out more and have your input on the Transition Network site here.

Photos from the winter making and social

We had a fantastic time at the winter making and social - we learnt make pomanders from oranges, juggling balls from socks, wallets from fruit juice cartons, decorations from discarded plastic and cards from scrap paper.  We made a HUGE bowl of mincemeat which found its way into mince pies across Tooting.  Some of us even learnt how to knit.  Here are some lovely pics of the event...

Winter Social & Making Event

On Tuesday 7^th Dec there will be an opportunity to catch up and socialise at the Winter Social & Making evening.  Experts will be on hand to assist you in creating beautiful festive decorations and unique gifts from recycled materials.  Learn how to make greetings cards (bring old cards or pictures), wallets & purses (bring tetrapak!), juggling balls (bring old socks!), pomanders, bags & flip-flops (bring an old pair of jeans) and mincemeat!  You can even have a go at knitting!  

Why trek round your local globalised shopping experience when you could make your own Christmas presents?!  See above some of the fab potato printed bags, for example, fashioned under the guidance of Ken McCalla at this year's Foodival . 

Bring food or drink to share – mulled wine and soft drinks will be provided at the Christian Education Centre, 21 Tooting Bec Rd. See you there!

Plastic – from Oil Well to Ocean – via Tooting

This event, organised by Hilary, Sally and Nicola, looked at our relationship with the ubiquitous plastic.  Starting with a look at the multitude of plastic items that one person touches in a single day (from the lining of a swimming pool to a humble biro), we looked at where plastic comes from, how we use (and misuse it!), what happens after we drop it into our Wandsworth bin or recycling bag, and how it ends up in our oceans.

                                                                                                                                   

We found out that most plastics are sourced from fossil fuels - oil and natural gas and how that cheap source of raw material will be threatened by the onset of peak oil.  We considered how many everyday items are made from oil-based plastic.

We looked in particular at plastic packaging – our intrepid researcher headed out to take some pictures of particularly bad examples of packaging.  Some items were wrapped in four layers of plastic on their arrival at the store.   She also took a low packaging approach to her takeaway kebab by bringing her own reusable container and cutlery.

Nicola from Wastewatch – which raises awareness about recycling in local schools – explained the limits of plastic recycling in Wandsworth – being limited to plastic bottles.  She explained the reasons for these limits and told us that the UK lagged behind many other countries in its levels of recycling. 

We considered where much plastic ends up – with a short TED talk by Captain Charles Moore about plastic in the ocean which you can watch online here.  Another good talk by Diana Cohen of the Plastic Pollution Consortium is here.

All kinds of initiatives are springing up across the world to address the issue of our overconsumption of plastic.  Following the lead of Modbury which a plastic bag free town in 2007 traders in 80 mainly small towns round Britain have either introduced a voluntary ban or are considering one as a way to reduce landfill.   Ireland banned free plastic bags in 2000 levying a 20p charge per bag.  By 2007 this had raised £109 million in tax and plans were in place to double the levy to 40p per bag.   Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger recently announced a plastic bag ban in the state of California.

In 2009 a poll of Londoners showed there was 90% support for a levy or ban across the city – although subsequent discussions between CEOs of 33 London councils failed to agree on a ban or tax.

We found out that 8 billion plastic bags are used in the UK each year – and the lucky winners of our ‘most wasteful packaging’ prize went away with a lovely reuseable silk sack.  One entry was literally a package holding nothing.

Finally we talked about how we might reduce our wasteage of plastic in Tooting and came up with lots of ideas! 

•          Refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle – especially the first three!
•          Make a film about plastic - how its used locally and the global issues – to raise awareness in Tooting
•          Lobby local businesses and residents for a plastic bag fee Tooting
•          Research low-cost sustainable take-away packaging which local businesses could use.
•          Co-ordinate a regular ‘protest’ return of excess packaging to local supermarkets

If you’d like to get involved in making any of these happen- or have other ideas - get in touch at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com.

Finally unfortunately we didn’t have time to watch this Futurestates film entitled Plastic Bag - struggling with its immortality, a discarded plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) ventures through the environmentally barren remains of America as it searches for its maker.  Well worth a look!

