Transition Town Tooting

Tag: Community

  • The Stay With Love exhibition is open and ready to visit. You can add your own views to the show.

    We’re thrilled that the Stay With Love exhibition has moved from concept to reality alongside our partners CARAS and The Sound Lounge. We experienced so much energy, creativity and patience from all the volunteers and staff involved in this experiment: Thank You!

    We hung the show on the 2nd October, and then the exhibition opening was brilliant last evening. Now the show is available to enjoy whenever The Sound Lounge is open, until October 29th.

    Drilling holes for hanging
    Suspending the figure drawings

    Two of the exhibition pieces ask for your views and ideas. 
    We hope you get there and add to When I Dream and Thread Your Story devised by CARAS and the adult group. Of course, you can enjoy the whole show with coffee or a sandwich served by young people from CARAS who are engaged in certificated work training at The Sound Lounge.

    ‘Thread Your Story’
    ‘When I Dream’

    The exhibition opening festivities yesterday included an afternoon family crafts workshop and then the main evening celebration – we’ll report on the celebration in the next blog post.

    Afternoon Family Crafts
    Straight from school, two dozen children & adults launched into an hour and a half’s making, all crowded around two long tables. It was a great scene and we admired their energy after a whole day in school. We offered two of our favourite and valuable projects. Both are related to the purpose and content of the creative work we have carried out alongside the refugees and aslyum-seekers from CARAS over the past two years in the Rooting in Tooting and Gardens of Refuge projects

    “Tooting’s insects need your love!”
    We looked at photos of some local garden insects (predators and prey; garden crop-friendly and also less desirable) and then made plastic bottle insect shelters for beneficial ladybirds and lacewings in the garden.
    With some clever planning, decorations onto the rolled-up corrugated cardboard could be protected from rain by being placed inside the bottle rather than stuck on the outside of the plastic (= design and technology for real).
    Families took their bottle-houses home to hang in the trees in their own gardens or neighbourhoods.

    She’s added a #StayWithLove sticker

    “Feel safe and breathe!”
    Secondly, we painted garden row markers with messages of welcome on them. That’s in the same spirit the CARAS Youth Club showed when they wrote inviting comments in many languages on the on four inscribed pallet-benches for the Tooting Twirl – one is in the show and two more are being used in the cafe.

    Children and adults devised messages – another design and planning challenge – which they painted on narrow wooden slats we’ve rescued from discarded bed frames – very neat recycling as the slats are strong and a perfect size. The artists donated all the painted markers to the Tooting Community Garden, which we really appreciate.

    All the new markers, laid out on one of the benches

    More soon on the evening opening celebrations….

  • Ready Steady GROW! for the 10th Tooting Foodival

    The Tooting Foodival celebrates local growing, cooking and eating together. It’s based on what people locally grow and donate – so we can all admire Tooting’s skills and productivity. Plus we can offer super ingredients to the Top Tooting Cook contest and the chefs’ delicious demonstrations. More info here.

    Sowing radishes
    Radishes harvested just 4 weeks later

    There’s still time to grow from scratch so you can donate to the Foodival on Saturday Sept 16th. It’s about sharing the love rather than growing big quantities. We’re  delighted by the diversity of what’s donated
    every year!

    Starting now, what can you sow, grow and harvest for the Foodival?

    If you can get sowing by the end of July, you could harvest these by mid-September:

    • Rocket
    • Coriander
    • mixed cutting Lettuces
    • Mustard Greens
    • Cima di Rapa (that’s turnip tops)
    •  And more – do share your suggestions.
    Rocket
    White turnips


    Alfalfa spouts, 5 days from starting

    Much closer to the Foodival date:
    > you could start Radishes as late as mid August
    > you could start Sprouting Seeds just a week before (here’s our handy guide)
    > you could sow Cress just a few days before

    Cress, 3 days from sowing

     Where can you grow?

    • In your own garden or allotment
    • In containers on a terrace, balcony or windowsill
    • At a nearby community garden

    Even if you’re a beginner, why not give it a go?

