Low carbon Christmas

Hi Everyone

Get your low carbon Christmas off to a good start and learn how to make some lovely home made Christmas decorations - at this week's Cafe night. Recharge your inner battery on Saturday morning  with Wildlife Wanderings, before heading into town for the Mill Road Winter Fair -look out for our towering Transition banner on Donkey Green! And at Sunday night's Cafe Special,   there's a  rare chance to meet and talk with Dr Deb,  a farmer-biologist on the frontline of biodiversity action  in eastern India. 

CONTENTS

Transition News and Events

  • Thursday 05 December: Home-made Christmas decorations and gifts
  • Saturday 07 December: Wildlife Wanderings
  • Sunday 08 December: Transition Cafe special: 'Toward sustainability in eastern India' talk + discussion
  • Monday 09 December: Energy Group Meeting
  • Thursday 19 December: Transition Christmas Party
  • Tuesday 14 January: Food Group meeting
  • Sunday 19 January: Seedy Sunday - a date for your diary!
  • Saturday 08 February: Food For A Greener Future Conference
  • Transition Free Press newspaper - out now!
  • Request for raffle prizes for Seedy Sunday 2014
  • Transition Free Press - latest edition has arrived in Cambridge

Community News

  • Hen house and run available to good home

Other News and Events

  • Monday 02 December: The Passivhaus Building Standard: Questioning the energy saving magic bullet
  • Saturday 07 December: Mill Road Winter Fair
  • Monday 09 December: Getting it Built!
  • Saturday 14 December: CamBake - local community bakery project
  • Saturday 14 December: Fulbourn Community Christmas Market
  • Monday 16 December: Green Enterprise Pub Social
  • Free trees for community groups and schools
  • CCF Maternity Cover Recruitment
  • Save our seeds - EU proposed law that would limit seeds for home growers
  • Events for your calendar

Transition News and Events

Thursday 05 December: Home-made Christmas decorations and gifts

19:30-21:00, CB1 cafe, 32 Mill Road, CB1 2AD

Come along to share ideas and learn how to make some lovely recycled Christmas decorations and gifts. If you have something in mind that you'd like to make, bring along the materials, or we'll bring materials to make some things too. Ideas so far include decorations for the dinner table, recycled paper Christmas crackers, and mittens made from old jumpers. All welcome, free!

Saturday 07 December: Wildlife Wanderings

11:00-12:00, Clare Wood, off Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge.

Join us for a wander around Clare Wood, Cambridge. We meet monthly for an informal, non-guided wander around Cambridge's green places, stopping to observe little aspects of nature, as we go. We wander steadily for 1-1.5 hours. We will meet on the corner of the traffic lights between Trumpington Road and Brooklands Avenue, on the Botanic Gardens side. Please bring sensible, stout shoes, warm clothing and some water. All welcome, including families. Feel free to contact Jade if you have any questions.

Sunday 08 December: Transition Cafe special: 'Toward sustainability in eastern India' talk + discussion

18:30-20:30, CB1 cafe, 32 Mill Road, Cambridge CB1 2AD

Dr Debal Deb is a biologist and farmer whose work encompasses conservation of agrobiodiversity and ancient 'sacred' ecosystems in eastern India. His talk will cover heirloom crop conservation (including the Vrihi seed bank which now conserves 920 folk rice varieties), ecological architecture, rainwater harvesting and sacred groves conservation. Dr Deb's freelance research has been widely published. His latest book Beyond Developmentality: Constructing Inclusive Freedom and Sustainability (2009, Earthscan) contributes to development studies, ecological economics and eco-socialism. Dr Deb is interested to learn from Transition activists as to how they managed to enlist support from the city people, who otherwise don't tend to change their lifestyles. Don't miss this rare opportunity to meet Dr Deb in Cambridge! Watch 7 minute film The Farmer, the Architect and the Scientist. More details here.

Monday 09 December: Energy Group Meeting

20:00-21:30, Judith's house

We will review plans for the next forum and discuss anything else that crops up. Contact Nicola for details of venue.

Thursday 19 December: Transition Christmas Party

19:30-21:00, CB1 cafe, 32 Mill Road, CB1 2AD

Everyone is invited to this Transition Christmas party, where there will be music and cakes and mince-pies - so do put the date in your diary.

