As many of you will know, this July between the 7th and the 9th the G8; representatives from the world’s eight most powerful industrialized (primarily Western) nation-states; will meet near Lake Toya in Hokkaido, Japan, do discuss how best to continue robbing our earth, scorching our skies and ravaging human communities and eco-systems alike in the name of their own profit and power.

For those of us unable or unwilling to travel to Japan to mobilize against the G8’s policies, there are plenty of opportunities to oppose those policies and their effects WHEREVER YOU ARE.

In Bristol, the potential must be great. There are many ways that the anti-capitalist sentiment of the anti-G8 movement worldwide ties in with local campaigns and issues; the displacement and detention of peoples affected by the G8’s system worldwide, the damage caused to the environment and climate by the insane rolling forward of consumption and ‘progress’ at all costs, the gentrification and lack of public space prevelant in cities across the board following the G8 doctrine of a class war against the poor, the military-industrial structure that is required through endless wars and oppression to maintain the illusion of safety, the surveillance culture and crackdown on civil liberties that rolls around every time that illusion wears thin… the list could continue indefinably, but I’m sure that YOU have an idea of what most angers you about the way things are today anyway,

Do people feel the need for a meeting to discuss the possibility of an event around the time of the summit?
Or would people feel more comfortable organizing within the groups they already know and work with?

More information on the G8 in Japan can be found here - http://linux7. sanpal.co. jp/no-g8/ ?q=node/43

All welcome at Windmill Hill City Farm, next Sunday the 11th May to raise funds for the
gardens.

A couple of stalls and free kids activities during the afternoon then
ticket holders only from 4 onwards.

Tickets are £5. There are two live bands, food (incl. in price of ticket)
by Café Miatreya, and a bar.

Please join us in celebrating growing food!

Tickets can be bought in advance or on the day

Becky Thoburn

Windmill Hill City Farm Gardener

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:

11am - 11.15am : Big Welcome from Eastside Roots including who are we, and what will we being doing.
11.15 - 11.45       : Easton Community Choir - singing African, Gospel & Pop tunes to get you smiling & in a fayre mood.
11.45 - 12.15       : Transition Easton - ‘Unleashing the collective genius of the community’ - helping us prepare for Peak Oil & Global                               Warming.
12.15 - 1.00         : The legendary Mike Feingold brings you ‘Introduction to Permaculture’ - always a treat!
1.00 - 1.45pm      : Live Music from local folk hereos ‘The Dearlings’ - gentle sounds whilst you enjoy hot soup & homemade cake.
1.45 - 2.15           : local expert Fred Miller tells you everything you have ever wanted to know (and a bit more) about Wormeries
2.15 - 2.45           : Singer songwriter David Green plays for your pleasure
2.45 - 3.45           : Mike Baker from ‘Living Easton’ gives us a fascinating talk about the History of Easton with a chance for questions.
3.45 - 4.15           : Jethro enchants us with a story with a magical garden theme.
4.15 - 5.00           : Jetfly with full band to bring us contemporary folk songs from Jethro’s extensive collection
5.00 - 5.15           : Insect Orchestra (see below)
5.15 - 6.00           : Very special musical treat (if things go to plan) plus a Tall Tale to enchant you before you leave.

Children’s Tent:

12.00 - 12.45pm  : Seed bombs - take them home with you or explode them on site!
1.00 - 1.45           : Make a groovy wallet or purse out of a Tetra pack - how? - you’ll see.
1.45 - 2.00           : Hula Hoop workshop - do the twist!
2.00 - 3.00           : Make homes for beneficial insects for your garden or for the Community Garden Centre.
3.00 - 4.00           : Make your own sugar free sweets - taste great, dont make you hyper!
4.00 - 5.00           : Be part of Easton’s first ever Insect Orchestra! Then perform in the main tent!!