    Expert or newbie, everyone is included in our annual amazing ‘I Grew This’ celebratory Foodival poster:

    If you would like to ask questions or get advice, or come and grow from scratch with us at Tooting Comunity Garden – all welcome on Sundays and Wednesdays, 5 North Drive SW16 1RN. Check for updates on opening on our facebook page.

    NB there’s a highly-recommended session on container gardening by our friend Mark Ridsdill-Smith and more at the London Permaculture Festival on Sunday 30th July – see you there.

  • Welcome to TTT’s new governance team!

    There’s been another election recently in Tooting: TTT has a new governance team who will be carrying out their roles until spring 2019.

    TTT was established in 2008, and by 2011 we agreed to formalise the key governance roles and also fill them with willing volunteers who serve a term of two years. That means that:

    • no one has to do (or get stuck doing) the same role ‘for ever’
    • there’s an expectation that different individuals can step into these roles and carry them out in their own diverse & fresh ways
    • we share between us the responsibility for doing these useful roles which support us all in TTT

    Give them a wave! Welcome to TTT’s new governance team:

    From the left: meet the Treasurer David, the two Co-Chairs Jeni and Sharon and the Secretary Eleanor. They look forward to meeting you!

    All these roles are voluntary, and these four people work alongside TTT’s project co-ordinators – and maybe lead TTT projects themselves. Earlier in the year we shared the role profiles. The Co-Chairs, for example, fulfil a leadership rather than a management role for TTT as a whole.

    The election was part of TTT’s Annual Celebratory Extravaganza, where we invited partners, volunteers and the curious to join us to recap strategy and activities in the previous year and look forward to the next.

    We had an evening full of energy and heard from many colleagues who explored 15 projects large or small, long-term or one-off:

    • Thank you to all who spoke about projects and asked questions – and brought refreshments
    • Thank you to Dr Rosena Allin-Khan MP for her vivid summary of the value of bringing people together in a practical and creative way across the Tooting community’s diversity of views, voices and concerns.

    One group game we did was partly aimed at meeting new people and finding out who was in the room, and partly aimed at imagining (on the spot) some new potential taglines for TTT. There are some great comments written on these balloons! You’ll have to click to read them.

    There’s plenty to be involved with right now in TTT – no need to wait for the 2019 AGM. Please read the events listing and blog, sign up to our monthly email and keep an eye on facebook & twitter. Come and chat!

    1. Refugee Week 2017: Tooting activities starting Sunday 18th June

      Refugee Week is a nationwide programme of arts, cultural and educational events that celebrate the contribution of refugees to the UK, and encourages a better understanding between communities. 

      Refugee Week 2017 starts in under a fortnight, and there are plenty of London activities to choose from.

      Plus here are two local events to share:

      1. Queens of Syria – free film Sunday 18th June

      We’re showing this thrilling and absorbing film about 50 Syrian refugee women joining together to prepare to perform an ancient Greek play about women and their families in war. It’s definitely NOT simply a ‘film of the play’ – it’s all about how the women explore telling their shared stories with passion and creativity. It’s a moving and positive film.
      Click here to see the flier, and save the date! Here’s the listing on the Refugee Week site.
      We’re showing the film in the Hall at Mushkil Aasaan, the local charity supporting families, young people and the elderly.

      • Date: Sunday 18th June
      • Timings: Doors open 4:00 pm for tea and samosas, film at 5:00.
      • Venue: Mushkil Aasaan, 220 Upper Tooting Road, SW17 7EW

      2. Midsummer Merriment with CARAS
      – Thursday 22nd June
      Book now for the comedy night in Tooting Market, put on by TTT’s partner CARAS. The host will be Arthur Smith – the Night Mayor of Balham. Many of the tickets have been sold already, here’s the link.

