29 June Pickles, Bats, Cropshare: Summer's here!

Hi Everyone

We're making the most of summer this week with the food group's pickles talk and tasting on Tuesday and a chance to get spot all manner of interesting wildlife at Nightingale Park this Friday night and Saturday. It's full-on at Lode with another Cropshare farm day, also on  Saturday, while in town, the first family-friendly 'All Ages Dance' takes place. What a week!

CONTENTS

Transition News and Events

  • Tuesday 30 June: Pickling talk and Tasting
  • Tuesday 30 June: What is Money? Discussion about Money and Local Exchange
  • Friday 03 July: Wild weekend at Nightingale Park - Friday evening bat safari and insect trap setting
  • Saturday 04 July: Wild weekend at Nightingale Park - Saturday morning wildlife wanderings
  • Saturday 04 July: CropShare - Be an organic farmer for a day
  • Tuesday 07 July: Transition Cafe: "Seek the Change" with Emily Dunning
  • Monday 20 July: Transition Cambridge hub meeting
  • Wednesday 22 July: Film: "Pollinating Change" with the Buzz Tour
  • Sunday 26 July: Transition's 7th Birthday Picnic!
  • Waste Not Want Not! #leftoverlunch selfies for Recycling Week
  • Events for your calendar

Other News and Events

  • Friday 03 July: Talk - 'Urban Transport - without the hot air'
  • Saturday 04 July: All Ages Dance
  • Sunday 05 July: Cambridge Greenpeace Picnic
  • Application deadline 19th April 2015: Cambridge Sustainability Residency 2015 Open Call
  • Sunday 19 July: London Permaculture Festival
  • Tuesday 08 September - Wednesday 09: 'Designing the world we want' - International Permculture Conference
  • Events for your calendar

Transition News and Events

Tuesday 30 June: Pickling talk and Tasting

18:45-20:15, Ross Street Community Centre, Cambridge

The Food Group's last meeting of June will be a talk on the craft of home pickling, followed by a tasting of some seasonal pickles with recipes. Pickling takes advantage of seasonal gluts, so we can enjoy our favourite veggies for longer! We will look at some common pickling techniques and cover topics such as wet and dry brining and when to blanche. All welcome, a suggested donation of £3 to £5 will help to cover ingredients and room hire. To book your place, please email Jacky

Tuesday 30 June: What is Money? Discussion about Money and Local Exchange

19:30, Alden Wright Room, Friends Meeting House, Jesus Lane, CB5 8BA

An informal discussion and game to explore what money is (and isn't), local forms of exchange, time banks, skill shares and gifting. Our guest, Matthew Slater, is a community currency engineer, and has helped to engineer many local exchange platforms and time banks. This is local trade and sharing with a view to building stronger and more resilient communities and support networks. Also in discussion will be representation from our local exchange scheme, CamLETS, a Local Exchange scheme successfully running since 1993. Donations welcome to help fund our speaker's travel costs. No need to book, just come along!

Friday 03 July: Wild weekend at Nightingale Park - Friday evening bat safari and insect trap setting

20:00-21:30, Nightingale Park, Nightingale Avenue (near Addenbrooke's)

Let's go batty, mothing and mini-beast trapping. Learn how to set overnight insect traps, go moth watching and join a twilight bat safari with bat detectors. Bring a torch if you wish to stay late! If you wish, return the next day to view the traps and join an informal Wildlife wandering around the park, with optional bring and share mid-morning snacks in the meadow. This Invite comes from Friends of Nightingale Park, Biodiversity officer from Open Spaces, local wildlife trust and Transition Cambridge Nature Group. Both events are free, all ages and abilities welcome, no need to book, meet by the car park. More details here.

Saturday 04 July: Wild weekend at Nightingale Park - Saturday morning wildlife wanderings

09:00-10:30, Nightingale Park

Following the Friday night bat safari and insect-trap setting we will explore the park, looking in the traps, bird spotting and identifying plants - the orchids might be out too. Join in a bring-and-share mid-morning snack in the meadow area afterwards. This Invite is from Friends of Nightingale Park, Biodiversity officer of Open Spaces Team, local Wildlife Trust and Transition Cambridge Nature Group. More details here.

