Transition Town Tooting

Category: Other stuff

A place to gather things that have no category!

  • Coming up: arts and energy – last weekend it was food and growing

    Starting on Saturday 20th October, there’s an interactive installation developed by local school children and artists at Sprout Arts, 74 Moyser Rd. Details here.

    Come along this weekend if you would like to get involved with making and creating, and from Monday 22nd, this story of the Three Little Pigs continues as an exciting exhibition.
    Coming up on Monday 22nd October, there’s the latest meeting of the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone, at 7pm at the Furzedown Project, Moyser Road. Details here
    One exciting project we’ll report on is the brand-new Archimedes screw turbine that is now producing power in the River Wandle at Morden Hall: enough for 16 households’ annual power use.
    What can we do locally to generate some community energy?
    Please do come along!

    Last weekend, TTT had a stand at St George’s Community Open Day on Sat 13th October. We displayed pictures of the community garden, met many interested people, and played the carbon food-chain game made of recycled boxes.
    Come and try it at another event…here are two groups of young people arranging the boxes in rank order of ‘food miles’:

  • Transition Town Tooting on the web

    Each day in the week of October 1st, the Transition Network website posted informal reports from different London Transition groups.
    Here is the link for a report from Transition Tooting:
    https://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/guest-blogger/2012-10/transition-town-tooting-five-ways-wellbeing
    To view the other London accounts, click on ‘Guest Bloggers’.

    TTT appears in another Transition blog, in an account of a session we offered during the Transition Conference held in Battersea on Saturday Sept 15th. It was a section of the Treasuring Tooting Walk. There’s that photo of feet in the Lido again!http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/mark-watson/2012-09/humans-flying-walking-backwards-future-and-dipping-our-feet-lido

    And – remember the wonderful Tooting Transition Shop in Upper Tooting Road in May? A video of the nine-day project has been posted at https://vimeo.com/48938206

    Happy viewing!

  • Latest TTT email 1st October

    The latest TTT email has been sent today – please click here to read it.
    Or sign up to receive it, by emailing transitiontowntooting@gmail.com
    PS: Join this bee and visit the Community Garden! 11-1 on Sundays; public meeting Monday 8th October at The Selkirk – details in TTT mail

  • Transition Network Conference 2012

    Between the 13th and 17th September, the Transition Network Conference ran on Tooting’s doorstep at Battersea Arts Centre. The network links together more than a thousand Transition Town initiatives worldwide. 

    Designing a city with the enterprises we want
    As you would expect it was extremely full – with the different days focusing on different themes from early until late in the evening, and over 250 people coming along from all over the world for the parts of the conference they chose.


     
    For me, the surprises were valuable – for example in one 2-hour period 60 self-selected small groups met for an hour each, having identified common topics of interest on the spot through ‘open space’.
    We’ll share some of the details later, and how they can be valuable for our community in Tooting. In-depth reports from the conference are being posted now at http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/conference-2012

    Right now I want to share that four of us offered participants the chance to visit Tooting on the Saturday evening, and experience just a part of the Treasuring Tooting wellbeing walk that we hosted in full in May.

    Vitality (at the Lido in the evening sun)
    With a small group, we visited the Lido, the Community Garden, walked through Tooting to the Broadway accompanied by a live story, and then enjoyed a dosa before getting the group back to Battersea for the evening’s session. 
    Change (3000 year old worked flint found in the Garden)

    With an appreciative audience, it was a pleasure to have the time to explore each place and the aspects of wellbeing it represents: we focused on Vitality, Change and Talents.

     
    Using Talents (storytelling en route)

    More to share soon – and see you at the Foodival!  – Charles

  • Sustainable Making and the Arts – on the map!

    Following the success of the Trashcatchers’ Carnival in 2010, and a strong arts and making presence at the yearly Foodival and in this year’s Treasuring Tooting wellbeing walk, Tooting is gearing up to discover and acknowledge just how important arts and making is to Tooting’s transition steps.

    Smart stands for Sustainable Making and Arts Tooting.
    We’re a branch group of Transition Town Tooting, and had our first meeting last week.
    Mapping making and the arts in Tooting
    We shared some of our work, and then mapped out what we have happening in the arts in Tooting (which as you can see in the picture is rather a lot), and finished by imagining what we could do in the future and how we might achieve it.
    We will need to get making for this year’s Foodival which is on the 22nd & 23rd September.
    Smart are meeting again on the 16th August (venue to be announced), and if you think you would be interested to join us for the Foodival or beyond please drop an email to me: jeniannewalker@yahoo.co.uk
    – Jeni

  • Eight days, six meetings

    If good meetings take practice, then in the past week we’ve been rehearsing for a team yellow jersey with six meetings in eight days –sometimes an uphill climb, sometimes a sprint!