Tuesday 14 January: Food Group meeting

18:30-20:00, CB2 restaurant (upstairs room), Norfolk Street, CB1 2LD

All welcome at the Food Group's first meeting of 2014. We'll be making plans for the new year...

Sunday 19 January: Seedy Sunday - a date for your diary!

13:30-16:00, Trumpington Village Hall, High Street, Trumpington CB2 9HZ

Trumpington Seedy Sunday is a regular annual event. Note the date now! You can: * bring self-saved seeds to exchange * exchange bought surplus seed * take seeds in exchange for a small donation If you don't have any spare seeds, don't worry - there are always plenty to go round. As well as the seed swap, there will be stalls, talks, a childrens' activity, possibly a film & discussion, and tea and cakes from Trumpington Women's Institute. Entry costs £1.50 for adults (children free). HELP NEEDED! If you are willing and able to publicise Trumpington Seedy Sunday or to help on 19th January anytime between 12:00 and 17:30, please contact the organisers: seedysunday@allotments.net More details here.

Saturday 08 February: Food For A Greener Future Conference

09:30-17:30, Emmanuel United Reformed Church

This conference is organised by CCF in conjunction with Transition Food Group. There will be a day of talks, workshops, stalls, facilitated discussions, and a delicious lunch. Speakers include Jess Haliday (City University), Dan Iles (WDM), Duncan Williamson (WWF-UK) and Mike Small (The Fife Diet) as well as workshops on food footprints, food waste, February food and making the most of meat. Cost £15 (£10 concessions) For more details and booking go to the CCF website

Request for raffle prizes for Seedy Sunday 2014

The Seedy Sunday planning group welcome nice quality garden and seed related gifts for the raffle which will help to fund the event. Last year's raffle was a great success! To make your offer, please do get in touch before January 11th 2014 More details here.

Transition Free Press - latest edition has arrived in Cambridge

Read all about it! Good and wholesome news that is, in the latest edition of the Transition newspaper, Transition Free Press It's full of inspiring Transition news from the UK and further afield. You can collect your copy in Cambridge at our events and in Urban Larder (9 The Broadway, Mill Rd) or email us if you want to receive a copy by post.

Community News

Hen house and run available to good home

Clio has a chicken coop with a small run to offer free to a good home. The chicken house is large enough for 2-3 full size or 4-5 bantams if they are allowed out at daylight times. If you'd like to take this, please contact Clio for more details - you'd need to be able to pick it up.

Saturday 07 December: Mill Road Winter Fair

10:30-16:30, all the way along Mill Road

Join in with this wonderful community celebration! Food fair, street entertainers, artists, buskers, performances, loads of things for children to do - come and participate! The Transition stall will be on Donkey Green, by the Mortimer Road entrance. Look out for the big Transition banner! Drop by to find out more about our exciting projects on food, energy, skillshares and more. There will be Cambake bread samples and local apples available. The fair is made possible by many volunteers - check out the website for ways of helping out by stewarding, delivering brochures etc; as well as info on the day itself. More details here.

Other News and Events

Monday 02 December: The Passivhaus Building Standard: Questioning the energy saving magic bullet

13:00-14:00, LAB 005 in the Lord Ashcroft Building, Anglia Ruskin University, East Rd campus - entrance on Broad St

This is a Global Sustainability Institute lunchtime seminar with lunch provided. The speaker will be Chris Foulds from the Global Sustainability Institute. Chris recently completed his PhD at the University of East Anglia on the everyday consequences of low carbon housing and, in particular, the role of unfamiliar and innovative technologies. Specifically, he investigated the Passivhaus standard – a German building standard focusing on super insulation and airtightness – and how its associated domestic technologies were interpreted, used and incorporated into household practices, such as cooking, hosting, cleaning, and professionals practices, such as designing and constructing. Chris is an Environmental Social Scientist with a background in climate change, energy, and buildings. More recently these interests have developed in line with the fields of geography, sociology, and science and technology studies. Any questions, or to let us know you're coming (which is not essential), contact Julie-Anne or call her on 01223 695108. **Sustainable Lunch Provided**

Monday 09 December: Getting it Built!

