#createfoodival

There's a lot to share about all that's happening at the Tooting Foodival on 14th September, so we'll cover all of these in separate blog posts.

We hope you enjoy the info about our creative offer for adults and young people. All invited to our base in the large yard part way down Hereward Road.

Here's your invitation 

to a diverse 6 hours of creativity:

Our schedule:

11:00-12:30 We'll be micro-observing with Annie, Nikki & Chuck using magnifying glasses and a microscope, drawing and creating the first small worlds which we'll post on Instagram with the hashtag #createfoodival. We started with posting a first example today - have a look.
We can't wait to encourage visitors to be drawn to nature!
We'll continue these activities all day in parallel with the timed special sessions below.

12:30-1:30 We welcome May Webber from the UK national charity Butterfly Conservation
May will bring specimens of insects for us to explore with the help of her expertise and enthusiasm. With May and Nicola we'll draw and realise that what's good for insects in London is also good for people.
MAYBE we will be able to run moth-trapping locally on Friday night, and bring the catch in unharmed to observe and draw.

1:30-3:00 Nikki and Matt will be creating Microbrellas - our spin-off from this spring's Jellybrella project which created big jellyfish-sculptures using scrap umbrellas and linked sea life with ocean plastics.

Making beautiful detailed microbrellas also aims to highlight how minute nano-plastics in the oceans are as damaging pollution challenge as large-scale waste.


We may have a visit from Jasmine the Mermaid and her stop ocean plastics campaign!


3:00-4:30 Paul will lead us to create easy-to-use small home planters out of re-purposed materials. You can take these home and keep growing fresh food this autumn.

All day Think Outside will join us in the creative yard with excellent outdoor learning activities complementary to #createfoodival - thanks for joining us, Beata & Think Outside

We'll display what you make on this inspiring sea turtle table made by Jamie Pattinson - it's a wonderful object with a plastic waste message.

The #createfoodival facilitators look forward 

to seeing you on the 14th from 11:00 to 5:00. 

And there's all the rest 

of the Foodival to enjoy, too!

Growing Community across London - Part 2

Our previous blog post describes Growing Community Part 1 - and to recap in the last week of July our long-planned collaboration between Ravenstone School and Tooting Community Garden offered two interlinked local 'Growing Community in the Heart of the City' workshops as part of The Mayor of London's National Park City Festival

The common green thread running through both events was celebrating city growing and the outdoors, creating an environment which is good for ourselves, for the community and for nature.




Blog post Part 1 describes the Ravenstone School event on July 22.
Here we're sharing what we did together in the second of the two events, the Tooting Community Garden open day on July 28th.

The garden team of a dozen volunteers met early (no Sunday lie-ins) to put up signs, hang our TTT bunting, set up activities and then provide a warm welcome and an invitation to join in the day in any way people wished. We wanted to demonstrate that being outdoors together is accessible and enjoyable.

Over 80 people came along on a Sunday with an on-off forecast for rain. We decided to not put up gazebos, and we were all rewarded with a lovely afternoon.

The welcome table gave a focus for saying hello and having a chance to talk with visitors who either explored the garden, relaxed or joined one of our fun and practical activity workshops:

1. Creating vertical wall planters with Paul: sharing environmental, DIY, creativity and urban growing benefits.














2. Being guided by Sharon to select plants and re-purposed containers to take home - building growing skills and wellbeing.

3. Joining Jane's 'Drawn to Nature' drawing workshop: enjoying taking time to observe and be present, with wellbeing and drawing practice benefits.

4. Annie's creative workshops in the family zone: sharing benefits of creating together in unusual ways across generations or with people new to you and learning fun techniques to take home.

