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1. Introduction * 2. Edible Edges * 3. The Art of Retrofitting * 4. Starhawk : Sacred Activism * 5. Summer Edible Garden Crawl * 6. Growing a Transition Business * 7. Rickshaws: A Very Green Ride * 8. Totnes Pound Update * 9. Energy Descent Pathways project * 10. The New September - December 08 Programme * 11. Non-TT Events * 12. Help Wanted *

1. Introduction

The current TTT programme of events drew to a close with the very well-attended and rather wonderful Edible Garden Crawl, where over 40 people visited a series of tucked away food gardens, each inspiring and educational in its own right. The sun shone, cake and tea were imbibed, and we all got to see inspiring ideas for maximising production in small spaces, some innovative composting systems, some amazing examples of the reclaiming of overgrown areas as part of the TTT Garden Share scheme, as well as the wonderful new allotments at the bottom of Castle Meadow (do write and tell the Town Council how wonderful you think they are...)

The night before, Totnes was visited by Starhawk, an author and activist known to many in the town. Her talk at the Methodist Church was a fascinating insight into the work she has done, and what she calls 'Sacred Activism'. The following day I did an interview with her, which you can read below. Many people said how much they enjoyed the guided visualisation she did at the end of her talk, you can find a write-up of this as well in the article below.

We were very disappointed on Tuesday to hear that TTT hadn't made it into the last 10 of the Big Green Challenge. BGC is run by NESTA, and TTT had made it through from nearly 400 applicants to the last 20. Fiona and I (Rob) travelled to London to pitch TTT's proposal to the judges, and left feeling we had given a good account of ourselves. We were therefore very disappointed to hear that we failed to get through. It would have been a significant boost in terms of profile and finances had we made it, so it is very disappointing. Our proposal for 'Transition Teams', to be launched in September, would have benefitted from BGC's support, however we do already have some funding in place for it, and it will be a wonderful initiative when it springs forth in September.

On the 21st of May TTT hosted an Open Community Meeting. We asked how people feel it is working, what they would like to say to TTT, what has helped or hindered their involvement, & what would they like to see happen next in the process. The feedback received from the community has been invaluable. The full report has been posted on the website. Read more...

We are delighted in this newsletter to unveil our programme of events from September to December. We are thrilled with it, as it contains a diversity of events which will take TTT to a new level. This includes a talk by Albert Bates, who 13 years ago, gave the most inspiring talk I have ever seen, about the history of the Farm Eco-Village. He brings to Totnes over 30 years of innovation and creative engagement, as well as the longest beard yet to feature at a TTT event. Not to be missed.

Many of you have also seen the film 'the Power of Community', about how Cuba survived its own version of peak oil. On September 18th we welcome Roberto Perez, permaculture designer and star of that film to Totnes. His talk will be accompanied by Cuban music. We are mindful though that coming from Cuba to be met by Cuban music might be a bit like someone from Totnes giving a talk in Cuba and being met by men in bowler hats, bowls of fudge and morris dancers, but hopefully all will be well. He tells an extraordinary story.

The new programme also features what promises to be a wonderful Transition Tales event with the Wondermentalist folks, the premiere of the film we made with Year 7 students at KEVICC gathering their stories from Totnes in 2030, and the return to Totnes of energy expert Jeremy Leggett, who will be speaking alongside nuclear expert Rebecca Ferris, in an energy debate the likes of which you will not have seen before, more conversation than debate.

We are delighted that the TTT Solar Buyers Club is up and running, we are told that the first solar powered shower taken with water from panels installed on the scheme was very pleasant indeed. You might also like to get along and say hello to the TTT stall at the Totnes Show on Thursday 31st July, they'll be flying the Transition flag (not literally). So, as TTT takes a break for the next few weeks, to restore its energy levels for September, we would like to than everyone who has contributed, helped out, driven forward groups and projects, come to events, and generally got involved. Have a wonderful summer, and we'll see you in September for Season 3 of the TTT story.

