About Us

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

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Transition Communications, 2012

Happy new year readers! Here are some of the trusty This Low Carbon Life bloggers at the Greenhouse discussing the programme for the year ahead. We will be continuing our community blog with its sure-fire mix of individual posts, Transition Theme Weeks and Topic Weeks (Sustainable Relationships to Alternative Currencies) and hope you will join us.

Meanwhile in the big picture Transition will be in full multi-media swing in 2012, as the film Transition 2.0 launches this March and there are plans to expand the 15 minute Norwich in Transition to a full-length documentary. You can find a monthly podcast (listen to last month's featuring Norwich FarmShare) and newsletter on the Network news site. And if you didn't catch Rob Hopkins talk in November about the new Transition Companion book there are still cut-price copies available (see below). A great full-colour explanation of the drivers behind the movement and the essential ingredients and tools that make up initiatives (now numbering over 800 in 34 countries).

On the Transition Network the innovative Social Reporting project came to the end of its three month pilot in December. The project begins again next week with a month of Looking Back, Looking Forward. Don't miss the daily blogs by ten writers from initiatives around the UK, including three of the TN bloggers, Charlotte, Mark and Kerry (now at Transition University West of Scotland), reporting and reflecting on all subjects under the sun. You can keep updated with our twitter news at tnnorwich and ttreporters.

STOP PRESS! Article on Transition Norwich now out in Norwich Magazine - reprinted on Transition Culture. Text by Sabine Virani. Photos by Tony Buckingham. See here.

Copies of the new Transition book, The Transition Companion, by Rob Hopkins (Green Books) still available for £14. To order your copy email: info@sustainablebungay.com

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year 2012!

Read all about what's happening in the city in the new year from our Transition Norwich news crew: Norwich in Transition film on line, Energy Look Outs! starts out, Occupy Norwich continues, Norwich FarmShare looks to the future, the Low Carbon Cookbook plans the menu, plus Transition Circles, Carbon Conversations, community gardens and more . . .

Festive food and planning for the new year - 31 January

We're all enjoying a little downtime at Norwich FarmShare over the Christmas break. Tierney and team as ever did us proud with a fantastic selection of winter veg for our festive tables.
As soon as we're back from Christmas we'll be right into the swing of planning for our next season. We'll be meeting in January to discuss how to make our distribution and logistics run smoothly, how to work best on the farm to grow the veg we need whilst improving the site for wildlife, and how to increase our membership to a level that will make us a sustainable farm.
  • The distribution and logistics group- will meet on Monday 16th Jan, 6.30pm at Take 5, Tombland.
  • The environment and growing group will meet on Tuesday 24th Jan, 7.00 p.m. at the Bicycle Shop, St. Benedict's Street.
  • The team looking at our marketing and communications will meet on Tuesday 31st Jan, 7.00pm Jan at Take 5, Tombland.We'd love to see as many people as possible at these meetings, the more ideas the merrier! Drop us an email to let us know, or just turn up on the day.
See our website for more about the farm, plus fabulous seasonal recipes.
Elena, at Norwich FarmShare
.


Pics: Tierney's Christmas lunch

FILM: Norwich in Transition - Part 1



Click and see the people behind the scenes at The Nectar Cafe, Norwich FarmShare, Carbon Conversations, Norwich CoHousing, Norwich Energy Lookout! See Part 2 (below) for Economics and Livelihoods, Magdalen Street Celebration, communications and the TN blogs.

Still: William Hudson from East Anglia Food Link discussing peak oil and the CSA on site at Postwick (with rain barrel)

Film directed and produced by Tom Harper and Chris Hull for Transition Norwich's Third Anniversary Celebration. Music by James Frost. Starring members and associates of Transition Norwich, November 2011.

FILM: Norwich in Transition - Part 2



Click and see the people behind the scenes reporting for Economics and Livelihoods, Magdalen Street Celebration, communications and the TN blogs. See Part 1 (above) for The Nectar Cafe, Norwich FarmShare, Carbon Conversations, Norwich CoHousing, Norwich Energy Lookouts!