Plus: Egg & spoon race - legs plus final throughout the afternoon - prizes for leg winners & The Champion!
Plus: Flower/human crossbreeds on stilts

Market Area:

Arts & crafts (ethical / local / fair traded / hand crafted gifts for you & your friends) and community groups

Painted Container:

Freya from Psych in the City brings you Shamanic Tarot card reading.

Competition Corner:

Pay a pound and receive either sunflower seeds, chili seeds or squash/pumpkin seeds (all organic and selected for their large growth potential), top quality compost & a plant pot. Whoever grows the tallest sunflower or longest chili by our August Summer Fayre will win an organic hamper! Whoever grows the heaviest pumpkin by our October Halloween BBQ bonanza wins…..you guessed it…..an organic hamper. You also win the admiration of your community of course. We may also throw in a meal for two at a local restaurant if I can butter them up.

Food:

Delicious homemade soups & cakes. Fresh organic fruit. Sandwiches & pasties. And much more.

So tell all your friends, put everything else on hold & celebrate the start of Spring & the beginning of a vibrant, green, social community space!
And finally - do you have a megaphone…… & can we borrow it on Saturday - OR do you know where would sell one - call me on 07810 806 354

A chance to hear nationally and internationally acclaimed speakers,
plus workshop time to meet local people who have visited Palestine.
This conference is unique in the UK - Not to be missed!

SATURDAY 26th APRIL
BRISTOL NAKBA-60 CONFERENCE
10.30am til 5.00pm at Malcolm X Centre, City Road, St Pauls, Bristol.
Headline speakers include:
Maha Rahwanji, member of Palestine Solidarity Campaign Executive Committee,
whose family were driven out of Haifa in 1948.
Kerry McCarthy, MP for Bristol East and member of the All-Party
Britain-Palestine Group.
Ilan Pappe, Professor of History at Exeter University and internationally
acclaimed academic on the Nakba.
The conference will include stalls & exhibitions, together with eight
workshops to build genuine networking and practical empowerment.
Middle Eastern lunch and refreshments available for purchase.
Entrance to the conference is free/donations.

Followed in the evening by:

SOCIAL FOR PALESTINE
8.00 til midnight.
Also at the Malcolm X Centre.
With Middle Eastern meal, bands, cabaret, oriental dancers, DJ, and bar.
Tickets 6 (3 concessions) on the door or in advance from Booty, 82
Colston Street, Bristol.

Fliers, program, and travel instruction available by email from Bristol.Nakba60@yahoo.co.uk

There was a great article in yesterday’s Independent Extra section called The Front Garden Farmers and yes, GROFUN got another few column inches! and also please check out this empowering story about a village in Hampshire called Martin who are collectively growing and rearing as much of their food as possible and making a profit, operating as a cooperative. The idea is to wean people off the supermarket and we at GROFUN salute them!

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. They wanted us to help them build a transferable garden and the ceramic planters will be perfect if the couple have to leave before the crops are ready, cos they can bring them along. Containers to accommodate plants and soil can be anything from toilets to tyres and wellies to tea pots, bags and buckets work too black boxes like those used for recyclables that so often get used as rubbish bins on the dirty streets of Bristol are deep and ready drilled for drainage, but remember they are the property of the council, so they may ask for them back. Anyone can grow anywhere!

And as for time…how much time do you think you spend, driving or cycling to the shops, parking up, finding what you want, battling with all the other stressed shoppers, queing up, getting home, unpacking and then cooking? Once the initial preperation is done (with the willing help of your local GROFUN team?)- you need barely 20 mins a day to tend a small veggi-bed in your back garden. Once your neighbour catches wind of your small scale agricultural endeavour they’ll want a piece of the action no doubt and next season you’ll be swapping your ‘gluts’ over the back fence, sharing growing tips like pros and I’ll bet, wondering why you didnt sow some seeds much sooner!

Even if its just an old saucepan with a basil plant in it, or a grow bag of toms - dont be shy! I guarantee you wont regret it or you’re ‘dunny’ back!

