Third Transition East Gathering - 26 November

Many of you will remember the first two gatherings of Transitioners from all around East Anglia, at Downham Market and at Diss. I found them really excellent events, and heard the same from many others who were there. They gave me a strong sense that there were many others like me, with similar projects and similar difficulties. Sharing those gave me a renewed sense of purpose, lots of good ideas, and, especially, new friends. They were well worth the travel effort.

I hope you will spread the word and come with a group from your initiative.

The third gathering will be on 26th November, hosted by Transition Stour Valley and held at Old Hall Community, East Bergholt from 9 am (for a 10 am start) - 5 pm with optional food and evening entertainment for those wishing to stay on. The venue itself is an inspiring place, a large community that has been running for about 40 years on very environmentally sound and democratic lines. A tour of Old Hall is an option as part of the programme.

The programme is designed to help you to meet those Transitioners from around the region who are most likely to be of interest to you, with mapping exercises, discussions, and 'organised but informal networking'. There will also be fun creative activities for children and a children’s Book and Toy swap, so bring along any you would like to swap.

Please bring some lunch to share, and information about your group and what it has been doing, perhaps as a poster or leaflets. (If you can't come, please send information anyway. It will be displayed.) Come by public transport or in shared cars if possible. Gary Alexander

Getting there: Old Hall Community, East Bergholt, CO7 6TG. Buses run from Manningtree station and will stop outside Old Hall if you ask the driver at 09.40 (96), 11.40 (96) and 13.40 (96), its also a beautiful 3 mile walk on footpaths. Evening lifts can be arranged back to the station. There are also buses from Ipswich and Colchester to East Bergholt. Contacts: Miriam 07904198649 or Dave 07799338733 and further info and full programme .

Photo: First Transition East gathering in Downham Market, 2009

NORWICH: 3rd Year Celebration with Rob Hopkins - 15 November

An evening for Transition Norwich and the City of Norwich to celebrate, reconnect, remind, regenerate, share and discuss where we are and what we have achieved since the 'great unleashing' back in 2008.

The evening is set for Tuesday the 15th of November- 7.30pm at the United Reform Church (Princes Street). The plan is to have a happy and relaxed celebration, an opportunity for further dreaming and planning, with stalls to display the various projects throughout Norwich that have been a direct result of TN or link directly with TN in their ethos and vision.

Rob Hopkins will be joining our celebration, sharing the broader story of transition as he witnesses it as well as discussing his upcoming book The Transition Companion (including sections about the TN blog, Norwich FarmShare and a great pic of the NR3 Reskillers by helenofnorwich).

Plus.... there are plans to put a short 10 min film together that reflects on Transition Norwich, the place, the people, the projects.For inquiries about the event please contact Christine Way at training@transitionnorwich.org

The Transition Companion by Rob Hopkins (Green Books) was published on 27 October and had its launch in London on 12 October.

An open letter: Please Support Occupy London

Dear Transitioners,

The world’s poorest 2 billion are still the poorest 2 billion, violence and resource wars fueled by our insatiable hunger for diminishing resources like oil and rare earth minerals for consumer gadgets are helping keep them that way. This year saw record ice melt in the Arctic. Despite efforts to decouple CO2 pollution from economic growth, not to mention a global recession, we are currently tracking the IPCC’s worst case emissions scenarios. Improvements to well-being have all but stalled in the world’s largest economies while inequality and resulting social and health problems are booming.

20th Century capitalism alone isn’t helping us address these urgent 21st century issues. Instead of trickling wealth and resources down, we seem to be hoovering it all up. There’s a desperate need for a new economics that delivers shared prosperity at home, helps quickly raise living standards in developing countries and emerging economies and does it all within ecological and planetary limits and boundaries.

To wit, some pesky kids have decided to occupy Madrid, Wall Street and now the City of London. Far from being the trouble making free-loaders some currently seem to think they are, my take is that these predominantly young folk are bucking the trend for apathy and instead championing activism. And where many of us feel paralysed and helpless at the task in front of us, they are actively exploring, embracing and promoting solutions. They deserve our support.

In their first week Occupy London have opened an outdoor kitchen (hygiene certified), a library and hosted free, public talks and workshops from the likes of the New Economics Foundation, The National Institute of Economic and Social Research and Egyptian writer and activist Nawal Saadawi - right in the heart of the city. They’d like to stay there and carry on hosting talks and workshops on new economics, social justice, ecological limits and transition all winter.

To cut a long story short, they need your help. The best way to do that right now seems to be to petition (nicely) St Paul’s Cathedral and appeal to them to continue giving Occupy London a home.

Obviously a tent city suddenly arriving on your doorstep is a bit of shock, and St Paul’s are currently wrestling with potential health and safety implications - but with will, those are issues that can almost certainly be resolved through cooperation.

Please take five minutes to write to the Dean and Chapter: deanspa (at) stpaulscathedral (dot) org (dot) uk and ask them to support the Occupy London camp.

Best,
Jay

jay (at) transitionwivenhoe (dot) org (dot) uk

NORWICH; Magdalen Street Celebration - 1 October

On Saturday October 1st, Magdalen Street will celebrate its unique character in street festival style with performances, exhibitions, fashion shows, workshops, family activities and local history tours.

Following on last year's memorable and groundbreaking success, even more musicians and activities have been arranged.

Norwich Taiko Centre will be opening the event under the Magdalen flyover and some of the best-known bands in the city will be playing on the street throughout the day, using a cycle-powered PA. The audience will be able to hop on the bike and power up their favourite bands!