Saturday 04 July: CropShare - Be an organic farmer for a day

09:30-16:30, Waterland Organics, Willow Farm, Lode CB25 9HF

Join Transition's community farming project, CropShare, to experience life as a real organic farmer for a day. We will be having fun helping out on the farm from 9.30am to 12.30pm, and 2pm to 4.30pm, sharing a lunch and a chat in between. You can join us for the morning or afternoon session, or both. 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. Fill in this form if you would like to take part, and we'll also help you arrange travel to the farm. Everyone is very welcome! Family friendly. More details here.

Tuesday 07 July: Transition Cafe: "Seek the Change" with Emily Dunning

19:30, Friends Meeting House, Jesus Lane, CB5 8BA

Emily Dunning has just returned from a 6-month trip travelling overland via the Trans-Mongolian Expressway to China, and then via several more countries to New Zealand. During her travels she met up with various people working on sustainability initiatives, from youth climate action groups in Taiwan to clean-up events in Russia to the social enterprise ethos inspiring change in Japan. She'll tell us about the joys and challenges of such a long overland journey, and the inspiration she took from the many sustainability projects she visited along the way. To find out more about what she's been up to, have a look at her blog seekthechange.org. Free, all welcome. If you'd like to help out with the cafe, please get in touch!

Monday 20 July: Transition Cambridge hub meeting

19:00-21:00, Anna's house off Coleridge Road

At the hub's monthly meeting, representatives of the groups and projects report on what they've been up to. We also make plans together to coordinate future events. Meetings are open, so all are welcome to attend. Attending hub meetings is a good way to see how Transition Cambridge works, and to get a sense of the range of projects that we are involved with. Contact Anna for details of the address.

Wednesday 22 July: Film: "Pollinating Change" with the Buzz Tour

19:30, Aldren Wright Room, Friends Meeting House, Jesus Lane, Cambridge

"Pollinating Change" follows the Buzz Tour on a 1,300 mile walk around England, camping and living off donations. The Bees (Eve and friends) interviewed over 80 people about the inspiring things they were doing to change our culture not climate. As they wrestle with the day to day difficulties of food and shelter they explore the range of tactics being used to collectively reduce climate change and the different journeys of personal change. Come along to meet Eve as she passes through Cambridge (she is now travelling by bicycle). Find out more about the Buzz Tour here.

Sunday 26 July: Transition's 7th Birthday Picnic!

13:00-16:00, Midsummer Common Community Orchard (directions below)

To celebrate Transition Cambridge's 7th birthday this year, we'll be having a picnic in the Midsummer Common Community Orchard (detailed map here - you will need this to find us as it's well-hidden!). Bring picnic things (food and drink either for yourself/your family or to share), and we hope for good weather! This will be a family friendly event, and small children are welcome. The orchard is a beautiful area managed both for the fruit trees and for wildlife, and includes a wild flower meadow and a bee hive. There are two entrances, one next to 51 Newmarket Road (the Cambridge Building Society head office) and the other from Midsummer Common near the Cutter Ferry bridge. Special thanks to the Friends of Midsummer Common for creating this space and allowing us to have our picnic there! (In case of rain, we'll go to the Hopbine pub instead for a pub lunch; it's a 5 minute walk from the orchard down Newmarket Road/Maids Causeway and to the left by the traffic lights, and the address is 11-12 Fair Street, Cambridge, CB1 1HA.)

Waste Not Want Not! #leftoverlunch selfies for Recycling Week

Cambridge Sustainable Food needs your help next week! We are going to post and tweet photos of ourselves with our ‪#‎leftoverlunch‬ (lunch made from leftovers) as part of WRAP's Recyle Week (Mon 22 to Sun 28 June). Please help us to get as many as we can to create a bit of a buzz! If you are on twitter, tweet your photo (you and your leftover lunch - dressing up optional!) using the following hashtags: #leftoverlunch, ‪#‎CamLFHW‬ and ‪#‎recycleweek‬. Also @FoodCambridge and @RecycleforCambridge. Please share this and take part next week!

