Green living & games: a second theme for our St George's Open Day Stand

A theme we'll be looking at with our stand in the hospital at St George's all day on Nov 15th is green living, with games and activities to explore home and personal sustainability. Living green is a practical response at family and community level to global climate change.

Professor Chris Rapley's play / lecture called 2071 'explores the future of life on earth and climate change' this week at the Royal Court Theatre. Some of us from TTT saw the play today, and one of the conclusions is simple and powerful:

1. Global population will probably stabilise - say at c9.5 billion
2. That population will need energy
3. That energy must be carbon-free for us to have a successful future

Blunt words.
Getting rid of 'carbon' in energy and production is not the only key to being sustainable and happy...but it's a core step. TTT have found the practical focus on everyday carbon reduction has been successful in the series of Carbon Conversations meetings we've offered locally since 2011. To see a recent run through of our 2014 series in six blog posts, click here - and we will be happy to talk about the meetings with visitors on Saturday.

What about games?

We know playing games is a simple (and sophisticated) way of understanding a new subject or rehearsing larger-scale challenges.

 
In Carbon Conversations, there are a lot of games - for example on our choices in managing home energy, and on travel options, and on 'where is the carbon in the food we use?'


Come along on Saturday and we guarantee you will enjoy our games for all ages: Giant Green Living Jenga, Food Mapping, Food Footprints, and making a Drinks Carton Wallet.

We've been making these wallets in Tooting since 2010 (last seen at the 2014 Foodival, where dozens were hidden around Tooting, each with a local chilli pepper and an invitation inside...).


Like to see a step-by step guide to make 
them at home?
1 First squash your carton, with a concertina fold in each side:
2 Fold into three and then....
  ...well, come along on Saturday and find out! 


We look forward to seeing you all day on Saturday 15th at St George's, and all ages are welcome to come and play.

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.

Pumpkin power in the Community Garden

We harvested our pumpkin today:

And within an hour or so, lunch was served (looks great, Diana!):

Wonderful!
More pictures: click on GARDEN in the links at top of this page.  
All welcome any Sunday....
(to the Garden, I mean...and yes we should cook lunch there one day)

Our exciting outdoor programme with Gatton School continues

Since September we have had Year One groups coming every week to the Community Garden. It was a great run of sessions, and we didn't miss a day because of bad weather. 
All credit to the children, staff and volunteers.
Now we have Reception and Year Six children coming each week until the end of term. We'll share much more detail from both classes.
Meanwhile, here's a picture during last Tuesday's short window of sunshine with Reception. Isn't this an amazing leaf -

See the post below for news from the new Year Six programme.

Construction Begins on the Insect Hotel!

This week we embarked on our next garden-based project with Year 6 students and teachers from Gatton Primary School in Tooting. This follows the Rainwater Catchment and Cold Frame projects of last year, as reported in this blog and on the education page of Issue 6 in the Transition Free Press.

What is an Insect Hotel?

Over the next 7 weeks we will be making an Insect Hotel! Why? This particular project is interesting to us and the school because it turns our attention to creepy crawlies, master pollinators, mini beasts, ecosystem engineers! Essential members of the garden food chain, both up and down!

We'll be encouraging solitary bees, worms, ladybirds, invertebrates, centipedes and millipedes to move in - still doesn't tickle your fancy? How about spiders and wood lice, lacewings and stag beetles not to mention fungi and bacteria. All essential for enhancing biodiversity in the garden as well as the health of our wider ecosystem - something we all need.

It might look like this!

How will we do this? We'll focus on creating the habitats that they love to make a 5 Star, concierged, en suite bug palace. Who wouldn't want to move in!

The project engages carpentry skills, exploration into bug habitats, study into ecosystems, recycling and re-using of materials and will be an ongoing learning resource at the garden.

This first week, our main task was to start cutting the uprights for the structure of the hotel, defining its height. For this, we're re-using fencing timbers donated from our site at 5 North Drive.

You can find out more at Inspiration Green's Insect Hotels article and The Wildlife Trust Building an Insect Hotel Habitat

A Tale of Leaves, Compost and more - Sunday in the Community Garden

Jenny and Rose hatched a plan to do a group effort on our leaves and compost: shift the heaps around, do some finicky work and try out ideas and new skills too.

