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WELCOME TO TRANSITION NORWICH...

We're part of a world-wide community movement in response to peak oil and climate change. This site gives you details of our up and coming events and meetings, as well as reports and related matters that are going on in Norwich and East Anglia.

NEWS AND RELATED EVENTS... Common Room - Low Carbon Cookbook - Magdalen-Augustine Celebration - Norwich FarmShare - Transition Free Press 4 - Visions for Change -On the Blog Harvest: Looking in the Archive 2009-2013 - Flight of the Butterflies - Where We Are Now

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Welcome to our March 2011 News!

Read all about it in the news and reports below from our Transition Norwich news bloggers. Events, Circles, growing and food projects, Stoneleigh's talk in Norwich, spring scheming, carbon conversations, heart and soul meetings, the latest on the blog and more . . . .

Sprouts and Clover at the Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm (from Peak Oil! Peak Oil! Oil! Oil! Oil! by Mark Watson) by kind permission of Richard Mudhar

Norwich FarmShare renamed - Welcoming Laura

Norwich Community Agriculture has a new name: from now on we're going to be Norwich FarmShare. We changed the name because several people thought the old one was a bit of a mouthful. We hope you like the new name and feel that it sums up what we're about.

Also this month we welcome our new farm manager and grower, Laura Creen. Laura and her partner Dave have moved here from Cirencester, where Laura was a star student of the Soil Association's apprenticeship scheme. She learned her craft on an organic market garden supplying a farm shop. We know she's going to do a great job of managing our two vegetable growing sites, with support from William and the Environment and Growing Group.

We're looking for more helpers for a work day, likely to be on March 20th, where we'll be putting up a rabbit fence and skinning the polytunnel. Contact Erik for more information. And generally FarmShare is a hive of activity with the marketing, distribution, schools and environment groups all really getting into gear and making concrete steps towards producing and selling wonderful organic produce this summer. If you might be interested in subscribing for a weekly share of organic veg contact Tully (tully@transtionnorwich.org). Tully Wakeman

Permaculture Norwich activities - 19 March

Saturday 5 March Workday at Brenna’s Kirkstead
Activities could include:
- preparing a no-dig veg area (which does initially involve some digging!)
- coppicing willows
- building a haybox cooker (and possibly modifications on our outside fridge)
- planting comfrey, planting out seedlings..lots of general garden stuff!

Contact Brenna for more info/directions. brennasbox@yahoo.com


Saturday 19 March Our first excursion!
A visit to two sites registered with the Permaculture Association as good demonstration sites of permaculture design in action.

We will be visiting: The Apricot Centre, Manningtree and The Peoples Community Garden in Ipswich. Having tours and doing a little work as a thank you for hosting us. We will leave Norwich at 09.00 and return at 18.50.

Contact Tierney if you are interested in coming along (Tierneywoods@yahoo.co.uk).

Photo of the People's Community Garden, Ipswich

Transition Circle West - 23 March

Our new format of two meetings a month seems to be working well. We had a lovely meeting of textiles work, getting on with projects we had and sharing tips and ideas. Our second meeting was a lively discussion of low carbon holidays, and what a long list of ideas we came up with! From Couch surfing to retreats, Cycle touring to RSPB residential volunteering there is a massive array of possible low carbon holidays in the UK. All of our ideas will be put into the resources section of the Transition Norwich website for others to peruse. We also discussed the ethics of international travel - flying, freight ships, voluntourism and slow travel - its a complicated moral maze, but low carbon options often end up being more memorable in the end.


Next month we are going to be concocting lotions and potions in our herbal remedies meeting on Tuesday 8 March and then we will be exercising our minds with a short talk from Ben on sociocultural evolution and its relevance to transition, followed by a discussion, on Wednesday 23 March. Kerry Lane


Anyone in the west of Norwich, who is trying to reduce their carbon footprint is welcome to join us, just get in touch with Helen on mshelenpallett@gmail.com.

