Bountiful Bristol Bulletin

As I hope you all realise its Eastside Roots first Spring Fayre - this Saturday from 11am (Grand opening featuring Easton Community Choir - come early so as not to miss a great acapella sing song!) to 6pm up at Stapelton Road Train Station site. Below is a list of activities for adults and children alike so please check out so you dont miss anything.

Main Tent: (more…)

People often say that they have no time to grow vegetables and the nature of many people’s lives in so transient that they dont know if they’ll even be in the same house at harvest time.

Truth is that when faced with an uncertain future you dont have to let your garden turn to a wasteland or a jungle. Today a load of sinks, toilets and bidets were being scrapped from a big house in St Pauls, so my friend and I took then round to some ‘Grofunnies’ who have recently heard that their rented flat has gone on the market. (more…)

An International Days of Action for Squats and Autonomous Public Spaces has
been called for on the 11th and 12th of April 2008.
http://april2008.squat.net:8080/. Across Europe diverse groups of enraged
creatives will be reclaiming spaces for art, housing, workshops,
discussions, talks, films, food, swap-shops, music, performances & open mics
to name but the bare essentials.

Whilst their motives are locally specific, these autonomous actions are
drawn together by common threads: (more…)

SUBURBAN FUTURES

Designing sustainable neighbourhoods
Exhibition: Main Gallery
20 March ­ 8 June, 2008
Like them or loathe them, the ‘leafy suburbs’ are where the vast majority of
us live. But challenges such as housing shortage and climate change mean
that the suburbs face potential radical change. Can we respond by creating
neighbourhoods that are low-carbon, healthy and happy places to live?
This thought-provoking exhibition sets out the key issues and asks how we
might make outer urban areas more sustainable. (more…)

A talk by Megan Quinn - film maker of Power of Community - How Cuba survived
Peak Oil.
Tuesday 7.30 pm on Monday 1st April
At Easton Community Centre, Kilburn St, Easton, BS5 9AW.
Megan will cover the basics of peak oil and climate change, but focus on the
potential solutions including curtailment strategies for housing,
transportation and food, and the importance of local community living and
community values in addressing the challenges at hand.
Followed by an open space session.
£3 donation on the door

For those who cant make that date Transition Bristol are screening film The Power of
Community also
At 7pm on Monday 31st March
At The Pickle Factory, All Hallows Rd, Easton

Local Food, a new and exciting grants programme funded by the Big Lottery Fund, will be open for applications from 17 March 2008.The £50 million programme aimed at making locally grown food accessible and affordable to local communities has been developed by a consortium of organisations, and is managed on their behalf by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT). Local Food is the first Award Partner scheme funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme to open its doors for applications, and will look to distribute grants to a variety of food-related community projects across England. Mark Wheddon, Local Food Programme Manager said:

“The Local Food programme provides a fantastic opportunity for a broad section of the public to gain access to local food and is perfectly timed to capitalise on the public’s enthusiasm for locally produced food and the environmental benefits which that brings.

“With such a broad and varied funding programme we would encourage people who are thinking of applying to be as creative as possible. From school farms and community box schemes, to local food education centres and community composting, the list is endless.”

Grants from £2,000 up to £500,000 will be awarded to not-for-profit groups and organisations in England delivering such projects as growing, processing, marketing and distributing local food; composting and raising awareness of the benefits of such activities.

Peter Wanless, Big Lottery Fund Chief Executive, said:

“The Big Lottery Fund is proud to support this scheme, which will help improve access to locally grown food for communities right across England. With such public interest in healthy eating and protecting our environment, there has never been a better time for people to come forward and apply for money to help put their local food projects into action.”

To find out more please call the Changing Spaces Advice Line on 0845 3 671 671 or visit www.localfoodgrants.org.

Dear BBB Readers,

I am proud to report that the short film we made which chronicles the first year of the GROFUN Project is now on the web!

With the help of Kyra, a local film maker/editor and Naomi it is great that I can now point those interested to an engaging and informative film to further promote the benefits of this growing, grass-roots project. My friend Steve produced the music especially for this film.

Thankyou Steve

You can watch the film here and comment or go to and watch and comment there. In terms of promotion of the scheme YouTube probably has bit more clout!

