Transition Town Tooting

Author: Transition Town Tooting

  • Furzedown Low Carbon Zone ‘AGM’ at Furzedown Festival Big Day Out

    On Saturday 15th June from 1200 – 400 the FLCZ will be celebrating its second birthday  at the Furzedown Festival’s Big Day Out. This is located at Furzedown Recreation Ground, Ramsdale Road, Tooting SW17 9BP. 

    Do stop by our stand and take part in our pop-up AGM: which simply means come along and discuss about what we’ve been doing, what we want to do, and how you can become involved as an individual, a family, and a local enterprise.  We’ll have copies of our mini Annual Report available, plus some low-carbon games and energy-saving tips, and we’ll let you know about joining in at the Community Garden.

    Click here to read or download the 2013 FLCZ Report.  We can chat about our most recent project coordinated with South Thames College: ‘Better Choices for a Better Future’. See the video online by clicking here. College students gained practical experience of sustainability in the community – exploring projects at Eardley School and Wink Salon. One student reached the shortlist for The Mayor of London Low Carbon Prize.  

    We hope to see you; and if you would like to get in contact with the FLCZ project, please email Graham at GPetersen@UCU.ORG.UK

  • Tooting Community Garden Open Day: 10:00 – 5:00 Sunday 9th June

    We’re a surprising community vegetable garden within a hidden-away space that we share with exuberant native trees and plants, just off Tooting Common at 5 North Drive, SW16 1RN. Look out for the signs.

    It’s our second birthday this weekend, and do come and visit our Open Day on Sunday, being held in conjunction with two great London-wide initiatives: Open Garden Squares, and the Chelsea Fringe.   

    At the start in 2011
    • Come along and relax in our secret garden-within-a-garden
    • Do some gardening if you like
    • Chat about your ideas for the space
    • Explore what Gatton School children have been doing as part of their outdoor learning programme (more info here)
    Bread wheat, autumn 2012


    There are two timed events within the day:

    12:00-14:00. We’re offering the historic and fascinating art of printing from plants. You’ll like this if you are interested in looking at plants in a new way, experimenting with textures, shapes and patterns, playing with rollers and ink, and making beautiful images to take away. Suitable for all ages, and all materials provided (and there’s plenty of leaves here for printing).

    15:00. Join Emily Duizend from Story Island for Bring me sunshine! Tales of the Sun from around the world ‘I plan to tell a Japanese and a Maori myth about the sun, maybe peppered with some sunny songs on the ukulele and a bit of harmonica’. Outdoor storytelling for all ages. www.storyisland.net
    
    

    Spring 2013

    All welcome
    admission is by voluntary donation, and under-12s are free

  • Magical Day of Stories with Tooting Library May 11th

    The 2nd Day of Stories with Tooting Library was a surprising and experimental day. In the morning and afternoon we were transported from the centre of Tooting to join five storytellers’ worlds of wonder – crossing boundaries of geography and time from Norfolk to the Great Plains, with sound effects from the beautiful (the harmonica) to the funny (blowing custard through straws).

    In the middle of the day we offered two and a half hours of printing from plants (it was difficult to stop), using leaves gathered that morning in Tooting.  Have a look at the slide show below, to see concentration and the work of many hands in action!
    We rolled out ink, selected leaves and coloured paper, folded it all up and rubbed with our hands to transfer the image, feeling the different leaves through the paper.  Some continued with another colour or a different leaf, producing detailed and dramatic results.

    Many thanks to all who came and took part, and to our colleagues from the Library

    We’ll be offering plant printing, and storytelling with Alison Royce, in Tooting on Sunday 9th June, at the ‘Tooting Community Growing’ open day at the Community Garden at 5 North Drive. For more information click here, and all ages very welcome.

  • TTT turns 5

    Keen community gardener and TTT “newbie”, Sel, provides her take on the AGM and 5th birthday party, a couple of weeks ago.  