Carbon Conversations - new sessions - 8 March

This inspiring, practical 6-session course on low-carbon living will be facilitated by Christine Way and Anne Dismorr. The course engages people both emotionally and practically, helping them overcome the barriers often associated with making large carbon reductions. Members explore the basic climate change problem, their responses to it, their ideas for a low-carbon future and the four key areas of the footprint – home energy, travel, food and other consumption. Most members make reductions of 1 tonne CO2 during the course and develop plans to halve their footprints over a longer period. Cost £20.Time: 10.30 - 12.30 Venue: Either City Centre or Mill Hill area.Time: 10.30 - 12.30

Contact: training@transitionnorwich.org or 01603 664479 for further information

Grapes Hill Community Garden Work Days - 27 March, and 3 April

Come and join us at Grapes Hill Community Garden, as we prepare the garden for opening to the public on Saturday 2nd July 2011.

Once the garden is fully open everyone will be welcome to come in and enjoy the space, every day during daylight hours. (It will be locked at night.)

The garden will contain a large number of food plants - vegetables in raised beds, fruit trees and bushes, herbs and edible flowers. In the shadier areas we will plant woodland wildflower and there will be a small meadow area, as well as ornamental shrubs and flowers to make the garden attractive to people and wildlife alike. There will be several seats and a lawn area where visitors will be able to relax and enjoy the garden.



Garden Work Days will be held on Sundays 13 and 27 March, 3 April. Meet at the garden, 11am. All welcome; tools will be provided. We will also hold a Public Meeting on Monday 14 March at The Belvedere Centre, Belvoir Street, Norwich, NR2 3AZ, 7.30 - 8.30pm. All welcome.


The garden opens to the public daily from Saturday 2 July And on Sunday 7th August 2011 we will celebrate with a Grand Opening Day.


Further information, news and details of upcoming events can be found on our website at http://www.grapeshillcommunitygarden.org/ and on our notice board on the garden railings.


Jeremy Bartlett. Photos copyright Grapes Hill Community Gardening Group

Heart and Soul - What is Inner Transition? - 14 March

Over the last couple of months I have had several people come up to me and ask 'What is Transition Heart and Soul?' (or, as it's increasingly referred to - Inner Transition?) This is an opportunity to explore this question afresh and create how we can manifest this here in Norwich.

Some new inspiring thoughts have been film nights, deepening earth connection times and more.......some fresh and new ideas - budding shoots. So do come explore with me and also bless my new space in the heart of Norwich with YOU. Comfy chairs, peace and quiet and bountiful refreshment.
Looking forward to being with you. Naomi Duffield

Monday 14th March at 7.30pm, 86 St Benedict's Street* (new Mangreen space - next to computer shop, opposite Leigh keys, Grapes Hill end of St Benedict's Street)

Transition Circle Hethersett - 18 March

In February we met at Ruth's house in Hethersett to talk about how we should respond to the large scale housing developments that are planned for the area. There is more about this on the blog . Five people shared a meal and we also talked about the sucess of our first food order from Rainbow Wholesale and just how much food you can get on one bicycle - about 20kg! The idea is to cut down on packaging and to make organic produce available at reasonable prices. We are planning another order in March and have placed some publicity in the village magazine in order to encourage more people to join in. John Heaser

Our next meeting is on March 18th in Little Melton and we will be talking about the the Story of Stuff - email us at hethersett@transitionnorwich.org
if you would like to come along.

Spring Scheming - Shaping the Norwich we want - 20 March

We have had a very exciting three years of community-led events and projects, many of them still flourishing. So in the evening of Sunday 20 March we will be celebrating all our successes so far and then looking to the future to see what dreams and schemes we could work towards next.

Everybody is welcome to come along whether you have been involved in Transition in the past, are at the moment or want to be in the future. Let's continue shaping Norwich to create our low carbon future together.

So come along at 6.15pm on Sunday 20 March at Inner Space on St Benedict's Street. Bring some food to share and let's look to the future of Norwich together.

For more info email Kerry on kezereky_the_first@hotmail.com.

