All the latest! Transition Themes Week #11 - Communications

Welcome to our Transition Themes#11, 2012. Uncharacteristically this will be a short informative intro to the week, as your correspondent has a massive deadline ahead of her (normal service will be resumed after Friday!). As well as this comms update, we will be hearing all the news and reflections from different TN groups and affiliates: Simeon will report from Economics and Livelihoods, Chris will discuss the new Energy Lookouts! project in the city, Elena all the latest from the field at Norwich FarmShare. We're also welcoming Helen from Transition Circle West and Vanessa from Occupy Norwich who will write about their plans for this crucial year.

Meanwhile the trusty This Low Carbon Life crew recently met at the Greenhouse to discuss the programme for the year ahead. We decided to continue the editorial style of this blog with its sure-fire mix of individual posts, Transition Theme Weeks and Topic Weeks (Sustainable Relationships to Alternative Currencies). One thing we recognise from working together for over two years is that communications, both real and virtual, play a key role within the initiative, not only as a means of keeping us all in touch, but also as a way of exploring how to work effectively as a group and make strategic links with other local progressive movements for fair and sustainable change.

However to be truly effective, we need to be linked in on a national and international level. Transition Norwich is one of the hundreds of initiatives around Britain and the world, and as a short reminder, here are all the communication links that keeps us connected and inspired by each's others' work.

Transition on film: the movement will be in full multi-media swing in 2012, as the film Transition 2.0 launches this March. This is a following up from the first film Transition 1.0 which we showed at our first birthday celebration. We're hoping to set up a screening in Norwich soon. On the home front there are also plans to expand the 15 minute Norwich in Transition film. directed by Tom Harper (now available on our news blog), to a full-length documentary.

Transition Network News: you can find a monthly Transition Round Up, produced by Rob Hopkins and published on his blog, Transition Culture, followed by a monthly podcast that explores three of the featured stories at greater depth (have a listen to last month's featuring Norwich FarmShare).

Every month Mike Grenville (Transition Forest Row) produces an essential monthly newsletter, which you can also find on the Network news site and sign up to receive as an email (highly recommended).

Transition publications: And if you didn't catch Rob Hopkins talk in Norwich about the new The Transition Companion book, there are still cut-price copies available (see below). This is an invaluable 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). Featuring the Norwich bloggers (Becoming the Media) and Norwich FarmShare. You can find the Ingredients and Tools on line and in card form on the Network site.

Social Reporters: the innovative Social Reporting project came to the end of its three month pilot in December. The project began again last 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, ttreporters and transitiontowns.

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

Pix: trailer for the new Transition 2.0 film; the TN bloggers ; Norwich FarmShare picture from Norwich Magazine: poster from Portalegre em Transição (Portugal jam-making day; cover of The Transition Companion.

Daily Bread

Yesterday I taught A how to make soda bread.

Shopping and cooking well are such important life-skills, ones that I was taught a long time ago, so since I was little, I've never had a fear of cooking anything, even things I've never cooked before. They don't always turn out right first time, but it's never a problem. A was delighted, both with her efforts and with the result!

Simple Soda Bread Recipe

500g plain white flour

1 level teaspoon salt

1 1/2 (one and a half) level teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda

Sift together in a bowl, then add

100ml milk

300ml yogurt

Mix together until you get a soft dough. Shape into a rough ball.

Put on a greased baking tray, lightly dusted with flour, and bake at 180C for about 40 mins

You'll know it's cooked if the base makes a hollow sound when tapped!

Enjoy!

Shopping for Life

Writing about shopping yesterday made me reflect on what a pain in the butt I am to shop with.  My food shopping particularly is a long drawn out process while I check every label and ingredients list.  It's a bit like people who check the calories and fat content of everything they buy.  But I'm looking for provenance and the inclusion of mysterious "ingredients".

It wasn't always such hard work as I mainly focussed on Fairtrade for things like coffee and chocolate, but now that's just the starting point, the baseline for my scrutiny.  It takes me a long time to get round the shop; but each visit with the girls is an education - they're obviously drawn to the stuff marketted for kids with the garish colours and cartoon characters and I have to take quite a lot of time to explain why some of these things just aren't good for them.  And we talk a lot about why it's important to shop carefully, with a clear view of what you're buying and why.  Teaching children to shop well, I think, is a great life skill, teaching them to make good choices and avoid all the hype.