    Transition Town Tooting turned five on Monday April 29th and was celebrated in the Graveney and Meadow pub by various activists, organisers and volunteers. The seeds of this flourishing movement were planted in 2008 at Lucy’s dinner table and today it has not only branched out into several projects, but has a respectable rapport with the Council, local businesses, schools and of course the people who live in the community who have benefited from what we have hosted.

    I am one of the newer volunteers and this was my first AGM and I have to say was a friendly affair and for anybody who is interested in getting involved in Transition Town Tooting, it was accessible and welcoming. I volunteer with the community garden and like some of the other volunteers, wanted to do so to meet other people, learn about how to grow food and to reclaim a connection with nature, which I felt I had lost since coming from the countryside to London. I have really enjoyed getting “green fingered” and would recommend coming along to anybody,whatever your age and experience. Or if gardening isn’t for you, there were other projects showcased on the night covering a wide array of green ideas.

    The evening kicked off with a quiz, which tested our knowledge of both the local area and environmental issues (who’d have known orange juice had a higher eco footprint than a latte?) and the winning team’s trophies came in the guise of seedlings. The quiz was lighthearted, but also gave us an opportunity to learn more about where we live. It then progressed on to fifteen one-minute presentations of the various projects people from the movement are working on. These projects centre around sustainable living and well-being, and include an initiative to encourage green jobs, one to get school children involved in our flourishing community garden, one which focuses on reducing energy bills and projects on the arts and storytelling. As anybody from Tooting will tell you, we’re blessed to live in such a diverse and vibrant community and these projects reflected just that!

    David Thorne and Belinda Sosinowicz were voted in to the TTT Co-Chair positions,and then we had cake! Baked and delivered from Transition Town Tooting’s own and shared among others as the evening progressed and we were all given the opportunity to meet new people, or catch up with old friends. 

    It was an interesting, fun and informative evening and was great to see just how many different projects are currently running under the Transition Town Tooting banner and how people are putting their inspiration in to practice. Heck, whether you’re a “newbie” like me, or “old school” within the movement, the night was enjoyable and there was great incentive to come to future Transition Town Tooting events. A great man once said “be the change you wish to see in the world” and this may be a good place to start.

  • Tooting and Wandsworth bursting with activity

    I’ll let the pictures do the talking: 48 hours of local creative activities by the Wandle, in the Community Garden, on Tooting Common.
    
    

    The ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ by the
    Wandle opposite the Ram Brewery
    ‘It’s a Wandleful Life’: opening
    the Wandsworth Arts Festival
    The climbing frame:
    freshly painted by Gatton School
    ‘Wish you were here’ in
    Tooting, with Crafty Pint

    

    

    We’ve put this off for a year- thanks loads!
    Potatoes spouting: planted on 
    TTT’s ‘Fresh & Refresh’ walk in April
    Conversation, with weeding
    A beautiful sight: telling The Jigsaw Horse story today

    We’ll share a report soon on last week’s TTT AGM & 5th Birthday party. Next weekend it’s the Day of Stories on Saturday, and a picnic at the Community Garden on Sunday. Details in the calendar….all welcome.

  • Be creative in Tooting! ‘Day of Stories 2013’ on Saturday 11th May, plus two events this weekend

    Saturday 4th May: ‘Wish You Were Here’ Crafty Pint’s workshop printing souvenirs of Tooting, at the Tooting Tram, 12:00 – 6:00. For details click click here

    Sunday 5th May: ‘The Jigsaw Horse’ storytelling and art promenade leaves Sprout Arts in Furzedown at 1:00. For details click here
    Saturday May 11th: Welcome to the 2nd Tooting Library and Transition Town Tooting ‘Day of Stories’
    This free, exciting and diverse day is on Saturday May 11th, 10:00 to 4:00, in Tooting Children’s Library, 75 Mitcham Road, SW17 9PD

    No need to book – just pop in any time to join in some stories and make creative nature prints and stay as long as you like. This is a family day for children and their parents / carers – all welcome to take part.



    10:00-11:00 ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’+ Bill. …see below!

