Wellbeing and the Community - a local perspective

What makes up community well-being in a time of financial constraints and climate uncertainty? This was the question twenty five people turned up to explore at Sustainable Bungay's first Green Drinks of the new year at the Green Dragon in January. The evening also marked the start of our new Arts, Culture and Well-being sub-group.

Well-being has been the subject of several recent studies, such as the New Economics Forum's 'Five Ways to Well-being', as well as the focus for many Transition initiatives. We live in a culture based around a market economy, and money and material status (or the lack of it), have become the driving force of most people's lives.

But what real good has this done ourselves or the planet? Apart from living in a badly degraded environment, we are as a collective suffering from ill health, depression, loss of identity and lack of connection to nature and other people. And it doesn't seem to be getting any better.

For many people (including myself) this winter has felt particularly long, dark and cold, with uncharacteristic feelings of gloom and lowness. When I've spoken to people about it, many have said "Oh, it's not just me then." Then there are those colds and fevers which seem to take weeks to clear up. Something is clearly not okay.

What would it mean if our lives, instead of being determined by GDP, were based on our mutual well-being and happiness – not just our personal well-being, but within the communities and neighbourhoods we all share? What would it mean if instead of striving for our own comfort and security, we valued sharing our resources and knowledge? How would our attitudes to each other change, and what kind of changes in the environment would that bring?

Much of the work Sustainable Bungay has been doing over the last five years has this co-operative learning at its base - from creating the Community Garden at the Library to hosting Happy Monday meals at the Community Centre, to organising bicycle rides, sewing circles, Give and Take Days, Bungay Community Bees and the Pig Club. Several of us attended the recent East Anglian Living Together day about co-ops and intentional communities in East Bergholt, where we found we had over 30 practical skills between us - just in one workshop! As well as sharing these skills, we've learned that working together brings a certain kind of happiness you just can't pay for.

For example, you can go and forage for blackberries on the common on your own, but going out together, sharing a picnic and then taking some to the Abundance table or for a Happy Mondays pudding for others to enjoy, makes for a more open and shared experience. This simple activity has all those five ways in it: connection, action, learning, taking notice and giving. Most of all it involves the place we live in and includes the wild spaces we are surrounded by.

At our Green Drinks we have focused on the many ways we can reconnect, from learning about medicine plants to the restoration of the River Waveney. In January the ideas were flowing, as people paired up and asked each other what community well-being meant to them and what creative or practical skills they had they would like to pass on to others.

A common thread emerged: well-being meant belonging to a place and not feeling on your own. So plans for a wide range of communal activities were mapped out, from walking and exploring the local countryside, river swimming and canoeing, to sharing skills such as food growing, cooking and meditation. Creative workshops were designed, including storytelling, theatre work and body percussion. What also became clear was that well-being is a major factor underlying and motivating Sustainable Bungay's activities.

Giving ourselves more time and space to connect with people and the neighbourhood was something people thought was vital and in April we'll begin creating a well-being map of Bungay with a walk around town paying particular attention to what the various public spaces in town feel like to be in.

Sustainable Bungay is a busy group. We have always been primarily events-focused and that seems set to continue. But a closer look shows that these events  also often provide the space for people to come together for discussions that might not happen ordinarily.

For our seventh Give and Take Day last Saturday (16th March), Charlotte set up and facilitated a conversation on the Gift Economy – sharing what we have with others in times of austerity. Over twenty people joined in.  Nick spoke about some of the ideas in Charles Eisenstein's Sacred Economics and Jeppe and Vanessa talked about their involvement in setting up the Common Room in Norwich. This project makes unused or underused public spaces (in this case an old church) available as a 'living room for the community', where people can swap and share skills, knowledge and company with no money exchange involved.

What was striking about this discussion on a cold, dark, Saturday midday in March in Bungay's (slightly dilapidated) Community Centre, surrounded by the Give and Take tables of household goods, clothes and books, and accompanied by a bowl of Josiah's homemade fava bean and winter root veg soup and Christine's freshly baked bread, was that when time was called after 50 minutes, no one was in any hurry to leave. People were still discussing everything from how to receive a gift and should that leave you feeling obliged to give something back in some way, to how to begin to value ourselves and other people, places, skills and the living planet in a way that is not market-driven or utilitarian.

