Hi everyone
There are some exciting opportunities coming up, including getting involved with the Cropshare farm project (find out what it's like to be an organic farmer for a day), or with Empty Common Community Garden (lots of interesting permaculture ideas). Further ahead you can learn how to grow your own with Dave Fox on his allotment, or find out about waste and the waste heirarchy with the energy group. We'd also love to hear your views about car clubs (survey here) as the city and county councils are currently preparing new contracts for use of car club bays, so this is the moment to make our views known to them (read our latest blog posts on this topic).
And in the Related Events section below you'll find events on conservation volunteering, climate change, recycled textiles, wildlife walks, a divestment march, and discussions on alternative economics and food miles. What an amazing choice of events! Hope to see you at some of them...
19:00-21:00, Barclay's Eagle Labs, 7-8 Clifton Court, Cherry Hinton Rd, CB1 7BN
Repair Cafes have been phenomenally successful in our region. The Cambridgeshire Repair Café Network would like to invite all existing repairers and Repair Café organisers to come together in this exciting Cambridge Maker Space. We'll be celebrating what we've achieved together, sharing interesting repair news and updates and working with you to consider how we continue to thrive and make a difference. Topics we'll be considering when thinking about our evolution include: promoting skillsharing between repairers, which (if any) related campaigns might we support and how we increase the learning experiences of visitors to Repair Cafes. We'd love to see you. There'll be time to share a drink with people throughout the area and there'll be a tour of the Maker Space and its gear! Please let us know if you are coming by emailing Nicole or use the booking form on the Circular Cambridge website. More details here.
10:00-16:00, Willow Farm, Lode, Cambridge, CB25 9HF
Join Transition's community farming project, CropShare, to experience life as a real organic farmer for a day... This week we will be having fun helping out on the farm from 10:00am to 12.30pm, and 2pm to 4.00, sharing a lunch and a chat in between. You can join us for the morning or afternoon session, or both. Family friendly, everyone is very welcome! See our blog to get a flavour of what workdays are like. It will be good healthy fun, a great chance to see our local countryside, and how food is grown on a large scale. Please fill in this form if you would like to take part, and we'll also help you arrange travel to the farm. Can't make it this week? Click here to check which Saturdays we will be on the farm next. Hope to see you soon!
10:30-12:30, Empty Common Community Garden
There is generally a group of us in the garden on Sunday mornings from 10.30 am to 12.30 or later, and people are also coming and going during the week - you don't even have to garden just come and enjoy the space! More details here.
10:00-12:30, Trumpington allotments
Join Dave Fox again at Trumpington allotments. Novices and experienced growers all welcome - this is a mutual sharing, not a lesson. Provisional agenda: Prepare seed beds. Sow some of potatoes, parsnips, onions, broad beans. Weeding. Look round the forest garden and do the final pruning of the fruit trees. Take produce home with you (please bring bags). Expect rhubarb, potatoes & greens, at least. Join in here. More details here.
20:00-22:00, Judith's place on Leys Road
At this meeting the main topic will be waste handling and the waste hierarchy. Depending on what people want to talk about this is likely to cover alternatives to plastics packaging, incineration versus landfill (or other waste handling streams) and probably aspects of the circular economy. For more about the circular economy, see Nicola's notes from a previous discussion in 2016. There will also be a catch up on relevant news. All welcome! More details here.
Car clubs are a way to provide sustainable transport options, taking cars off the street and making electric or hybrid cars affordable. So please take a few minutes to fill in our survey - we need your views on what sort of car clubs we want in Cambridge, where, and how much difference they can make. The city and county councils are currently preparing new contracts for use of car club bays in the city and surrounding areas so this is a critical time - your views can make a difference. More details here.
If you have not already confirmed you'd like to receive our news bulletin email please don't forget - it is just one click on your personal reminder email. (In case you have deleted it, don't worry you will get a reminder in early March.) We have to ask you to do this because of recent changes in data protection laws that come into effect in April. They require us to be able to show that each of you has given us permission to use your email. Some of you subscribed for yourselves and some of you requested we add you to the list - but unfortunately we have not kept records. We do hope you find the news bulletin useful. If you have suggestions please let us know.
10:00-15:00, Trumpington Meadows Nature Reserve
Join the rangers every other Wednesday and help carry out conservation tasks on the lovely nature reserve at Trumpington Meadows. Tasks are varied and may include: nest box building and checking, scrub removal, hay raking, species monitoring - and more! All training and tools provided, no previous experience necessary. We also provide plenty of tea and biscuits! If you have questions, please email us More details here.