Please feel free to leave constructive comments, but go easy, much of the footage was unuseable due to poor sound or light quality and the final cut is the best it could have been with the raw material we had available. It’s not exactly Palme d’Or stuff, but it’s sort of innocent in tone dont you think?

GROFUN (Growing Real Organic Food in Urban Neighbourhoods) is a grass-roots, community lead inititative where teams of neighbours help one another set up back garden veggie patches and then reap the rewards of a mixed and locally grown ‘veg box’!

It teaches practical skills, address’s the problem of air miles and pollution and builds communites that are closer and more resilient to ever increasing energy shocks and food insecurity! Think about it, there’s only 3 days worth of food stocked in the supermarkets-what do we eat then???

For 2008 we need new recruits with gardens, preferably in the St Pauls, Montpelier and St Werbs area (to keep it local and ’sustainable’) and anyone interested in being involved, any which way, is invited to come along to the Grand Premiere of the GROFUN Movie to be aired at a get-together in the Albany Hall on Shaftesbury Avenue at 6.30pm on March 4th.

Please please tell your friends with gardens, a desire to grow veg and an interest in ‘relocalization’ and community etc to come along.

Furthermore, the current group has a Yahoo group where we stay in touch. It would be a great idea to join this…

We need many hands to make light work of this rewarding and fun project.

Vegetables need people like people need vegetables.

The wonderful and vibrant Trust of Seven Generations, Picton Street, Montpelier has a Book Sale on at the moment and their vegan and veggie lunches are well worth experiencing. The team of mainly volunteers (please get in touch if you have any time to spare them) are starting to host more events in their cafe space this Spring. One of which is a Monday night belly dancing class, just when you thought it was acceptable to let your New Years Resolutions loose down the plughole an oppurtunity for fitness and fun too exotic and too frivolous comes your way and bites you on the tum!

Classes begin on 25th Feb, 7.30-9.15 and Natalie is the girl to ring for details and prices on 07733280250

I would go myself if it didnt clash with my African Dance class which I love!

Shake your booty bountifully Bristol!

At Easton Community Centre, Kilburn Rd, Easton on Tuesday 5^th February 2008 at 7.30 prompt . If you know people who plan to come, please pass this on. Tea and Coffee will be available. Donations will be welcomed to cover hire and refreshments costs, so please bring what you can afford. Volunteers are needed to collect donations, etc. The petition now stands at 3250, well done everyone for publicising this issue. The LibDem leader has received 800 emails on this topic and the Green party website has a large article about it, crediting Bristol Cycling Campaign with making this information public (unlike the first Evening Post article 10 days ago). If you scroll down, you will find a large amount of new information. It will be up on the website shortly www.bristolcyclingcampaign.org.uk. Happy reading!

If you haven’t already done so, tell the council to reject the plan by signing the e-petition at http://epetitions.bristol.gov.uk/petition.php?id=161 In the meantime, to register your interest, contact savethecyclepath@bristolcyclingcampaign.org.uk or savetherailwaypath@yahoogroups.com

“Calling all urban greenspace champions!:
Help us plant the seeds of truly sustainable communities in the South West

Are you someone who recognises the growing importance of greenspace networks in our towns and cities – for health, biodiversity, local food production, low carbon access, recreation and play, sense of place, quality of life…and all round sustainability? Do you have a vision for the ‘garden’ towns and cities of the future? Would you like a stronger voice in debates about the development of the region? Growth plans are set to create lots of new neighbourhoods in urban areas of the South West alongside plans to regenerate many of our existing communities. (more…)

A tree is for life, not just for Christmas!!

Transition Bristol is trying to persuade the good people of Bristol to buy
fruit trees and plant them in their gardens as part of the biggest Fruit
Tree Offer ever! Following on from the project that has run in Easton and
Barton Hill for years we’re hoping to extend the project city wide and get
hundreds of trees planted.

We’re buying in bulk and passing the saving on to you….trees from £7 to
£8.50 The perfect sustainable Christmas present.

Lower food miles, increase biodiversity, and improve the environment all in
one go. Start building food security and local resilience into the city
landscape. And apart from all that… you’ll have fresh, tasty, organic
fruit on your doorstep.