Low Carbon Cookbook - 22 March

These are dried field beans grown by William Hudson, Norwich FarmShare’s key advisor. They’re part of the Food & Farming group’s Beans, Oats and Flour project that’s looking at crops that can be grown in the UK as the constrictions of climate change and peak oil hit our fossil-fuelled food system. They’re also called cattle or tick beans and are a popular staple in Egpyt. Right now in fact when we’re not feeding them to cows we’re exporting them to Egypt where they are known rather more appetisingly as ful medames. In the next Low Carbon Cookup, we’re going to be exploring the future with this down-to-earth relative of the broad bean, as we get on down to the business of writing a Transition cookbook. We’ll also be looking at the production of oils – reporting back on the olive, sesame, rapeseed, hemp and other essentials of our low carbon store cupboard. This week on the blog in our LCC Transition Themes slot we have invited Joanne Brannan to write about a foraging for wild leaves at her innovative low carbon farm in Suffolk. Joanne runs a CSA (with Transition Ipswich) and is a Guardian gardening blogger, so keep an eye out for her post on Friday. Last month those peppery, bitter and sour green leaves were definitely entering our month-by-month vegetable calendar and springing up amongst the root veg in our shared feast – sorrel, lovage, rocket, chickweed, nettle, endives, radicchio, fennel, lamb’s lettuce, bittercress. MMMMmmm. Can’t you just taste that Spring! Have a good one! Charlotte Du Cann Worth a Handful of Beans by Mark Watson

Making Sense of the Financial Crisis in the Era of Peak Oil - 25 March

Nicole Foss gave a gripping presentation to the Transition Network Conference last year and we are excited that she has agreed to come to Norwich to help us understand the challenges of climate change, economic recession, rising fuel and house prices.

Under the pseudonym Stoneleigh, she is co-editor of the blog,The Automatic Earth. which has been chronicling and interpreting the on-going credit crunch and the economic climate that has allowed it to happen. She brings together finance, energy, environment, psychology, population and real politik in order to explain why we find ourselves in a state of crisis and what we can do about it.

No tickets but donations welcome on the night. Please circulate this widely to all your networks as everyone is invited.

Contact: transition@phonecoop.coop for further information. Check this event out on Facebook here. Christine Way

Making Sense of the Financial Crisis in the Era of Peak Oil - A Presentation by Nicole Foss will be at the United Reform Church, Princes Street, Norwich NR3 1AZ Time: 7.45pm

RELATED EVENT: Not About The Bike

Re-cycling has made it to Norwich! With a stash of secondhand bike parts, knowledgeable volunteers and lots of bike tools, I have been waiting for something like Not About The Bike to start in Norwich for a while. Every Wednesday from 10-3 they will help you to mend your bike for the cost of any new parts. So you learn to fix your bike yourself rather than paying a bike shop lots of money to do it. It also means we don't have to buy all of the different tools ourselves - so definitely good on the resources front.

It is all volunteer run so if you can do some bike repairs and are free on Wednesdays, then why not go along and help out for an hour or two.

So that's every Wednesday 10-3 at Unit 6, Beckham Place just past Anglia Square. For more info email notaboutthebike@yahoo.co.uk. Kerry Lane

Need advice growing food?

Norfolk is one of five areas in Britain taking part in Garden Organic’s Master Gardeners scheme (the other areas are Warwickshire, Islington, South London and Lincolnshire).
Master Gardeners are volunteers who offer support and advice to people growing fruit and vegetables, whether on a small scale in window boxes or in a garden or allotment.
The Master Gardener service provides free support for 12 months.

Norfolk Master Gardeners are supported by co-ordinator Gabbie Sharp. E-mail gsharp@gardenorganic.org.uk. Telephone 01362 869286. Jeremy Bartlett (a Norfolk Master Gardener).
Photo by Jeremy Bartlett

Transition Norwich in Triangle

We have negotiated a brief monthly article in Triangle in order to raise awareness among the wider community about the issues which have lead to the development of the Transition movement. These are primarily climate change, peak oil and economic recession.

If you would like to be involved in writing these articles please contact training@transtionnorwich.org Christine Way