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.