First of all, I'm looking for local, which in a standard family shop means made in England or Britian.  It's amazing how many standard food items look like they're made / produced in the UK, but actually aren't.  Given that we allegedly export as many biscuits to the EU as we import, it's amazing how many of our nation's favourite "family brands" are actually produced outside the UK.  The strange thing is that you actually have to look quite hard to work out whether they're made here or not.  The other one that winds me up is meat - a lot of things like bacon or sausages are actually "made" here, but using pork from Europe.  All that hard work by the likes of Jamie Oliver seems to have been completely ignored, and given that Norfolk and Suffolk seem to be full of pig farms, it seems totally illogical.  We're basing an economy around just shuffling things around from one region to the other, without adding any value on the way.

We try not to eat too much meat, for health, cost and environmental reasons, and whenever we can, we buy our meat from the great butcher at the Earlham Road shops, where much of it is truly local (from Blythburgh), but I recognise that relatively few people go to a butcher nowadays, and most people shop in supermarkets.  Given this, and given that most people (I think) don't worry too much about where their food comes from, it's a shame that supermarkets don't even clearly label their produce, far less actively support local produce.  There doesn't seem to be too much pressure on the supermarkets from their customers to change, either.

"Natural flavourings" is another one - what on earth does that mean?  I'm naturally very suspicious if someone can't be open and transparent about the ingredients - after all there are a whole number of natural things out there that I wouldn't want anywhere near my food.  Is it something natural but so hideous no-one would want to eat it?  I'm not suggesting it it, but it makes you wonder!

And the ubiquitous palm oil, often hidden away in the unassuming phrase "vegetable oil".  Palm oil surfaces in so many damn products, it's almost impossible to avoid now.  And how about this list from a chocolate product: Vegetable Oil (Illipe, Kokum Gurgi, Mango Kernal, Palm, Sal, Shea)!  I'm not kidding you!

So one of my things for this year, is to cook more food from scratch, with ingredients that would be recognised by anyone.  Most of our full meals are already cooked that way, but I'm thinking more about things like bread and snacks for the children's lunchboxes.  Children are notoriously fickle, so I've got a new recipe book just for kids to engage them in cooking with me, so we'll see how well they take to it.  I love cooking with them so I'm determined to make it work!

Pic: http://www.samsill.com/top-10-reasons-to-buy-local

Shopping for Britain

I couldn't help noticing the number of sales being advertised on my way into work this morning.

Nearly every shop on Gentleman's Walk had big signs - "50% off", "Up to 75% off" - there seems to be a frenzy in the air to sell of the last of the unsold stock.  Which makes me think that all those shops must have overstocked in the first place.  Or maybe shops make a calculation that if they order 1000 items before Christmas, they'll sell 600 of them before Christmas at full price, and the remaining 400 at next to nothing after Christmas, and still make a profit.  And they probably know that the psychological impact of the "Sale!" sign means that people will buy more than they intended, get sucked into the madness of buying just anything, simply because it's on sale.  It's all a bit crazy.

I won't pretend I'm immune to the craziness, but so far this year, I haven't been in any of the shops so have managed to avoid any impulse buys.  Though having said that, I was very much hoping to pick up a Christmas pudding at a knock-down price, but it looks like the real bargain hunters got there before I did and there were none left...

We're so often encouraged to spend our way out of the recession, as if the culture of spending money we don't have wasn't one of the things that got us into this mess in the first place.  So I was very intrigued by Mark's link yesterday to Adrienne's "Buy Nothing Year 2012" - I'd completely missed last December's "Buy Nothing Day" which I usually support - but a whole year would be a great challenge.  I'm looking forward to seeing how she gets on!

Pic: www.telegraph.co.uk

Transition Dad and Other Unofficial Initiatives

My father lives in a mobile home on an ex-airfield in central England with electricity but no running water. The surrounding land is used for farming and until recently there was a scrapyard next door. There is also a caravan onsite. In the ten years he’s been there he has completely renovated the place himself, made a garden and built a shed, all re-using scrapped and salvaged materials.

The following excerpts are from emails he has written to me in response to This Low Carbon Life, where he talks as a lifelong craftsman and maker about his own experiences of rebuilding, repurposing and reusing.

When I was growing up, in the way of children, I took for granted the kitchen he made out of scrap wood and old insulator crates from the railway. Now I'm older and in transition I've come to realise just how valuable this practical expertise is. My father's name is Richard and in three days time he will be 72.

