Transition Town Tooting

Author: Transition Town Tooting

  • Open Day in the Garden 15th June

    On June 15th, as part of the Open Garden Squares weekend, TTT presents the Tooting Community Garden Open Day & Father’s Day Fete at the Community Garden, 5 North Drive, not far the Lido. Come and discover for yourself this hidden garden paradise. It’s free, naturally, and there are events for all ages including story-telling, paper making and games.

    Or maybe you would just like to come and experience this reclaimed semi-wild growing space, chill out and picnic or get some gardening advice from those involved in the projects we run with community volunteers and local schoolchildren.   

    There will also be the usual garden session from 11 till 1 for anyone interested in getting involved. 

    All welcome, whatever you fancy.  

  • Green sky thinking – here in Tooting

    On Tuesday evening 3rd June the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone is having its monthly planning meeting  at the Furzedown Pub, in the back room from 1900 to 2030.
    The group has carried out diverse local projects for the past three years with many partners. On Tuesday we’ll share updates on current plans and make new ones: our priority now is to develop a community renewable energy project locally.
    For more info, email us at furzedownlowcarbonzone@gmail.com
    All welcome – and we’d love to talk to you at the Furzedown Festival Big Day Out on 21st June http://furzedown.net/

    At Sprout Arts on Wednesday 4th June, from 1900 to 2100, there’s the first of a fascinating series of events with local architect Ayca Cutts.
    ‘Green Thinking: Designing to Survive’ is the title of Wednesday evening’s participative workshop. For more details on Ayca’s whole series at Sprout, click here.
    We are looking forward to this – and it’s a great fit with our Tooting Carbon Conversations series (click on this link for more info on our curent and past meetings)

  • Six gardens to inspire us

    TTT people have made six fascinating garden visits (well five visits to new gardens, and our garden seems fresh every day). We want to share our impressions of things that excited us in many settings, from diverse and creative points of view, all of which can inspire our growing in Tooting.
    Yes we are only showing snapshots – on another day, and for another visitor, there’d be a different experience.
    Two gardens are in New York, in Manhattan’s Alphabet City – where guerilla gardening began in the early 1970s in a bid to develop community ties and reduce unsafe areas. It wasn’t set up by politicians, but by individuals mobilising together.
     
    Which is your favourite garden; what inspires you to grow?
    Share a comment below this post…
     
    First, the Tooting Community Garden. We have been sowing beans, corn, and more beans – one of our contributions for Growing for the 2014 Foodival. Come and see them at our Garden Open Day, from 1000-1700 on Sunday 15th June, when we’re open as part of Open Garden Squares and the Furzedown Festival.
     
    Bursting out on 21st May

    Sowing on 5th May
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Second, El Jardin del Paraiso in New York City.  Home to the most fantastic tree house (or should I say tree nest) I’ve ever seen. It was great to see so many children enjoying the space and hear music being played (much like our garden every Sunday).
    The tree nest was the result of a partnership with local artists, and

    reminded me of the Furzedown Oak project that we’re part of in Tooting. It really brought to life how art can inspire people’s connection with the natural environment around them and help their enjoyment of that space. http://evpcnyc.org/eljardin/

    Third, Chelsea Physic Garden.
    A paradise since 1673 for lovers of plants and botanical history, right on the Thames near the Royal Hospital (and the Chelsea Flower Show right now). It is very welcoming, and in beautiful condition, with the wow factor of expert planting and interpretation.

    I love the ‘Shelf Life’ project tucked away in the teaching area: growing common shop and supermarket foods in their sales packaging: from aloe vera to guava to wheat.

     
     
    Fourth, Rosendale Allotments in Dulwich. Founded in 1908, the allotment assocation has 480 plots (and a long waiting list). The site lies on a steep hill, and every kind of crop is grown around the gardeners’ benches and sheds – some for relaxing to enjoy the view towards Canary Wharf and The Shard. Thanks to the Site Officers Marco and Sophia!
    The website is full of good growing guidance http://www.rosendale-allotments.org.uk/

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
      
     
     
    Fifth, Sissinghurst Castle, in Kent.  There’s the stunning National Trust garden (really, there were no weeds in the beds), and also a new kitchen garden to reduce the ‘food miles’ of the fresh food used in the two cafes. There are two full time kitchen gardeners – yes we are envious!http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sissinghurst-castle/
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Sixth, it has to be the 6th Street and Avenue B Garden in New York City.
    What struck me about this garden was the beauty and variety of the space – it was full to bursting with flowers and plants, grouped closely together. The joy was the exploration along tiny paths and under canopies – each revealing another space – a pond with fish, plentiful raised beds for herbs, wild flowers, ferns and vegetables, a stage for community events, shady secret seating areas for tranquility and reflection, and much more besides.