Usually when we think of well-being, it's in terms of personal comfort, and often has medical associations. But what if well-being were really not just a personal matter? What if it also depends on our getting out of our personal enclosures and insistence on everything belonging to some private personal sphere? And into that 'living room for the community' where a conversation can happen about sharing what we have, and we can start to forge different relationships with each other, the places we live in and the planet that gives us life.

"I've never experienced such a discussion before," said one visitor. "I could have stayed much longer."

Images: Plants for Life 2012 weed walk, Bungay; Hot Beds and Leafy Greens poster, March 2013; Koru body percussion poster, March 2013; Gift Economy conversation at SB's 7th Give and Take Day, March 2013

First published on on the Social Reporting project 18th March 2013.

What's the difference between spending and investment?

I've been looking for a new pair of shoes recently, to replace the over-loved and irreparable ones that have holes in the soles and torn inners.  But I'll come back to that in a moment, and take a detour into economics.

My shoes, with holes both top and bottom.

Each time our economy starts to take a downward turn, the government pipes up with "we must get the banks lending again" and as a result, the economists say "we must get Britain spending again", obviously to make sure there is a market for all these loans.

This, I'm not afraid to say, is absurd.  We are living beyond our own and the planet's means, but the maintained view is that we need to spend more, getting us further into debt and putting more pressure on our natural resources.

"So what's, your answer, smarty-pant, let our banks crash, unemployment run rife and reduce our quality of life to pre-industrial standards?"

No! My answer is to invest!

Investing is very similar to spending - almost identical, in fact - apart from the one distinction: that investment gives a stable or increasing return over time, where spending is instantaneously exhausted as the product or service is "consumed", leaving behind waste (which in itself takes more time and money to dispose of).

The distinction is still not clear, however, because we must answer the question as to whether the return on an investment has to be monetary, because if not, then surely lots of things we spend out money on are investments.  I would say that it doesn't:  A child's teddy, to take an example, may provide a return many times its price-tag in the pleasure and comfort it brings to that person throughout their life, making it a great investment, whilst a cheap plastic toy may provide merely minutes of entertainment before being discarded, firmly placing it in the category of consumer spending, and a drain on natural resources that could have gone into something which provided a significantly larger well-being benefit over a longer period of time.

Many people aren't very good at looking at their purchases as investments, and with good reason - it goes against human nature! Practically from birth our instinct is that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Then at some point we learn the story about teaching the hungry man how to fish, rather than giving him a fish, and all becomes clear about the benefits of investment, rather than instant gratification. You would hope that from this point onwards, we would haven't learned and assessed both the short-term and long-term gains of our pursuits, but then advertising keeps on tempting us to satisfy our immediate desires, and we fall prey once again to unsustainable consumption.

So, whilst I've been looking for a new pair of shoes over the last few days, I've been asking myself whether they are a pair that I can wear day-in-day-out and still last me several years. I've also been looking at where they're made (Britain preferred), and what materials and processes contributed to their manufacture (to judge whether they are investment for the planet as well as myself, or merely a drain on natural resources). Alas so far I have been unsuccessful in finding a pair that fits the bill, and I'm sure that I'm going to have to compromise on something, even when I do find a pair!

But my point is this: if each of our purchases were seen as an investment, giving return of money, health or satisfaction in the greatest amount over the longest possible time, then what things would we stop buying, and what would we spend our money on instead?

Freegling

I’ve spent a lot of the last week supporting the new website for Norfolk Freegle. Norfolk was at the forefront of the Freecycle movement in 2004 and in 2009 we changed to Freegle when the people coordinating Freecycle in the UK found it too restrictive being part of a US based organization. I’ve been involved in voluntary groups for many years and have long known that it is harder to keep voluntary groups running smoothly than it is to keep a business going. Having to sell a service to clients, in order to pay the wages focuses people’s minds and provides a discipline that is often lacking in the voluntary sector.

Which is why I feel that developing what we believe to be the UK’s most sophisticated website for enabling things to be reused instead of being thrown into landfill (or incinerated) is a big achievement for a group of volunteers. It has only been possible because from the outset we have got together several times a year to share a meal and talk about things. We are providing a customer service to many thousands of users and face the same problems that a major business would – so passions have often run high and finding a compromise has not always been easy.

