DOWNHAM MARKET: Incinerator Protest in Norwich - 29 June

Norfolk County Council is threatening West Norfolk with a mass burn incinerator. Like nuclear waste, it is perfectly safe. It is to be sited 2 miles from King’s Lynn, near farming land and near the Wash, with its shellfish beds.

Nobody in West Norfolk wants this – 90% of 65,000 polled said NO INCINERATOR. The campaign against it are King’s Lynn Without Incinerator (KLWIN) and the Farmers’ Campaign. In 2010 there was a 400 strong demonstration outside the Town Hall (from a population of 30,000). When BBC Question Time visited Lynn, the unofficial mention of the incinerator stopped the show!

West Norfolk musicians and poets, a number in DOWNHAM AND VILLAGES IN TRANSITION, got together and made a CD of excellent and pertinent songs and poems about the incinerator. They then launched a Living Room Tour, where they performed in people’s houses and sold the CD, thus raising over £300 for the KLWIN campaign.

On Friday 29^th June at 10.00 a.m. at County Hall, the Planning Committee will decide whether to build the incinerator despite the overwhelming public opposition. A lot of people are going to invade Norwich to protest and we will be singing our Incinerator Hymn! Come and join us!

For background read Transition Norwich's "Dash for Ash" story by Andrew Boswell here

BUNGAY: Midsummer Flower Walk, Plant Oils and Green Drinks - 17 and 19 June

Everyone is welcome to our 6th Plants for Life 2012 event, an (almost) midsummer visit to Outney Common this Sunday 17 June, and a demonstration of how to make wildflower and plant oils by Rose Titchiner, with an introduction to plant ‘simples’.

We will meet from 20 Ditchingham Dam (the continuation of Bridge Street), Bungay at 2.45pm prompt (please note this month’s event is not at the library) at Rose’s house for the demonstration and tea and visit the meadow after the demonstration and tea

If you are coming by car, please carshare if you can and note that there is no parking in Bridge Street. Close by are Trinity Street and Broad Street which have plenty of parking spaces.

Walk down Bridge Street and over the bridge. There is a sign for Ditchingham and Norwich on the left. No. 20 is directly opposite this sign, the first house on the left down a gravel driveway (the pale yellow Victorian lodge cottage).

The event is free and donations are happily received.

Rose has worked with plants all her life, is an experienced grower and farmer as well as a lover of wildflowers and makes many plant remedies at home. Recently she has been working with Bungay Community Bees to promote bee-friendly gardens and farms with the Get Your Garden Buzzing project.

At this months’ Green Drinks at the Green Dragon, Tuesday 19th June at 7.30pm, Mark Watson will introduce the theme of Plant Families and talk briefly about the many roles plants play in our lives and life on earth. This will be followed by an exploratory and interactive discussion around the theme. Everyone welcome, do join us.

Mark is the organiser of the Plants for Life 2012 series of talks, walks and workshops and curator of the Plant Medicine bed this year at Bungay Library Community Garden. He has worked with plants for many years and also designed this poster.

For all enquiries and information on this event or the Plants for Life series as a whole, contact: Mark Watson 01502 722419, email: markintransition@hotmail.co.uk or check this website www.sustainablebungay.com

Plants for Life 2012 with Sustainable Bungay

Transition Free Press - new national paper launched!

This month the Transition Free Press, a new national newspaper, launched its preview edition. It's a blueprint of how the paper will look, and the kinds of subjects we aim to cover every quarter - news with comment and context, features and reviews.

As well as viewing it online, there are printed copies that will be available at various events, including the Transition Network Conference in September 2012. Plus you can order copies by post (see bottom of page).

"Where are we going?" asks the editorial. "We’re heading for the future. We are not afraid to share our views, ask awkward questions, laugh or explore paths other papers don’t go down in order to get there. What we want is to capture the real-life experiences of people who are discussing and doing Transition, learning to share skills and resources, starting up social enterprises, thinking hard about alternative ways of organising the way we do energy and economics.

We’re looking at the small details in the big picture. We’re optimistic in the face of tough times. But we are also real. We’re real about the awesome challenges of peak oil and climate change and the economic collapse. We’re real about the hard work the projects featured in these pages take (including this paper!) We want to reflect that feet-on-the-ground reality, mixed with the cheerfulness that comes when you’re working with your fellows for a common purpose.

Most of all we want to connect the dots. Our old-style, fossil-fuelled culture works by separating out all the important subjects, by keeping everyone separated and alone. We want to connect people in Transition, connect campaigners and thinkers and people who never heard of energy descent or alternative currency, open up a dialogue, write another story."