2010/2011

Hi Mark,

I have been reading your transition blogposts and find them very interesting. Did you get the photos of my abode? The whole exercise was one big re-purposing. I am pleased to see that you were paying subliminal attention to me when you were growing up in regard to finding new uses for things as that has been my way of looking at life…

Water and Heating

Hi Mark,

I have just been reading your latest blog and admire your push for simpler living. As you know I have electricity but no other utilities. I have seven water butts which collect rain from the roof, one of which I have now connected up to pump water to the sink for washing. I came into possession of a redundant central heating pump which is 250v. This had been scrapped. I stripped it down and found the impeller was blocked and not allowing water to pass though. After cleaning it out and reassembling the pump it worked perfectly.

Prior to this I was experimenting with 12v narrow boat pumps which were not really practical as batteries and some form of charging was needed. I used 1/2" plastic pipe which I salvaged from scrap. I had to buy some connectors and elbows and tap fittings. The electrical stuff I had collected over the years (sometimes it pays to hoard). The cost of it all was about £15.00. My next project is to make a solar water heating system out of scrap black plastic pipe which I have. This will be mounted in a large frame painted black inside with a silver reflective surface on the bottom. A thermostat will control the flow into a 45 gallon drum for storage. This will be in an insulated box.

If you know any Transitioners who have experience of making something similar I would be interested to hear from them. Give them my email address.

Love, Dad XXX

Garden

Hi Mark,
I thought you might like a few pictures of my garden. It was all done from recovered materials from the airfield and was completely covered in rubbish and nettles before I started work on it. The Sparrow hawk I took this morning. The greater spotted woodpecker flew off before I could get him properly…

I hope you are ok for the coming cold spell (Nov 2010). I have been collecting wood from the site but my chain saw is playing up so it's all hand sawing which warms me up anyway. Love, Dad. XXX

Waste

Hi Mark,

Glad you liked the photos. In reference to your blog on energy waste, I remember that in the 70's when we had the last energy crisis, we were told that oil would run out in twenty years. We had the three day week and were told to share a bath (with our neighbours?), pick up people at the bus stop and keep to a 50mph speed limit among other things. In carrying out service work around the country at the time, I remember that the businesses most profligate were the public utilities. When the time to clean up came I was astonished that in most cases the water was actually scalding hot, lights on in all the offices etc.

Since then car ownership and usage has increased dramatically with the focus on larger 4wd's. We don't need the brains of Einstein to see that politicians and governments only pay lip service to the concerns of peak oil and climate change.

You might be interested in what the farmer here told me recently. He has materials delivered by a transport firm who also collect paper and plastic waste from a massive depot near the MI for shipping to China to be sorted.

The driver told him that once sorted by Chinese children on a vast tip in a remote location they then burn the paper waste. If true, so much for the UK commitment to recycling and eco concern, as it must be sanctioned. Export licences and so on. I have long held the view that global and international trade and finance govern worldwide behind the scenes and that politicians and governments are just the puppet frontmen, paying lip service to the concerns of the people.

I know many people think this way and it is heartening to know that the transition movement is going some way to reclaim the imbalance. It seems the next logical step is transition communes where all the ideas and skills can be combined. Dad XXX

Shed

Hi Mark, the following photos are of the shed I made from 100% recovered materials that I scavenged from the airfield. The timber would have been burnt.

The space is at the back of the mobile home between two brick buildings. As you can see I had to extend the floor to get the size needed.

The side with the ladder was an old shed side that was on the bonfire, waiting to be burnt, as was all the other timber. The bath I took from the mobile to make more space inside and to use as water storage. The roof is 8x4 chip board with heavy asbestos sheets on top. As I said all the materials were on site.

An amazing thing happened. I needed a door which I was going to make. Having no windows the shed would be dark inside.

The morning I was about to begin, I went over to the the site where the fire is and there was the door with a glass panel in it laying there ready to be burnt. The only things I bought were the guttering elbows. Even the paint was free.

When I look at it now I am glad I did it a couple of years ago as my back is no longer up to it . You can add any of this to your blog if you want.