19:30-21:00, Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity College, Cambridge / Streaming online
This year's Cambridge Climate Lecture Series is taking place at 7.30pm each Thursday evening from February 15th to March 15th. Our speakers are: 15th Feb - Dr Saleemul Huq, International Centre for Climate Change and Development, 22nd Feb - Renee Juliene Karunungan, Climate Tracker 1st Mar - Professor Stephen Briggs, European Space Agency 8th Mar - Lisa Walker, Ecosphere+ These talks are free to attend with no booking required. They will be held in Winstanley Lecture Theatre Trinity College. Please aim to be in your seats by 7.25 at the latest so online streaming can begin promptly. Our final event on March 15th will be a panel discussion featuring Sir David King, former UK special representative for climate change. NB This final event requires booking through the Cambridge Science Festival and will be held in the Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue. More details here.
14:30-16:30, Museum of Cambridge
A talk with Jenny Langley, Cambridge textile artist at the Enid Porter room, Museum of Cambridge Free admission, refreshments available. Find out how deeply satisfying and creative it can be to make beautiful things from recycled materials! Textile artist Jenny Langley will tell us how working with recycled materials fed her creativity by forcing her to try new and different ideas. She will tell us her story about how she came to work with recycled materials. Jenny says: "It lead me to a deep appreciation of all the good things that I have in my life, so I'm much happier with my lot than I used to be. No more striving to get what I haven't got, as I've already got great riches. I now treat everything as precious, and I feel that that's a really good way to look at the world" In the session you will learn about the construction process and what you need to start creating your own things. For those who are eager to start immediately Jenny will provide some fabrics to hand out.
Various times and locations in and around Cambridge
The Science Festival is back for another year - 2018's theme is 'making sense of the world'. There are talks, exhibitions, performances, films and hands-on events, including some for children and families. We've included some events of interest to Transitioners below. Most events are free and you'll probably need to book. More info here.
09:30-12:00, Trumpington Meadows Nature Reserve
This is the best way to get to know Trumpington Meadows nature reserve. Our popular guided walks show you all the latest wildlife. See the landscape change throughout the seasons and get some fresh air. £3 per person. Starts at 9.30am. meeting at the entrance to the reserve from the Byrons Pool car park. Back to the beginning by 12. More details here.
13:00, city centre tbc
This march is organised by Zero Carbon, who are campaigning for the University of Cambridge to divest from fossil fuels. Over a year ago the University was given the democratic mandate to fully divest but are just about to produce a report which fails to address the urgency of climate change and will only suggest partial divestment. Zero Carbon have called for a huge march to protest that the University is failing to act democratically and acknowledge its responsibility to act effectively on climate change. Further details about the march will be available later. Please email Jenny if you are interested in attending. More details here.
19:00-21:00, Cambridge Junction, Clifton Way CB1 7GX
Time is running out for us to deal with climate change effectively. Cambridge Junction hosts a METIS 'research-in-public' event with three natural scientists who address the question: what is the best alternative economic structure for responding to climate change? And what would the impact of such a change be on the natural world? This event is part of METIS' preparation for the performance installation, WE KNOW NOT WHAT WE MAY BE at the Barbican in September 2018. More info about Metis here. A Science Festival event.
06:30-08:30, Byron's Pool car park
Wake up early and join the Cambridgeshire Wildlife Trust to search for tracks and signs of the many mammals we find on Trumpington Meadows nature reserve. We may even catch a glimpse of boxing hares! 6.30am start from the entrance to the reserve from Byron's Pool car park. Finish by 8.30am. £3 per person. More details here.
13:00-14:00, Anglia Ruskin University, East Road CB1 1PT
We see sustainability as looking after ourselves, each other and the planet, but what does this look like in practice? The Global Sustainability Team at Anglia Ruskin University present an interactive talk to help explain how we understand sustainability, why it matters and what we can do to address its central themes; from our global research, to organisational change, to practical steps we can all make in our everyday lives. A Science Festival event - booking here.
17:30-18:45, Mill Lane Lecture Rooms, 8 Mill Lane CB2 1RW
Trying to make sensible food choices can be confusing. 'Eat local' is claimed by many to be the way to have minimal impact on the environment. But the total greenhouse gas emissions depend on the product in question - overall they are lower for tomatoes grown in the warmer climes of Spain using natural sunlight and imported to the UK, than for tomatoes grown locally in heated glasshouses in the middle of winter. How can we make sense of 'food miles', and as environmentally and socially conscious consumers what else should we be considering? This Science Festival event is organised by the Cambridge Global Food Security Initiative and Cambridge EIT Food programme. Booking here.
Have a great week!
Anna and the bulletin writing team
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.