Events for your calendar

Other News and Events

Friday 03 July: Talk - 'Urban Transport - without the hot air'

19:00, Waterstones, 22 Sidney Street, Cambridge CB2 3HG

Join lecturer, campaigner and journalist Steve Melia as he discusses his new book 'Urban Transport - without the hot air'. Steve will dispel current myths about urban transport, discuss current problems and solutions and tell us how Cambridge sets a sustainable example. Tickets are £5.00, available from Waterstones' ground floor desk. The book is out on 4th June, published by UIT, more info here. You can read his article on peak oil, economics and politics here

Saturday 04 July: All Ages Dance

10:30-12:00, St Paul's Primary School Coronation Street Cambridge CB2 1Hj

A new family friendly 5 Rhythms dance session for everyone, whatever age, dance experience or ability. Looking after our well-being is an essential part of the Transition to a more sustainable way of life. 5 Rhythms is a powerful dance and movement meditation practice that can help us to become more present in our bodies and wake up in these changing times. Come and channel your passion for the earth and for this life into your dance and see what happens. 5 Rhythms is a free form of movement meditation to music that anyone can do, whatever their age, gender, mobility or fitness level. This new family-friendly session is designed as an affordable and inclusive dance activity; it will be led by trusted Cambdance teachers, and we welcome young children as well as elders and everyone in between! This new class is expected to run monthly, posters and leaflets will be available shortly. Prices: adult £8, conc £6, 1st child £4, 2nd child £3, 3rd child £2. Maximum 3 children per adult. The accompanying adult must stay at the dance and remains responsible throughout the class for all children that they bring. For further information see the Cambsdance or email Nicole.

Sunday 05 July: Cambridge Greenpeace Picnic

14:00, Jesus Green, Cambridge

Cambridge Greenpeace are holding a picnic to celebrate their second birthday! It'll be on Jesus Green on Sunday, 5th July, at 2 p.m. All are welcome but please bring food and/or drink to share. We hope it'll be a great opportunity for like-minded people to meet, share a meal and enjoy a sunny, Summer afternoon - weather permitting :-)

Application deadline 19th April 2015: Cambridge Sustainability Residency 2015 Open Call

19:30-19:30, Cambridge School of Art

Once a year artists and other researchers come together to engage in a dialogue about sustainability and to explore new ways of facing challenges, particularly those created by human activity. If you'd like to take part, there is some more info here (flyer) or here (website) or contact Marina Velez directly via e-mail. More details here.

Sunday 19 July: London Permaculture Festival

11:00-18:00, Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent's Park Rd, London NW1 7AY

Come and get a dose of permaculture design inspiration at the annual one-day permaculture festival in London! There are presentations of practical projects too - from barefoot beekeeping to edible perennials to forest gardening, keeping hens and more... Tickets are £6 (£4 concessions) - pay on the door. Further info including location is here

Tuesday 08 September - Wednesday 09: 'Designing the world we want' - International Permculture Conference

09:30-17:00, The Light, Friends House, 173-177 Euston Road, London. NW1 2BJ

Two days packed with presentations, workshops, academic papers, exhibitions, music, and art. Plenary sessions with inspirational speakers including Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition movement. Day 1 focuses on practice - What are the inspiring, far-sighted projects of today, that show us what a sustainable society could look like in 2030? Day 2 focuses on processes - the pathways to transformation: How do we get from where we are now to where we want to be? Explore and share how existing tools and processes can be used to design the world we want and need. Enhance cooperation and links between different groups and sectors working to achieve a more sustainable world. Tickets (early bird rate) are £160 (or £145 for students). If you fancy stewarding for two half-days, you get free entry to the conference. More details here.

Events for your calendar

Have a great week! 

Jacky and the Bulletin Team :-) 

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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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