2. Edible Edges: a walk around Totnes with Patrick Whitefield

‘Edible Edges’ was a 3 hour walk around Totnes on Saturday 28th June which looked at the food growing potential of our urban corners and unloved spaces, attended by over 20 participants. The walk was in the company of Patrick Whitefield, one of the UK’s leading permaculture teachers and writers, and author of, among other things, the seminal Earth Care Manual. The day raised a number of important questions about the practicalities of growing food in urban areas, the possibilities and the challenges.

The walk began in Heath’s Nursery carpark, in the centre of the town, with a talk by David Heath, son of George Heath who had previously run a market garden on the site (the story of Heath’s nursery is told in detail in The Transition Handbook. David wove a compelling picture of a vibrant garden, the bustling shop it supplied, as well as the hard work it took to run the garden. Read more...

3. The Art of Retrofitting - an energy efficient walk around Totnes

Most of us live in houses built before there was any awareness of energy efficiency, and consequently most of us live in houses that are insufficiently insulated, excessively draughty, poorly oriented and costly to heat. While we may dream of strawbale passive houses, the reality is that most of us will spend the rest of our lives in these houses. As we plunge headlong into a world of soaring energy prices (the average family expected to spend £1000 on gas by the end of the year - click here for link about this - we can no longer afford to, in effect, heat the skies above our homes. So what to do? On Saturday 5th July, TTT held an event that visited 3 very different houses in Totnes to look at the challenges particular to them.
The event was led by Rob Scott McLeod, former resident of Totnes, who now works for the Building Research Establishment in Wales, pushing the concept of passivhaus construction. His knowledge about low energy buildings is quite awesome, and he proved the perfect guide for the day. What follows is taken from the notes I made on the day. They are not intended to be comprehensive, but I hope they offer a sense of the challenges and possible solutions for 3 very different buildings.
The first house belonged to James and Lou Brown, an early 1980s compact semi in Follaton. Read more...

4. Starhawk's Transition Visualisation & an Interview with Starhawk: Sacred activism, collapse, and the role of permaculture...

Transition Visualisation with Starhawk

Last Saturday we had earth-activist Starhawk in Totnes giving a talk as part of Transition Town Totnes' programme of talks. Her talk was excellent, very inspiring (and she kept it all together even when one woman in the audience collapsed and had to be taken off in an ambulance), and at the end she did a guided visualisation thing which seemed was a very useful tool for helping people to start visualising a powered-down future. You might like to try it out with your Transition group if it feels useful…the term ‘visualisation’ can press some peoples’ woo-woo buttons… I tend to call it ‘an imagination exercise’, or somesuch…. anyway, it went something like this. Read more...

Interview with Starhawk by Rob Hopkins

The day after Starhawk’s talk in Totnes, she visited my house so that we could do a short interview. It was a gloriously sunny day, and after we had concluded the interview, I gave her a tour of my garden (well, my raised beds at least). The interview ranged across Transition work, managing grief, activism, permaculture and much more…

5. Totnes Summer Edible Garden Crawl

Last Sunday a big crowd of around 40 (!)gathered at the station ready to go on the Totnes Edible Garden Crawl. It was the first event of its kind in Totnes, and seemed to go down really well, with visits to 5 beautiful productive local gardens. It was a great community event, with people wandering en masse from garden to garden, milling about in the sunshine, asking questions, sharing tips & information, and learning from some of the ingenous ideas and thoughtful designs on view. It was a chance to meet other keen growers or garden-lovers and forge new links, as well as an inspiring peek into other people's gardening adventures. People also got to see the great work that some of the Garden Share growers have done, transforming other people's unused turf and wildernesses into abundant vegetable & flower gardens. Thank you so much to all who came, to the Allotments Association for letting us see their incredible work on the recently dug Castle Meadow allotments, and most of all to all the kind growers whose gardens we visited, who welcomed us with cakes & refreshments and opened their homes to us.

6. Growing a Transition Business (including making money for TTT projects)

We had a total of 15 people at this workshop, and we spent a very enjoyable 3 hours coming up with ideas for how some TTT projects could start to generate income that will keep them sustainable, rather than rely solely on external funding or the goodwill and free time of volunteers. This is moving from 'asking' to 'earning'. It was great to see that this was more of a Transition Network event that a TTT event as we also had people from Transition Torbay, PL21 (Transition Ivybridge), Transition Dorchester and a potential Transition Fareham.

