A great day was enjoyed by many just a mile down the road at the 12th Streatham Common Kite Day a few days back. Check out the massive kites! Some inspiration for the Trashcatchers’ Carnival maybe?
Meanwhile the next Carnival workshop awaits this Sunday at 11 (EMAIL us if you want to be part of the action – plenty of creative things to get involved in) followed by the Jam ‘N Beets night at the Bedford co-hosted with TT Wandsworth.
The Tools Shed project takes broken tools collected at Neal’s Nurseries, a garden centre opposite the prison, and elsewhere, which are then given a new lease of life and returned for use in schools and community gardens. The project helps prisoners’ rehabilitation and also teaches them new skills.
The next “First Tuesday” on May 4th will be a Well-being Event with Jenny Griffiths as guest speaker.
After looking at last year’s Foodival there’ll be a short film on the “Story of Food” and how you can grow for this Autumn’s festival.
To get everyone kick started there will be some FREE tools to give away and also a Seed Swap at the end of the night.
I’m bringing half a pack of carrots and half a packet of tomatoes as I’ve not got enough pots to use all the seeds – anyone got any radish seeds I could swap??
Any seeds you have, either full packs or just lone seeds would be ace for the swap – I just hope we don’t wind up with a hundred packs of brussels sprouts…. 😉
TTT were delighted to join in BATCA’s (the Balham and Tooting Community Association) Open Forum on the theme ‘Let’s make Tooting Better’ on 17 March at St Augustine’s Hall. As Kate Allan of BATCA reports: ‘The event drew a good crowd and generated a stream of ideas on improving Tooting. Both individuals and community organisations took part. A huge, colourful map of Tooting town centre on the hall floor helped focus ideas.
Cllr James Cousins, supported by Audrey Helps, Tooting Town Centre manager, gave a presentation on the ‘Tooting Together’ initiative to achieve cleaner streets, reduce clutter and litter, deal with fly tipping and eyesores, and attract new stores to Tooting. Lively questioning followed.
Bring your Seeds and Gardening Needs!
On April 6th TTT will be holding a Seed Swap and Food Growing event at Mushkil Aasaan from 7-9pm and the event needs YOU!
There will be a seed swapping stall with free gardening tools refurbished by inmates from Wandsworth Prison. Alongside this will be tips on how to grow in urban environments and how to get garden equipment like plant pots from the dump (the ones I got last week were ace :)) there will also be details of how to get a special TTT 10% discount at local garden centres so don’t miss out.
Award-winning sustainable architect and TTT stalwart Susan Venner has been underatking an eco-retrofit of her Balham house for some time and you can visit it as part of the SuperHome Spring Openings on 28th March. There’s plenty of and varied insulation including an exterior cork wall plus solar water heating and a wood-burning stove. It should be fascinating to snoop around … ahem, under Susan’s watchful guidance of course! The opening is from 11 till 3 with half hour tours limited to 8 people at a time on the hour and half hour. Book via Sustainable Energy Academy where Susan’s home is listed as Cornford Grove, Balham.
Also don’t forget the BATCA Open Forum tonight at St Augustine’s Church in Broadwater Rd between 7.30 and 9.30 pm. The subject is “Let’s Make Tooting Better”
Also there’s the Islam and Permaculture course next Sat 27th and the next First Tuesday on April 6th to look forward to, where the theme will be Food. See our Events page for full details
Last night at Transition Town Tooting’s inaugural First Tuesday event, a screening of the best in environmental short films, the coveted Palme Verte was awarded to Mine – story of a sacred mountain, a moving documentary by Survival about the Dongria Kondh tribe of the Niyamgiri Hills in India. The Dongria Kondh’s whole way of life is threatened by the British company Vedanta Resources’ plan to decapitate their scared mountain and mine its bauxite. Read the latest information on Survival’s campaign for the Dongria or watch the film here. Second place went to the Story of Stuff by the Tides Foundation. It was powerful first to see the impact of the consumer world’s craving for “stuff” and then to understand the very specific effects that craving can have on a people who live in a much more symbiotic way with the natural world.
A successful evening was capped by lively discussion and of course tasty food – thanks everyone who helped out. Next month’s First Tuesday on April 6th will focus on Food, with a seed swap and advice on what to plant this spring. I can’t wait! DT
Lucy makes the front page as the Wandsworth Green Champion! And below is the relevant part of the article on the Green Guardian pages. Great publicity for Transition Town Tooting! Well done Lucy!
