Tues 3 August Transition Poole Meeting – Purbeck Larder, Bere Farm, Lychett Minster – Food issues have ben prominent in our group, we are meeting at Bere Farm, a newly relaunched Farm Shop, whose owners are keen to engage with Transition locally.

Wed 4 August Bournemouth and Poole Green Drinks. Goat and Tricycle, Bournemouth. Come along and have a few drinks with some like minded people. All are welcome, we are a very friendly and relaxed bunch. You’ll recognize us by the green flag on the table!

Mon 9 August Transition Bournemouth film screening “The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream”. Friends Meeting House, Wharncliff Road, Boscombe. 7.00-9.00. Free entry

For further info contact hello@transitionbh.org or look at the Events calendar

All are invited to this event on Tuesday 24th November. It will be held at the Henry Brown Youth Centre, Cunningham Crescent (BH11 8DU) from 6.30pm until 8pm and there will be refreshments available. The film will be followed by open discussion. A further meeting will then be set up with any interested residents soon after to begin planning the set up of the development trust.

If you would like to find out more about development trusts, please have a look at this website www.dta.org.uk, or contact Martha at martha.blackburn@bournemouth.gov.uk.

The next meeting of Transition Bournemouth is at the Goat and Tricycle, tomorrow, 30th September, at 7:30 pm.

All welcome!

Any queries to Theresa, on 07958 138053.

Transition Town Christchurch is delighted to have the opportunity to show the stunning and thought-provoking film “Earth Whisperers – Papatuanuku” from our sister town – Christchurch, New Zealand.

This spellbinding and challenging film focuses on ten quirky and inspiring New Zealanders, who love, nurture and protect their environment. Shot at breathtaking locations around New Zealand, these Earth Whisperers save heritage seeds, regenerate forests, harvest and protect wild herbs, leave the car forever to ride a bicycle, and save huge swathes of old forest. This movie combines stunning cinematography with an extraordinary sound track.

The London premiere of “Earth Whisperers – Papatuanuku” takes place on September 18, and the film will be screened at The Studio, the Regent Centre, Christchurch at 7.30pm on September 21st.

Admission will be only £3.

The next Transition Poole meeting is at The Grasshopper on Tues 8th September at 7.30pm.

The second Transition Wimborne Open Meeting will be held on Tuesday 4th August, 7pm-9pm, at The Community Learning & Resource Centre (the big building on King Street, the south west side of the Minster, surrounded by car parks).

We will be showing “The Power of Community” an hour long documentary
about the effect of a Peak Oil even in Cuba when the USSR collapsed.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0814275/

This will be followed by an Open Spaces format discussion, where
we suggest topics and then freely create small discussion groups
around those topics, and then summarise each discussion back to
everyone else at the end.

The topics will again cover what Transition activities can be started
in Wimborne over the summer, and into next year, as well as
issues raised by the documentary.

If you want to help the event, please download an A4 poster PDF, print off a dozen copies and post them on notice boards in your local area and clubs/offices.

Small donations of around £1 are kindly requested to meet room hire costs.

Don’t sign up, just turn up :-)

Being a pro-active person I chatted to husband, Ian, about organising one. With a certain amount of trepidation we set off taking spare lettuce and tomato plants and knocked on doors to test out the people’s reaction. We had never spoken to these neighbours before.

We were met with such warmth and enthusiasm, not the British reserve we had been expecting. Eight people agreed to come to our house for drinks and flapjack to discuss how we would proceed. The Big Lunch website produced leaflets at a reasonable cost, so we divided these up so everyone had a few to deliver.

Due to the strict policy of the local council on road closures we decided to use four, fairly flat, driveways close to each other with gazebos for protection against the changeable English summer weather.

The day was bright, with hints of sun, and windy. Gazebos were erected on drives and pegged down into grass. The men had just completed the task when a huge gust of wind blew them over! A quick decision was made to use wind breaks and make a sheltered place on a large drive with grassy garden. This area was given a party atmosphere using balloons, bunting made by some of the children, bubbles and music.

We had decided to have a finger food lunch with as much sourced and prepared locally. People brought delicious home-made food; there was pizza, quiche, sandwiches and home grown salad, fruit including strawberries dipped in chocolate (a big hit), colourful desserts with some very creative beetroot and carrot cakes. There was a good mix of alcoholic and soft drinks. No-one needed to worry about driving as we all lived there!

There was such a good mix of people; the youngest was one and the oldest well past retirement. A quick count showed that 64 people had turned up.

One man had lived in the road for 39 years and said there had never been a community event; he was thrilled that people were chatting together. Another older lady had moved into the road five years previously from a Welsh village and said she had been very lonely; she was delighted to be speaking to people who live around her for the first time. Many people said they had never had the opportunity to meet their neighbours. Our event was from 1.0-3.0pm. People were reluctant to leave but as a black cloud approached we began to pack up, dividing the rubbish into recycling and refuse. The rain held off until we had completed the dismantling. Everyone said they want this to continue with perhaps more opportunities to get together.

My memory of the day is full of chatter, laughter, music and bubbles and everyone doing their bit to make the occasion special.

This meeting will happen with the Open Spaces format, where everyone will introduce themselves and suggest topics and then freely create small discussion groups around those topics, and then summarise each discussion back to everyone else.

The topics will again cover what Transition activities can be started in Wimborne over the summer, and into next year.

If you want to help the event, please download an A4 poster PDF, print off a dozen copies and post them on notice boards in your local area and clubs/offices.

Small donations of around £1 are kindly requested to meet room hire costs.

Don’t sign up, just turn up :-)

When: Thursday 23rd July, 7.15pm – 9.30pm

Where: Oakdale Methodist Church, Oakdale Road, Poole.

The Film: Wildlife film maker Rebecca Hosking (“Message in the Waves”) investigates how to transform her family’s farm in Devon into a low energy farm for the future, and discovers that nature holds the key. With her father close to retirement, Rebecca returns to her family’s wildlife-friendly farm in Devon, to become the next generation to farm the land. But last year’s high fuel prices were a wake-up call for Rebecca. Realising that all food production in the UK is completely dependent on abundant cheap fossil fuel, particularly oil, she sets out to discover just how secure this oil supply is. Alarmed by the answers, she explores ways of farming without using fossil fuel. With the help of pioneering farmers and growers, Rebecca learns that it is actually nature that holds the key to farming in a low-energy future.

We realise that many of you will have seen this film when it was originally shown on BBC2, but it is such an accessible and informative documentary it is well worth seeing again – and you can bring your friends and family.

As before, the film will be followed by a short discussion looking at what we can do locally in Poole.

Free admission. Refreshments provided. All welcome.

For further information call Helen Davis 01202 741148 or Harriet Stewart-Jones 01202 735758

(Note that the Google Map above is correct, but if you search for “Oakdale Methodist Church” it will show you a different venue on Wimborne Road, Poole – do not go there :-)

The next meeting of Transition Poole is on Wednesday 15 July at 7.30pm, meeting at Branksome Chine if the weather is good. On
the prom by the restaurant seems as good a place as any.

If the weather is not good, the Britannia Pub is a suitable back-up. Please check your email or see the Transition BH discussion group website on the day to confirm which meeting place we will use, as one person’s definition of good weather may not be the same as another’s!