Helen Simpson-Slapp of the organising committee said “The goal of the day is to bring together neighbourhood residents, regulars and visitors to highlight Magdalen Street's role as a hub of creative, independently-owned, ethnically diverse and environmentally sustainable businesses. ”

The art events, stallholders and historical aspects to the day will bring to life Magdalen Street's rich heritage. The street still boasts a range of food, clothes and shoe shops and is classified by the City Council as the busiest in the whole of Norwich for numbers of pedestrians and buses. Some of the shops from 1905 have survived - most notably 2 of the original fish shops.

The Magdalen Street Celebration themes for 2011 are Creativity, Diversity and Sustainability. Known informally as the 'Creative Quarter', the area houses a multitude of creative businesses. 'Diversity' refers to the street’s ethnic diversity as well as the range of disability-related charities operating in the area and 'Sustainability' is represented by the plethora of second-hand, vintage, antique and craft shops in the area.

The event is spearheaded by members of Transition Norwich seeking a fun way to engage community, celebrate the range of cultural backgrounds represented and promote the opportunity to live more sustainably by shopping locally, buying second-hand and making friends locally. Transition Norwich is a community-based response to peak oil, climate change and economic recession. The organisers are grateful for the financial assistance of Norwich City Council and Norfolk County Council who are supporting this year's event. Chris Hull

TO GET INVOLVED: Helen Simpson-Slapp helenofnorwich@hotmail.com Tel: 07747 751656 Stefi Barna Tel: 07964 494836 Next meeting: Aladdin's Cafe, Magdalen Street. Tuesday 6th September, 7pm Web: magdalenstreet.blogspot.com or join our Facebook page

BUNGAY: Happy Mondays at the Community Kitchen - 10 October

In August we hosted the second Happy Monday at the Community Kitchen, a soon to be regular shared meal made with local ingredients and served at the Community Centre. The first Happy Monday was a pie and mash night, the second a curry night and the kitchen team did a fantastic job; coming up with a great seasonal menu then turning vegetables and fruits from local farms and gardens into a mix of spicy Indian dishes followed by a plum kulfi.

Eating together is a pleasure that seems to transcend other cultural barriers and, as I’ve experienced working with farming communities in Italy, France and Spain, it’s a chance to talk unguardedly, perhaps do a bit of business, and celebrate great cooking, local food and food producers. The benefits of eating together go beyond the social: collective cooking has a lower environmental impact with fewer pots in fewer ovens, less energy and water used to cook and clean and, if well planned, less waste is produced.

Happy Mondays at the Community Kitchen will always be a celebration: the room will be decorated; the menu will use the best local and seasonal ingredients. But it will also offer opportunities for volunteers to build their kitchen confidence, learn about local suppliers and discover new recipes and ideas.

To highlight what’s growing in and around Bungay gardens and to help make sure it all finds a home, every Happy Monday will feature an Abundance table - a chance to bring and share surplus garden produce.

In time we hope there will be a Happy Monday every week, but at the moment our aim is a monthly meal. If you’d like to get involved, perhaps supplying ingredients from your garden to the kitchen and abundance table, cooking, suggesting recipes or helping meet and greet please do contact us.

For the next meal we’re focusing on local autumn fruit and vegetables, we’re cooking for 40 – please do join us!

When: October 10th, 6:45 for 7pm
Where: Bungay Community Centre, Upper Olland Street

If you'd like to join us for a delicious meal made using mostly local, often organic and always carefully thought about ingredients then please get in touch (info@sustainablebungay.com).

The exact menu will be decided closer to the date as we get a better idea of what might be available, but we're planning a celebration of autumnal bounty. What we can tell you is that our two course meal will only cost £5 - which we will ask for when you arrive - will be cooked and served by volunteers and will taste fantastic!.

We work to a single sitting and will be cooking for around 40 people so please arrive at Bungay Community Centre in Upper Olland Street at 6.45pm for dinner at 7pm (places will go quickly so please do fill in the form if you'd like to come).

We don't have a licence to serve alcohol, but do feel free to bring a bottle if you'd like a drink with your meal. Josiah Meldrum

HALESWORTH: Forest Garden Talk

Our HinT meeting at Halesworth Library last Thursday evening (8th September) was so well attended that we had to scout around the library to find more chairs. Marion Gaze who works at Wakelyns' Farm in nearby Fressingfield presented an entertaining and lively talk about how she ended up working on this experimental agroforestry farm. She went on to tell us more about the research they carry out at the farm where they are currently working with mixing different varieties of the same crops together and growing crops between lanes of trees.

Marion then introduced us to the concept of forest gardens, and the course with Martin Crawford that she recently attended. Although we have already run a HinT tour of the farm, we can see that another one could be interesting for newer HinT supporters. Trish Dent

HinT website: http://hint.onesuffolk.net

BUNGAY; Give and Take Day - 24 September

Give and Take is Back! Saturday 24th September 10am-1pm at the Chaucer Club, Popson Street, Bungay. Bring along unwanted, non-electrical items on the day and take something home all for free! The perfect time to clear out the cupboards and let the moth balls fly before the cold kicks in! SB can collect any large or bulky items on or before Friday 23rd September by prior arrangement.

For more information or to arrange collections, contact Eloise Wilkinson (01986 788785) 
eloise.wilkinson@gmail.com Eloise Wilkinson