We did other jobs too - many thanks to all, and to Steph for cake. 

However for photographing I was enchanted by just one story.....

    

1 raking the leaves

Once upon a time....

18 people came along to the Garden.

There was with an age difference of well over 60 years from youngest to oldest.


 


2 making the rings
of wire mesh




3 weaving in sticks
to hold it all together





4 admiring the tower!

5 adding the leaves

Meanwhile, back at the compost heaps:

 

All the separate bins were being sorted

We were definitely doing things we'd never done before... 

 



carefully removing
ground elder roots

older finished compost
was put out on the beds

And in another part of the garden, all was peaceful...

It was a great couple of hours, and it's not an urban fairytale:

the story will be continued....

 

All welcome to the Community Garden any Sunday 1100-1300

We're at 5 North Drive, SW16 1RN

Notices and news on Facebook / Tooting Community Garden

twitter: @TTTGarden

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.

Tooting Constitutional Club Development

Last year we were all coming together to save the Wheatsheaf with some success.  Now the latest community space that could soon be turned from public space into private flats and shops is the former Tooting Constitutional Club, just down from Sainsburys at Tooting Broadway.  On Wednesday evening there was a chance to peruse some proposed plans at the site.

This thread at Tooting Online has some details and debate as does this one on Streetlife. 

TTC as it is now

On first impresssion, the proposed development does seem monstrously large in comparison to the current buildings and those adjacent, and while it does include a small unspecified "community space", it is not clear at this stage what that might be.

You can have your say on the plans, but be quick, you need to email comments by the end of Monday 20th Oct to stefanie.mizen@eu.jll.com

What the streetscape might look like with a huge development of flats

Tooting History Group say the building apparently dates from the 18th Century, and though the site evidently needs work, wouldn't it be better if it was developed sensitively with the community and history foremost in mind?  Wouldn't it be great if a site like this could be retained wholly or in part for use by a variety of Tooting's myriad community groups?   TTT would certainly be interested in using, running or helping to develop such a space.   There's also a bowling green at the back which will largely disappear under concrete if these plans go ahead. What could we imagine that being: a new community garden?  A revived bowling green?  A pocket park?

Developers will naturally always want to maximise returns from property investments, so it's up to us as residents to speak up, put pressure on them and the Council to ensure that development is right for the community and the site. Why not send Stefanie some thoughts? stefanie.mizen@eu.jll.com

Furzedown Low Carbon Zone: Film Night 22nd Oct

All welcome to a Film Night hosted by our sister project, Furzedown Low Carbon Zone.

Date: Wednesday October 22nd
Venue: The Furzedown Project, 93 Moyser Road, SW16 6SJ
Timings: Doors open at 7:30pm, and the showing starts at 8:00
Booking: Please book a ticket on our booking page here. Tickets are £5.00. Under-16s and over-60s are free (please book in all the same)

We'll finish by 9:30, but conversation can always move to the pub! 
Film is better with tea, coffee and cake - and if you came to the Tooting Foodival you know we make some great cakes.

We're showing 'Disruption':

a brand new film about climate change and community 

organisation in the face of apparent poltical apathy 

The film also covers the background to the New York City Climate March last month.

As well as fundraising for our activities, we'll be sharing the proceeds of the evening with Furzedown FACE, a group that supports the local community. 




The 'FLCZ' has been active for three years now
Furzedown Low Carbon Zone is a community association dedicated to reducing the carbon emissions of Furzedown and surrounding areas. You may have seen us at Furzedown Big Day Out, at Tooting Foodival or on the Climate March.

Two earlier FLCZ projects were carried out with many local partners including South Thames College, Eardley School, Furzedown enterprises and Transition Town Tooting. Do watch the project videos:

1 'The Greener Jobs Alliance' - watch it here

2 'Better Choices for a Better Tomorrow' - watch it here

We're proud that our first project won the Green Gown Awards 'Best Newcomer' category  in 2012 from The Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges.


If you'd like to find out about FLCZ activities, including our current focus on setting up a community renewable energy scheme, please contact us here.
We look forward to seeing you.

A follow-up to the People's Climate March

A huge event worldwide - maybe the biggest of its kind, ever.