The impressive Incredible Edible Todmorden folks recently came down to Peckham to host a conference on sustainable food with several local groups, which made for a truly inspiring day. Topics ranged from issues with global food production systems from Tim Lang – a professor of food policy, to practical local responses and the importance of food for holistic health.

The Incredible Edible Todmorden project is, frankly, incredible – a group of people have come together to increase the amount of food growing in this fairly small Yorkshire town. We were delighted by picture after picture of food growing in the unlikeliest places – in front of the fire station, in old boats in school playgrounds, around the church, along the railway line, the edge of car parks and….well you get the idea!

Rosie Boycott, the Mayor’s food advisor then spoke about what Londoners can do through the Capital Growth Project. This is making grants available to create 2,012 community food growing spaces by 2012, so a great opportunity which Tooting could benefit from.

The Peckham Experiment, which I’d never heard of before, was another absolutely fascinating theme of the conference. Back in the 1930s a group of doctors decided to study what contributes to human health. They set up a community health centre which emphasised health for the whole family and provided a place to exercise, socialise and learn as well as to access more traditional health care (there’s some great old film footage which captures the amazing energy of the centre – with aerobics taking place alongside acrobatics, with diving in the background!). The Experiment also recognised the importance of good nutrition, and had a farm providing the centre with fresh, organic produce. Whilst the Pioneer Health Centre closed in 1950, the charity responsible for Experiment continues to exist, disseminating the findings and it’s also keen to promote the idea of a new centre or centres opening, which sounds like a hugely positive step to tackling a whole range of social issues.

Tooting Harvest Foodival 3

TTT's 3rd Tooting Harvest Foodival takes place this weekend at Mushkil Aasaan in Upper Tooting Rd.  If you are a grower, a cook or simply an eater there'll be something for you to enjoy, as local restaurants cook up dishes made from locally sourced ingredients.  So nearly zero food miles!  Any spare local produce will be gratefully received at Saturday's drop-off, then come back on Sunday to taste the  culinary creations of Tooting's top chefs.  Full details and info on how to get involved can be found on the Foodival site

Free Energy Training Day Sat 25th Sept

In association with the Energy Saving Trust, Transition Town Tooting are organising a free Energy Auditing Day for homes and community buildings.

If you would like to be able to carry out a basic energy audit of any building then this course will show you some of the processes involved. It includes monitoring consumption and identifying the potential savings that could be made through the introduction of energy efficiency improvements.

Subjects covered will include the following:
• How to understand meter readings and bills
• What is involved in an energy audit
• How to identify and control of different types of heating
• Which types of heating are efficient and appropriate, depending on needs
• Specific issues relating to heat loss and insulation
• Opportunities for reducing consumption and increasing energy efficiency, including efficient lighting and controls
• The basics of some small scale renewable energy technologies
• How an auditing project could benefit your community and how Green Communities and other organisations can support your project


Space is limited so please book your place now by EMAILING

malsaraw@gmail.com


Venue: Christian Education Centre, 21 Tooting Bec Road, London, SW17 8BS; Sat 25th Sept. 10-4.30pm,

Lunch and refreshments will be provided; we just ask for a minimum contribution of £2 towards the hire of the hall.

Transition Town Tooting's Big Launch

Last night we held TTT's official Big Launch party to celebrate the “Unleashing” of the group in Tooting. The Unleashing is intended to mark the point of step change for taking responsibility and looking at what we can do now to make a difference in how we live our lives.

A good turnout of people gathered at the Samaj Hall in Tooting Broadway to celebrate this turning point. The venue was decked out in colourful home made bunting, banners, photographs, old maps and a 3 metre high model of our Sankofa bird made entirely from recycled plastic bags!

At the start of the evening people were directed upstairs to the gallery to view photographs and posters of the many events that Transition Town Tooting has been involved with since the movement began over two years ago and which culminated in the Trashcatchers Carnival held on the 4th July.