Love, Dad XXX

Chip Off The Old Oak

Nov 2011

Hi Mark,

Hope you are well, although I was a bit worried seeing your photo that you were in the process of being blogged up to Transitionland. Dad. XXX

Dec 2011

Hi Dad,

Got your message and hope you're keeping well. I've got some Bungay Community beeswax for you. Elinor, our beekeeper, did a great job of purifying it. On Sunday I went to her house and taught people from the bee group how to make yarrow salve using the beeswax. It turned out really well and smells amazing. I'll get some to you as it's excellent for the kinds of cuts, burns and abrasions you get when you work a lot with your hands.

It's really mild here still, twelve degrees with a strong south wind. I'm doing quite a bit of writing. And I haven't been transmigrated to Transitionland entirely yet!

What kinds of things are you making from the wood turning?

Keep well and warm,

Mark x

Hi Mark,

I continue reading your work with interest and I am sure it has an influence on peoples' thinking about the way forward towards a different society which I believe will come as more people are seeing through the bull**it that is disseminated through the media by those trying to cling to power. You know all this anyway.

I have been making various items from the old oak I got when they replaced the canal lock gates, so the wood is possibly 400 years old. The beeswax is ideal for getting a nice finish and I’ll make the polish myself. One of the things I hope to do is make a pole lathe from the scrap wood I have. The thing about working in wood is that it is entirely natural, and has for me a spiritual connection. When you take a piece of wood that was destined to be burnt as scrap and expose the inner beauty through either turning or planing it is a satisfying process. The next item I make I will send you before and after photos of the wood.

The weather has been very changeable with wind and rain but cold at night. I have been keeping warm as I hope you have. I have got loads of old logs and stuff to burn that are no good for making things from.

Lots of love, Dad. XXX

Everything is Material and Everybody Knows

(i)
It's 2nd January 2012 and I'm sawing logs off a big old hawthorn branch which is blocking the footpath. I'm thinking, if anyone asks me what I'm doing I'll tell them I'm clearing the path and sawing some logs for the fire.

But isn't this private land? Well, yes but it's a public footpath and the branch is blocking it. I’m thinking that there’s far too much private land in the world and far too few Commons.

And I'm thinking that I would welcome any kind of conversation, because I'll write about whatever happens tomorrow on the blog. It's all material.

But no one came along the path. I took some photographs. And a bag of firewood home.

(ii)
This plant is probably cow parsley, but I could be mistaken. Common as it is and despite the beauty it brings to the lanes in May, I’ve never paid close attention to it. Umbellifers can be tricky to distinguish and these leaves seem just a bit too dark and shiny. Cow parsley is edible and is also known as wild chervil. I've never eaten it but I shall this year, and get to know it better.

However this plant, which I discovered along the footpath yesterday when we went for a walk (actually it was Lesley who pointed it out - "Is that a plant in flower over there?" she said, as we all turned to see the white blooms glowing in the pre-dusk light), also looks quite like hemlock, which I don't want to eat, fond though I am of it. But it lacks the signature purple spots of hemlock. And doesn’t smell of mice.

Whatever plant it is, one thing I do know. January 1st is not its normal flowering date.

(iii)
Yesterday a neighbour came round and asked me if I'd do her a favour. And handed me a tower of treats. No, really.

"I got it as a Christmas present," she said. "And I'll never get through what's inside it. I’m not quite sure I know what's inside it."

I was delighted and horrified at the same time.

Delighted because I'm a dyed-in-the-wool freegan these days. I love receiving (and giving) gifts, especially of the reskilled, recycled, past the best-before date, handmade, homemade, homegrown or secondhand kind, and I immediately saw all sorts of uses for both the round boxes and the contents: the boxes as seed stores, containers for food or presents. The contents – sweets, biscuits and mince pies - for when children come to visit.

And I like to see my neighbours.

Horrified because of the scandalous packaging. Five strong boxes all glued on top of one another and tied with a ribbon. When I opened them there were a few chocolates in one box, some biscuits and fudge in the others, four mince pies and ALL of the contents fitted into the bottom box. On the base the usual list of industrial food ingredients (including ‘vegetable fats’, read palm oil).

And suddenly I saw this unwanted Xmas gift multiplied to the power of millions. All over the world people giving each other things they don't want or haven’t asked for. Made in factories of precious resources. By people working in appalling conditions on low pay.

How much of this stuff goes to a scavenger neighbour, a charity shop or a Give and Take Day? How much of it ends up in landfill?

What’s it really being made for in the first place?

It was mean inside the tower of treats.

