On a sunny Saturday in mid-October supporters of the Glebe Garden gathered for a morning maintenance session. In the week before, Mic Talbot & Co. had carried out some substantial clearing of fallen trees and other obstructions to the paths in the garden. Much of the group work was involved in ‘processing’ the results of this clearance:
In addition, there was some significant ‘civil engineering’ work – reinforcing the edge of the upper path in one area that had started to slip down the slope.
Study of the Glebe Garden archive (papers and photos from a former community project in the early 1990s) had turned out a plan of a large number of fruit trees planted then at the far end of the garden. There was a brief hunt for any survivors, and one medlar was identified, but given the current wilderness nature of this part of the garden, a more serious and determined search will be required!
Bringing the Glebe Garden story up to date, after the inevitable long delay in sorting out a lease, Caitlin DeSilvey published the follow-up article below in the November / December / January issue of Constant Times:
Community Plans for the Glebe
Back in February when Transition Constantine updated readers on progress towards securing a lease for community use of the Glebe Woodland Garden, it seemed plausible that we would have an agreement in place by Spring. As with so many other plans and projects, it was not meant to be. The trees haven’t complained about the delay, though, and we have made very slow progress over the last months. The Constantine Enterprises Company (CEC) Board reviewed a revised version of the lease agreement at its October meeting. If all goes to plan, we should now have a lease signed by the end of the year. The hope is that we can celebrate community stewardship of the 2 acre parcel with a socially-distanced, staggered-shift work party on New Year’s Day. We already have about 50 individuals and households who have pledged support as Friends of the Glebe, and offered to pay a small annual subscription (£10 suggested, more welcome) to help cover the costs of the lease and the insurance. If you are interested in becoming a Friend and contributing to conversations about future plans, please email me at c.desilvey@gmail.com. Even before COVID-19 slowed down the world, our intention was to begin very gradually with light touch maintenance and restoration of some of the overgrown paths and features. We’ll take down the estate agent’s signs from Sentry Path and ensure access for all villagers into the future. The special place through the old granite gateposts will stay mostly as it is now, with a bit more care around the edges.
January 2020 now seems to belong to another world, but it was then that the Transition group started making plans to rent the Glebe Garden, in the valley below the Church, on behalf of the community. To announce the plans, Caitlin DeSilvey published the article below in the February / March issue of Constant Times:
Transition Bid to restore Glebe Garden
The Glebe Garden is an area of 2.12 acres adjacent to the Brillwater stream, owned by the Diocese of Truro. It was developed in Victorian times by one of the village vicars and was later planted as an orchard by a local family. More recently, the lease was taken in 1989 by the Parish Council, and substantial restoration and maintenance was carried out in the early 1990s. The Parish Council lease lapsed some years back, and although a footpath through the land remains, it has largely reverted to an un-maintained woodland with informal public access. At the end of 2019 the Glebe land was advertised for sale or lease. After initial discussions, Transition Constantine submitted a tender on the 2 January dead-line with a tentative proposal to lease the land and secure continued public access. The Diocese has now confirmed that it is willing to offer the woodland to let to Transition Constantine, pending approval from the Constantine Enterprises Company (CEC) Board. Transition Constantine is interested to consult with the wider community to establish the scale of support and the focus of interest of those wishing to be involved, should the proposal go forward. Some general principles for future management are emerging from conversations with interested parties: there will be no commercial activity; the land will be lightly managed as a community woodland and wildlife reserve; any restoration work will be carried out gradually and incrementally, to preserve the special character of the place. Transition Constantine is currently gathering expressions of interest and support from local residents. If you would like more information, please email Robin Curtis: tmconstatine@btinternet.com.
While so much is closed down, many of the local suppliers are finding new ways to keep going, along with some new initiatives such as the Constantine food bank and help line. In no particular order, here’s the current list:
“I will be baking on a Thursday for a Friday collection/local delivery, and on a Sunday for Monday. For deliveries further than Constantine I will have to charge a small fee.”
Sally’s list of offerings and prices are on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Transition-Constantine-520422917968856/ Please email (sallycakes@hotmail.co.uk) or DM for orders and collection/delivery information.