09:30-16:30, Ely Cathedral Education and Conference Centre CB7 4EW

Do you want to do something about the housing (or lack of) in your community? Are you already setting up a Cohousing, Self Help, Community Land Trust, Self-Build or Cooperative housing project? Then these authoritative regional events on community-led housing are just for you; they'll tell you all you need to know about getting a project off the ground and will provide first stage support for applying to the Community Led Project Support Funding programme, a new Government start-up fund of £17 million for budding community developers. Free of charge. Organised by Locality, the UK Cohousing Network and the National CLT Network. Other dates and venues are available. Full programme here. More info and booking via Eventbrite.

Saturday 14 December: *Fulbourn Community Christmas Market*

14:30-17:00, Fulbourn Centre, Home End CB21 5BS

Bigger and better than ever with 20+ stalls laden with goodies: A delicious range of local bread (from CamBake - see below), cakes, puddings, savouries, jams & chutneys, flour, eggs, honey, beer; WI café; organic fruit and veg; unique handmade gifts, cards, bags, ornaments, nursery crafts, natural lotions & cosmetics; affordable jewellery, fine art prints and original watercolours. We’ll have the new Fulbourn Walks booklet, Christmas wreaths and table decorations; plus we're planning an 'alternative' Christmas gift stall offering gift vouchers with the chance to learn a skill. Bring lots of bags! For more info, tel: C880616 or emailMore details here.

CamBake - local community bakery project at *Fulbourn Community Christmas Market*

CamBake will be at the Fulbourn Community market again, with a variety of delicious bread. We bake using locally grown and milled flour from Foster's Mill at Swaffham Prior and the natural leaven process (sourdough) rather than yeast, so the only ingredients are flour, salt, water (and sometimes nuts,fruit, sees, herbs). Come and see us, have a taste and a chat about bread and baking, and choose a loaf from a country white, rye, spelt, fruit and nut, 100% wholemeal, four grain granary etc. We may have all sorts of Christmas treats on the day too! If you'd like to help out with CamBake (baking, running stalls, admin) do get in touch via our website. More details here.

Monday 16 December: Green Enterprise Pub Social

20:30-22:00, Maypole Pub 20a Portugal place, Cambridge CB5 8AF

Pub social for all those interested in green enterprise. More details here.

Free trees for community groups and schools

The Woodland Trust is offering free trees for community groups and for schools. The packs range in size from small (30 saplings) to large (420 saplings). Applications need to satisfy various criteria. There needs to be community involvement. The trees will be appropriate for the area. Applications need to be submitted by 14 January 2014. More details here.

CCF Maternity Cover Recruitment

Joss Cutler, Cambridge Carbon Footprint's excellent Volunteer and Events Organiser, is going on maternity leave mid-January. So we're recruiting someone to cover her role while she's on leave for up to a year - to organise and support our teams of volunteers and work with them to devise and deliver a varied programme of Carbon-reduction events. The role is 3 days per week, £19,500 pro rata pa, and you can find more details here. The closing date for application is Monday 2nd December, and interviews will be held on Monday 9th December.

Save our seeds - EU proposed law that would limit seeds for home growers

Following some revisions in Spring, the European Commision is pressing forward with a new law to regulate the sale of all seeds, plants and plant material. Every single variety of vegetable will have to be registered on an EU list, otherwise it will be illegal to sell it. To be registered on the list, seed varieties have to pass a series of tests demonstrating what is called DUS "Distinctiveness, Uniformity and Stability". It costs nearly £3000 to test & register just one single variety of seed for sale. Although we have had a system like this for many years, there have been much simpler and cheaper options for what are considered ‘amateur varieties’ for home gardeners, and the rules have never been strictly enforced in the UK. The EU wants to get rid of these simpler and cheaper rules for ‘amateur’ seed, and make sure that every country enforces the rules 100%. Although they say there will be exceptions, in current drafts of the law these are very, very limited. The effect of this new legislation will be to massively limit the choice of vegetable varieties available to home gardeners. Read more about this issue and what you can do on The Real Seed Catalogue's page - the deadline for amendments is 4th December, and options include writing to our MEP and contributing to the UK government's consultation on this issue. More here.

Events for your calendar

Have a great week!

Jacky

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Transition Cambridge aims to help Cambridge make the transition to ways of life that are more resilient in the face of rising energy prices and a changing climate.

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