(iv)
“Let’s listen to the Leonard Cohen one,” Charlotte said. Shaun Chamberlin of Dark Optimism had put together an 'album' of fourteen songs he’d chosen at New Year 'all in some way pertinent to the state of the world as we enter 2012.'

"Everybody knows,” growls Cohen in his bass voice that sounds deep even through the tinny built-in speakers on our shared laptop, "That the boat is leaking... and the captain lied."

"Does everybody really know?" I asked Shaun, in an off-the-cuff pun on Twitter.

"I'd say they do, somewhere inside," he said. "But there's a certain logic to ignoring a problem if you can't see any way to change it. That's why sharing practical responses to that nagging, suppressed knowledge can be such a powerful, motivation-unlocking thing."

And I suddenly felt ashamed at my own flippancy.

Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

(v)

Some practical responses to these things:

(i) Transition Heathrow

(ii) Plants for life talks, walks, workshops

(iii) Buy nothing year - Adrienne, did you get your ten people?

(iv) Dark Optimism, Transition Social Reporting Project and an article on global meltdown by Guy McPherson

Deep inside everybody knows

Pics: Sawing logs on the footpath; flowering umbellifer Jan 2nd; Charlotte and Lesley in Oak Jan 1st; tower of not so many treats Jan 2 (all by MW)

Shift Together - Working Title

I wrote the original version of this post as part of last month's Arts and Creativity week on the Transition Social Reporting project (beginning again tomorrow 3rd January), and have amended it slightly here for This Low Carbon Life. It looks at some of the huge creative output that has helped shape Transition Norwich (and Sustainable Bungay). May we continue to flourish in 2012!

October 1 2008 Transition Norwich Unleashing I have no idea that sitting at the 'Well-Being, Culture and Arts' table in a packed room at St. Andrews church, with fellow writers, dancers, photographers and nurses, none of whom I know yet except Charlotte, will lead three years and ten thousand blogs, photographs, banners, meetings, parties and news bulletins down a long and winding transition road to writing this Social Reporting post on a windy wet pre-crepuscular December morning sitting up in bed. Yes that was just one sentence but this is the creativity week!

I spend a lot of my life taking photographs of and writing blogs about the Transition initiatives I’m involved in, but until I came to write this post I hadn’t considered it as creativity or art or thought about the enterprise that goes into them. I’d just been getting on with it, mostly in enjoyment, sometimes getting narked about having no funding or how admin and marketing seem always to be seen as more important than creativity and editorial.

But creativity underpins everything.

This Low Carbon Life - Transition Norwich Blog came into being a year after the Unleashing. Charlotte, Jon and Andy met and worked out the format and design between them, and it was launched at our first birthday party. It was to be (and still is) editorially-based, a daily reflection with photographs by transitioners in the Norwich groups and guests, of the experience of being in transition and the move towards living a low carbon life. For my contributions I picked up the Canon Powershot A40 digital camera I’d found at Sustainable Bungay’s first Give and Take Day, and the Olympus Camedia and old Nokia phone cameras Andy had given me, and started shooting and writing.Now over two years later This Low Carbon Life is a living storehouse of the creative output of Norwich transitioners. All of the writing and most of the photography is original.*

So here are some of those pictures and how they represent our lives in Transition Norwich. There is so much, that not everyone or everything will feature. So please do use the comments box below for links to any other This Low Carbon Life people, posts and pictures and your own recollections.

Reconnection with Nature is the most popular label for the posts on This Low Carbon Life. I took the above picture of snowdrops on an early Spring visit to a local wood. One of the things about creativity is its link with the wild, what lies beyond the tamed, cultivated or managed. Which is not to say wild good, cultivated bad. Just that there needs to be awareness and balance.


This is a homegrown chilli, organic pasta, grains and pulses circle arranged and photographed by Charlotte Du Cann for Transition Norwich Strangers' Circle's discussion about (our households') food consumption.

Plastic Bag Dress, Helen and Kerry (by helenofnorwich)

Helen is an artist, TN blogger and wicked photographer. She originated and co-organises the annual Magdalen Street Celebration, which grew out of a Transition Norwich group called NR3 after the postcode. We were sitting at the same table at the Unleashing and were together in the first Heart and Soul, Arts, Culture and Well-being group, known in those early days for its feisty and dynamic meetings and workshops on everything from reskilling to reconnection with nature to clowning, authentic movement and organising Transition Norwich parties. Kerry, also in that early group, was a full-on mover and shaker, blogger, reskiller, event organiser and unremitting downshifter in Transition Norwich until her move to Glasgow in March. We miss her. But she's still blogging, thank goodness... both for This Low Carbon Life and as a Social Reporter on the Transition Network project.