Still: Charlotte Du Cann (TN blogs and the Low Carbon Cookbook) at the Occupy Norwich camp, Hay Hill, talking about communications (not a distraction!)

Film directed and produced by Tom Harper and Chris Hull for Transition Norwich's Third Anniversary Celebration. Music by James Frost. Starring members and associates of Transition Norwich, November 2011.

Kitchen Encounters of the Low Carbon Kind - 18 January

Last month the Low Carbon cookbook crew sat before a midwinter feast of spicy dahl, chickpea stew, millet, buckwheat, pumpkins, sprouts, parsnips, almond cheese, wild mushrooms, red bean hummus and something unusual: dried curly kale that tasted of cheddar. Intriguing and very very more-ish.

We were at The Nectar Cafe where the shelves are stacked with local herb teas and hedgerow cordials and jars of lacto-fermented veg, chutney and salsas, all primed for this year's hungry gap. Jo Balfe's cafe, like our Low Carbon Cookbook, is seasonal to the max. To live within these kind of constraints happily, as we have all discovered, requires a whole different approach to cooking and living life. It's something that all cooks and creators find as they bridge the gap between the left and the right ways of seeing the world - the spark that lights the stove.

The spark is what you look for when you write a book, a creative way to mix that left-side heavy-duty information and the right-side possibilities of living lightly in synch with the planet. None of us wants to write an entertainment, or a text book. What makes you pick up a cookbook? we asked each other around the table. To proceed towards a low-carbon future an imaginative relationship with the physical world is necessary, where certain key commitments have been made. We need to be fired up by something stronger, more alluring than any feel-bad information. Tastes and kitchen encounters that connect us with the earth and with each other.

Any surprising, life-changing, downshifting recipes to share out there? We'd love to hear from you. Charlotte Du Cann

Our next meeting will be a mapping exercise to plot out the structure of the book. Bring your pens and paper and a winter dish to share. Or if you have a recipe you'd like to be included, please contact Charlotte at theseakaleproject@hotmail.co.uk

Photo: Masanobu Fukuoka from One Straw Revolution); low carbon cafe conversation. Full text and pix from The Spark That Lights the Stove. The Nectar Cafe is at 16 Onley Street, off Unthank Road.

Transition Circle West - 25th January

Transition Circle West starting off the New Year with skills sharing.

We will be meeting at Pete and Teresa's house on Wednesday January 25th at 7pm to share a meal together and to discuss how we can share our skills. You can even bring something you have made along to show the group! This circle meeting follows two stimulating and enjoyable meetings held during December, where we discussed alternative economics and the future plans of the circle. Join us in January to learn new skills for a resilient community and to help plan future meetings for the circle.

To attend this meeting or for more information about the group please contact Helen Pallett at mshelenpallett@gmail.com

Photo: skill-sharing at Permaculture Norfolk's Workday by Mark Watson

Carbon Conversations - new series

A new round of Carbon Conversations courses will be starting in January so now is the time to get your name on the list so that we can plan when and where the groups will be held.

Carbon Conversations are based on a psychological understanding of how people change and help people to make significant reductions in their carbon footprint. Each group of 6 - 10 people meet for 6 sessions usually in member’s homes. The course is for all those who are concerned about climate change and wish to reduce their carbon footprint regardless of their current carbon footprint

What do the groups offer?
- sessions on low-carbon futures, home energy, travel and transport, food and water,
consumption and waste and making plans
- space for people to explore what climate change means for themselves, their families and their aspirations
- permission to share their hopes, doubts and anxieties
- time to work through the conflicts between intention, social pressure and
identity.
- reliable, well-researched information and practical guidance on what will
make a difference
- support in creating a personal plan for change
- materials including interactive games and a comprehensive handbook covering climate change basics, low-carbon living and the four key areas of the footprint – home energy, travel, food and other consumption.