    11:15- 1:45 ‘Stories of Wonder’ + Alison
    12:00-2:30  ‘Nature printing ‘+ Chuck and Jane from TTT
    2:30-3:00  ‘Snakes, Lizards and Giants!’ Stories on sharing + Emily
    3:15-4:00  ‘Adventures of the Jumping Mouse’ + Marika and Hannah


    More details:

    Going on a Bear Hunt with Bill!  A great way to bring a book to life is by making sound effects to go along with your favourite story, and even recording these sounds to play the next time.
    Join Tooting Children’s Librarian Bill Bawden for a fun creative workshop with the aim of making a recording of Michael Rosen’s classic “We’re going on a Bear Hunt“. Learn how to use everyday objects to make sounds such as splashing through rivers, squelching through mud and stumbling through forests!
    The final recording will be made available to download for free and can be used to bring the story to life again and again!

    Nature Printing  Come and try an unusual, historic and magical technique: printing directly from leaves and plants. It is quick to learn, and it is not hard to get very beautiful results.




    We’ll collect springtime leaves in advance from across Tooting – or you can bring some in.          Then we’ll pass on this historic method for creating surprising and detailed prints.


    You’ll enjoy this:

    Ø if you like trying new things
    Ø if you are interested in looking at plants in a new way
    Ø if you like experimenting with textures, shapes, and patterns 
    Ø if you want to make cards, posters or presents to take home
    Come at 12:00 for an introduction, and we’ll show you how to print, or drop in anytime until 2:30. Materials provided, and we’ll adapt this to all ages and abilities: all welcome!
    There’s a blog for the Day of Stories: click here 

  • Fresh & Refresh

    On 13 April 2013 Mushkil Aaasan in the Upper Tooting Rd hosted “Fresh and Refresh” co-curated by Amee Ramesh and Jeni Walker. This event was designed to be a Spring Festival to inspire people to turn a new leaf and initiate new and positive changes in their lifestyle.

    The Tooting Bec Lido & Zumba trainers demonstrated ways that exercise can help, while information was also on hand about stopping smoking, blood pressure monitoring and cholesterol checks. Information on how to eat healthily and grow your own food, alongside the latest from the Friends of Streatham Cemetery bees, rubbed shoulders with delicious free tasters from Tooting Market’s Portuguese Café, Minashop, and Indian delicacies kindly donated by Tooting Pharmacy. Crafty Pint helped people create wonders from discarded plastics, while pop-up kindness and recipe swaps were also on offer. The event was very busy with a diverse audience, some who just wandered in off the street to investigate.

    Amee Ramesh was delighted at how the event turned out and said: “The day itself was lovely and everyone came together, generating a really enthusiastic and positive atmosphere. It was lovely to meet new people and foster an ‘onwards and upwards’ mentality in the local community, especially after such a long winter!”

    Once again thanks to Amee, Jeni, Mushkil Aasaan and all who contributed to making the event such a success.

  • Today in the Community Garden: weather for sweaters – or flipflops?

    From window sill to garden

     

    This year’s spring wheat
    The garden will be open next Sunday
    (the Bank Holiday weekend)
    from 11:00 – 1:00
     
    Do come along: we’re at 5 North Drive, on the south side of Tooting Common
    

     

  • TTT AGM & 5th Birthday Party

    Just in case this makes no sense … ahem … TTT has its AGM and 5th birthday party on Monday evening at Graveney & Meadow. It will be a fun event including a quiz with prizes, a brief report on all of TTT’s current projects, a short vote, a lot of cake and time to chat. Whether you are new to all this or a gnarled veteran, this should be a fun evening and we hope to see you there! Bring an unsuspecting friend maybe?  It could be the start of something new and exciting!

  • Another great Sunday in the Garden

    Thanks to the dozen people who came along today!
    We’ll let the photos tell the story – and too bad we missed taking pictures of us emptying dozens of bags of rotted leaves…

    
    Sorting seeds by smartphone

    

    New bed

    
    

    New path