You might wonder why it is so difficult to put people who want to give something away in touch with people who have a need for it. The vast majority of Freegle users do behave responsibly and play by the rules but unfortunately there is a significant number who try to exploit the system by trying to extract money, spam other members and other fiddles. Some members fail to keep appointments and annoy people who have agreed to stay at home to hand over an item; it seems that because the items are free that some people think that there is no need to behave courteously. The new website protects people by not exposing their email address and identity to other users and gives a bad rating to those who upset other users..

So running a reuse service turns into an exercise in group working and community motivation and exposes many of the issues that Transition Groups will have to deal with in building societies where people work together in a spirit of cooperation. Dealing with the people who exploit Freegle can be frustrating but the rewards are much greater. A thank you from someone with no cash, who has just got the nearly new kitchen that I rescued from being skipped by a neighbour, goes a long way.

Water, water everywhere and not any drop to drink!

One of the "big picture topics" we discuss at the Low Carbon Cookbook is water, principally its high use in industrial agriculture. But sometimes we also discuss our domestic use of water (well, one of our group is a plumber!), in our own houses and gardens. As everyone focuses on rain as the weather oscillates from drought to downpour, Sophie Chollet invites all low-carbon kitchen and bathroom water-watchers to meet and discuss ways to reduce (over) consumption.

When I say to my French friends I live in England, they often joke about the weather, along the lines of “you should be used to rainy weather, by now!”. So when I tell them that actually we are facing a drought for the second year running, they are surprised. How is it possible to have a drought in England, where rain is part of the definition of the country?

The weather is certainly the cause: it rained very little in the last two winters. So this has led me to question the impact of our water consumption on ground-water level.

The availability of water supply was one of the big improvements of the 20^th century’s houses. The widespread use of washing-machines and other modern equipment changed women's lives. They no longer had to spend hours cleaning dishes or washing clothes. Nowadays, access to water is a given. We would not consider living in a house without running water: we expect tap water to run everyday, all the year along, night and day (in France, when you build a new house, it is compulsory to connect it to the mains water and electricity supply, even if you would like to live off-grid).

Now we use water as if it was as common as the air. We have forgotten that tap water does not come from a never-ending spring. But our consumerism may have gone too far. We extract groundwater faster than it fills again and the levels are decreasing. Moreover, although we know how to remove most of the pollutants, some molecules, like residues of chemical medicines, remain in the water and affect aquatic life.

Apart from environmental issues, over-consuming water comes at a price. Producing drinkable water costs us energy and money (a third of our water bill is spent in water treatment). Water has to be pumped from a river, filtered, treated with chloride, ultra-filtered and deionised. Then minerals are added to make it drinkable.

Once in our tap, some of it is consumed directly, for drinking or cooking. Some is used for cleaning and is made into "grey water" with oil, soap or chemicals. Another amount is simply wasted: the water we do not use when we leave the tap running, unconsciously or from laziness. This water will be mixed with dirty water, increasing the volume sent to the water-treatment plant, and thus increasing the cost of treatment.

We also use drinking water to flush the toilet! After all the efforts put into cleaning the water, we use it to flush our toilet, sending the "black water" back to another water-treatment station!

Deciding to pool our ideas

The main obstacles, when one has decided to save water, are technical issues. In our modern houses, there is nothing to keep water in in order to reuse it. One of my friends would first wash himself with tap water, keeping the water in the bath to wash his clothes. After that, the water was dirty enough to be used to flush the toilet. Few people would bother with this, as it involves too much handling and storing, using buckets, carrying and transferring.

It is technically possible to collect rain water and use it for the house (for example for flushing or for the washing-machine). But how to do, when you are not a plumber?

It is also relatively easy to install a composting toilet in a house or a flat. Still, it involves some effort in emptying it, and a space for composting. Our houses and our life-styles are not made to facilitate those things. But it is not impossible, and putting our efforts in common is a good way to start!

In Brest (France), where I used to live, some people created the “Réseau Urbain des Toilettes sèches”, or urban network of composting toilets. They had a composting toilet at home (often in flats) and collected the compost weekly before sending it to a farm, where it was mixed with other compostable material. This does not only save water, but completes the natural cycle by bringing nutrients back to the soil. Indeed, urine is a great fertilizer, as it is very rich in nitrogen and phosphates!