Here's a map from 350.org, one of the 
campaign partners:


The march in New York City:

What's happened afterwards (so far)?
This article gives a good view from the UN:  'Five ways Ban Ki-moon's summit has changed international climate politics forever' http://gu.com/p/4xp6f

Please join us to carry out relevant, rewarding and practical local activities together, here in Tooting.  
Do get in contact with your ideas.

People's Climate March, London Sept 21 2014

Why take part in the Climate March?

With strong arms, one inspired person can achieve a lot!

By joining Transition Town Tooting, the Tooting Community Garden, and Furzedown Low Carbon Zone, and Transition Wandsworth together all under one banner - we can share the work and achieve even more.



Why take part...?
Young people can express themselves, we can all be inspired...
We can get talking to others by showing off our banner (thanks loads for making it, Alice).

Today's march was worthwhile for the sense of connection within a common cause, the conversations, the contacts made.

And some extra learning? Have longer bamboo poles next time..

All welcome to join us in Transition Tooting or the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone to get involved with practical community projects on food, growing, energy, air quality, sustainable living and more.
Together we're all contributing creativity and some local solutions to the global challenges we all face, whatever group we belong to.

There's a good new film: 'Disruption', reminding us why climate change is so significant: watch it here online for free.
And you can hear Naomi Klein (details here) talk about her new book 'This Changes Everything: Capitalism against the Climate' on October 6th in central London.

 

Please join in!

 

Thanks for being part of a wonderful Foodival!

We had a great weekend, then a much-needed couple of days to relish the whole experience. Now, our Foodival wrap-up report is ready - it's one click away on the Foodival page here

We hope you enjoy reliving last weekend!

Thanks to all from the whole team at Transition Town Tooting.
We can't wait for the eighth annual Tooting Foodival in Sept 2015!
We're very keen to get your feedback on Foodival. Either pop a comment on the blog below, get in touch or fill in our survey here.

Foodival Day One

A great day collecting fruit and veg at Foodival. Hope to see you tomorrow at Samaj Hall.

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

Who's cooking up a feast for Foodival?

We are very pleased to be able to announce the restaurants who will be taking up the challenge of cooking up delicious taster dishes from all the food you're donating to Foodival.

Find out who those seven restaurants are over on the Foodival blog.

Fancy joining them in celebrating local produce?

• You can produce a dish from your own locally grown or foraged produce as part of the Top Tooting Cook competition. 
• Or pick up some produce from us by visiting Mushkil Aasaan from 4pm - 5pm on Saturday 13 September.

And if you have any food you'd like to donate, you can drop it off at our stand at the BATCA Community Fun Day or at Mushkil Aasaan during Foodcycle from 1pm - 4pm on Saturday 13 September.

Two weeks to Foodival - and we have news!

It's only two weeks to Foodival and we're starting to announce all the wonderful things that are happening on the festival day, Sunday 14 September at Samaj Hall.

We'll be making announcements about all the fantastic people and organisations who are contributing to Foodival.  We want to say thanks for all your support. The event wouldn't be the same without you.

And in appreciation of the amazing talents of the musicians, community groups, restaurant teams, growers, artists, volunteers, and organisations supporting the event, we'll be making a series of announcements over the next fourteen days over on the Tooting Foodival blog.

So, don't hesitate!

Put Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 September in your diaries and head over to the blog to find out more about the entertainers we just announced for the Sunday.

Stay up-to-date by following us on Twitter, liking us Facebook, signing up to the newsletter or just visiting the blog every so often.

We're looking forward to meeting you all in two weeks time. Bring friends and family - the more the merrier!

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!

Restart Party in Tooting Sept 9th

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 “Restart Party” with TTT in Tooting next month. 

The Restart Project aims to reduce electronic waste by helping people learn fundamental repair and maintenance skills, enabling them to fix all kinds of electronic devices rather than throw them away or recycle them.  Slow laptops, broken printers, smartphones, coffee grinders, you name it, Restart will attempt to assist with a fix. 

Sound interesting? Then come along to the event, 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 & data, so please do not forget to take any back-ups beforehand, if relevant !

We look forward to seeing you at this great event at Mushkil Aasaan, 220 - 222 Upper Tooting Road, SW17 7EW, Tuesday Sep 9^th from 6 to 9pm. The event is also advertised om meetup.com here.