The event began with a mini carnival procession led by artists and carnivalistas from the Trashcatchers Carnival, followed by an introduction and welcome from Lucy Neal, Co-chair of Transition Town Tooting.  The audience then had the chance to see video clips from events organised by Transition Town Tooting over the last two years and hear from local residents, business people and community groups about what they liked and disliked about Tooting. It was very encouraging to hear that most people would change very little about Tooting!

The guest of honour, Rob Hopkins, co-founder of the Transition Network, then gave an enthralling presentation covering peak oil, climate change and the ideas underlying transition.

The Unleashing of Transition Town Tooting was symbolised by the cutting of a giant cake made in the shape of a Sankofa bird and people had the chance to join various action groups including Food, Buildings, Transport, Education, Arts and Energy which are scheduled to meet in the forthcoming months.

Food was provided by Ambala, a local Tooting restaurant, and drinks were donated by Ubuntu, a Tooting made cola, and Moor Organic Juice by James Grieve.  All in all, it was a very successful evening and enjoyed by all those who attended.

More reports of the evening are here on Rob's transition blog and via City Bumpkin

TTT's Big Launch

Hope you enjoyed the Trashcatchers' Carnival.  Now why not come to Transition Town Tooting's Big Launch a week today?  (Click on the invite below to enlarge)  Help us unleash a new creative vision for Tooting!

Trashcatchers Stop The Traffic!

Today's Trashcatchers' Carnival in Tooting was a great community event and we think a great success! ITV's London Tonight aired a minute and a half's footage at 6.30 this evening which you can view here. We rushed them some Carnival stills just in time to get the news deadline!  Read the Full Press Release here and more pictures of today below ...

Trashcatchers' Carnival Is Nearly Here

Sunday's Tooting Trashcatchers' Carnival is nearly upon us!  So many people have been putting in so much effort to make Sunday's Carnival a success and we hope you will all be able to join in the fun!  To ensure that you don't miss out, check the Carnival website for the latest details or click on the poster below:

Eve of the Trashcatchers Carnival

Check out the last minute preparations for tomorrow's Carnival!
And hope to see you there!  Full details on Carnival site

Podcast Interview with City Bumpkin

Back in March David & Malsara Thorne were interviewed by Rachel Wheeley, the self-styled City Bumpkin on the subject of Transition Town Tooting.  Release of the podcast was unavoidably delayed by the arrival of Rachel's new baby - congratulations to all involved!

As some of you will know Rachel does a regular blog she calls "Notes from an urban smallholding set on a hundred-and-sixtieth of an acre in Tooting, London".  She's into all things sustainable and has loads of good recipes on the site too.

Go here to >>> LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW which contains some of the hopes and imaginings for this weekend's Trashcatchers' Carnival and beyond towards a more sustainable, resilient and community-centred Tooting.  Or why not sign up for regular missives here on RACHEL'S BLOG

My 2010 Transition Network Conference

I set off from Tooting early last Friday for a leisurely journey down to Newton Abbott and the 2010 Transition Network Conference. As the train left London, passing through the hills of Berkshire and Wiltshire, and into Devon along the Teign Estuary my expectations and anticipation increased, although tinged with a little apprehension of what to expect (as the Transition movement is still very new to me).

Seale Hayne agricultural college provided a lovely back-drop for the thinking, exploring, discussing, singing and dancing to come. Day 1 proper kicked off with a large welcoming meeting to open the conference and to set up open space sessions – a chance to pool hopes, concerns and ideas for discussion. I was impressed by how quickly a welcoming and respectful tone was set, with plenty of humour mixed in from Rob Hopkins, Peter Lipman and the team.

It’s difficult to capture the flavour of such a packed event, with everyone taking a personal path through the conference, but there were particular highlights and sobering moments which stand out.

My first session explored local food, pooling many ideas and experiences from around the country: from cooking groups to reskill and seasonal recipe exchanges, to sowing events and patchwork urban farms and orchards – much for TTT to learn from. Continuing this theme I joined a discussion with Paul Sousek, organic farmer and member of Transition Town North Cornwall, on how urban and rural Transition Towns could work together. The group concluded that ‘Transition Twinning’ could bring great opportunities for skills sharing, increasing awareness of food production and consumption and developing food supply links – something I think many will be keen to develop further.