Plumbing issues are not insurmountable. And for those who live in rented accommodation, why not build an “add-it” system that could, for instance, collect shower-water and transfer it to the toilet flush, or to a basin for treatment by plants? If you think we should moderate our consumption and are looking for advice about how to save water, then this blog is for you!

I would like to invite you to meet and share thoughts about water, speak about habits, saving tips, our desire or the difficulties we face. We can learn from each other about water saving, cleaning and cooking habits, hygienic issues that arise (or are feared!) when using less water.

For instance: boiling potatoes in a smaller volume of water would save both water, energy spent to boil it, time of cooking, and it will also reduce the loss of minerals from the potatoes into the water.

Some of us do use rain water in their house. Could we share our technical knowledge?

Some may wash dishes more efficiently than others. Why not compare the methods?

Do get in touch in you are interested! Sophie Chollet (s.chollet@uea.ac.uk or 01603 467595)

Images: rainwater butt for loo in Solitude by Chris Hull; wee collecting tubs at Edible Landscapes London from Waste Not, intro post to the Water week on the Social Reporting project by Jo Homan; grey water filtering system at Sunrise Festival, 2011.

Norwich is Pants!

No I am not joining in Harry Hill and any other comedian's cheap jibes at our marvelous city but trying to come up with a witty title to my blog. For a number of years I have been interested in the manufacture of clothing in Britain. So how happy was I to see both a programme about making pants and also a workshop to make them in Magdalen Street both in the same month?

Mary Portas has a new programme called Bottom Line in which she attempts to re-energize the British manufacturing industry by creating her own line of British Knickers. I have not seen all the episodes but I followed a link to the House of Fraser where they appeared to be sold out of said garments, although Liberty London still have some. So things must be going well. I am assuming this is because of peoples desire to buy British rather than their advertising slogan which implies you might buy your pants for the milkman (I wonder if milkandmore who we get our milk delivered from had the same idea, I always thought that 'more' meant a couple of strawberry yoghurts but now I am starting to wonder)

Back to the workshop. My excitement mounted as I entered Makeplace and saw the women gathered at the tables. We were then shown to our sewing machines that had been loaded ready with the correct colour cotton. We opened up our pants kits with ready cut material and soon we were making our own pants. The teacher explained how she had become disillusioned with the manufacture of clothing in China, mainly with the working conditions and now she runs courses to upcyle t-shirts into pants. 'What is upcycling?' one young sewer asks? In my head my hand has shot up to answer: Oh God, I know this, pick me! Pick me!'

I remain calm while the instructor describes how it differs from re-cyling and how it sounds better to say upcyling pants than recycling pants.

After a couple of hours we each have a pair of pants and pose for a group photograph.

You may notice that I got the best deal in that we all paid the same price and I got the most material!

I think I will ask her to do a workshop at the Magdalen Street Celebration......

What a Waste

So there I was, continuing my assault on all the junk we seem to have accumulated since having children, when I had one of those moments.  By which I mean, one of those moments when you realise, all of a sudden, in a moment of clarity, that something is mightily wrong with this picture.

Children, as all parents know, seem to accumulate stuff like iron filings to a magnet, and they also seem to trash a lot of it.  OK, kids can be quite rough with their toys, no matter how much effort you put into trying to keep them calm.  And, certainly, toys are not build to last.  It seems no matter what you do, no sooner have they got their grubby mitts on their latest acquisition, than it's broken.

So, having made my peace with the need to throw some of this stuff away, I headed off to the tip.  As I said yesterday, we actually ditch very little stuff.  Apart from the usual recycling, we make a real effort to send old and unwanted clothes, toys and books to charity shops.  Given that we buy the bulk of said clothes, toys and books from charity shops in the first place, it feels like we're almost borrowing stuff rather than owning it, a grand circle of use and reuse, with various charities making money along the way.  How virtuous it all sounds.