    I discovered that this site is so loved by the community that it is now permanent, and welcomes 200 children through its doors every week as part of an education program that has gone from strength to strength. Truly inspirational.
    http://www.6bgarden.org/history.htm

     
     
    And:
    As well as coming to garden with us in the Tooting Community Garden any Sunday, another great activity is the wonderful and creative Chelsea Fringe, running now until 8th June.  

     
     

  • Our 8th ‘Carbon Conversations’ series has begun

    We began last evening………..our small group’s exploration of understanding, choices and action on carbon reduction.
    The participants aren’t all starting from the same place on this journey. Some people in the group know a lot, some know less, and for all of us terms like a low-carbon future or carbon footprint may be simple words, but what do they mean?
    Yes, we’ve promised to be careful of jargon.
    However there is no getting away from the fact that it’s useful to become more ‘carbon literate’, and engage with some new terminology, and some measurement (‘where are all those tonnes of C02?’) –without becoming carbon bores or confusing people.

    Sketch of an earlier carbon conversation, by Alice Maggs
     

    We asked ourselves the question: why do we bother? to act on sustainability and carbon-reduction in our lives.
    Here are our responses, and no one needed to mention carbon at all in these personal and passionate comments:

    • I feel more powerful and in control, rather than helpless
    • It’s a crime not to
    • I wish to look after the world
    • I hate waste and with my ‘cheapskate tendencies’ I love to recycle
    • I care about the future, and my children’s lives
    • I believe doing positive things makes more positive things happen
    • We are all at risk – people, countries, nature
    • This is a global challenge, and I want to know what I can do

    These comments show a range – maybe some are from the head and are about understanding and facts; maybe some are gut feelings from the heart; some are about taking action that’s hands-on.
    We have a creative mix in the group for this series!

    This session was designed to frame the whole series, and the next meetings are focused on separate practical topics. The second meeting is Tuesday 27th May, and you can still join the rest of the series then.
    For more info, click here for the flyer.

  • Painting of the Wandle Valley Girls – Tonight at Sprout

    Come and see how easy it is to paint things in a totally artistic way!

    We are creating a community of papier mache ladies for the Deen City Farm exhibition as part of the Chelsea Fringe Festival. Last month we created the structures and at this evening’s Meet & Make its time to get the paints out!

    Here are some finished ones to give us some inspiration..

    We are working together on this project so come along even if you didn’t make a head last month I am so sure you will have a great time reconnecting with your creative self!

    Meet & Make 

    6:60 – 8:30 ish
    Sprout Community Arts Space
    74 Moyser Road
    Furzedown
    SW16 6SQ.

    brought to you by S.M.Ar.T network of  T.T.T.
    call or email Jeni on 07944693015 and jeniannewalker@gmail.com.

  • Join us for Carbon Conversations 19 May to 7 July

    All welcome to our eighth series of Tooting Carbon Conversations.
    We have a group formed now to start on 19th May, with a couple of places left – please do join in for a free, instructive, practical and non-judgemental tour around reducing your own carbon footprint.

    Click here for the flyer with all the details. And click on CARBON CONVERSATIONS at the top of this blog page to read past TTT posts.
    To sign up or chat, email Charles at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com – but don’t leave it too late!

    And we have a fascinating new offer:
    Our Transition Town Tooting colleague Jenny is developing the idea for Carbon Collaborations – an informal space, online and face to face in other meetings and workshops.
    Carbon Collaborations can encourage people to share their own successes and challenges in understanding and managing their own journey with carbon reduction in home energy, travel, food, consumption, and more.
    We’ll share What does that look and feel like?
    That could be expressed through wishlists, diaries, sharing equipment or time, confessions, pleas for help if stuck, photos of achievements… 
    We’ll get into this at the end of this next Carbon Conversations series.