If you’d like to know more about how GROFUN works please contact me at grofun@yahoo.ca

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: indignation at the impending grip that
corporate expansion has on our cities - from diminishing social housing and
rising rents to the homogenisation of the high street with corporate chains
and the segregation of cities along the lines of wealth and power.

Here in Bristol we will be taking a space and breathing life back into it
for a weekend as momentary rupture with march of high speed commercial
existence - we will show films, parade through the streets, open space for
art, workshops, cabaret, poetry & performance, serve food listen to music
and live a little. Whether your a lock breaking specialist, poet or painter
and would like to get in involved or if you just want to come have a look at
what can be done with love and shoestring please come along!

For more info call: 07528 953 230 / 07591 631 230

FRIDAY 11th
- daytime: Come help create the space
- evening: Film night from 7pm

SATURDAY 12th
- Carnival Parade starting from Albany Green St. Pauls at 11am.
- Art Exhibition open all day
- Cabaret/Open mic, live music

Where? 1:30pm in Easton Community Centre - to learn some simple uplifting songs, then we’ll join the procession as it passes about 2:45pm

Come and join your voice to the chorus – let’s make a chorus! - it’s good for your body & soul – bring songs to share or just come and make a noise – it’s a living tradition, let’s keep it alive.

Wear: any combination of purple, pink, blue (but especially purple)

If you get stuck … shout for help. Or call John 07877 999764.

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. It shows some of the
solutions currently being put forward, both for existing neighbourhoods and
newly created ones. These include innovative housing forms that accommodate
more people within the same Œfootprint¹ alongside proposals for sustainable
urban extensions and Œeco-towns¹.
Whether or not you are a suburban-dweller it¹s likely that you will be
affected by these issues. Come and join in the debate about what kind of
neighbourhoods we want for the twenty-first century and beyond.

TOMORROW’S GARDEN CITY
A sustainable approach to modern living
Exhibition: Main Gallery
18 March ­ 8 June, 2008
Letchworth, the world¹s first Garden City, was designed in the early
twentieth century as a community that would combine the positive elements of
both town and country living.
Reflecting this pioneering spirit, an international design competition was
launched in 2007 to design a prototype sustainable housing module to be
incorporated in a future Letchworth development. Prize-winning designs by
Stride Treglown, for an eco-friendly module house, are displayed alongside
other shortlisted entries.

TRANSITION CITY: PREPARING FOR PEAK OIL
Exhibition: Tuesday 29 April - Sunday 8 June, 2008
In towns, villages and cities across the UK, grassroots movements are
addressing the challenges of peak oil and climate change in creative ways.
In seeking greater self-reliance in fuel, food and housing could these
Transition Initiatives lead to the rebirth of local communities? To coincide
with the publication of The Transition Handbook by Transition pioneer Rob
Hopkins, this exhibition highlights some of the ways communities can Œact
local¹ to bring about change in their neighbourhoods and beyond.

AN ECO-VILLAGE ON OUR DOORSTEP
Building the future at Hanham Hall
Talk: Thursday 3 April - 18.30 - £5 (£3 concessions)

IS THE GREEN BELT SACRED?
Talk/debate: Thursday 24 April - 18.30 - £3 (£2 concessions)

SUSTAINABLE SUBURBIA
Density and the suburban dream
Talk: Thursday 1 May - 18.30 - £5 (£3 concessions)

RADIANT CITY
A Documentary About Urban Sprawl
Film screening: Monday 12 May - 20.30 - £5 (£4 concessions)
Venue: The Cube Cinema, Dove Street South

ffi: www.architecturecen tre.co.uk

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

Following Transition Easton’s very postive launch event in February,
we will be holding monthly network meetings on the fourth Tuesday of
each month. Coming up we have:
Tuesday 25th March we have a gardening theme with talks by people
involved in local community gardening projects.
Tuesday 22nd April we will have a food theme featuring guest speaker
Paul Mobbs, author of ‘Energy Beyond Oil’ and former director of
Friends of the Earth.