But, amazingly at the tip, there were incredible things being thrown away, some of which looked to me like they were perfectly salvageable.  If I knew what to do with them.  Which, of course, I don't, possessing virtually no practical skills whatsoever in the mysterious domain of make do and mend...  And then I thought (here's that "moment" I mentioned at the beginning) well, if I don't have a clue what to do with all this stuff, and it looks so usable, probably everyone else here is looking at me, and thinking exactly the same - "why is that man throwing away that perfectly usable x, y and z?"

Then I started thinking, should I have tried putting it on freecycle, even though it was broken and / or mouldy?  Is there some magical place, like Bagpuss' shop window, where broken and discarded things can be brought back to life and reused?  I thought, the UK must surely have enough washing machines, cookers, bicycles, whatever to last the next hundred years, but half of them are probably broken for the want of someone who knows what they're doing to fix them.  Even if we could only fix some of them, surely (same line of thinking) we have enough washing machine parts, if they were all stripped down, to make up enough washing machines (or cookers, or bicycles) to last us the next hundred years?  What about cars?  We should almost never have to import any consumer white goods ever again, if we knew, properly, how to make things, mend things and reuse them.  And do this as a matter of course.

Pic: www.greenpeace.org

Taking out the Trash

I had one of those strange bouts of spring-cleaning madness recently, where I started opening random cupboards and seeking out things that hadn't been used, moved, or even looked at for a year. The kitchen cupboard I was particularly keen on getting to grips with, the cupboard that you can't even open without bracing back the stuff inside from exploding outwards onto the floor.

I was astonished! What hoarders we are! The evidence is in the picture - I two-thirds filled a wheelie bin just with plastic shopping bags. I'm slightly ashamed to even write about it - part of me wanted to bury the dark secret along with all the rest of the landfill.
We pick up very few plastic shopping bags - we've really got into the habit now of taking those sturdy reusable ones along with us when we go shopping, but occasionally we forget, and quite often people will give us things wrapped in a Tesco or Sainsbury's bag. And, I think to myself, oh well, at least we'll reuse them as bin-liners, save us buying them new. What I hadn't realised that we'd already accumulated about three years' worth of plastic bags, there in that cupboard, some of them even older, from the years before I ever thought about such things.

There may have been a time when we used plenty of shopping bags as bin-liners, but nowadays, we carefully separate the paper, tins and plastic bottles, put all our peelings and plate-scrapings into the compost caddy, and actually, very little of our household rubbish now goes into the traditional bin. Those sorry bags of bags, now destined for the Monday rubbish collection, are a throwback to an earlier age.

So, though I felt bad throwing away so many bags, I really couldn't think of anything else to do with them (any ideas, anyone?) And now that they're gone, the kitchen cupboard is pretty much clean and empty. More functional. And I'm determined not to let it fill up again - with anything! Especially not with plastic shopping bags.

Reduce, re-use blah blah ...REDISCOVER!

Having spent a few days now not buying anything ( see yesterdays blog) I start realizing that rediscovering is rather fun. Of course picking something up off your bedroom floor instead of going shopping is completely carbon neutral especially if you rediscover your wind up radio. I start to wind it up and carry on tidying. After a few minutes it starts to go wrong. I reach over and find it needs rewinding! Already! I decide to hum instead and then stop when I realize its the nokia ringtone I am humming.

I find more socks and disappointed add them to the singles pile hoping I will find their mates amongst the debris.

I perk up when I find some knitting patterns. I sit and look through them. Then I find a half made tank top. On closer inspection I discover it is three quarter made. I remember photographing is for a blog post to show you could knit on the train.

Later in the week at my knitting group I proudly show everyone my finished tank top. A few days later I even bring it into a teaching session I am doing on mental health. The audience looks at me in a much less accepting way than when I told them I took anti-depressants.

Having worked up an appetite I go into the kitchen. What can I rediscover in here? I look in the cupboard and find some dried peas. What can be greener than that? (see what i did there?)

I find my glasses to read the tiny instructions. 3 hours later I can smell burning coming down the hallway and discover that pea soup not only takes ages but also requires you to stay in the kitchen with it. I scrape off the top layer and find it is quite palatable.

I remember it is my flatmates birthday and wonder what I can give her. I have already offered to spring clean the flat but decide its a bit like buying a partner sexy underwear in that you benefit yourself as much as the recipient.

Find out tomorrow how I solved this problem.