Feedback from visitors included:
'A lovely place, and lovely people' 'A lovely celebration of nature and community spirit' 'The day was beautiful, well thought-out and sustainable' 'A nice peaceful day and a great community feel' 'Loved the community feeling and how positive and welcoming everyone has been' 'What a lovely garden, and such friendly people. We'll be back'

Our own responses to the day?
It was very affirming for the Community Garden team to welcome so many people who enjoyed what we offered together. Sundays in the Garden are fun and informal, and it was a good challenge to do something different, facilitating an engaging and outward-looking day.
Plus, it was our 8th birthday as a garden project since being generously offered use of the land by Naseem Aboobaker.  

Many volunteers have opened the Garden space on over 400 Sundays. 

That's worth celebrating!

Thanks to all the volunteers: Amanda, Annie, Chuck, Deb, Jane, Kay, Keith, Paul, Ryan, Sharon & Tom. A big shout out to our new friends and qualified first aiders Alice & Charlie who joined us on the day to provide that cover - thankfully they had no cause to leap into action. Kudos to photographer Bryony Williams for images used here (plus more for another time) and to Kay and Chuck for other pictures in this blog.

Everyone is welcome to join us at the Community Garden every Sunday from 11:00 to 1:00 (sometimes later into the afternoon). No experience necessary and we share any updates or changes on our Tooting Community Garden Facebook and Instagram pages.

The annual Tooting Foodival - our twelfth! - is TTT's next big community event! It's taking place on Saturday 14th September and we hope to see you there - it's going to be great!

Growing Community in the Heart of the City: two linked local events offered as part of The Mayor of London's National Park City Festival

'Growing Communities in the Heart of the City' is this weekend in the Tooting Community Garden!
We'll be running our free open day on Sunday 28th July from 12:00-4:00 to celebrate the National Park City Festival and also our 8th birthday (we've opened the garden on around 400 Sundays!)

 












What will we be doing on Sunday?

• Welcoming everyone to come along and enjoy the space - no need to book.
• Bring a picnic, and we'll provide activities, green space, shade and plenty of cool water!
• We're offering a particular welcome to families with young children or babies - come and have some outdoor time in a safe and welcoming place.
• We'll have a range of fun garden-themed activities for families and young children.
• We're also offering three timed workshops, just drop in:
  • 12:30 - 1:30, learn about making vertical wall planters so you can garden anywhere with very little space
  • 1:00 - 2:00, learn about selecting and taking care of plants, and choose some to pot up and take home
  • 2:30 - 3:30, be 'Drawn to Nature' and join our plant life drawing workshop for adults and teenager
• Of course you can simply come along and enjoy being in the garden - so do bring a blanket to sit on and a picnic.

All welcome!

You can follow Tooting Community Garden on Facebook and Instagram - join us!

 

We're celebrating city growing and the outdoors, creating an environment which is good for ourselves, for the community and for nature.

We also facilitate other community programmes in the Community Garden. 
For six years we have run outdoor learning with Gatton School and garden and wellbeing activities with the beneficiaries at CARAS the Tooting charity working with asylum-seekers and refugees.  

We're proud to be able to offer to share the space with everyone locally and also very grateful to Naseem Aboobaker of Mushkil Aasaan for the free use of her land to create this community garden during these years.

Jellybrella creative workshop takes off on May 11th

We're thrilled to be running the Jellybrella creative workshop in a fortnight as part of Wandsworth Arts Fringe.
Free and for all ages: all welcome to join us!

We're holding the Jellybrella workshop from 10:00 to 4:00 on Saturday May 11 in Furzedown at Sprout Community Arts.
Bring an umbrella or two if you can - perhaps you can re-make a neglected one or celebrate your favourite loved brolly.

We'll get straight into making led by Nikki and Chuck, and at intervals our storyteller David will move us with tales of lost & found umbrellas & living with less waste. He'll be helping us be imaginative and thoughtful about the links between being artists for the day and taking care of the health and wellbeing of our neighbours, community and city.
We'll finish with a parade right outside Sprout - and if it rains, there's no problem as we'll have Jellybrellas.

To  book workshop places - don't hesitate to bring the family - please visit Transition Town Tooting & Jellybrella event pages on Facebook here and send us a message.