      • Date: Thursday 22nd June
      • Timings: 7:30 to 10:30
      • Venue: Tooting Market, 21-23 Tooting High Street, SW17 0SN

      Images from past Refugee Week activities:

    2. Pollinator Paths Wandsworth project day: the sun shone on a busy garden scene

      We had a fun, busy and instructive Sunday afternoon meeting the local participants in the Pollinator Paths Wandsworth project, and welcoming visitors who found us because we joined in with the Chelsea Fringe and Wandsworth Arts Fringe.

      Getting the new planter home

      People told us they appreciated being able to have a detailed and friendly conversation about how to look after and enjoy the plants they took home to their balcony, patio or garden: thank you Martin & Jo!

      Tooting Community Garden was the fourth of the local gardens to host their event when we share advice and plants. Next steps include a series of seasonal workshops on topics such as composting and making insect habitats. In autumn 2017 there are next spring’s bulbs to plant – and the garden and pollination year will come round again!

      The community garden’s 6th birthday cake

      Conversations with new and old friends, exploring the space and doing new things outdoors were great parts of the day.
      More news when we have it on events that everyone can join alongside the project participants. The PPW project facebook page is here.

      Finishing line of the caterpillar race. We’ll run it again!

    3. Three diverse events in Tooting celebrating refugees and migration

      We’re continuing our 2017 Gardens of Refuge project with local refugees and asylum-seekers with workshops during May and into June.
      Alongside that long-term project, we want to share three diverse and fascinating events in Tooting which celebrate refugees and migration:

      To celebrate Refugee Week in June:

      1. Queens of Syria – free film Sunday 18th June

      We’re showing this thrilling and absorbing film about 50 Syrian refugee women joining together to prepare to perform an ancient Greek play about women and their families in war. It’s definitely NOT simply a ‘film of the play’ – it’s all about how the women explore telling their shared stories with passion and creativity. It’s a moving and positive film. Click here to see the flier, and save the date!

      • Date: Sunday 18th June
      • Timings: Doors open 4:00 pm for tea and samosas, film at 5:00.
      • Venue: Mushkil Aasaan, 220 Upper Tooting Road, SW17 7EW

      2. Midsummer Merriment with CARAS on Thursday 22nd June 22nd
      Book now for CARAS’ comedy night in Tooting Market. The host will be Arthur Smith – the Night Mayor of Balham.
      A third of the tickets have been sold already, here’s the link.

      • Date: Thursday 22nd June
      • Timings: 7:30 to 10:30
      • Venue: Tooting Market, 21-23 Tooting High Street, SW17 0SN 


        Refugee Week is the annual festival which celebrates the contribution of refugees to the UK and encourages a better understanding between communities. We’ll share more & there’s online info here.

        Plus: this New Union Flag event has already happened but it worth looking up the project online 

        3. The New Union Flag project at Tooting Market
        Imagine what a British flag could look like if it reflected today’s multi-cultural society…
        Artist Gil Mualem-Doron brought this participative project to Tooting Market as part of the Wandsworth Fringe. Here is the link to the project on facebook.
        Gil is also took the project to Tara Arts on Sat May 20th.

      • It’s International Compost Awareness Week! Here’s lots of ways to get involved for 52 weeks & more

        Over seventy years ago the 
        organic agriculture pioneer 
        Sir Albert Howard stated :
         “The health of soil, plant, 

        animal and man 
        is one and indivisible”

        Taking care of the soil where we grow our food, making compost, reducing waste, healthy eating, exploring the ‘circular economy’ of growing plants, beginning to understand the web of beneficial organisms that exists below and above ground:  

        our gardens, kitchens, eating and shopping preferences are the forums for all of these.
        We can all learn more and make our own contributions even more valuable, right here in Tooting.


        Wandsworth Borough Council has published a post in its website about food waste and composting, and we’re copying some of the links here because they are accessible and practical ways being offered this spring and summer to learn more and share experience.