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)

Facing Eviction at Grow Heathrow

In our series of occasional cross-posts from fellow Transition initiatives here is a news story from Transition Heathrow. In the last two years Grow Heathrow has cleared 30 tonnes of rubbish from a piece of derelict land (formally a market garden).and planted vegetables, fixed bikes and provided a community space. Now the owners want to evict them. This is their story and how we can help

On Thursday 17th November 2011 Transition Heathrow's squatted community garden project 'Grow Heathrow' will be heading back to court. The evictors, despite no support are continuing with a third attempt to remove us from the site. Encouragingly for us, the local community, the council and our local MP all want us to stay so that’s what we’re going to try and do.

Transition Heathrow was started to support the residents and communities who had been fighting the expansion of Heathrow airport for many years. Grow Heathrow; a community market garden and social space was established on a piece of derelict land right in the heart of Sipson; one of the villages to be completely tarmacced to make way for a third runway. The land had previously been problematic for the local community and was often a site of anti-social behaviour before it was virtually abandoned. Traditional Transition Towns often have a strong emphasis on growing your own food, so we decided to incorporate that with a squatted community space where people could come together, and spend time as a community. The site is directly in the path of the proposed 3^rd runway and so everyday people are there it acts as a political statement which offers a positive alternative to the power structures that build runways on peoples homes for profit.

Over the past year and a half the site has been completely transformed into a thriving community hub and market garden that provides a space for the local community to come together again and rebuild after the blight the local people suffered from. The site in Sipson plays host to a wide range of free activities for residents which are sorely needed. On a more national level the site has also played host to many political gatherings for groups such as Climate Camp, Reclaim the Fields, The Transition Network, No Tar Sands network, The Kick Nuclear campaign and many more.

The upcoming possible eviction makes no sense. We have tried negotiating to come to some agreement from the start but they will now only let us speak to their lawyers. They have no plans for the land and as it is greenbelt land they can’t get planning permission to do anything. All that will happen is a return to a site where regular activities include car scrapping, car breaking and contamination of agricultural land. We will not let this happen!

What can people do to support us in the run up to court proceedings?

1. Sign the petition for court – http://www.petitiononline.com/heathrow/petition.html

2. Send a supportive testimony to info@transitionheathrow.com or to Grow Heathrow, Vineries Close, Sipson, West Drayton, UB7 0JG (Full list of statements so far found at www.transitionheathrow.com/statements)

3. Follow us on Twitter @transheathrow. #defendGrowHrow

4. Get down to Uxbridge County Court for 9.30am on Thursday 17th November for a big show of support outside the court.

Joe Rake

(Joe Rake is a Transition Network Social Reporter - read his blogs on Transition Heathrow, Building Our Own Alternative Media and In Defence of Squatting here)

Photos: the GrowHeathrow greenhouses before and after Transition; Transition Heathrow

Bloggers on the Bench

Saturday 1pm. Last weekend of August, 2011. On a bench in Chapelfield Gardens after our quarterly bloggers' meeting at The Greenhouse cafe. Five Transition Norwich bloggers with The Transition Timeline by Shaun Chamberlin. To be left as part of bookcrossing week on the blog.

Now you see us.

Now you don't.

We didn't leave the book there on Saturday as we couldn't join it to Bookcrossing on the public library computers. And it had started to rain (note end of summer clothing and slightly shivery aspect of assembled company).

None of us writing this week had actually sent a book on its bookcrossing travels (Erik and Simeon are saving theirs for the new bookcrossing zone at Jo Balfe's new cafe The Nectar* on Saturday 24th September). Others were either treasured reference books, lost or from the library.

So to make it clear this is not just a photo op, this copy of the Transition Timeline will be released into the wild of Chapelfield Gardens this month, complete with BCID (Book Crossing identification number) and web address. If you pick it up, do log it in to help keep track of its journey. And happy reading.

Pics: On the bench l to r Chris, Jon, Charlotte, Simeon and Mark in Chapelfield Gardens; Bench and Book; Book and Bench

*The Nectar opens this coming Saturday September 3rd at 10am

The Hope in the Darkness

Everything is a bit grim and depressing at the moment, with riots, recessions and peak oil all rearing their ugly heads. It is easy to lose hope and to feel that we are all doomed, but I was sent a link today by the fabulous Otesha project that cheered me up and reminded me of the huge potential of human creativity. We have in our collective hands the ingenuity and skill to find a solution to any problem that faces us, that is how we got where we are today. It is arguably one of the most precious gifts of the human mind. So today I would like to share with you some of the amazing creativity and ingenuity that is lighting the way through the darkness.

