Norwich Earth Hour 2009

Last weekend members of the group went along to The Forum to be part of Norwich’s annual Earth hour event. GC collaborated with the ncrt, Norwich Circus, the University of East Anglia Circus Society and our local Capoeira group and organised a fantastic display of capoeira, fire skills displays and music. The event was a great success, despite the rain, and we rounded off the evening with a carbon neutral pint in the Playhouse. And the event got some press.

An equinox picnic

What better way to welcome the start of spring than two dust off the blankets, bring out the cake and have a picnic. We decided to do just that, and invited people to join us in the heath garden to celebrate the new season and share our aspirations for developing the garden, and the possibilities the Heathgate Garden project.

SNAP meeting

Two of us attended the public SNAP meeting held at the Open Academy last night. This was a forum for residents of North/East Norwich to get in touch with the police and the council. Thanks to GC's oratory skills we won a vote of 'priority' (albeit in a very awkward way) for action towards creating a community garden behind the Heathgate Estate, near the Ranger's House. I was surprised this won over action to be taken against local cases of drug dealing, anti-social behaviour and blatant prostitution - it was a very emotive meeting and I really feel for those people that have such terror to put up with in their neighbourhoods.

However, we don't quite know what this 'victory' means, but there is a lot to do: initially litter picking (avoiding hypodermic syringes!) and we want to get together a workforce to get some gardening done. The aim is to improve the feeling among residents and I believe the positivity of the idea made it stand out over things that the police should be dealing with anyway.

More willow bending

Got a bit more willow weaving done last Sunday despite the freezing cold and rain! We had other visitors, young and old. Our dome is looking good now and the garden's had a bit of a makeover, but there's still lots to do, so the more the merrier. Going back this Sunday arvo (15th March) --->

Willow Bender

Sunday afternoon, 1st March 2009

We have been busy constructing a Willow Bender at the Ranger's House at the top of Mousehold Heath, which is a short walk from central Norwich and close to the Heathgate Estate. Lots of people turned up to learn how to make the dome structure and participate in what was a really fun and satisfying activity. This is going to be just one of a range of garden related 'sustainable living' projects that our division of the Transition Norwich group is planning for this year. Our events are open to the public and we certainly got a good number of folk involved Sunday through word of mouth. The littl'ns looked like they were having a wholesome educating childhood experience. Thanks go to Paul Scrouton for use of the Ranger's House garden.

Here it is...

I have set this blog page up as a bulletin board and a place for comments and general communication between any Transition Norwich subgroups or anyone who wishes to participate in the Transition Norwich movement.

At the last social meeting at The Shed pub last Sunday at 2:00pm, 4 of us from different backgrounds got together and shared ideas for getting Norwich moving in the right direction towards lessening the dependence on oil. Next meeting same time, same day, same place.