        • Firstly, there’s the Wandsworth Composting Project – all the details are here in this flier. TTT and other partners are contributing too.
        • Secondly there’s a practical workshop on composting skills on June 4th at Bramford Community Garden – here’s the flier.
        • Thirdly, there’s the Grow Your Own at Home! gardening classes sponsored by Be Enriched, taking place near Tooting Broadway and starting on June 10th. Here’s the flier.

        In June and early July there are further public compost advice sessions planned – when the dates are fixed we’ll share them.

        Home composting may look like a dark art: 
        these events will share the skills to demistify it for local residents.

        The Wildlife Gardening Forum has a website that’s a treasure house of experience, including a good web page on soil and fertility: click here to read it.

        Home composters provide a community service as well as benefiting our own gardens by returning organic material to the soil. We remove kilos of kitchen waste per household every week from the borough’s waste transport and processing. That borough service has a carbon cost as well as a financial cost – we can reduce both costs by working with our waste to recognise it as a valuable resource.


        Wandsworth Food Partnership  is complementary to these topics. It’s been developing over the past year as a network of people and organisations interested in food in Wandsworth. That means community groups, enterprises, charities, churches, gardens, schools, the health sector…

        Taking part is not restricted and maybe in time there will be thousands of members including families and individuals: all contributing to developing the local food culture in diverse ways.
        There’s a WFP facebook page, please get in contact for more detail.

          You’ll see our priorities on the WFP shopping bag:
          > Working together
          > Reducing food waste
          > Sustainability
          > Cultural aspects of food
          > Healthy eating
          > Physical activity

          Over the next twelve months the partnership is going to act as a hub: inspiring, celebrating, sharing, linking and reaching out to as many local groups and people as possible in each of these priority areas.

          These food priorities can all interrelate locally to inspire a positive food culture in Wandsworth. 
          In a similar way, soil organisms combine to create good compost in our gardens….

        • Update from the first two meetings in TTT’s current series of local Carbon Conversations

          TTT’s tenth series of local Carbon Conversations began in April with a group of 8 local people. Thanks to all, the sessions have been lively and informative.
           
          The series facilitator Ben has shared a short report of the first two sessions:
           
          “For our first session we had several interesting and far-ranging discussions.
          One of them was about what a low-carbon future would look like. 
          Several people suggested that everything would be conducted at a much more local level. But this left us thinking: does this mean we will have to unravel everything that globalisation has delivered? Is it possible (and desirable) to dismantle globalisation, or should we aim to retain aspects of it and go local only in certain ways?  
           
          For our discussion about a low carbon future we spoke about the importance of having more regulation from government to control carbon emissions, fossil fuel extraction, etc. But the issue of regulating ourselves was also raised. How will we regulate our own behaviour? Several people suggested education and how important that would be in the process.

          Ben continues his report:
          “For session two we discussed carbon reduction in our home energy consumption.

          Everyone agreed that the whole process of overhauling your house can feel very complex and overwhelming. There are so many things one can do, and most people don’t have the technical expertise to understand all the options thoroughly.
          We discussed the problems of the current housing market and how the energy rating of a home is often not very important to the people purchasing it. This is especially true in a housing market like London where people are just desperate to get on the housing ladder and probably aren’t too concerned about the energy efficiency of a home.
          The issue of being a tenant came up – we noted how there is little incentive for landlords to renovate their homes if their tenants are paying the bills.
          We also talked about communicating these issues and how to point out someone is overfilling the kettle without appearing a nag! You can tip-toe, or you can just tell someone they’re being daft…. (we will return to the issue of how to communicate climate change in session 6).
          Finally, the question came up of how to make carbon reduction at home glamorous. Loft conversions are glamorous. But carbon reduction isn’t. Or at least, at the moment. That could change….
          There were some positive notes as well.
          One potentially fun way of tackling the issue is by engaging children. If engaged they could be enthusiastic supporters of carbon reduction, if it is made fun, and if they have the chance to receive education on the issue – linking with what we discussed in week one.”
          Heat loss in a simplified detached house travels in all directions…would you have guessed those percentages?
          We’ll continue the coverage of this series of meetings, and more information about Carbon Conversations can be found by clicking here.
          Get in touch with TTT if you would like notice of when we are offering the 11th series – or get the core of a group together yourself, and we’ll find more people and maybe run it in your home!