The link that inspired this post gives 5 ingenious ways of reusing t-shirts and I particularly like the tent idea and the awesome video that comes with it.

And what about this is an awesome alternative to landfill? Saving lots of money and resources compared to new building materials too. Or we could make clothes out of cigarette butts? Or Buddhist temples out of glass bottles?

If you haven’t discovered TED talks yet, they are an amazing showcase of creativity and lateral thinking. One of the talks that springs to mind as being ingenious is by an amazing Indian entrepreneur teaching kids to make toys from rubbish.

Of course some of the old creativity and wisdom is equally inspiring, such as making soggy salad leaves into salad soup or using souring dairy products to make amazing cheese scones.

The human mind is amazing and we can achieve incredible things. Let us hope that our ingenuity and humanity can lead us to the better future we are all striving for. Never be afraid to think outside the box, for that is the stuff of evolution and progress.

Please share your favourite examples of creativity to inspire us all.

are you a recycling whore?

I was in a shop on Magdalen street the other day telling the owner about the Magdalen Street Celebration. He asked why I had never been in his shop. I told him I never buy new furniture. He then told me he sold mattresses. There was then a pause where he looked at me and I looked away and we both realized the possibility of sleeping on a used mattress was not something he had ever considered. Anyway he won because I ended up in his bedding department promising him I would return as soon as I had been paid. So this got me thinking 'is there anything preloved that I would not give a go?'. Well clothes are a given including socks and bras and shoes (thanks to Wombling for the idea on reusing bras and 6 other things you didnt know you could recycle). Pants I draw the line at although my mother brought me some of hers into hospital once which I still have. My dad offered me a rifle through his medecine cabinet as he was having a clearout. I took anything unopened. I wouldn't buy a secondhand nightgown. There's no particular rule it's just some things seem wrong. A friend of mine will only wear secondhand clothes of someone she knows. I suppose it comes down to dirt really and contamination. So I would be interested in people's thoughts on what they would and would not re-use and I will leave you with a short video that gives you food for thought about what hidden treasure there maybe under your fridge click here

Easter - I just don't buy it

Amidst our flurry of bank holiday activities it is easy to forget the true meaning of the spring break. The more religious amongst you will know that at this time of year we remember and celebrate the first time Dawn French dressed as the Easter bunny.

This is the origin of the eating of large amounts of chocolate so we may become more 'Dawn-like'. Strict observers like myself however see it as an all year round activity and not just for one day.
This brings me on to lent. I decided that from pancake day to Easter day I would not buy anything. This included new and secondhand goods, entertainment, meals out and cafes. I read the book 'not buying it- my year without shopping' for inspiration. This mainly made me feel a bit lightweight as I only did it for forty days and she didn't buy any processed food but never-the-less it was worth doing.

So here is the story of my forty days without buying stuff. Can I just point out that I realize that this is a privilege. Many people around the world do not have this choice and have no money or anything to buy.

Stuff
As soon as I decided not to buy anything I became overwhelmed with a desire for shoes. Not just any shoes but a red mary-jane-would-look-great-and-I-cant-live without-them shoes. In the end I could bear it no longer and had to go and see if they were still there. But like a second date they seem to have become less sexy in the interim. I wondered why I had desired them so much. I didn't buy them and in fact I managed not to buy any 'stuff' for the whole of lent.

Entertainment
I fed the guinea pigs by hand and trained them to sit on my lap










I sat in the haymarket and watched street entertainment

Birthday presents
After I had committed to not buying anything I then realized that April is birthday month. Mum got some gloves I knitted. I used a pattern off the Internet and some wool I already had.

My friend Kate got a teapot that I owned but I knew she would like.

Socializing and business meetings
This was a difficult one. If someone wants to go for a coffee or a drink what do you do? One person asked me for a drink. I didnt know what kind of 'drink' to be honest so it was a useful delaying tactic to explain my lent situation. I then got invited round for a meal instead. So I am still none the wiser as to whether I am on a date but am now at the persons house! It made me realize that cafes and pubs are quite useful neutral territory.