Our aim, across TTT, is to get to a model where we generate at least half of our own income (the rest provided by external funding). This workshop was the first step towards this goal. Click here to read more...

7. Rickshaws: A Very Green Ride

Sustainable transport has arrived in Totnes!

Totnes residents and visitors will shortly have the opportunity to avoid the uphill walk from the River Dart through Fore Street into High Street by taking a ride in what must be one of the most eco friendly vehicles in Britain today.

Two Indian rickshaws have been imported. Their engines have been converted in the UK to run on bio fuel produced from the recycling of locally collected cooking oil. They made their debut appearance in Autumn 2007 at a ‘launch’ held at Schumacher College on Dartington Hall Estate.

This Spring, the rickshaw has become a more familiar sight around town as drivers are undertaking a familiarisation course, (no fare paying passengers yet though). Once the appropriate licenses are obtained the rickshaws will operate a regular service from the River Dart at Steamer Quay to the Rotherfold (a public space at the top end of High Street).

Visitors will then be able to enjoy a leisurely downhill stroll through Totnes’ High Street and Fore Street. As they take their pick of food from local restaurants and takeaways they will know that they are helping to fuel future rickshaw rides! Read more...

8. Totnes Pound Update

There seems to be a strong surge in usage of the Totnes Pound. One trader has reported that having seen relatively few Pounds in the early months of this year, quite suddenly about three hundred passed through his till. Perhaps this is a result of the considerable publicity that the project has recently received. Our May bulletin listed just some of the media exposure of the Pound and TTTT over the last while. A media expert has told us that this free publicity is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. And although it is probably hard to quantify the exact benefit to any single business, it is certain that this publicity will generate interest and income for the whole community. Click here for more...

9. Energy Descent Pathways project

TTT’s Energy Descent Pathways project has begun. Over the next 12 months, this project will develop an Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP) for Totnes which explores the different likely routes or pathways we can take as we reduce our use and dependence on fossil fuels and prepare for the effects of climate change from 2009 - 2030.

For Totnes this means we will create an Energy Descent Action Plan to assist Totnes in finding pathways for reducing the current 9 barrels of oil per person per annum (current UK average) use down to just 1 barrel (or less) per person by 2030. To realize this change we have to make dramatic energy reductions in our own lives and find ways of working closely together as a local community.

The EDAP will provide a framework which weaves together the different localization themes of food production, economics, travel, home heating, resource use, building, biodiversity, education, citizenship and so on, set within a resilient community set against a timeline of dwindling oil supplies and climate change. Views and feedback will be solicited from all sectors of the community during the project. Read more...

10. The New September- December 2008 Programme is nearly here!

The programme will be out in August. But in the meantime, here is a preview of the events that are coming up...

Monday 8th September. The Ariel Centre 7-10pm. £4 (£3 /Year 7 students free).
In association with the Totnes Festival
The Turning of the Tide: an evening of inspired storytelling.
With tasters of the Transition Tales films of 2030 from Keviccs students.

Friday 12th September. Methodist Church. 8pm £4 (£3 conc.)
Anything is Possible: Inspiring stories from a founder of the Eco-village movement.
A talk by Albert Bates of the Global Eco-village Network & author of the Post Petroleum Survival Guide & Cookbook.

Thursday 18th September. Methodist Church, 8pm. £5 (£4 conc.)
The Power of Community: How Cuba survived Peak Oil
An evening talk by Roberto Peres with Cuban music.

Wednesday 24th September. EDAP event. St Johns Church, Bridgetown, Totnes. 8pm. Free. All welcome.
Public Launch of Energy Descent Action Pathways Project for Totnes: Imagining Totnes in 2030. Cheese & wine available.

Date, venue & price t.b.c. Watch this space!
Seedy Sisters Autumn’s Glorious Glut Gig. Seed saving workshops, produce swap & sale, refreshments & talks.

Thursday 9th October. Bogan House. 7:30-9:30pm. £2 (£1 conc.).
A Question of Belonging: ‘Where do you belong? Who does Totnes belong to?’
A Fishbowl discussion exploring our connection to place.