Produce from a number of local traders who have stalls at Helston Farmers’ Market is now available via the Helston Food Hub. To quote from the Food Hub’s website:
“Helston Local Food Hub is a new way of shopping each week for your favourite local food that you can usually only buy once a month from Helston Farmers’ Market. This is like a ‘click and collect’ service you might be familiar with at a supermarket but using the Open Food Network website to trade from and drawing in produce from a number of local producers who currently all trade at Helston Farmers’ Market. You can filter the items by producer or by the product type e.g. ‘Dairy’ or ‘Bread and Baking’.
We work in order cycles, opening up the online shop for a few days each week for you to shop from. We will then collect all the orders at the Old Cattle Market in Helston and give you a time slot to come and collect your order on the Saturday morning.”
Here’s a link to the ‘shop’ page of the Helston Local Food Hub where there is much more detail about the service:
https://www.openfoodnetwork.org.uk/helston-local-food-hub/shop
Due to the movement restrictions associated with the Covid-19 epidemic, there will be no door-to-door distribution of the April / May issue of Constant Times. As always, the digital version of Constant Times is available as a pdf on the village website:
https://constantinecornwall.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/CT-Vol-9-Issue-2.pdf
We hope as many people as possible will take advantage of the digital version to read the village newspaper online. The cover page is illustrated below:
In response to the Covid-19 epidemic, a number of village groups are collaborating to set up a support network for those alone or housebound, sheltering, undergoing self-isolation, or suffering from the infection itself. The aim is to provide day-to-day support with shopping, deliveries, prescription collection, pets and so on. The vicar, Rev. Stewart Turner, is providing the initial point of contact, with details in the flyer below.
It can’t have escaped many villagers’ attention that Transition’s 2019 Community Day was held on Saturday 14 September. In thankfully beautiful weather, even more people than at last year’s event came to see and engage with the host of interests, causes and activities on show in the Church and at the Tolmen Centre during the day. Many also sat down for the Big Lunch in the Tolmen Centre garden where every last mouthful of the enormous spread of wholesome foods brought and shared by the diners disappeared! The day started with the Farmers’ Market in the Tolmen Centre whilst in the Church, W.I. refreshments, a Repair Café, Bosahan Woodland Management, Constantine Cottage Garden Society, a children’s clothes swap stall, Extinction Rebellion T-shirt printing, Climate Vision and a chance to try bell ringing in the tower saw a steady flow of interested visitors.
Outside, 1 st Constantine Brownies were being creative with recycled plastic! Meanwhile back at the Tolmen Centre, the Big Village Lunch kicked off at 1.00pm with a fantastic spread of home-made and (mostly) wholesome fare brought by the diners for all to share in the garden under the specially-erected marquee, the brainwave of this year’s Community Day co-ordinator Laura Brittain-Long. Entertainment followed with poetry performance by our own Kerry Vincent, singing from the children of Constantine School, and an accompanied musical performance by Misri Dey.
Whilst activities up at the Church continued into the afternoon, inside the Tolmen Centre representatives from a host of local organizations shared information with villagers about their aims and activities. Clean Ocean Sailing, Friends of the Earth and Transition Constantine all had stalls manned by their volunteers. Cornwall Council Waste Management Team “had lots of positive conversations” with Constantine folk – interested in the new waste management and recycling arrangements that arrive next year. Constantine Primary School and Pre-School had a chance to showcase their exciting outdoor education programmes – the Forest School, and the Bee Project.
Daisy Chapman Gardner had a stand and had many conversations explaining the background to her recent conservation trip to Honduras. Charlotte Barry from the Camel Community Agriculture Project held a raffle of fresh vegetables on her stall which raised funds donated to Helston Food Bank. On their adjacent stall they explained the operation and function of Helston Food Bank, run by volunteers. They were accepting donations to the food bank – and recruited two new hands!
Last but not least, Tracey Clowes raised valuable funds and pledges for the Tolmen Centre Restoration Project through its ‘sponsor a roof slate’ scheme. Lastly, a big thank-you to all the contributors and volunteers who helped make the day such a success: a day worth remembering, and one to be repeated next year!
(Reproduced from Constant Times Volume 8, Issue 5; authored by Robin Curtis)
In 2015 Transition Constantine was working with Constantine Pre-school to raise funds for a solar PV system to be installed on the pre-school roof. This was done in partnership with the 10:10 Solar Schools organisation. The funding target was not achieved and the project was suspended – but the idea never went away. At the turn of 2018, it became clear that Transition Constantine had a source of funds available that could be used to revive the project. With the solar PV Feed In Tariff no longer being available after March 2019, the project was rapidly relaunched with the support of the pre-school committee. Things then moved very quickly, with ZLC Energy engaged to install a 4kW system over the February half-term holiday. A set of timelapse photos of the installation was obtained and can be seen in the movie: “Constantine Pre-school Going Solar”:
Following the success of the communal lunch on the Community Day last October, Transition Constantine held the first of what it hopes will be quarterly Big Lunches on Saturday 12 January.
The people of the Constantine area didn’t let them down and, as before, the Tolmen Centre was packed with families, young and old, who tucked into a huge variety of home-made dishes and delights brought by the diners themselves for others to enjoy. The atmosphere was all the more enjoyable as local band Akoustek played and sang a live set throughout the meal.
The next Big Lunch will be announced in due course. Transition would love to see even wider village participation so if you haven’t been already, do come (and it’s free!).
(Reposted from an article by the editor of the Constant Times (February / March edition, 2019)
At Constantine Community Day on Saturday 13th October 2018, one of the activities was to gather residents views about Constantine. As part of this, people were invited to suggest aspects of Constantine life that they liked and disliked. These have been collected together and documented on the Community Day page on the menu above.
At the recent Constantine Community Day there were a couple of activities that prompted people to reflect on how they might like things to be different in the future. One was a ‘wishing tree’ where wishes for change or improvement could be hung. Another was a display about Constantine in the past and present, that also invited people to say what they would like to see in Constantine in the future (with a timescale of the next 10-20 years). The contributions from both have been consolidated and summarized below:
Atmosphere and Community Spirit
Services
Outdoors:
Transport
Housing
Climate Change/Emergency Plans
The items with asterisks reflect a number of responses on the same topic. Transition Constantine will be discussing how to take action on these ideas, particularly in relation to the desire for more community days and more affordable housing.
You may notice that there has been little activity on the Transition Constantine website for a long time. Since setting up the TC Facebook page, most of our communications activity has happened there. Very many people use Facebook, and its ‘push’ mechanism means that no-one has to go out of their way to look for a specific website.
Facebook is good for getting attention, but less suitable for providing directly the ‘longer read’, where someone is interested in a particular topic. We are going to try using the Transition Constantine website for providing a bit more depth, via links from Facebook posts. So if someone is interested, they can easily follow the link to the TC website; if not, they can easily pass it by without being overloaded with unwanted information.
On Tuesday 28th April the Constantine Community Land Trust will be holding the LAUNCH EVENT of the new organisation (and it will incorporate the AGM of the initial set-up organisation). For the new organisation, the meeting aims to:
The meeting will be held at the Tolmen Centre in Constantine, with doors opening at 7:00 pm for a start at 7:30 pm (drinks and nibbles available).
For more information and an agenda, see:
In the course of a migration to a new hosting service, the most recent posts to the Transition Constantine website went missing. To give a flavour of what happened in the last year or so, here below are some new posts to summarise some of the key events (and regular activities) of the Transition Constantine year.
Members of the Transition group helped to revive the village newspaper when its longstanding editor was obliged to give up to health problems. It now has a new editorial and production team, but members of the Transition group help with the bimonthly ritual of the ‘stapling and folding party’. Some 750 copies are collated, stapled, folded and boxed, with the accompaniment of food, drink and much putting of the world to rights. New occupational heath problems sometimes surface – though I’m not sure that ‘stapler’s wrist’ has been fully characterised by medical science…
In issue 5 of the Constant Times Transition Constantine announced plans to consider the viability of a tool library where villagers could share those incredibly useful items of equipment that are only ever periodically needed. It is hoped that such a village resource might save unnecessary commercial hire or duplicate purchase of kit as well as encouraging people to get to know each other a bit better.
Thank you to all those who contributed to the survey at the October Farmers Market and for all the kind offers of donations or lends to help set up the scheme. As a result we have begun to piece together those items that seem most popular.
In order to get a better idea of what might items might be most useful, we would be very pleased if more people could complete the survey. Please consider the list below and use the comments link (at the top right of the page) to tell us your top five items (the ones you most wish you could borrow).
| Construction | Leisure |
| Cement Mixer | Boat |
| Scaffold Tower | Boat Trailer |
| Long (extendable) Ladder | Canoe |
| Stepladder | Gas BBQ |
| Acroprops | Chiminea |
| Long handled sledge hammer | Gazebo |
| Crow bar | Tent |
| Tile cutter | Camp Beds |
| Block & Tackle | Camping Stoves |
| Kango Drill/Big SDS | Gym Equip/Weights |
| Flood Light | |
| Sash Window Clamps | Domestic |
| Lathe | Breadmaker |
| Generator | Food processor |
| Juicer | |
| Garden/Outside | Steam Cleaner |
| Garden Tool Bank (spades, forks, etc.?) | Carpet Washer |
| Petrol/ride on mower | Wet vacuum cleaner |
| General Purpose Trailer | Wallpaper stripper |
| Pressure Washer | |
| Drain Rods | Domestic Emergency |
| Long reach branch cutter / Shrub cutter | Water Pump |
| Large band saw / tree saw | Dehumidifier |
| Strimmer | Heater |
| Hedge Trimmer | Sand bags |
| Woodchipper | |
| Garden Roller | Infants |
| Saw Horse | Travel Cot |
| Post Driver | High Chair |
| Log Splitter | Car seat |
| Rotavator | Stair gate |
| Leaf Blower | |
| Mechanical | Clothes Library |
| Van | Everyone who joins contributes |
| Trailer | |
| Car Inspection Ramp | Book Library |
| Trolley Jack | |
| Engine Winch | |
| Roof rack/roof box | Misc |
| Battery Charger | Projector |
| Long lengths of rope | Sat Nav |
| Large wrench | Wheelchair |
Yes! Bananas growing in Constantine! OK, they’re on on the relatively hardy Japanese banana (Musa Basjoo), and I’m not expecting that they’ll be edible, but it’s still quite exciting. Apparently, once they reach a certain size, and if they experience more than a year without a frost, they are likely to flower. And, of course, the photo:
Transition Constantine will be supporting the UK’s national Climate Week with a programme of events throughout the week. These will include:
For details and times of events, please see the full programme below:
Transition Constantine has set up a Facebook page as a way of keeping anyone who shares the group’s interests up to date with what’s going on in the world, locally and globally. There is now a permanent link to the TC page in the ‘Links’ list to the right, and the full address is:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Transition-Constantine/520422917968856
Not being a habitual Radio 3 listener, it was by chance earlier in the week that I heard the presenter, Sarah Walker, talking with Satish Kumar (interspersed with his music choices) during her ‘Essential Classics’ programme. Satish Kumar has been editor of ‘Resurgence’ magazine for decades. His presence on the programme was apparently associated with the International Day of Peace on Friday 21st September. He has been appearing on all the programmes this week, talking about his life and beliefs. Those local to Constantine may already have heard him speak at the ‘Gather’ festival last autumn at Goongillings. For anyone else who would like to hear him, the programmes are available on iPlayer:
Monday: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01mnwzx/Essential_Classics_Monday_Sarah_Walker/
Tuesday: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01mny5s/Essential_Classics_Tuesday_Sarah_Walker/
Wednesday: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01mny6f/Essential_Classics_Wednesday_Sarah_Walker/
Thursday: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01mny72/Essential_Classics_Thursday_Sarah_Walker/
Satish appears about 1 hour 30 minutes into each programme, in a half hour slot. There’s still time to catch the live programme tomorrow!
It is in the nature of the internet that one can wander far from an initial path. I was pursuing a reported endorsement of the new Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, by Nigel Lawson (now Baron Lawson of Blaby). I was somewhat disturbed by that, given that Nigel Lawson has a reputation as a climate sceptic. He is a founder and chair of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, whose tag is “Restoring balance and trust to the climate debate”, though the organisation seems primarily engaged in sowing doubt and distrust about climate science. It was news to me, though obviously well known generally, that (a) Nigel Lawson is the father of Dominic Lawson (a columnist for The Independent and The Sunday Times) who writes from a similarly sceptical perspective, and (b) Dominic Lawson is married to Rosa, sister of Christopher Monckton (who has also become prominent as a climate change sceptic). All this is really a by-the way to the fact the these enquiries led me to the DeSmogBlog (dedicated to “clearing the pollution that clouds climate science”). This site has some interesting mini-bios of both Nigel Lawson and Christopher Monckton (amongst many others!).
I discovered on DeSmogBlog a number of articles by Chris Mooney on the question of why there is a tendency for conservatives to be anti-science and distrustful of scientific evidence. He has explored this theme in recent books: ‘The Republican War on Science‘ and ‘The Republican Brain’. These draw on recent psychological research to suggest that conservatives have different personality types and psychological needs compared with those identified as ‘liberals’. Grossly simplifying, he suggests that conservatives resist scientific evidence not because they are stupid, but rather because they are psychologically unable to accept ideas that conflict with deeply held prior beliefs. A rich vein to explore.
Not really Transition-related, this one, apart from being a symbol of ‘localness’! Walking from the Lizard lighthouse yesterday towards Housel Bay, I passed a couple of Choughs foraging in the field, and couldn’t resist the photo.
Another piece in the recent Resurgence & Ecologist worth noting. Charles Secrett (former Director of Friends of the Earth) feels that “the UK’s green groups have hit a new low: virtually invisible, largely ineffective and mostly ignored by both government and the electorate.” He expresses frustration that the major organisations (CPRE, FoE, Greenpeace, RSPB, WWF, etc.) have major resources in term of income, membership, skilled staff and so on, yet they operate in an uncoordinated way and seem to have lost their campaigning edge.
“Campaign staff are no longer community organisers. They sit in offices. They are expert researchers who write elegant press releases and reports that 99.99% never read. They are policy wonks, tweeters, media commentators and lobbyists, happiest in front of a computer, and only ever leave their desks for conferences, interviews or internal meetings”.
He draws attention to the impact on government plans when the National Trust mobilised its membership in opposition to plans to ease planning restrictions. He proposes that the green NGOs must forge alliances, pool skills and resources, develop a shared agenda with inspiring, convincing and practical policies for reforming the economy. All this coupled with jargon-free positive messages about how life could be different and better in a sustainable world (a recognition that doom and gloom scenarios may well be accurate but they tend to provoke fingers in the ears rather than inspire positive action). But above all, his priority is for NGOs to “Get out of the office and hit the road”. His conclusion:
“Most importantly of all, it’s time for NGOs and activists to move from the defensive to the offensive and collectively promote a compelling vision about what life can be like, with wealth created and shared, markets working for people and Nature, communities empowered, and politicians honest and capable.”
Having personally sighted only one electric vehicle charging point in Cornwall (at the Eden Project), I picked up on an article in the most recent West Briton (6/9/2012). It reported how a B&B at Penhallow (Homestead Farm) had installed a charging station for guests – and the equipment had been given to them by Zero Carbon World. This organisation is a registered charity that donates charging stations to hotels, B&Bs, and other leisure oriented businesses. Any business that takes up the offer must still pay for the installation, but all the equipment is free of charge. Zero Carbon World’s website has a searchable map giving access to a national database of charging stations. Nearest one to Constantine appears to be on the Trelowarren estate.
Zero Carbon World, founded by Kevin Sharpe, states that it aims ” …to clear the confusion, bureaucracy and profiteering surrounding decarbonisation. It is our vision to live in a sustainable and equitable decarbonised society.”
After the sober content of the last post, some good news from the latest issue of Resurgence (now Resurgence & Ecologist). In one article, Herbert Girardet describes the steps the Australian city of Adelaide has taken towards becoming a sustainable city. In 2003 he was invited by the city to be a ‘thinker in residence’ focusing on the ‘greening’ of Adelaide. He and colleagues produced a report detailing a number of recommendations. In November 2011 he returned to see what had happened as a result of the proposals made. He says that Adelaide City Council “had taken many truly remarkable initiatives in the previous nine years”. Picking a few plums from the list of achievements:
The full report on his Adelaide visit can be downloaded from here.
First of all, some comments by Professor Sir Bob Watson (Chief Scientist at DEFRA) reported in a BBC News item. His view is that any hope of restricting the global average temperature rise to 2 degrees C is now “out of the window”. He urged the Chancellor, George Osborne, to back the UK’s efforts to cut CO2 emissions.
Then, George Monbiot going ballistic in his blog, putting the news about the record arctic sea ice melt in context with (a) demands for a new third runway at Heathrow, and (b) the Republican convention in Tampa, Florida being delayed a day by the severity of Hurricane Isaac.
Finally, a Comment in “Nature” by Chris Rapley, Professor of Climate Science at University College London, about what to do when there is no meeting of minds despite the appearance of rational discussion. He describes a discussion with a senior UK politician in which the response to his forecasts was a dismissal of serious outcomes and a belief that unregulated markets will accomplish all that is required. He quotes the economist J.K Galbraith: ““faced with the choice of changing one’s mind and with proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.” The more an individual has invested in their position, the more strongly they will seek to justify it.”. His conclusion is that scientists need to become much more sophisticated in their approaches to communication, inevitably adopting a more ‘political’ role. The article in Nature has restricted access, but a response by Roger Pielke senior throws further light on the issues raised in the article.
This on-line ‘newspaper’ recently came to my attention (thanks, Robin). It’s a collection of news items that are broadly transition themed, sourced from a variety of media. It is styled (as the title indicates) the ‘Transition Initiatives Daily‘. Quite a mixed bag, and global in scope, not just UK items. It seems worth keeping an eye on, so I have included it as a further link in the list to the right of the page.
Visiting Florence recently, I was struck by the number of electric vehicles whirring about the city – particularly in the central area. The photo shows a small parking spot solely for electric vehicles just off the Piazza della Signoria.
Also in Florence, I encountered my first filling station equipped with charging points for electric cars. Driving in, I glanced at a set of ‘pumps’ with long thin blue ‘pipes’ attached, and wondered what kind of fuel they were dispensing – and then the penny dropped…
A selection of reports that have come my way this week:
…The head of the International Energy Agency warns that “The chance of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius this century is getting slimmer and slimmer”:
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/05/16/energy-summit-iea-idINDEE84F0F120120516
…An announcement of the new book “A Geek Manifesto: Why Science Matters”, by Mark Henderson:
http://geekmanifesto.wordpress.com/about/
…A campaign by Avaaz (directed at the recent G8 summit) to publicise the $1 trillion of public money worldwide currently subsidising the fossil fuel industry:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/a_new_plan_to_save_the_planet/?cl=1809464540&v=14364
…A web chat about the Desertec foundation, aiming to build links between Europe and North Africa to provide access to North Africa’s solar energy resources:
…A post on Carbon Commentary – “Food versus fuel: a debate that has only one possible conclusion”:
http://www.carboncommentary.com/2012/05/17/2354
…A post from ‘Think Progress’ on Jonathan Koomey’s new book, Cold Cash, Cool Climate: Science-Based Advice for Ecological Entrepreneurs, which is said to offer a concise, compelling analysis of why innovative entrepreneurial approaches are needed in order to limit global climate change, and to improve the quality of life while doing so.
…And finally – for those who like their gloom laid on with a trowel – an article from ‘Scientific American’: “Apocalypse Soon: Has Civilization Passed the Environmental Point of No Return?”
Many people have collections of books sitting on their shelves gathering dust. Most people are happy to lend books to people they know. Lots of people would be glad to borrow a book rather than pay for a copy of their own. This state of affairs brought on a ‘light bulb’ moment recently for Robin Curtis, chairman of Transition Constantine. Why not publish a list of books available to borrow, with details of who has them, and then leave the potential borrower to contact the lender and arrange the loan? Within a small community the personal contact should create a certain level of trust and obligation, and it would be an opportunity to meet new people with similar interests.
A pilot online ‘library’ has been set up as a trial. The current collection of books available is broadly on ‘Transition’ themes, but it could be expanded to cover any number of subject areas. The only limit is the number of people participating and the books they are willing to lend out. The library is now listed under the ‘Links’ section on the right hand side of the page, or from this article just go to Constantine Community Library.
You can search the catalogue by subject or author (or just download a full list of what’s available). Selecting an individual book will bring up the contact details of the person who has the book (phone or email). It’s then up to you to make contact and arrange the collection. If anyone else wants to participate in the scheme and offer books for loan, please contact Chris Hussey (340007 or chris.r.hussey *at* gmail.com).
While visiting friends in Norfolk recently, I found myself marvelling at the Autumn Agricultural Review, produced as a quarterly supplement by the Eastern Daily Press. This is clearly aimed at the regular farming community, yet within its 24 pages I found:
What’s going on?
Saturday 24th September saw a gathering of folk in the fields adjacent to Scot’s Quay to mark 45 years of Resurgence magazine and local support for the international 350.org event Moving Planet . In line with Satish Kumar’s famous multi-thousand mile walks in pursuit of peace – Transition Constantine organised a walk from the village down to Scot’s Quay – ably led by children from the school carrying flags they had made earlier in the week. The Gather event included a number of musicians and bands, tree listening, charcoal buying, natural paint making, and dance – all leading up to a session with Satish Kumar being interviewed by Leo Hickman of the Guardian – on Satish’s wide ranging and inspirational thoughts over the last 45 years. During the afternoon everyone took part in creating two large scale human banners for 350.org – shortly to appear on the Moving Planet website.
Al Gore is promoting a worldwide rolling 24 hour event on 17/18th September – tune in to the broadcast coming out of London. One of our local Climate Change scientists based at Tremough will be participating from the LSE. Information here…..
350.org is organising a worldwide event on 24th September to raise the issues related to the continuing rise in emissions of greenhouse gases. 350 ppm is suggested as the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at which a global average temperature rise can be limited go 2C. We are currently at 393 ppm and rising….
Watch this space for announcement of local events related to the activity on 24th September .
Over £20million is reported to be available to fund the installation of Solar PV systems on Community buildings in Cornwall. This funding provides for so-called “free” PV – i.e. the community will benefit if and when it can make use of any electricity being generated by the solar panels. The funders will benefit from the Feed-in-Tariff. However, this is a mechanism to get Community Solar PV systems installed. If anyone responsible for a community building in Constantine wishes to take advantage of this – please make contact with Transition Constantine or with CEP directly. These systems have to be installed by March 2012. Further information here
Ladock and Grampound have both benefitted from the Low Carbon Communities Challenge in November 2009 – we need to keep our eyes open for the next time around…….
The recently formed Community Power Cornwall has completed its recent share issue and now has a total of £80,000 to invest in its early projects. The first of these is the installation of two 55kW wind turbines at Tregerrick Farm, Gorran. One of their projects, closer to Constantine, is a turbine proposed for Bishops Forum – currently held up by a planning objection.
Tornados, wildfires, droughts and floods were once seen as freak conditions. But the environmental disasters now striking the world are shocking signs of ‘global weirding’
John Vidal, Tuesday June 14 2011, The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/13/extreme-weather-flooding-droughts-fires
After yesterday’s meeting we decided to explore a site for community composting in the local area. I stumbled upon this very comprehensive guide and resource to community composting.
Aside from the physical location of the proposed project TC will need to consider both the demand for compost – lots of gardens and the allotment – but also buy in from locals to supply raw product and the logistics required in such an undertaking and no doubt as some members commented last night the obviously legal / local authority implications.
If you’ve got any thoughts or if you’d like to get involved, please contact us.
http://www.communitycompost.org/index.php/downloads
A number of local artists and makers will be involved in this event which is coming soon! Look out for the distinctive orange circle on the catalogue of artists, which can be obtained free from the Tolmen Centre and the Post office.
Participating artists:
Paula Downing – ceramics, mixed media
Lyrebird – jewellry, textiles
Maxine Hart – drawings, paintings
Lin Williams – paintings – cards
Annabel harris – paintings – drawings
Do follow the Orange circle notices and support members of our local creative community – visit their studios and see them at work – great fun!
An initiative from 350.org
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/business-13296404
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/science-environment-13312901
The Transition Constantine website has been updated to allow for a more up-to-date flow of news items provided by members. Each news item can be categorised as belonging to one of the main areas of interest, ie:
News items may contain links to other websites, images, audio clips or videos.
Do you make things? Paintings, sculpture, jewellery, drawings, prints, ceramics, crafts, textiles, metalwork, joinery, plants, recycled goods, fuel, furniture….to name but a few…..
If you are a small local business or cottage industry we would like to hear from you.
Transition Constantine is establishing a group for all artisans in the parish and neighbouring areas with the aim of providing support to strengthen local production. The initial stage is to gather details and compile a directory.
If you are interested in joining this network please contact Clare James on clare.a.james@googlemail.com with your details. We will list you on this website with your name, skills and email address.