However, there were also sobering notes, reminding us of why we were there and the challenges facing society. Nicole M Foss (http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/ ) spoke on ‘Making sense of the financial crisis in the era of Peak Oil’, billed as how Peak Oil and the collapse of global Ponzie finance are a ‘perfect storm’ of converging phenomena that threaten to sink our age of prosperity through wealth destruction, social discontent and global conflict. The talk caused a huge reaction and much discussion throughout the remainder of the conference, not least because it personalised the workings and implications of the (to me) almost incomprehensible global financial system. Shaun Chamberlin has written an excellent summary on the Transition Network website (http://transitionculture.org/2010/06/14/my-conference-shaun-chamberlin-on-stoneleighs-peak-oilfinance-talk/). My mind was similarly overwhelmed by a screening of the Home Project (http://www.youtube.com/user/homeproject), a film of Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s soaring, majestic imagery of the earth from the air overlaid with a chilling narration on the state of the planet.

Phew! and a rapid round up of the best of the rest…. Nick Osborne led a fascinating interactive session on facilitating wider cultural and personal changes and communicating with people who may see the Transition movement as ‘too cuddly’. The session drew on Ken Wilbur’s ‘Integral Vision’ (http://integrallife.com/learn ), providing an insight into how understanding different world views can influence how effectively messages on Transition are communicated and projects taken forward.

Another key strand of the conference was the unveiling of a new way of understanding the Transition process. Rob Hopkins explained how as Transition becomes a broader, deeper and more complex model, the 12 Steps are becoming increasingly redundant. He presented a series of around 60 Transition ‘patterns’ or techniques in six broad stages (from where we start from, through ongoing and deepening, to scaling up beyond the community). These will allow groups to pick and choose techniques which suit the characteristics of their group and area. See the draft patterns so far at http://transitionculture.org/2010/06/03/transition-network-conference-2010-booklet-now-available/ . When fully worked up these will form the Transition Handbook 2 due to be published in 2011.

A final closing session (with song about scrambled eggs!) and shared lunch rounded off the 2010 conference and I left feeling I’d soaked up many new ideas, exchanged (my early) knowledge of TTT’s achievements, made new friends, and come away ready to contribute to TTT’s activities over the months to come (including the Carnival, Big Launch and Foodival!).

Charlotte - Transition Town Tooting

Carnival Factory Opens on the High Street: 11 - 6pm Every Day!

Come and join us at The Trashcatchers' Carnival Factory at Broadway Studios, 28 Tooting High Street! 

Drop by between 11am and 6pm for Carnival making. Make your own design or help with larger structures for the day.  Please bring plastic bags - the more coloured the better, also coloured plastic bottle tops, jewellery and shiny silver foil. All clean please!  Children under 16 should be accompanied by an adult.

For details about the Carnival day - how to get involved, what to make, bring and where to go see our Carnival site

ANNOUNCING TOOTING's 3rd HARVEST FOODIVAL September 19th 2010

ANNOUNCING TOOTING's 3^rd HARVEST FOODIVAL

September 19^th  2010

September 19th sees the return of Transition Town Tooting’s Harvest Foodival for the third year running and I’m looking for people to pitch in and make this year’s event even better! 2009’s Foodival was a fantastic success and saw six restaurants cook up a feast with locally grown fruit and veg for local residents to try with a finale of children’s events and a cooking competion at Fircroft school. This year we’re looking for ideas to make the Foodival bigger and better and look at ways to get more people to come along and join the fun.

If you’d like to add some ideas or fancy volunteering your help and expertise for this year’s event, I'll be holding a special Foodival planning meeting after the unleashing of TTT so watch this space for details and help make 2010 the best Foodival yet! For more information and to get involved please email giles@cen.org.uk and you can see last year’s Foodival at http://www.tootingfoodival.blogspot.com/

Giles

ONLY ONE MONTH TO GO!