To make future editions happen, we need your support too - in particular we hope you like it enough to want to have copies to give out in your community. Please fill in this short survey to give us an idea of your interest in distributing copies: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GZCKV97

Please get in touch if you would like to contribute or advertise or get involved in any way with future editions.

For editorial contact Charlotte Du Cann charlotteducann@transitionnetwork.org
For distribution contact Mike Grenville mgrenville@gmail.com

Order print copies with Paypal. Click here: 1 copy or 5 copies
Please contact Mike for prices for more copies.

Image: Nick Watts (Sustainable Bungay) reading preview edition in Stowmarket; Climate impacts day in Texas from 350.org

STOWMARKET; What if , . . .the sea keeps rising? - 13 June

The nationwide ‘Festival of Transition’, coordinated by nef (the new economics foundation) and the Transition Network, is running until 20th June, the first day of the 20th UN Earth Summit in Rio.

Throughout June museums, galleries and public spaces across the country are hosting debates, talks and workshops asking the question: What if…? 'What if . . . the sea keeps rising' is taking place on Wednesday 13 June at the Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket with Andrew Simms of nef.

Low-lying East Anglia is particularly susceptible to the effects of climate change. Latest estimates suggest the global sea level could rise one meter by 2100, but even more important than the actual rise in sea level is the possible increase in frequency or severity of storm surges, which combined with sea level rise could result in frequent, devastating floods throughout the region. Is it still possible to avoid this scenario? By taking immediate and decisive action, can we imagine a different future for East Anglia? If not, what is to become of its culture and its people?

Museum of East Anglian Life, Wednesday, 13 June 2012 - 7:00pm - 9:00pm

To reserve a ticket for this event please click here.

For more information on the Festival of Transition please go to www.festivaloftransition.net.

Your chance to become a Norwich FarmShare Apprentice!

We're offering two fantastic chances to join the FarmShare growing team as an apprentice. You'll find more information below and you can download a post description here.

Application closing date Monday 25th June, start date Monday 16th July.

Norwich FarmShare - and other CSA schemes in the UK - are doing something a bit different and, we think, a bit special: blurring the boundaries between producer and consumer. This brings a host of benefits - our growers are supported by a team of volunteers, have a secure and regular market for their produce, are part of a community that values their hard work and commitment. Meanwhile our members benefit from very fresh produce and from varieties not generally on sale in supermarkets and greengrocers, they're able to actively participate in the business they own - from helping on the farm to working on marketing and communications. Both growing team and members are part of a wider movement and are in contact with a local, national and international network of other, similar, ventures.

But trying to do something new can also be quite a challenge.

Last year when Norwich FarmShare began recruiting for a head grower we wrote a description of the role - we needed to find someone who had experience growing vegetables on a small scale (but bigger than an allotment), could handle the small machines we use, understood the principles of permaculture and organic production - and got what FarmShare is all about, could recruit, co-ordinate and work with volunteers, could manage staff, would be happy blogging, using Facebook, Twitter and talking to the press. A tall order.

In the end we decided to take a different approach and, working with Tierney Woods (then our assistant grower), we developed an informal apprenticeship scheme. We recruited a mentor, Michael Knights, with a decade and half experience in organic production and we arranged visits to other similar projects.

It worked; Tierney has grown into the role, developed new skills (and taught us a thing or two!). Therefore this summer we'd like to offer our apprenticeship scheme to two more people. We hope that these two apprentices will eventually be able to work either at FarmShare or find places with other similar local initiatives, building skills and capacity in East Anglia and making it easier for other communities to do what we're doing.

The two apprenticeships are voluntary and will last for 6 months. during that time the apprentices will work for 1.5 days a week on the farm (a day of which will be spent with the horticultural mentor) they will participate in a two day communications for community growers workshop, organise a volunteer workday, meet other similar groups from East Anglia and further afield, visit other enterprises, learn the basics of organic production (including protected cropping, crop rotation, weed control, crop/harvest planning, fertility building and more). In addition they will learn more about how community enterprises like Norwich FarmShare work and develop their skills in team-working and volunteer management. Both apprentices will have the option to attend an introduction to permaculture course and to choose a local enterprise they'd like to visit.

It sounds pretty amazing!

If you're interested have a look at the more detailed description HERE.

TO APPLY

If you’re keen please send us a brief CV and a short covering letter. In the covering letter please tell us why you’re interested in the apprenticeship scheme, how you meet the requirements and how a FarmShare apprenticeship fits with your future plans.

Apply in writing to Tierney Woods, Head Grower Norwich FarmShare at: 43, St. John’s Road, Bungay or by emailing josiah@provenance.co


Deadline for applications: Monday 25th June
Interview date: Wednesday 4th July (at Postwick)
Start date: Monday 16th July