Newsletter20120403

Hi everyone,

At this week's Transition Cafe on Thursday (7:30pm, CB1 cafe), you can hear how Ann and Helen got on when they committed themselves to eating only locally grown food for a few weeks earlier this year!

CONTENTS

Transition News and Events

  • Thursday 05 April: Cafe evening - Eating local and buying local
  • Tuesday 10 April: Growing Spaces Dig Day
  • Tuesday 10 April: Food Group meeting + community bakery
  • Tuesday 10 April: Energy Group Meeting
  • Wednesday 02 May: Eco Renovation Question Time
  • Transition books at reduced prices
  • A new transition social events group?

Other News and Events

  • Monday 02 April - Friday 25 May: Open Eco Homes in May - bookings are open
  • Wednesday 04 April: Community Composting training for local food growers in Bury St Edmunds
  • Friday 06 April: Moonlit walk at Wandlebury
  • Thursday 12 April: The Sharing Economy – An Introduction to Collaborative Consumption
  • Saturday 14 April: Cam Clean Up 2012
  • Monday 23 April: Eco-Renovations in progress
  • Monday 30 April: Does gender matter to sustainable development?
  • Sunday 20 May: Beekeeping for Beginners
  • Fri 25th - Sun 27th May: Introduction to Permaculture
  • 15th-17th June: The Work that Reconnects: a weekend workshop
  • Saturday 14 July: Compost Toilet Workshop

Transition News and Events

Thursday 05 April: Cafe evening - Eating local and buying local

19:30-21:00, CB1 cafe, Mill Road

Is it possible to ‘eat local’ for six weeks? And how much would you miss bananas? Helen Karapandzic and Ann Mitchell (who's a member of Transition Cambridge Food Group) were up for a challenge when they signed up for this project with Cambridge Carbon Footprint in January. During this café evening, they’ll talk about how they got on and what they learned about the local food system and its resilience. There will be plenty of time for questions. The café opens at 7.00, and the evening will begin at 7.30. More info about the project is on the CCF website and this article gives more detail.

Tuesday 10 April: Growing Spaces Dig Day

10:00-15:00, Brown's Field Community Centre

Growing Spaces is helping to revive Brown's Field Youth and Community Centre's front garden by planting a host of new herbs and edible flowers. We could use some helping hands to weed, prep the bed and spread compost and mulch in the morning, and some hands to help plant and seed in the afternoon. If you have some time during the day on 10th April, please get in touch with Stephanie so she has an idea of numbers and can advise you what to bring! More details here.

Tuesday 10 April: Food Group meeting + community bakery

18:30-20:30, The Emperor pub, 21 Hills Road, CB2 1NW (upstairs room)

The meeting will start at 6:30; join us at 7.30 to discuss the exciting new idea of a Community Supported Bakery. Please come along if you are interested in locally sourced and co-operatively baked bread. All welcome!

Tuesday 10 April: Energy Group Meeting

20:00-21:30, Judith's house on Leys Road

We will be planning the next forum on solar hot water, plus other events coming up and blue sky initiatives. Contact Nicola for details of venue.

Wednesday 02 May: Eco Renovation Question Time

19:30-21:30, St Paul’s Centre, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 1JP

Open Eco Homes kicks off this year with a question time event organised jointly with the Transition Cambridge Energy Group. The panel to answer your questions includes builders and architects as well as householders whose homes you can visit later int the month. They have experience with new build homes and retrofit, with solar panels, underfloor heating, heat pumps, rainwater harvesting, insulation both internal and external, double and triple glazed windows, draught proofing ... this is your chance to ask what its like, both during the work and afterwards, do they really make a difference. Also Peter Thom will be able to answer your queries about the Green Deal, which is coming real soon now. The Green Deal means you will be able to install energy saving features in your home with no upfront cost. The chairman for the evening will be Energy Editor of The Guardian, Terry MacAlister. This event is free entry, donations will be welcome. More details here.

Transition books at reduced prices

Green books are offering 35% off orders over £25 so if a few people would like to do a joint book order, we can get the following: The Transition Companion £13, The Transition Timeline £8.40, Communities, Councils and a Low Carbon Future £9.70, Local Monday £9.70 and Local Sustainable Homes £9.70. (Lots of other relevant books available too...) Let Anna know if you'd like to do a joint order (we already have some Transition Companions and Local Money books). You'd need to be able to collect the book(s) either from somewhere in town during the daytime or from near Mill Road at other times. These books are also available to borrow from our library. (Would anyone like to be the Transition librarian? Contact Anna for details!)

A new transition social events group?

If you'd like to get more involved in Transition Cambridge's activities, there are lots of ways of doing so! In particular, we would love to have an events team to organise social events for transitioners to get together regularly, e.g. in pubs, cafes, for walks, picnics etc. Get in touch to find out more!

Related News and Events

  • Monday 02 April - Friday 25 May: Open Eco Homes in May - bookings are open

10:00-17:00,

Once again, Cambridge Carbon Footprint is organising Open Eco Homes - on 12-13 and 26-27 May. This year there are 25 homes in Cambridge and surrounding villages - a wide range of house-types, renovation measures and budgets. You can find out which homes are open when on the website - the most popular get booked up quite quickly, so get your skates on if you'd like to visit a particular house. More details here.