Every month for the Transition Norwich News bulletin I make a banner out of the previous months blog and website pictures. Andy did the first ones and I just fell in love with them. This is the one for December 2010 including the Zero Carbon concert organised by Chris Keene in support of the Cancun climate negotiations.

Celeste the Transition Norwich dragon was created by Bel Greenwood in her front room and made a dazzling appearance at the 2009 Lord Mayor's show. Bringing transition into the city with a fiery blue flash, she was elegantly chauffeured by TN blogger, cyclist, downshifter and original steering group member Chris Hull.

And here is megablogger and co-creator of the Social Reporting project, Charlotte, Dancing at Lughnasa, next to a 'temporary shoreline sculpture' (I just came up with that one, hope it doesn't sound too rarefied!!! I promise not to mention found objects) I made last September called 'Work -> ?' Indeed.

There is music too. Taiko drumming as part of TN's Low Carbon Roadshow at Earth Hour in March 2010 outside the Forum and to open both Magdalen Street Celebrations. And even a rainbow recording.

Tom Harper, who made the film for this year's third birthday celebrations (see on line on our news blog), wrote a gentle song called "In Transition", which he sings at TN's gatherings and parties. I also sang a set with Andy at our First Birthday Party as Fret 6, along with The John Preston Tribute Band (Transition Downham Market and Villages).

In fact, here are the lyrics to Shift Together – Transition Rap (Mostly Sustainable Bungay Version)** which I wrote on a bus from Lowestoft to Norwich and sang at our Big Meeting in August 2010. To the tune of ‘Come Together’ by The Beatles.

We run on chip fat, we down
Shifting quickly, she got
low carbon gumboot, we got
Handmade beehive
We say grow your own and
Plant for beesOur soap’s biproduct glycerine
And we wash when we please

He pushing pedals, he got
Roadshow genny,we got
Solstice sunrise, he make
Medicine jelly, she say
Blog and blog and blog in threes
Got to be Transition
Coming up from our knees

Shift together, right now
It’s in the we

She on the network, we got
No-spam filter, we got
Neighbourhood plug-in, we do
Group newsletter, we say
Meet, greet, eat and
Set the scene
Got to be where we are and
Know where we’ve been

Shift together, right now
It’s more than green

We stitch up old sock, we do
Library courtyard, we swap
Local home-grown, we start
Old Spot pig club
We say you and you and you and me
Let’s forage in the the hedgerows and
Eat roots, shoots and seeds

We own production, we got
Sweet jar banknotes, we got
Solar panel, we know
Birch sap tapper, we say
Give and take and take the lead
Join the dots together and
Share what you don’t need

Shift together, right now (oh yeah)
Sow the seeds

And a few words about Sustainable Bungay:

Setting up the Library Courtyard Community Garden between 2009-10, now in its third year and flourishing, was an enormous labour of the love and creativity of many people, from the planning to the plant bed building to the fundraising. The garden opened to the public on 19th September 2010 (see video below). Here a group of us at the end of July are shovelling earth into the new beds, and having a bit of a song and dance!

At this point I could not resist the temptation to do a pogo dance and sing X-Ray Spex's punk classic Oh Bondage Up Yours! (well, just one verse) whilst tamping down the soil. It didn't take long to realise I was no longer a teenager and the year was actually 2010 not 1978!

Pics: First Birthday party poster (Andy Croft); Snowdrops (Mark Watson); Food Circle (Charlotte Du Cann); Plastic Bag dress, Helen and Kerry (Helen Simpson); Magdalen Street Celebration crew 2011 (Helen Simpson); December Newsbanner 2010 (MW); Celeste the Dragon; Dancing at Lughnasa and Work > ?(MW); Bungay Beehive Day banner(Banner by Bungay Community Bee group, photo MW); Shifting Earth Together (MW) and Oh Bondage Up Yours! (CDC)

*All original photos by the Transition Norwich bloggers are Creative Commons with Attribution. We're happy for people to use them as long as the author is credited.

** Shift Together – Transition Rap Mostly Sustainable Bungay Version) Lyrics by Mark Watson (sung to tune of Come Together by the Beatles) (lyrics Creative Commons with Attribution see * above)