Heritage Open Days - September 10th to 12th.

It's that time again - three houses belonging to Transition Alnwick members will be open to the public. The purpose of this is to show members of the public what can be done to a 'normal' house in order to make it greener.

The three properties are all semi-detached and have had a variety of green initiatives take place within them. These include triple A rated appliances right the way through to Solar PV and solar thermal, using garden space to provide food and additional insulation.

Paul and Clare Mills house 24 The Dunterns, NE66 1AN is open on Thursday the 10^th and Saturday 12^th September.

David Farrar and Rachael Roberts’ house at 50 Swansfield Park Road is open on Friday the 11^th and Saturday the 12^th.

Karen and Martin Swinbank’s house is open on Sunday the 13^th.

All houses are open 10 until 4 and will the householders will be pleased to meet anyone who is interested in green initiatives in the home.

Appreciating Trees

We had a great time during our July Wednesday meeting which was an evening Tree Walk through woods near Alnwick Garden. Anna Corbett was very knowledgeable and pitched the information at just the right level but we also had Gill a herbalist there and others pitched in what they knew so it was a great sharing event. We looked at lots of trees such as Beech, Birch, Elder, Alder, Elm, Hawthorn etc etc and also came across many other interesting plants. We were a bit stumped at the end with a mystery tree but Anna has asked me to report that the tree was in fact a Sweet Chestnut festooned with male flowers.

We talked a lot about the uses of the Elder such as using the flowers for Elderflower champagne, Elderflower cordial and even Elderflower fritters. We had a good time in the pub afterwards and we decided that we would like to do something with Elderberries at our next Wednesday meeting in September (the second Wed of the month). So our plan is to bring our collected berries and Gill will provide the expertise and help us make Elderberry cordial. Of course this assumes the berries will be ripe then and we are optimistic about that. I'll post more information about what equipment we will need to bring on the night and of course you don't need to have been on the tree walk to join in this activity. Just bring some Elderberries if you can and if not come along and learn for the future. IF anybody has any ideas for activities you would be interested in seeing or doing over the winter than please get in touch. Also if you have anything you would like to share or take a lead in then again that would be great and we would welcome that wholeheartedly.

I was excited to see this plant as I have never seen Burdock before!