Wednesday 04 April: Community Composting training for local food growers in Bury St Edmunds

12:00-16:00, Quaker Meeting House, Bury St Edmunds

Are you interested in composting and growing your own? The Community Composting Network has received funding from Local Food for its 'Community Composting for Local Food' project. The aim is to help local communities grow their own food crops and to make and use their own high quality compost. The project will increase skills in composting for growing local food by delivering specially developed accredited training courses. There's further support in the form of networking workshops and equipment loans which will help trainees to put their learning into action on their own local food growing projects, and get their own Community Composting scheme up and running. If you' like to be involved in the project come to this free seminar to find out more - complimentary locally sourced lunch included! The seminar promises to be jam packed with information and inspirational ideas. To find out more or book a place, email Hollie. More info here.

Friday 06 April: Moonlit walk at Wandlebury

21:00-22:00, Wandlebury Country Park

Join the Rangers on a guided walk around Wandlebury and see it as you've never seen it before, by the light of a full moon! Dress according to the weather and bring a torch if you wish. Booking is essential. For details and to book a place phone: Cambridge Past, Present & Future Head Ranger Jon Gibbs 07833598155, or e-mail Jon. FREE – donations to support Wandlebury welcome. Directions: Wandlebury Country Park is on the A1307, 2.5km south of the Addenbrooke’s roundabout). [TL492 532]

Thursday 12 April: The Sharing Economy – An Introduction to Collaborative Consumption

19:30-21:30, St. Andrew's Hall, St. Andrew's Road

Could something as simple as sharing be a key remedy to hyper consumption and waste while building community at the same time? Traditional sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting and swapping, redefined through technology and peer communities is transforming business, consumerism and the way we live! Join us for this exciting evening that includes guests from Zipcar, Life is a Gift, Lourish and more, to find out what exactly this powerful emerging economic force is and how you can engage with it in Cambridge. More details here.

Saturday 14 April: Cam Clean Up 2012

Time to get mucky cleaning out the local river! This annual event is organised this year by the Cleaner Cambridge Campaign. They say 'It's the perfect time to grab a bin bag, litter picker and some enthusiasm for an amble along the river and around the Commons, to carry out a spring clean for visitors to our beautiful city, but more importantly for our local community and your own personal satisfaction. These are normally fantastic community events and a good day out.' Email Paul for more details and to register your interest. See this link for photos of 2009's mammoth clean-up! More details here.

Monday 23 April: Eco-Renovations in progress

19:30-21:30, Private Home (Details available on Booking)

We’re offering a new Eco-Renovation Tour in north Cambridge off the Histon Road. This is an exciting opportunity to go round 1930′s house with Anne Cooper of award-winning AC Architects and Martin Roach, who has a great deal of experience in DIY energy efficiency. The session will last two hours. The owners will be on hand to answer questions and discuss what has been done already. Booking is essential for this, as the house cannot accommodate more than 20 people! More details here.

Monday 30 April: Does gender matter to sustainable development?

13:00-14:00, Helmore 201, Anglia Ruskin University, East Road

This is one of the Global Sustainability Institute's lunchtime seminars. The speaker is Professor Clare Griffiths, from the University of Chester. Lunch is provided. More details here.

Sunday 20 May: Beekeeping for Beginners

10:00-16:00, Fen End Farm, Cottenham

If you are thinking about beekeeping this one-day 'taster' course will give you a good basic grounding in the main things that you need to understand, including the life cycle of the bee, safety, diseases and parasites and more. You will have the opportunity (weather permitting) to see inside a hive, and handle the bees. More details here.

Fri 25th - Sun 27th May: Introduction to Permaculture

18:30-18:30, Fen End Farm, Cottenham

Permaculture is a way of designing human habitats based on patterns found in nature, using them to our advantage without exploiting them. Find out why so many people are now using this guiding set of principles and ethics, not only in gardening, but in communities, livelihoods and other areas of life. Permaculture can be used at any scale; you do not have to have a piece of land, or even a window box to be able to apply it. More details here.

15th-17th June: The Work that Reconnects: a weekend workshop

18:30, Cambridge Sustainability Centre, Fen End Farm, Oxholme Drove, Cottenham, CB24 8UP

Are you concerned about the condition of our world? Would you like to strengthen your ability to respond? This weekend workshop introduces 'The Work That Reconnects', an approach developed by Joanna Macy (see www.joannamacy.net for info). Deepening our feeling of connection with life, we will open up spiritual and psychological resources needed to face and respond to global issues. Through experiential practices we will explore how to use the energy of our emotional responses, reconnect with our passion to act for life and transform concern for the world into creative engagement. The workshop will be facilitated by Anna McIvor, Bev Sedley and Liz Serocold and will be hosted by the Cambridge Sustainability Centre. Cost £50-100. Most of us will be camping and we will be cooking together. More info here and book here.

Saturday 14 July: Compost Toilet Workshop

10:00, Fen End Farm, Cottenham

Have you ever thought about how illogical it is to use clean drinking water to flush away human waste, only to spend vast sums removing it and cleaning the water afterwards? Be part of the solution and learn how easy it is to compost your 'humanure', and construct your own compost collector toilet to take home! More details here.

Thanks for sending in news and events for this bulletin! We try to include as many local events and news stories as we can (anything that relates to making Cambridge more resilient and sustainable) - so if you see something of interest, drop us a line or put it onto our web-page (it then automatically goes into the bulletin). And if you attend an event and feel like writing a little report and/or sending in some photos, we will try to include them (you need to send them by Sunday night before Monday's bulletin). Thanks!

Have a lovely Easter!

Anna

Our Mission

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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