Also, here are details of the March/April Transition Easton film
season. Films will be followed by a discussion.

Monday 31st March  ‘The Power of Community’ Cuba’s inspiring response
to their taste of the effects of ‘peak oil’.

Monday 7th April ‘A Crude Awakening’ New award winning documentary on
Peak Oil often mentioned in the national media.

Monday 14th April ‘Crude Impact’ Exploration of Peak Oil and the
devastating impacts of the oil industry around the world.

Monday 21st April ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ Al Gores award winning film
on the science and effects of climate change. Plus guest speaker Paul
Mobbs, author of ‘Energy Beyond Oil’ and former director of Friends of
the Earth.

Monday 28th April.
Short films ‘Carbon Weevils’ and ‘The Story of Stuff’ followed by
Rob Newman’s ‘History of Oil’ cabaret style exploration of the
inextricable link between oil and every aspect of our lives and politics.

All events will be held 7pm at Baggator Youth Centre, The Pickle
Factory, All Hallows Road, Easton, BS5 0HH.

For further info email transitioneaston@yahoo.co.uk

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.

Have you ever dreamed of growing your own food and rearing your own animals but never thought you had the skills or space to get started?

Are you fed up with relying on shops and supermarkets for your every need?”

Then….why not join in with the GROFUN scheme OR contact KEO Films-the makers of River Cottage.

They want families with no experience of this sort of thing who are ready to commit to an experiment in self-sufficiency.

To find out more about this life-changing challenge please e mail rivercottage@keofilms.com or call 0845 8672694 and leave a message or phone 07811 443961 and ask to speak to Vanessa or Charlotte.

(I’m thinking of proposing that they come make a programme about GROFUN instead-it would be much better, tension, sweat, tears, compost, drama, slugs and laughter!!!!)

In other news-I have been interviewed by, not one, but two major broadsheets in as many days!!!! Yep, The Independent and The Telegraph have both been sniffing about the GROFUN headquarters (my bedroom) !!!

Look out for something in The Independent a week today or the following Thurs!

How exciting this all is………but its nothing without you-so join up to the scheme if youre at all interested and book in your Action Days asap and lets get things rolling!

Anyone interested in GROFUN is invited along to another informal meeting at The Albany, Shaftesbury Avenue, Montpelier, Wed the 19th, 6.30 for 7 where I’ll also be screening the film. There’s no obligation to sign-up its just a chance to find out more…….

Gro-well.

Abbey Home Farm are hosting ‘The Knitty Gritty - Knitting for Beginners’ Masterclass on Sat 29th March. See link for details:
http://www.soilassociation.org/web/SA/saweb.nsf/a4742d5445d8339e80256a6a0042e018/8c5187d7262c22b8802573b1002f5e71!OpenDocument

Time: 10.00am-4.30pm
Cost: £50.00 (inclusive of lunch and refreshments) or FREE* to those who join the Soil Association (see HOW TO BOOK on website). *A £5 surcharge is required for materials.

There are plenty of places left, so please whizz this round to anyone you think may be interested.

The hearts of many have already been exposed to “inner peace”. It is possible that people everywhere could come down with it in epidemic proportions! It might also pose a serious threat to what, up until now, has been a fairly stable condition of conflict in the world.

Some signs and symptoms of inner peace:

* A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past experiences.

* An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.

* A loss of interest in judging other people.

* A loss of interest in judging self.

* A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.

* A loss of interest in conflict!

* A loss of the ability to worry. (This is a very serious symptom.)

* Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation.

* Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature.

* Frequent attacks of smiling.

* An increasing tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.

* An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it.

WARNING: If you have some or all of the above symptoms, please be advised that your condition of “inner peace” may be so far advanced as to not be curable. If you are exposed to anyone exhibiting any of these symptoms, remain exposed at your own risk.