The Trashcatchers' Carnival takes to the streets in 4 weeks' time. Lots happening to get ready between now and then. There are workshops in many of the schools building floats, costumes, musical instruments and head pieces. Artists will be travelling between Tooting's 15 schools on an almost daily basis. The South London Swimming Club have been creating the different elements of their Lido float - lacy waterfalls of blue shimmer, golden suns and shiny lettering.  It really is completely amazing what can be created from some coloured plastic bags. There are Carnivalista workshops now happening each weekend - see right for details and email transitiontowntooting@gmail.com if you would like more information.

More soon on designs you can make for musical instruments and things to carry, wear, shake and make.  Full details on our latest Trashcatchers leaflet and more on the Trashcatchers Blog.

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

Govt & TTT Both Committing on Climate Change

The government commits to 10:10:

The Government Signs-up to 10:10 from 10:10 on Vimeo.

while Tooting continues to commit to Carnival!

Walking in Flip-flops

At the weekend the remarkable Steph Bradley dropped in on TTT as we checked out potential venues for our Unleashing in July.  Steph, pictured above with Malsara, David & Lucy, has spent the last seven weeks walking from Transition HQ in Totnes, in, you guessed it, a pair of flip-flops!  She intends to spend six months in total walking between as many of the country's transition initiatives as possible, checking out all the fantastic work that is being done.  You can follow Steph's blog here.  Her description of Tooting High Street really struck me:

"In its colourful High Road selling fruit and veg from all over the world and silks of every colour and decoration I hear every language from Greek, Polish, and all different Indian and Pakistani dialects. I haven’t had an experience like this since my time exploring the wonderful markets of Ceuta in northern Morocco in 1992."

It's funny, sometimes I forget that we live in quite an unusual and culturally diverse part of the UK and it's quite uplifting to note the impression it can make on a visitor.  Good luck on your trip Steph.  DT

A Canopy Under Which We Grow - TTT's Sara reflects on her recent travels

TTT's Sara has been away from us since last year studying permaculture in Sweden and India.  She has sent us some fascinating reflections on her experiences....

I have since the middle of October been living amongst poor farmers in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The reasons I'm here are many, and the things I've learned so far even more. It was difficult to believe, when the chaos that is India hit me in the face, that I'd be able to decipher anything and learn more than a few valuable lessons.
As a former resident of Tooting I started my journey with plenty of "ahaa"s, and one time I even met a man who used to live in my beloved borough. It was as far away from the hustle and bustle of London it could be, in an idyllic village with thatched coconut rooves and outdoor kitchens. It made me wonder how many people in Tooting and the rest of the world long to be back here, back home but are having to work and earn the remittance that outsizes aid money many times over...

Continue to read this post here

Sand, Trash, Events, Well-being etc

Here we are greedily consuming the world's resources (thanks to the artists at Portugal's Fiesa festival for this great sand sculpture).  Will our political parties do something about it?  Attend the hustings and ask the local Tooting candidates before deciding where to mark your big X next Thursday.  BATCA have organised hustings tomorrow at St Anselms Church from 8pm.

Thanks to Malsara and Garry for the Trashcatching workshop photos already posted on the Trashcatchers site.  More to come. 

Meanwhile again tomorrow (Weds 28th) meet other local people concerned about plans by Lambeth Council & Tescos to put a temporary ice rink on common land.  Surely they can do better than this for our near neighbours in Streatham?

Don't forget we have a great First Tuesday Well-being Event "What's Good For The Climate Is Good For Health" coming up with Jenny Griffiths OBE, independent consultant and author of the Faculty of Public Health's publication Sustaining a Healthy Future on May 4th.  All welcome, it's free and open to all - full details here

Kites & Carnivals

A great day was enjoyed by many just a mile down the road at the 12th Streatham Common Kite Day a few days back.  Check out the massive kites!  Some inspiration for the Trashcatchers' Carnival maybe?  

Meanwhile the next Carnival workshop awaits this Sunday at 11 (EMAIL us if you want to be part of the action - plenty of creative things to get involved in) followed by the Jam 'N Beets night at the Bedford co-hosted with TT Wandsworth. 

First Tuesday Food & Seed Swap

Tuesday's food and seed swap event attracted a good crowd and provoked a wide range of food growing discussion. Giles Read reviewed TTT's past Foodivals, talked about plans for Foodival 2010, showed a film and gave away a collection of tools refurbished by inmates at Wandsworth Prison.

The Tools Shed project takes broken tools collected at Neal's Nurseries, a garden centre opposite the prison, and elsewhere, which are then given a new lease of life and returned for use in schools and community gardens.  The project helps prisoners' rehabilitation and also teaches them new skills. 

We also heard about urban growing from Toni Scott of Food Up Front before thronging around the seed swap table to pick up some interesting new seeds to try out.  This correspondent has already planted Borletto and French beans courtesy of Springfields Hospital SHARE garden project.  Thanks to everyone who brought seeds and plants, to Bob Winter at Tools Shed for the tools, which were quickly snapped up, and to Peter at Neal's Nurseries for his discount offer.

The next "First Tuesday" on May 4th will be a Well-being Event with Jenny Griffiths as guest speaker.

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!

BATCA Open Forum ‘Let’s Make Tooting Better’

TTT were delighted to join in BATCA’s (the Balham and Tooting Community Association) Open Forum on the theme ‘Let’s make Tooting Better’ on 17 March at St Augustine’s Hall. As Kate Allan of BATCA reports: 'The event drew a good crowd and generated a stream of ideas on improving Tooting. Both individuals and community organisations took part. A huge, colourful map of Tooting town centre on the hall floor helped focus ideas.

Cllr James Cousins, supported by Audrey Helps, Tooting Town Centre manager, gave a presentation on the ‘Tooting Together’ initiative to achieve cleaner streets, reduce clutter and litter, deal with fly tipping and eyesores, and attract new stores to Tooting. Lively questioning followed.

A workshop followed, where participants enthusiastically brainstormed ideas for improving Tooting. This was facilitated by Paul Squires of the New Economics Foundation and focused on key themes for wellbeing emerging from NEF research – ‘ connect’, ‘be active’, ‘ take notice’, ‘keep learning’, ‘give’. Lots of ideas emerged for realising these in Tooting – more people friendly streets; safe, easy places to meet; more greenery and trees; redevelop Tooting Market; facilities for the arts and learning; and many others.

The is was a stimulating evening that made clear how passionately people feel about Tooting , and gave lots of food for thought.  For more info about BATCA, email allanraallan@aol.com or phone 020 8870 1550.

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!

Susan's Eco Retrofit

Award-winning sustainable architect and TTT stalwart Susan Venner has been underatking an eco-retrofit of her Balham house for some time and you can visit it as part of the SuperHome Spring Openings on 28th March.  There's plenty of and varied insulation including an exterior cork wall plus solar water heating and a wood-burning stove.  It should be fascinating to snoop around ... ahem, under Susan's watchful guidance of course!  The opening is from 11 till 3 with half hour tours limited to 8 people at a time on the hour and half hour.  Book via Sustainable Energy Academy where Susan's home is listed as Cornford Grove, Balham.  

Also don't forget the BATCA Open Forum tonight at St Augustine's Church in Broadwater Rd between 7.30 and 9.30 pm.  The subject is "Let's Make Tooting Better" 

Also there's the Islam and Permaculture course next Sat 27th and the next First Tuesday on April 6th to look forward to, where the theme will be Food.  See our Events page for full details

Oscar Season continues ...

More good publicity but ... let's not forget our co-Champion Hilary!

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.

Our Green Champion

Lucy makes the front page as the Wandsworth Green Champion!  And below is the relevant part of the article on the Green Guardian pages.  Great publicity for Transition Town Tooting!  Well done Lucy!

Are we getting anywhere?

What a week!  Susan Venner (Venner Lucas Architects) and I collecting our Awards at this week's Wandsworth Green Champions Awards from the Mayor and Konstam's cook Oliver! Thanks to those that nominated us and many a cheer for our Tooting work to get a Transition initiative off the ground. We always talk about acting as a catalyst for imagining how we'll put our head, heart and hands to positive solutions to the challenges we face in building a low carbon society and holding these sparkly awards on Thursday night it felt as though it wasnt just talk: others also believe we are making a practical difference too. Hurrah!  Working hard day by day, week by week, you have to trust your instincts that you're getting somewhere so it's uplifting to be recognised - and that goes for the whole TTT team - in this way. No stopping us now.

Many a week in transition world has a roller coaster feel.  The last has been no exception. Monday was spent preparing for a gi-normous 'stake holder' meeting with representatives of Emergency services, Fire, Ambulance, Police, Transport for London, London Traffic Control, London Buses, Tooting Town Centre Management, our Carnival artists Emergency Exit Arts and a number of Wandsworth Council employees to discuss closure of Upper Tooting Road on Sunday July 4th for the Trashcatchers' Carnival.  Road  closure of any of London's main roads is a very complex business and traffic management plans have to be worked out with incredible care and precision, to divert buses, fire engines and ambulances. The first meeting made progress - we are not there yet, but hopefully more work, more plans, more meetings and we can get there. In a nutshell we're proposing that a community that has heavy traffic pass through it 24 hours a day for 365 days a year, is given the chance to celebrate itself, see itself, hear itself, know itself, renew and re-imagine itself for a few hours as a spectacular, inventive, creative, non polluting Carnival passes through.

Today we spent some time visiting shops and businesses along the High Road letting them know about the Carnival and asking if they had any trash we could start collecting...We met with positive responses and many smiles. It seems the Carnival gives pleasure to people simply imagining it. Fingers crossed the real thing will prove memorable and magical for all. Email Transition Town Tooting if you'd like to know about the Feb Carnival workshops being held Feb 27th/28th to design and build the Carnival story.

The Copenhagen Climate Change talks back in December were of course more than disappointing. But for me they made one thing crystal clear. It is on the ground, person by person, house by house, shop by shop, heart by heart where the real changes are made. It really really is down to us in local communities. As Gary Snyder the American poet says 'Find your place on the planet. Dig in and take responsibility from there.' How proud and glad I am that's Tooting for me!
LN

Easing The Transition

Coverage in today's Wandsworth Guardian of our recent Energy Talk with Jeremy Leggett & Rex Cassidy.  Good pic - we should sign that photographer up for the Carnival!

Brief highlights are now on our video channel

Talking Energy & Recycled Oil

TTT held a very interesting and well attended talk on Thursday with Solar Century's Jeremy Leggett and Rex Cassidy the Facilities Director at Springfields Hospital responsible for all St Georges Trust buildings. Some video excerpts will follow on our youtube channel.  

Jeremy reminded us that how human brains work is key and that we tend "to be blind to depletion of resources, expecting steady growth in supply to meet ever increasing demand."  Scary, but we obviously derive some comfort from being in a state of denial!  Meanwhile the UK government apparently has an equally scary attitude to the coming oil crunch telling Jeremy that "it would be risky to do a risk assessment" of the situation!  And the government's 2009 Wicks Report tells us "there's no crisis", assuming oil companies will just find more and more prehistoric fossilised algae and zoo plankton from 100s of millions of years ago (yes that's what oil is according to wikipedia anyway).  Thankfully Jeremy said solutions abound in renewable energy, the clean tech revolution and localised resilience, mobilising just as people did in the straightened times of 1930s and 40s.  A very Transition response we think.  Loads more info on Jeremy's site HERE.

Rex meanwhile explained the energy challenges of looking after 90 buildings used by 3,000 staff in the Tooting area.  Indeed it was the hospital staff who provided key impetus behind drafting the Trust's Carbon Management Plan, to which Rex introduced us.  There was time for questions and it was sobering to discover that the UK sits a paltry 25th out of the 27 EU countries in terms of renewable energy development with 1.3%.  The hospital redevelopment plans meanwhile do hope to include renewable energy generation.

Also last week we made an inspiring and enlightening visit to Uptown Oil near Waterloo who produce 100% recycled biodiesel from used vegetable oil. Wouldn't it be great if the Trashcatchers Carnival floats could be powered by used cooking oil from Tooting's myriad restaurants? We are looking into the possibility.  Uptown Oil told us they are constantly looking for more good supplies of used oil.  A significant number of London's taxis are already running on cleaner renewable biodiesel as was evidenced by the steady stream of them pulling up while we there.    DT