Trees are available to buy online and will be delivered to one of 10
collection points around the city on February 16th. When you pick up your
tree Transition Village groups will show you how to plant and care for it.
All the trees have been selected to be easy to grow, the right size for
small gardens, self fertile and tasty.

Due to the scale of the project we are not able to specify varieties.
However we are sourcing them from a local, decent supplier.

http://www.transitionbristol.org/ Please order early to avoid
disappointment. Last orders at end of January.

For details or enquiries please contact Matt and Rob on
trees@transitionbristol.org

Funding

Community Spaces scheme

Groundwork UK has been awarded £50 million to run a grant scheme on behalf of the BIG Lottery Fund.

The new Community Spaces scheme will empower communities across England to improve public spaces in their local neighbourhoods. Community Spaces will fund a wide variety of local projects to improve green and open space. These may include play areas, community gardens, parks, wildlife areas, ponds, courts and village greens, kick-about areas and pathway improvements.

The community spaces scheme is not yet open to applications. Groundwork UK anticipate that Community spaces will be launched in Spring 2008.

Community Spaces will make grants of between £10,000 and £50,000. In addition they will make a small number of larger grants of up to £450,000

In the meantime, to be kept informed of developments on the scheme please visit their website: www.community-spaces.org.uk

TRANSITION BRISTOL PRESENTS THE BIG EVENT

SUNDAY 25TH NOVEMBER All day 9.30am to 6pm

AT THE COUNCIL HOUSE, COLLEGE GREEN

With chilled music at the Folkhouse after-party 6.30 to 11pm. You are invited to The Big Event - a lively day of talks, workshops, films and discussions designed to inspire and inform local action. Find out how you can get involved with a community led, radical rethink Bristol’s dependency on fossil fuels and planning how we can move towards a resilient, creative, positive future. Keynote speakers include leading experts Richard Heinberg, Jeremy Leggett, David Strahan and Dr Chris Johnstone. There will also be a packed programme of workshops covering topics like sustainable transport, eco-building, alternative energy, community gardening, herbal medicine, local economics, composting, carbon reduction action groups, how to work effectively as a group and much more. Many workshops will be run by local groups who are already initiating positive changes in their community plus experts fom national organizations Sustrans, The Soil Association and Centre for Sustainable Energy and others. Full listing on www.transitioncitybristol.org

Lifecycle UK will be providing Dr Bike to give your bike the once over while you fill your head with positive ideas. If you’ve already changed your light bulbs and turned your heating down a notch and are wondering what to do next The Big Event is a chance to find out how you can get involved with shaping Bristol’s transition from energy dependence to a sustainable, resilient and positive future. You are invited to come, be inspired and learn how to find the confidence to act. Ticket sales online or at The Better Food Company, Fresh and Wild, Windmill Hill City Farm and other outlets.

For details visit www.transitionbristol.org. Cost £14/£8 concessions. Please book in advance. Tickets are limited so early booking is advised. Bristol Permaculture Group are holding a benefit at the Folkhouse from 6.30pm to 11pm. Chill to beautiful music from Slow, The Dearlings, Eirlys Rhiannon and Susannah Waters. Simple affordable food. £5 on the door. Flyer

Contact Sarah Pugh

sarah@transitioncitybristol.org

www.transitionbristol.org

Transition Bristol is a not for profit community led organization working in conjunction with the national Transition Network. The project is run entirely by volunteers. Transition Bristol supports and is accountable to a network of locally active Transition Villages including Easton, Barton Hill and Redfield, Bishopston, Redland and Ashton. We also have close links with Transition projects in Bath, Wrington and Thornbury. Sarah Pugh 0117 370 1362 07765 604571 sarah@transitioncitybristol.org www.transitioncitybristol.org Transition City Bristol The Hub King St Bristol BS1 4DZ

Full Programme of Talks and Workshops here

Sunday 25th November 9:30am to 6pm
The Council House, College Green, BristolAn exciting day of talks, workshops, films and open discussion.

A host of expert speakers will present & discuss ideas, issues and practical solutions for Bristol’s transition towards a sustainable future. (more…)