A bucket of donated brollies  - each of them waiting to be transformed by you into a Jellybrella.
Come on May 11th to our creative workshop and find out the difference!




 

We're very grateful to Wandsworth Grants Fund and the Wandsworth Arts Fringe team for supporting Jellybrella.
That's all the May 11th workshop details; please read on for more of what we have learned so far while doing the Jellybrella project.

Donate and transform your old or broken umbrellas into a Jellybrella!

Our Jellybrella participatory arts project reuses waste to celebrate creativity, diversity and sustainability. The main event is a free family day on May 11th at Sprout Community Arts in Furzedown, offered as part of the Wandsworth Arts Fringe. More info here.

Donated at TTT's ACE

The raw materials we're using are all saved from scrap, and the key thing we need is lots of umbrellas! 
Maybe some of the lost umbrellas of Tooting which gather wasted and folorn in corners of pubs and cafes?
Maybe an old or broken brolly of yours? 
Maybe one you find in the road?
You can donate in many ways to the Jellybrella project: your golfing or fishing brollies, pretty parasols, or classic old school British black rolled-up umbrellas.

Where to donate a brolly in March & April:

• Bring to the Tooting Community Garden any Sunday between 11:00 & 1:00. We're at 5 North Drive SW16 1RN
• Bring to any other TTT meeting - for example the Open Monthly Meeting on Tues 12th. Details on TTT events calendar.
• Leave them for us at the Work & Play Scrapstore
• Leave them for us at any of 3 Wandsworth Oasis charity shops - at Amen Corner, at 40-42 Trinity Road or at 127 Mitcham Lane
• Leave them for us at the South London Makerspace in Herne Hill

Jellybrella: TTT's creative project for spring 2019

In Spring 2019 TTT is inviting everyone to join in with Jellybrella, our free and participatory community arts sustainabity project reusing waste to celebrate creativity, diversity, welcoming, wellbeing and making alongside others.  
We'll be popping up in February, March, April & May. All invited!

It's early days to be sharing this, but we've started to share info on Jellybrella so it's an opportunity to tell the full story on the blog. Yesterday we created an Instagram account - have a look.

Thanks loads to David Pitt for donating time to create our logo!

We're proud that the May 11th event will be part of the Wandsworth Arts Fringe. It will be a free family creative workshop for adults & children where we'll use scrap materials to create exciting sculptures. 

Specifically we'll be transforming the lost and found umbrellas of Tooting, getting together to enjoy some community making -  we'll all become artists making our community beautiful with stories & hands-on making together.

What's happening with the knitted bees of Tooting? - Update #2 on our partnership project with CARAS

We've enjoyed and learned so much from our partnership project with CARAS which has been running since spring 2015.
Here's Update #2 on one more of the project strands - this one involving the CARAS Women's Group for refugees and asylum-seekers. We shared Update #1 a fortnight ago - read it here.

The knitted honeybees of Tooting
It's not often you can ask "what’s happening in the world of Tooting’s knitted & crocheted bees?" We’ve been busy since spring 2018 on a fascinating quest that started with our beekeeper friend Richard who is Chair of the London Beekepers Association asking "Do you know anyone who could make some model bees as teaching aids? Toy bees available online are all hopelessly inaccurate...we need about 50..."
I immediately said "yes!" and a new project was born...which has developed to include the CARAS Family Day and Women's Group, a wonderful local group of knitters, beekepers and TTT.

It's been so moving to us all that this novel partnership has come together: local craftspeople with experience and skill plus refugee women with skills and desire to create plus our own TTT colleagues. We've got together for the interest and challenge, in order to work with a London-wide group's own fascinating project in an imaginative way.

Attaching wings and legs at the CARAS Women's Group

Richard and the LBKA are developing participative classes for schools. The bee models would need to have the correct number of legs (6), eyes (5) and wings (4), with antennae (2) in just the right place on their heads ("not like antlers and not like whiskers"), triangular downward-facing heads, a waist: all giving the general look of a honeybee with correct details while also being imaginative prompts for LBKA workshops. The bees should definitely not have cartoon smiles.