Joining or starting a group
The groups are ideal for friends, neighbours and community groups so if you can gather a group of 6 – 10 people we’ll provide the facilitators.

Alternatively, contact training@transitionnorwich.org giving your name and postcode and we’ll contact you when a suitable group is available.

The Energy Look Outs!

Ever passed by an office block late at night and wondered what all those lights are doing on?

Or seen 'patio heaters' blazing away outside a cafe radiating heat and carbon into thin air with nobody in sight?


This new initiative now enables you to mobilise that curiosity and reaction into action!

We are all responsible for good stewardship of resources, and in Transition Norwich we have an ideal vehicle for engaging with businesses where we find behaviour is not matching rhetoric.

Local authorities have asked for citizen involvement in making decisions about efficiency savings, and the retail sector in particular is the main interface between individuals and the business sector.


So - we are starting with a reporting process whereby anyone can report to us a concern about energy or resource waste, and we will take this up with the particular business concerned. We will then engage with the relevant part of the organisation or business concerned, with a view to positively reporting any changes they make as a result of community concerns. Chris Hull

Report your concern by e-mailing chrishull@phonecoop.coop. Watch this space for our next meeting to further develop this initiative!

Lights at the Forum, Norwich by Mark Watson

Norwich's Occupation thinks about Climate Change and Monetary Reform - 2/3 February

You may have noticed in the press, from friends, or by walking the streets of the cities of this world, that thousands of people have been camping in squares and streets in protest of corporate greed and economic injustice. Norwich has its own occupation going on at Hay Hill, which has been continuously in progress since 15th October in which several transitioners are involved.

Although the constant presence indicates how seriously the issues are that the movement is protesting about, its real strength lies in the conversations that it has been inspiring amongst ordinary people about our economic and social structure, what is wrong with it, and what the possible solutions might be.

Occupy Norwich has several working groups which are trying to determine the nature of our concerns and form consensus on possible outcomes and solutions. The Climate Change working group (who have generally been meeting Tuesdays at 7pm at the Occupy Norwich camp) have already come up with some statements which have been agreed by consensus.

There is also a Monetary Reform working group (Wednesdays at approx. 7pm at the Occupy Norwich camp), which has been discussing the nature of money and the alternatives to the current system. Minutes from the last Monetary Reform working group meeting are here on facebook, or here on the forum. Simeon Jackson

Occupy Norwich is organising an arts festival on 3-5 February: "An amazing assortment of events over a weekend in venues situated across central Norwich. Live Music, DJs, comedians, poets, artists, workshops, great vibes, amazing people, excellent conversation and lots and lots of fun." They are also organising a People's Assembly
and have just published the interim results of a local survey. Further information about Occupy Norwich can be found at their website on Facebook on Twitter.

Photo: General Assembly by Mark Watson

Grapes Hill Community Garden Update

In December we had our first real frosts of the winter and had our last gardening task of the year, clearing tender plants such as Nasturtiums and Achocha. We've left the dry skeletons of our herbaceous perennials and climbers as a winter hiding place for insects, such as clusters of 7-Spot Ladybirds.

The surfaces of the raised beds are covered in leaves, which will prevent nutrients from being leached out of the soil. We've now allocated each of the beds to local families, to give those without a garden of their own space to grow vegetables.

And so, the garden is resting for the winter, though it is still open to the public every day and evergreens, dried seedheads and the occasional flower provide continuing interest.

The end of the year is a time for reflection and so we've put together a brief video of the creation of the garden as a summary of what we've achieved so far. It is amazing that a year ago the garden was still a building site and, before that, an area of rough tarmac.



We wish you all a Happy New Year.

For more information on the garden see our website and Facebook page.

Jeremy Bartlett.
http://www.grapeshillcommunitygarden.org/

Film by Jeremy Bartlett, featuring photos by Jeremy Bartlett, Vanna Bartlett and Jo Rice.
Music - "Urban Oasis" by Dave Sturgess.