Saturday 11th October. . The Steiner School, 7.30pm for 8-10pm. £3 (£2 conc.)
In association with The Steiner School
Parallel Community: A platform for change
A talk by author & renowned dowser Hamish Miller.

Wednesday 15th October, Methodist Church. 8pm £3 (£2 conc.)
Natural Building for a Sustainable Future: How to construct healthy, ecological buildings using local & reclaimed materials.
Video diaries & slides from local eco-builders of straw, cob & timber frame homes.

Saturday 29th November Methodist Hall 12-4pm. £5.
Flashback to the Future: A Transition Tales creative writing workshop
With Wondermentalist Collective.
Followed by: Dartmouth Inn. 7-9pm. £5. (£8 for both wkshop + performance!)
Transition Cabaret Evening Performance starring Wondermentalist
With Matt Harvey, Liv, Beryl the Feral & Torc amongst others.

Sat 22nd November .Totnes Civic Hall. 11am-3pm. Donations. All welcome.
Food and Health Open Space Day.
Join us to create a resilient future in food & health for Totnes.

Wednesday 12th November. St Johns Church, Bridgetown. 7:30-10pm. £4 (£3 conc.)
The Great Energy Debate: Be part of the conversation.
With Dr Jeremy Leggett & nuclear engineering consultant Rebecca Ferris.

Wednesday November 19th. Methodist Church. 8pm. £3(£2 conc.)
How to make your house more energy efficient: Local experience with solar thermal, photovoltaic, ground source heat pumps, insulation & the Passivhaus.
A series of short presentations with time for questions & discussion.

Wednesday 3rd December. Methodist Hall 8pm. £4 (£3 conc.)
Co-Housing: How can we make it happen?
A talk by Max Comfort, co-founder of the Springhill Co-housing Project, Stroud.

11. Non-TT Events

There are some fantastic courses and events going on locally over the next few weeks, too many to put them all here, but for the full listing of those that we have been alerted to click here...

12. Help Wanted

TTT stand at the Totnes Agricultural Show July 31st.

Calling cake-makers, buskers, & people to run the stall!

This stand will aim to introduce TTT to some people who have never come across it, and will be focussed around Food and Farming, as it's the theme of the event.
We need as many home made cakes as possible for the world cafe, which will serve tea and cakes, and ask relevant questions about our eating and shopping etc.
Any of you TTT folk able to contribute a cake?

If so please contact Wendy on 868305. We also need someone who can busk or juggle or otherwise draw attention to our tent to perform outside it, at least on and off during the day. Any volunteers for that?

For more info click here...

Hosting Course Participants & Speakers/ Workshop tutors

Would you be happy to host a tutor / speaker, or someone who was down for an evening / weekend to participate in a TTT course? Maybe you don't have the space, but would like the chance to meet interesting and like-minded people by offering a meal to somebody visiting for a TTT workshop or event?

We are trying to compile a list of potential hosts that TTT visitors can stay with or even just have a with Maybe you who have a bike you are happy to loan out to a course-participant, or you want to lift-share to venues / the station. If you have suggestions of anything you would be hapy to offer a TTT visitor we would love to hear from you. It may be great opportunity for getting to know new and interesting people involved in transition and the environmental movement, and showing them some home-spun Totnes hospitality. Contact the office!

Home Group seeks 3 new members

We are a TTT Home Group that has been meeting fortnightly in Totnes for about 1 year. This group is a safe, supportive and confidential space to share the challenges, interests, growing edges and insights of our paths through transition. We meet on Monday evenings from 7.30 to 9.30. We now wish to open the group to 3 new members. For safety and continuity, it is likely to work best for us if new members are looking for a group to attend fairly regularly, rather than one to drop in to occasionally.

If you are interested in joining this group, phone Ailsa on (01803) 849039. Please do contact us in this way even if you know group members personally, as our intention is to take the first people who phone.

To look at all of our previous bulletins please click here. In order to receive this monthly bulletin by email, please register on our website.

Transition Town Totnes, 43 Fore Street, Totnes, Devon, TQ9 5HN.

Tel: 01803 867358 Email: totnes@transitionnetwork.org

Web: www.totnes.transitionnetwork.org