TTT's new series of practical & participative local 'Carbon Conversations' is running in November & December - you're invited to take part!

Carbon Conversations is back! Our new series of six free meetings in November & December in SW16 - organised by TTT's Ben Cuddon. 

The facilitated workshops enable individuals to explore the areas of our lives where we can reduce our own carbon emissions: travel, food, domestic energy, consumption and waste.

A quote from a past participant:  

"The beauty of Carbon Conversations is the 

optimism, creativity and shared ideas" 

During the six weekly sessions you'll discuss in a supportive atmosphere all the practicalities of making your own 'low-carbon lifestyle' changes. Making these changes is never one size fits all. 

Exploring your own situation, start point and preferences is so valuable and makes the series personal and practical. 

The meetings are well structured with a mix of games, conversation, debate, activities and exercises.


Click here for the flyer and here are the summary details:
Venue: in SW16 between Mitcham Lane & Streatham Common Station 
Timings: all meetings run from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm 
Dates: six Thursdays from Nov 1st to Dec 6th, once a week
Free: there is no fee to take part. The only cost is currently £14 for the workbook and learning materials, which TTT charges at cost. Sessions are led for free by TTT's trained Carbon Conversations facilitators. 
To join or ask any questions: contact Ben Cuddon by email here or TTT by mail here

TTT has run over 12 series of Carbon Conversations since 2011. 
On average participants are able to identfy how to reduce their own carbon footprints by a third - by over 4 tonnes of carbon.
Wait a minute! 
What does 'four tonnes of carbon' mean? 
You may already be worried about shorthand & jargon. The way we facilitate the meetings means that you do not need to be an expert. 
Although it's a complex subject, we guarantee that by the end of the sessions you will learn useful new language and concepts and understand the practical elements of household carbon reduction.

This series is a great place to start if you want to reduce your carbon footprint, meet some friendly and like-minded people and explore the topic as it affects you, rather than being lectured at!

As a participant said: 

"At the last session I don't think anybody wanted to leave!"

 Join us to find out how to reduce heat loss from your home!

The fabulous OaKomotion! Carnival promenading in Furzedown: re-imagining, movement & change

Ten days ago the fabulous OaKomotion! travelling Carnival promenaded all round Furzedown.

The whole amazing sunny event was based on the sucess of the Furzedown Oak Community Project. 
In the Project community artists and host groups adopted sections of the large American Oak felled locally. Then they created sculptures to give the oak a rich and longer life. Read all about the Project here!


Oakomotion! started at 10:30 on Sunday 24th June outside Sprout Community Arts. As Fio Adamson says: 
"As soon as Vince and the Never Wilbies started playing outside Sprout at 10.30 on Sunday morning I realised that music in the streets is all we need to complete the Furzedown dream."
Read about the whole carnival day in Fio's report - read or download here.


Tooting Community Garden hosted the last part of the day. Fio writes:
"A secluded dream-place with bees buzzing, veggies growing and flowers greeting the sunshine.  The Bean Dragon made by myself and 80 others still lives and should live there for many years to come. Remember the Big Day Out 2016, Dahomey Road street party and the Foodival the same year? – yes,  you too probably chipped away then at the big piece of Oak and helped it on its way."

Here's the oak Bean Dragon - part bench, all magic:

Below there's the new Community Garden table made with young refugees and asylum-seekers from the Tooting charity CARAS.
It's inscribed in many languages with messages of welcome, and all were invited to add more. When there was no more room on top it was the turn of the table legs to be decorated. Come and see the Dragon and the table any Sunday from 11-1 when the Garden is open to all.

Really the whole day was about re-imagining, movement and change,

from a felled tree to some beautiful living sculptures; 

from all corners of Furzedown to our hidden but accessible oasis. 

Thanks to Fio and all the OaKomotion! team.

Here's the dancing finale in the garden: