Energy Advice Day Success!

As part of the 10:10:10 Global Day of Doing the Transition Alnwick Energy Advice Day was held at St James' Church, Alnwick. We had a number of advisors along with experts from Equinox Energy (Photovoltaics), Northumbria Renewables (Solar Thermal), Sustainable Heating Solutions (Biomass), Warmzone (Insulation) and the Energy Saving Trust. All the advisors and specialists were busy throughout the time we were open and anybody who completed a Home Energy Check for the EST received a computer power down device. members of the public described the day as "extremely useful" and others said "How lucky we are to have this right on our doorstep - Alnwick is a really forward-thinking town!"

Alnwick Green Advice Session

Alnwick Green Advice Session

As part of the 10:10:10 Day of Action, Transition Alnwick are offering free green advice sessions. The sessions will be held on 10th October from 1 to 3pm at St James' Church Hall, Pottergate, Alnwick, preferably on an appointment basis so that individual advice can be guaranteed.

Experts in various fields will be available to give individual advice to anyone who wishes to book an appointment - there will be some spaces for drop-in opportunities too. Members of Transition Alnwick will be available to talk through general advice about what is achievable to 'green up' a house along with the possibility of discussing what they have don in their own homes.

In addition there will be experts on solar PV, solar thermal, heating through wood burning, insulation and more. There will also be representatives from Warmzone and the Energy Saving Trust.

This represents a unique opportunity to pick the brains of people with real experience in domestic green initiatives plus more specific expert advice on a wide range of topics. To book an appointment call Paul on 01665 604869 or e-mail paul.mills@equinox-energy.co.uk

Roots and Shoots

Pete Edge, Alnwick Garden employee and Transition Alnwick member, provided a guide to the Roots and Shoots area of the Alnwick garden for the food group. Pete's enthusiasm made the tour extremely interesting and those who attended gleaned plenty of useful tips as well as enjoying a fascinating 'behind the scenes' tour. The Roots and Shoots area is geared for education - 10 local schools have their own patches for which they prepare the ground and seeds which they have selected. They then sow their seeds and tend to them as they grow, and in September their produce is harvested and cooked up for them by a Chef in the Alnwick garden.

The rest of the area is used to demonstrate different methods of growing plants (veg as well as flowers and fruit trees), composting and soon will house beehives. A good time was had by all and our thanks go to Pete for giving up his time to show us round.

Heritage Open Days

Ever fancied seeing how an ordinary house can be made more sustainable? Ever fancied seeing what a solar thermal installation or a photovoltaic installation actually looks like? Maybe you've just had questions about how easy it is to get extra insulation into a house or where people get enough wood to keep their stoves going. A unique opportunity to nose around 3 fairly ordinary houses that have had various green living additions put into them will arise between the 9th and 12th september. As part of the Heritage Open Days initiative 62 Chapel Lands, 50 swansfield Park Road and 24 The Dunterns will be open at various times for people to see themselves how different technologies, installations and additions have reduced the householders carbon footprint and the cost of running their homes. No prior booking is required, but see here to find out which house you'd like to visit and for opening dates and times:
www.heritageopendays.org.uk/directory

The History Of Oil

Our latest meeting at St james Church Hall on Thursday was to show the Rob Newman film 'The History Of Oil'. This is a thought provoking film presented in an entertaining half stand-up, half history lecture style. Rob challenges our understanding of recent history, especially with regards to the Middle Eastern oil-producing nations. The film succeeds in both it's aims of providing entertainment and information. Afterwards a discussion brought up a variety of issues concerning moving Transition Alnwick forwards and keeping Alnwick on the path of energy descent. Key issues brought up by the audience were planning constraints in conservation areas with regard to the installation of renewables, the use of the media to keep the Alnwick community informed about Transition Alnwick and the importance of remaining positive.

Next event: the relaunched Energy Group meeting on Thursday 16th July at 7.30 in St James Church Hall.

Food Group Meeting

The next meeting of the Food Group will take place on Tuesday 29th June at 50 Swansfield Park Road, Alnwick - 7.30pm. Bring along food and drink to share, perhaps thinking about local and seasonal produce. We'll have a picnic on the field behind the house if the weather is good enough - so bring a rug or a chair to sit on. If the weather isn't so good we'll have our picnic in the house.

Everyone with an interest in Food issues welcome. Let us know if you plan to attend, just so that we have an idea of numbers.

We'll be planning future activities including Pete's offer of a tour of the Roots and Shoots project at Alnwick Garden.

Happy eating - I'm currently eating rhubarb, spinach, radish and lettuce leaves from the garden and am eagerly awaiting the peas, broad beans and strawberries!

Border Green Festival

On the 4th July Berwick hosts the Border Green Festival which opens at 11o'clock at the Five Arches Playing Field, Tweedmouth. Transition Alnwick would like to make this an opportunity for us all to meet up and have a social gathering. We'll meet at the Transition table in the environment marquee at 12o'clock, or come and see Paul at the Equinox Energy stand or Ellie at the Time and Tide stand. Hope to see you there! For more information see www.bordergreenfestival.net

Date Change for Rob Newman film

The showing of Rob Newman's 'The History Of Oil', which is being shown with Rob's personal blessing and good wishes, will now be on the Thursday the 8th July. The venue will still be St James' Church, Pottergate, Alnwick - doors open at 7.30 with refreshments available. The film will be free, but we'd appreciate donations. After the film there will be discussion followed by an invitation to join us at the Market Tavern for a refreshing drink or two.

It's Official!

We've finally managed to get ourselves onto the official website of Transition thanks to some changes to the site to make it easier to update. We now have official 'Muller' status (as in we're mulling it over), but actually we're a lot further on than that and we're close to becoming an official Transition Town. If you'd like to help us get there, or just become involved in Transition Alnwick then send us a message via here or on Facebook or call Rachael. We've also got our next Film Screening of Rob Newman's 'The History Of Oil' on the 9th July, 7.30pm at St James' Church Hall, Pottergate, Alnwick.

Wild food walk and boiler

We all had a fab time this evening on a guided wild food hunt at Lee Moor Farm (thanks to Ian for the loan of the farm and Anna for the guiding.) Anna gave us a short introduction and a cautionary tale about foraging for wild food - there are plants that look very similar to ones that are beneficial that can harm people, so there is a real need to be careful. If you are as knowledgeable as Anna, though, this is no problem and she shared her vast knowledge with us and even cooked some of it afterwards! We were all able to try some nettle soup made from ingredients entirely sourced in Northumberland - the nettles were picked during the walk.

While Anna cooked, the rest of us took a look at Ian's biomass boiler which heats both domestic and commercial property at Lee Moor. The wood for the fuel is also grown at the farm. Ian gave us a fascinating insight into the pros and cons of what is actually a very simple technology in it's basic form, vastly improved with the boiler at Lee Moor. Ian is in the process of tooling up for a factory to manufacture biomass boilers in the North East, so if you're in the market for one you know where to go!

10:10:10 DIY Day of Action

The 10:10:10 campaign are having a DIY day - the idea is that we have been let down by the politicians at Copenhagan and we show that we are going to take action with or without them.

To that end, Transition Alnwick are planning to join in and do some climate change reduction work of our own. We are completely open to ideas - we could plant some trees, install some solar panels, insulate some lofts - we could do all these things! We'd love to hear ideas, especially if someone has some expertise in an area which could be used.

We're hoping to do something great, so watch this space!

The Plinth!

Paul, Rachael and Imogen were on the Alnwick plinth yesterday (1st May) to talk about Transition Alnwick. We lured people over with the promise of free scones made with local ingredients (which I'd bought from Grannies the day before) to illustrate what we were all about. The scones enabled us to talk about food (obviously), waste, transport, energy and learning and tasted pretty good too (even though I say so myself). They were also a good ice-breaker for the few people who came over after we'd finished and took leaflets from us. A big thank-you to the organisers who are also putting up pictures here: www.alnwickmarkets.co.uk
Imogen did a great job of helping me make a board with the packet labels on and held it during the talk so people could see where the ingredients and electricity had come from.

Learning Sub Group

Transition Alnwick is setting up another group based around learning.

This will look at learning in it's widest sense as learning of all different kinds will be crucial in making positive changes in ourselves and our communities to meet the coming challenges we face. We may need to learn new skills, relearn old ones, share ideas and explore different ways of relating to each other and the world around us.

Some of the ideas already on the table are the green skills course, a longer term practical project, making links with schools and different ways of running meetings.

The first meeting of this group will take place on Wednesday 28th April from 7pm - 9pm at the Dunstanburgh Castle Hotel in Embleton. We hope you can come along. You don't need any specialised knowledge just ideas and enthusiasm.

If you would like to contact us and express an interest or you feel there is something relevant we should know then we would love to hear from you. Contact Ellie on 01665 576237 or email transitionalnwick@googlegroups.com

On Wednesday the 14th April the Transition Alnwick Food Group met for the first time. After a last minute change of location 13 enthusiastic people got together to discuss various food related issues.

Rachael welcomed everyone to the meeting and a few rules were accepted by everyone, namely that the chair will be changed for each meeting and that meetings would generally have no agenda. In addition, open discussion was to be allowed and encouraged.

Everyone then had a chance to introduce themselves and tell the group what their food-related interests were. There were a lot of common interests - not surprisingly everyone enjoyed eating food! Also, there were concerns about where our food came from, how far it had come, whether it was organic. More widely there was much discussion about the availability of land both for growing and for leisure. Biofuels were also discussed along with a large number of other concerns.

After the offer of another cup of tea/ glass of wine ideas started flowing which ranged from having a food stall at Alnwick Food Festival to educating both the group and a wider audience on growing, preserving and cooking food and a lot of other ideas in between.

Rather excitingly Anna Corbett has offered to guide a food scavenging walk for the next meeting on the 12th may at 1800. Ian Brown has generously offered to let us all roam across Lee Moor Farm (guided by Anna) in our quest to find wild food.

Potato Day Event

Borders Organic Gardeners’ annual Potato Day, Kelso Showground on Sunday 7th March
11am – 3.30pm - £1

Annual Seed Potato Sale and Green Fair

"Tattie" refreshments and children's activities and talks by Alan Romans and John Marshall.

BOG's annual seed potato extravaganza and a selection of stalls selling crafts, food and gardening goodies. BOG will have their stand selling books and offering advice on organic gardening.

The Border Union Showground, Springwood Park, Kelso

Tel: 01289 388501 for more information.
http://www.bordersorganicgardeners.org.uk/potato+day+2010

'In Transition' film screening - Friday 5th March

We are very excited about our screening of 'In Transition' - the film made to highlight what transition groups all over the UK and further afield are doing at grass roots level.

Invites are currently being emailed to local people who have community roles or who represent organisations - we want to make sure they know about it. If you think of someone who should attend - please invite them! Having said that, the film screening is open to everyone - so tell anyone you think may be interested.

After the film there will be opportunities for discussion before moving to the 'Market Tavern' pub where we have a room booked and sandwiches provided! The film will be screened at St James Church Centre, Pottergate, Alnwick at 7.30pm on Friday 5th March 2010.

Alan Beith MP is attending to find out more - we hope you will too!

Directions for St James - http://st-james-pottergate.notlong.com/[St James is on the right hand side of the road, despite what this map tells you]
Parking is available on a left turn from Pottergate, on the way up to St James or in Morrison's car park.

Knitting at Alnwick Library

Alnwick Library is branching out. A new knitting group is meeting there every Tuesday at 11am. Whether you are an experienced knitter or starting out, take your wool and needles along and swap ideas, swap patterns, learn some new techniques or just meeting some kindred spirits.



For more information, contact the Library on 01665 602689

March 5th In transtion Film Event

We are excited to hold another film evening on March 5th at 7.30 at St James Church Hall in Alnwick to show a new film called "In Transition". This film is an inspiring and welcome departure from the usual doom and gloom that can be conected with the environmental movement. It shows what ordinary people all over the world are doing through the Transition Movement to make changes both big and small in their communities for a more sustainable and satisfying future.

The evening will start with the film and then everybody will get a chance to discuss particular elements they are interested in such as energy, food, education etc in small groups. We are hoping this will allow us to translate the "feel good" factor of watching other people take action into action we can take.

We hope to carry on the discussions after 10pm in a more informal environment (the pub)

This event is free and all are welcome. Refreshments will be available.

New Energy Sub Group

Happy New Year From Transition Alnwick!

We are very excited by the interest shown around energy when we put the call out for people to get involved with interest groups. We were due to have our first meeting on Wed 6th January. Unfortunately we have had to postpone this meeting due to Barbara breaking her arm (speedy recovery Barbara) and the bad weather. We will set anther date for this meeting asap. There was also a lot of interest around food and education so watch this space for further developments.