Preparing for her role in Saturday’s Treasuring Tooting wellbeing walk, the bee piñata is….
stretching her legs
sharpening her sting
On Saturday May 12th the bee will be fully decorated, and fly through Tooting – come and join the piñata at any of the twelve locations linked together in the Treasuring Tooting walk.
For more details of the Walk route timings, venues and meeting points, click here.
This First Tuesday event was about wellbeing. Belinda and Hilary talked about events that are being offered locally this year, including The Treasuring Tooting walk and pop-up kindness activities being run throughout Tooting. 
Conversations among the group identified that satisfying our basic needs such as safety and a home were essential; including having comfortable things that made us feel safe such as a warm blanket, a favourite old teddy. This was closely followed by having time to spend reflecting, relationships and connecting with others. A few risky sports were also cited as they brought joy and elation!
Belinda has written a further page with more detail about wellbeing: please click here.
On a rainy afternoon in Tooting last Saturday, preparations continued for decorating the piñata bee which will be part of the ‘Treasuring Tooting’ wellbeing walk on May 12th (scroll down in this blog for more on the piñata and on the walk…)
What’s it going to be like? How big will it bee?
More images to come – keep a look out!
On Tuesday evening, around 80 people gathered at Wimbledon’s St. Mark’s Church to ask four of the candidates for the London Assembly what they would do if they got into power on May 3rd.
The candidates fielding questions were Leonie Cooper (Labour), Shas Sheehan (Liberal Democrat), Richard Tracey (Conservative and current Assembly Member for Merton & Wandsworth) and Roy Vickery (Green).
This excellent meeting , ably chaired by the Rev Clive Gardner of St. Mark’s Church, got far beyond the personality politics of the Mayoral election. Lively questioning included how to make cycling in London safer, what to do about policing, the shortage of affordable housing, whether we need school buses, and how to make London more self-sufficient in energy.
The Hustings was hosted jointly by St Mark’s Church, Transition Town Wimbledon, Wimbledon Civic Forum and Transition Town Tooting.
Two workshops on 21 and 22 April provided lots of lovely ideas for the design of the Tooting Pound.
It’s early days for the community currency but that didn’t stop the heated debates about who should be on the notes – should it be Wolfie (Citizen) Smith or Nurse Edith Cavell on the T£1; Hester Thrale or Samuel Johnson on the T£5 note; an ordinary Tooting mum or an Upper Tooting Road shopkeeper on the T£10; Paul Merton or George Cole on the T£20 note?
One event is on Wednesday 16th May from 6-8pm at 68 Upper Tooting Road SW17 7PB in the pop-up Transition Tooting shop:
The ‘Monthly Do’ on Sunday April 22nd at Wandsworth Borough Council’s Pump House Gallery in Battersea Park saw several of us from Transition Tooting join with gallery staff to offer a drop-in afternoon about on ‘Growing Successfully in the City’. Yes – that broad topic included different prompts for the ways ‘urban growing’ is expressed: growing food and flowers; developing green space and experiencing nature; building wellbeing and happiness; growing knowledge and skills; playing; and making new links across the community.
Just as Charles’ talk on urban growing and transition was about to kick off at 3:30, the sky went black and a strong gust capsized one of the gazebos. All the helpers and audience went out to sort it out in the driving rain – a great image of community spirit in action…
Difficult to plan, but I recommend it as a way to start a talk! We began with a vivid sense of shared experience among a group who met as strangers: completely relevant to the topic.
Thanks loads to Laura, responsible for Participation & Education at the Gallery, for conceiving the idea and inviting us, and to all the Gallery staff & Justin for a lot of work on the day. The Pump House is a great venue, and we’d love to develop something else together in the future.
Local artist team Jeni Walker and Leon Lawes have begun work to create a giant bee piñata that will process with Treasuring Tooting, the Transition Town Tooting wellbeing walk, on the 12th May. At a point on the walk the pinata will be smashed open in the traditional manner, what goodies will come forth is anybody’s guess.
Why smash it up?
The idea to create a piñata as our walk mascot was was initially met with mixed reactions. A lot of work went into the first two celebration creations and this would be no exception.
Our thoughts turned to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of creating complex circular pictures called Mandalas from coloured sand, only to destroy them soon after their completion. The practice is a reminder of the transient nature of material life, and so destroying a beautiful piñata will be an apt expression of the idea that true happiness does not come from the material and the transient.
See the flyer for Treasuring Tooting if you scroll down in this blog.
& more info to come as we make the bee – here and at http://thedaisybugco.com/well-beeing-project/
We are very pleased to be able to share details of 4 events that are coming up between the weekend of 21+22 April and the 12th of May
Help shape the Tooting Pound
The Tooting Pound is coming!
Help design your local currency at these workshops:
Growing Successfully in the City
Sunday 22nd April from 11am-4pm
Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park
It’s going to be National Gardening Week, so we decided to get thoughtful about Growing.
Join us to explore ideas of Urban Growing of all kinds including gardening, low-carbon living, growing food and wellbeing.
Make your own planter from recycled material to take home with you, ‘play with food’ on a giant scale, try some games about personal wellbeing and happiness, and meet members of TTT to find out more about transition’s varied approach to community growth.
At 3.30pm Charles, TTT Co-Chair, will talk about the transition movement and different kinds of urban growing. Click on the link below for more information and to reserve a place for the talk: http://pumphousegallery.org.uk/events/april-monthly-do
London Assembly Election Hustings
Tuesday 24th April from 7:30pm
St Mark’s Church, St Mark’s Place (behind Wimbledon Library), Wimbledon, SW19
Wandsworth and Merton Boroughs are represented together by one London Assembly member, and elections to the Assembly are on May 3rd. Assembly members oversee London policy on transport, planning, the environment and policing.
Come and meet candidates from the main parties, and ask them your questions.
Hustings are 8:00-9:30, followed by informal discussion. All welcome!
Venue: http://www.stmarkswimbledon.org.uk/
Partners include the Wimbledon Civic Forum, Transition Town Wimbledon, St Mark’s Church, and Transition Town Tooting.
Enquiries: ttwimbledon@yahoo.co.uk
Treasuring Tooting – Treasure in Tooting
On May 12th we’ll take a free dawn to dusk walk through Tooting celebrating the many places and things that contribute to our happiness.
Following on from the Tooting Earth Talk Walk in 2009, the walk will visit favourite places from the Lido to the Library, Brickbox to the Bingo Hall, at each of which an aspect of our happiness and wellbeing will be experienced and celebrated.
A map will guide us down the road and give timings for each location so people can join at any point. All ages welcome!
Put the date in your diary and look out for more information soon….