    There was the last workshop of our sixth series of Carbon Conversations; our monthly TTT co-ordination get together; inaugurating the new ‘SMART’ artists’ group; streamlining our web presence and communications; Community Garden planning; prep for the fifth annual Foodival (22 & 23 Sept).

    Our last TTT email out said ‘come and help us plan’…we will share more on the content later (& do come along next time to find out more).

    For now, I’m simply sharing some images of people engaging, listening, challenging, laughing, connecting.

    Sitting around tables may not sound like a priority when you think of the challenges we’re all facing – but while planning isn’t a goal in its own right, it’s so important to do it as well as we can, and enjoy it together!   – Charles

  • Smartphone video reporting – taster training next Tuesday 3rd July 2012

    Ever fancied bypassing conventional media to talk directly to your own community and others all over the world? 
    Here’s your chance to learn how!
    This practical workshop has been developed by Mark Barto from visionOntv, and Patrick Chalmers, authour of Fraudcast News.

    Participants will learn to make short video reports for instant uploading to the web.

    Please come along – and bring a friend plus their smartphone if you don’t have your own phone!

    The workshop will be held at Mushkil Aasaan, 222 Upper Tooting Road, SW17, from 7-9pm. For details on booking, and on the types of phone that can be used, click here

    For details of other news highlighted in our latest ‘TTT email’, please click here
    And if you would like to receive this regular TTT email yourself, please contact us on transitiontowntooting@gmail.com

  • Two recent local low-carbon living events

    Carbon Conversations
    On Monday evening 25th June, we started our latest series of Carbon Conversations workshops with a talkative and diverse group. We will cover a lot – in particular focusing on what can be achieved at the individual, family and community levels.

    What are some of the participants’ reasons for joining? Responses included: ‘we’ve just moved – would like guidance on reducing carbon & energy use in our new home’; ‘I feel guilty that my footprint is too big’; ‘I’m concerned about the carbon impact of computer network servers’; ‘I’d like to know more about the financial aspects of reducing carbon’; ‘What grass-roots actions we can take?’

    Last evening we explored some of language & jargon of talking about ‘carbon’ as a shorthand for the impact of greenhouse gases, linked with energy use, cost saving, health, happiness, quality of life, and nature. Secondly we looked specifically at the numbers and relationships in measuring one’s carbon footprint: a valuable place to start.
    More to come!
    PS: thanks to Sophie at WBC for the Carbon Conversations shout-out at http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/blog/recyclingblog/post/39

    Furzedown Low Carbon Zone (the ‘FLCZ’)
    At the Furzedown Festival’s Big Day Out on 23rd June, the FLCZ celebrated our first year of activities by having a pop-up AGM that ran through the afternoon, with any one who came to our stand. We had some great conversations with local people who would like to be involved – thank you. Please click here to read our short Annual Report, and please comment on our plans.

    We ran some games too – including the food chain game, in which players rank foods from high to low carbon impact, by lining up large-scale painted boxes from the market.
    Have a look below at some of the ways it was played….and come and try it sometime.

  • Rio+20: What if we got the future we want?

    On the evening of Wednesday 20th June a group in Tooting met to join in with the UK-wide Festival of Transition’s 24 Hours of Possibility. See http://www.festivaloftransition.net/experiments/67
    Why go to Rio when you can come to Tooting?

    For half the time we were catching up with the past and present.
    We had a lot of discussion, clarification and questioning based on hearing a BBC World Service programme on the run-up to Rio+20. 
    ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00stn02/One_Planet_Rio20_The_future_we_want/ )
    We explored the roles and representation at these summits – leaders, negotiators, lobbyists and NGOs, and ‘the people’: what is the quality of the exchanges and contacts?

    Then we did travel to our desired future, in groups, choosing a future role and an issue that we envisioned and then acted out to the rest of the group. A future family talked about new habits in purchasing and consumption… the local council proudly described to a journalist their achievements with energy (yes, the wool from the sheep on Tooting Common is being used as insulation in 2032)…a local shopkeeper showed off seasonal and local stock, and a customer went away with potatoes when they were looking for mangoes…

    It was great to see how much was covered and shared in a short time – when you are involved and listening.

    Thanks to all who came along to explore Tooting’s future now!

  • Carbon Conversations this June & July

    We’re starting a new series of fun and participative Carbon Conversations workshops on Monday June 25th at The Selkirk, Selkirk Rd, Tooting Broadway, from 630-830 pm, and continuing on the following three Mondays. Please click here for the detailed flyer.

    We’ll explore values, behaviours and feelings, and we will ‘count the carbon’ in our daily lives, so we can reduce our impact in 4 main areas: home energy, food, travel and transport, and consumption.

    You don’t need to be an expert: all welcome to join the workshops! 
    To join or ask any questions, please email us at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com