An admirer of my art projects had acquired some funding for an exhibition and wanted to meet me. I invited him to my house but at the last minute he changed it to a pub. I sat there with a glass of water looking like I was on a detox!

Bank holiday weekends
So how do you pass the time with family if you are not shopping?

Well our family decided to empty the shed, so while they sweltered in the heat I sat on the computer and got rid of our garden chairs on freegle.

I also aquired some retro cooking gear and a stone with a hole in the top which I will use as a vase when I have figured out how to stop it rolling over.

Waste not, Want not

Traditionally the saying I have used as a title is understood to mean 'don't waste the things that you don't want', but I quite like the alternative interpretation of 'If you don't waste anything you are never going to want for anything'. It quite neatly summarises how I am going to conclude this post, but I am getting ahead of myself. However, I am going to start at the end.

The end of the line for most 'waste', is as methane gas or as toxic landfill leachate, waiting to escape and pollute our atmosphere and groundwater. Modern landfills try very hard to stop these pollutants escaping, but nothings perfect and accidents happen.

I'm sure you have noticed that landfill sites take up quite a lot of room and when Britons alone produce 35.1 million tonnes of waste a year it is hardly surprising. However, this is starting to cause a problem as we need land for other important purposes, such as growing our food, so it is getting harder and harder to find places to put new landfill sites. In fact it is estimated that we will run out of landfill space in Britain in less than eight years time. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that landfill sites are difficult to redevelop due to toxic emissions and the risk from subsidence. And we must not forget the energy used to transport our waste to landfill sites either.

Now quite a lot of the stuff that we put into landfill is actually quite useful; so many perfectly usable appliances are thrown away it's ridiculous and considering the general finite nature of our natural resources and the looming peak oil problems, reusing some of the materials might be a smart plan.

That's recycling I hear you say. And indeed it is! Recycling takes used materials and makes them into new products like super cool computer circuit board stationary or the drinks mat I once had that was made out of toothbrushes...

Unfortunately though recycling is not magic, it requires large amounts of energy to reform the materials and therefore isn't the perfect answer. So climbing slowly up the well-known mantra of reduce, reuse, recycle we come to Reuse. Why change something if it still works perfectly well as it is? You can either use it again yourself, as in making your own jam to put in reused jam jars, or you can pass it on to someone else who can reuse it. This could be a friend or neighbour or failing that Freegle is a fantastic way of finding a happy home for all your unwanteds. Just giving things away for reuse is only half the story though, it is important to remember that these things need to be actually bought (or collected for free) to be able to be reused. There are many places where you can do this - clothes swaps, bring and take days (like Sustainable Bungay's), charity shops, freegle again, car boot sales, I could go on.

Somewhere around this section there is also the idea of repurposing, such as the flower pot kettle suggestion of J. Bloggs. This is sometimes referred to as upcycling and lots of wonderful suggestions can be found on the web on sites like instructables.

The astute amongst you probably noticed that there is one step better still -Reduce. If you don't produce the waste in the first place then you don't have to work out what to do with it. This is the point where you start to get a lot of cross over with discussions about stuff and food, because reducing waste normally requires changing the way you view the things you consume. You need to start see things as valuable resources that have had a lot of effort put into them by the earth and mankind and therefore you use them as carefully as possible and don't buy new things like they are going out of fashion (even our sayings have got the wrong idea!).

This generally means buying less (saving you money too) and using what you do buy more carefully. Making stuff yourself is also a good plan.

Just the word and concept of waste is a big part of the problem. Nothing is inherently valueless and everything can be reincarnated in some form or another. Nature doesn't have waste, or if it does it is more of an opportunity of a new resource to find a use for, rather than a problem to be hidden away.

Producing less waste is actually good for you too! If you really appreciate the things you have, look after them and make some things yourself then you will be happier and more content than if you are constantly searching for satisfaction in endless products. And as I said at the beginning if you waste less then you are less likely to find yourself (personally and as a society) in need of something that you cannot have.

Photos: waste not want not poster, landfill site, circuit board notebook and tetrapak wallet.