        • Gardens of Refuge project. April ’17 update on vertical strawberries and a watery ceiling mural

          We’re continuing to facilitate workshops as part of the Gardens of Refuge project with refugees and asylum-seekers who use the local services of CARAS in Tooting.

          This is the project for which our partnership won funding from Aviva – via the public voting so many people joined last autumn.

          The emphasis of Gardens of Refuge is on creating therapeutic experiences where participants feel happy and safe to explore imaginative activities together.

          We’re working alongide the CARAS team and volunteers with two groups:

          • with the Saturday Youth Club (mostly unaccompanied teenagers) 
          • and with Family Activity Days (adults and children in half terms and school holidays)

          Here’s the story from Gardens of Refuge in March and April:


          Saturday Youth Club: our sessions take place alongside a whole range of other social and learning activities at the youth club. Success is when groups and individuals come and join in for some or all of the time, because they want to, and try out new things as well as building on what we all did together in ’15 & ’16 in ‘Rooting in Tooting’.
           

          In the 24th March and 1st April sessions the Club has built two pallet-planters and painted them ready for planting up.

          Below right, one of last year’s flourishing planters.

          We’ve also made a new vertical strawberry planter of textile (a theatre blackout curtain from the Scrapstore). Young people problem-solved how to make the planter, folding, tucking and stapling the heavy cloth onto a big piece of plywood (part of the old Community Garden fence…). 

          They planted it up with strawberries (these same plants were growing at CARAS in 2016 and overwintered in the Community Garden). The pallet planters and this strawberry wall are all at the entrance to the CARAS office, and the idea is for the benefits to be enjoyed by passers-by and visitors alike – a real Garden of Refuge in busy urban Tooting.

          April Family Activity Day: After our growing-based Day in February, we’re continuing to link family activities with our plans to offer sessions later in ’17 in the Community Garden.

          Our idea is to create a collaborative mural for the ‘ceiling’ of the rainwater harvesting roof in the Community Garden.
           It’s an exciting open-air space and the mural’s theme will be ‘Water’.

          That gives huge scope for decoration, pictures, ideas, celebration, story telling and sharing.  
          Water is life-giving for us all and for what we grow. Water is rich with diverse meanings worldwide.

          The rainwater harvesting roof built with Gatton School in ’13. Soon to have a ceiling mural!

          On Tuesday 11 April we made a start by immersing ourselves in ideas and images and different materials – there are so many threads to follow up.

          Thanks for these FAD photos, Nikki!

          The next session is in May, and we can’t wait…

          Another benefit is that the project is attracting new volunteers who have added their energy and diverse experience – so our whole group is learning together en route. Thanks to all the volunteer team & for your co-ordination, Dermot and Jeni! 

          We welcome contacts from others who would like to be involved, or who have ideas and resources to contribute.
          Please contact us by emailing TTT here.

          Yum! The crop in 2016’s textile planter

           – Charles

        • Our tenth series of Carbon Conversations postponed to start on 20th April

          TTT’s tenth series of local Carbon Conversations is going to start on Thursday April 20th
          We promise you will enjoy and also find a lot of practical value in this exploration of your own ‘low-carbon living’ choices and opportunities. 

          The outcome of the series is an action plan for reducing your own carbon footprint by understanding the impact of what’s in your own control – home energy, travel, food and purchases.

          An active game about the carbon footprint of food

          You’ll find it friendly, fun & surprising
          – and there’s just two places left!

          For all the details, please click here.
          And for our recent blog post (including the new dates) – click here.
          Don’t hesitate to get in touch with Ben at bencuddon@gmail.com even if you can’t make every date over the series of 6 meetings. 
          We look forward to seeing you!