  • 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!

  • AGM 2014

    Tomorrow evening we are holding TTT’s annual general meeting (AGM) and 6th birthday party and everyone is welcome to attend.  We will vote for or against our beloved dear leaders, there will be a Tooting related quiz with great prizes, a bit of official business and a chance to hear about TTT’s variety of ongoing projects as well as find out how to get involved with some exciting new ones.  Hopefully there will be at least samosas and cake too! 
     
    We look forward to catching up with you at Mushkil Aasaan in the Upper Tooting Road from 7pm, Tuesday 29th April.

  • the heART of the libraries: videos from a community group project in Tooting Library

    the heART of the libraries interactive project has been devised by artist Sam Haynes who has been piloting it with Wandsworth Libraries since the new year, and some of the results are can be seen in Tooting Library until the end of April.

    Two of us from TTT have been involved – this is a creative and original project which is working with diverse local groups and new technology. It’s all about new skills and ‘social’ sustainability linked with the accessible and welcoming community setting of local libraries.

    For example, members of the South London Tamil Welfare Group took part in a short workshop where they learned to use iPads, coached by Chris Nash from the Wandsworth City Learning Centre.



    Even though many participants had never touched an iPad before…

    …very soon they were onto the next step, which was to make a short video of subjects in the Library itself, recording their own commentary alongside the images..

    Now these videos are on view in Tooting Library by a very novel method – each video is accessible via a unique barcode which can be read by a smartphone or iPad with the Microsoft Tag application.

    You’ll find this on the App Store, or download to an android phone from http://gettag.mobi

    Here is one of the barcodes from the set by this group.

    If you download the app to your phone, you will be able to scan this barcode image as it’s shown here on TTT’s blog, in order to see one of the project videos.




    If you go to Tooting Library in the next week, with the app installed on your phone, you can find the other barcodes throughout the libary, and see all the other videos too.
    Sam’s website: http://www.samhaynesart.blogspot.co.uk/

    This technique has encouraged me to think about including this appoach in our Community Garden, Tooting Foodival or Gatton School projects. Children or adults could quickly share their own reponses to their experiences, and participate in fascinating new ways to communicate a story made of images, music or commentary in any language….and we can even design our own barcodes (seasonal vegetables?) to suit each project!  – Charles

     

  • Three practical local projects: do join us!

    Furzedown Low Carbon Zone
    We had a productive monthly planning meeting last week – please see the minutes and actions here. 
    In outline we’re at the stage of visiting local partners to explore sites where there is space and interest to be involved by ‘hosting’ renewable energy generation equipment – whatever technology is appropriate – and sharing in the benefits.
    A second stage will be to engage with local people who can become involved as co-owners of a community generation scheme. The Furzedown Festival in June is a target for that, certainly for informal sharing of the project.
    Next planning meetings are on 8th May and 3rd June in Furzedown…please come along if you would like to be involved at this stage. Details will be on the TTT Events Calendar on this blog. Contact us on this email link for any further information.

    Eighth series of our ‘Carbon Conversations’ meetings
    We are going to offer a free series of local Carbon Conversations from the 19th May to early July this year. Running on Monday evenings (with one Tuesday for luck), this will be a set of six participative meetings which enable individuals to discuss, understand and take control of their carbon footprint, and work out ways to reduce energy consumption and expenses.

    It’s a very engaging and practical set of meetings…..and even fun.
    We’ll cover home energy, food, travel and transport, and general consumption of ‘stuff’.
    All the details are in the flyer for this next series: please click here.
    Please contact Charles at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com with any questions.

    ‘Cleaner Air 4 Communities’ Project
    This project brings citizen science and local action to the challenge of measuring and advocating for clean air. The toolkit – click here to link to a pdf copy – describes some of the steps that can be taken by a community group.
    Graham Petersen recently took part in air quality measurement at Clapham Junction, with the Battersea Society (there’s a case study on this experience in the toolkit). There is some funding available to support this project, and Graham is investigating that, with a view to improving air quality in Tooting. Please use the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone contact email for more info.

    All welcome to join in with these three projects. Please get in touch!