Around 40 of us gathered at the Green House Hotel, thanks to Gwyn for organising the evening, the team at the Green House for hosting us (for free), and most of all, Alex Roberts for entertaining us (also giving his time for free), and then leading us in participative music. You can find Alex music at www.alexrobertsmusic.com

Gwyn introduced the session that rather than ‘taking’, we should all be giving of our time, and Alex exemplified this. Alex confessed to be a bit nervous – getting a whole bunch of adults to do participative music, which he normally does for free.

He threw into the introductions to songs time he spent in India, studying music, nearly a year spent in a tipi on a farmers campsite on the Purbecks, working the land and composing music, but he seems to have drawn inspiration from a wide variety of musical traditions and cultures from across the world.

After a brief set, including a poem set to music and played on his wedding present (a bouzouki brought back from Athens), and a tune on a steel hawiian guitar made in Christchurch, we were all led in deep breathing, making shared vocalisations that north american Indian tribes might use to make sound together. And then drumming.

An entertaining and sociable evening for folk involved in Transition from across the BH area.

Letter below didn’t make it to the Echo but in the Advertiser 3.11.11 which one kind friend alerted me to and another has just given me her copy. It’s under the heading “Solar array is producing good amounts of power,” with a pic of some panels (not ours).

Drizzly days are very poor (only 0.5 , 0.9,). Winter months score quite a bit worse.

Total: 3,464 KW for year Oct 10- Oct 11. We used 9,923KW (terrible- recommend hibernation) as I keep it at 20 degrees- Malc feels the cold, even upstairs. Big place to house Malc’s fab archive.

Feed-in-tariff took a year to deliver first cheque of over £1,000. Now getting quarterly (nearly £200- not as good as hoped). Not the best rate as we went for more panel coverage (4.7 KW) than recommended (over 4 whatever it was) so only I think 37p a KW, instead of 43p KW (?). It’s also 3.1p for our 50% “deemed export.” Yingli 235.

Cost £17,474 after the fiasco of calling the installer back for 2nd inverter, plus £850 for removal of 2 east side ( where there are now 12 panels) chimneypots. On the west we have a dormer window so only 8 panels. Malc thinks it’ll be a very long payback but who know what electricity’ll cost in a couple of years. Only gas now in the house is bottled (like some family members) for over Christmas.

Solar thermal (£5,000-ish) on south -facing balcony, handily feeds straight into water-tank. Works with air-source heat pump (£7,700 ) for good heating results tho downstairs is cooler: big kitchen extension. Malc mostly upstairs thanks to wonder-reconditioned-Stannah. A weep from the water tank (or was it me?) went on for a while despite 3-4 callouts last year, fixed eventually. Also the air-source heat pump mysteriously started giant-crashing-around-upstairs noises, which confusingly started at the same time as a nothing-to-do-with-it squeak from the loo system. Just as mysteriously noises have now stopped.

Malc wasn’t happy at night with the vibes from the heat pump so they took it off the wall, put it on legs. A nice bonus is the water I collect from underneath to flush the loo.

Cavity wall insulation (£1,000 worth; free to us lucky pensioners) went in a year ago, was a top-up. Also had new carpets & front door to eliminate draughts.

When I have time in another decade I’ll try & compare bills.

Ambition in life to have compost loo (as in Dick Strawbridge’s “It’s Not Easy Being Green” prog ) meantime using butt water/shower water and donations of wee to compost. Friend of Earth Conference had, “When it’s yellow let it mellow, When it’s brown flush it down” notices on loo doors but that tends to stain the bowl (cured with lemon juice but bit of a palaver). Best was Climate Camp- choice of loo with hay bales etc tho’ you have to know what you’re going to do beforehand which ain’t always poss, says the old girl. Bathwater’s reused too. I’m told soldiers use v little water for personal dailies so trying to copy good example. Jug & bowl anyone?

Inspired by Mark’s forest garden but ours has turned into an allotment. Fruit trees apple, pear, plum. Soft fruit throughout summer ; strawbs, raspberries, loganberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, whitecurrants, blackberries and M’s fave- golden raspberries-still, incredibly, picking after much second fruiting. Teeny weeny pippy grapes, quite sweet. Greens still growing (& I remember even picking small amounts through snowy times), runner beans until my wigwam fell over in high winds. A few tomatoes, lots of lettuce. Passion fruit struggling a bit- not had fruit this year (changed location).

Just dug out last of taties a week ago. Courgette flowers nobbled by something this year (fox prime suspect) but good results last year. Malc used to do slug patrol at bedtime with a torch and big foot. I’ve tried the (fiddly, expensive, kind) beer-pots but now tend to squash when I see ‘em. Sorry but you’re in our garden. Hugh F-W tried a slug recipe but it wasn’t v nice. Snails are allegedly better- you have to feed them for a week on lettuces or something. Have not tried yet.

Malc did quite a long report for Transition website a couple of years ago.

Green Party Open Meeting tomorrow- Moordown Community Centre 10-12 morning.

Keystone XL pipeline (tar sands) deferral- Obama has mercifully listened to the 12,000 activists who surrounded the White House but grim news from IEA re global fossil overload “World given 2017 climate deadline” Guardian p 3 yesterday.

Happy 11.11.11 (11.11. & 11 secs)

SC

Dear Sir,

The urgent need to find low-carbon, clean, energy sources meant we’ve installed renewables in our house which are generally working well. Mike Roberts-Butler (Echo letters 19.10.11) finds solar panels “a horrendous eyesore” and questions their viability. There are alas many uglier (eg oil wells) and more dangerous (eg coal mines) sources of energy.

Our solar array has had teething problems but is now producing good amounts of electricity; 3,867.6 kilowatts over the last 15 months. The first three months were very poor as a second inverter had to be installed on our east/west roofs. I am monitoring daily. The best day was 8th June (23.9KW), the best week 17-24th April (130.9 KW) with other very close contenders over the summer. The worst days were 2nd & 3rd December when snow was on the roofs- nothing at all! Four friends have written to me of their good PV results; one in Australia (hardly surprising!)

I’ve been astonished by the daily variability of results and it has made me much more energy aware. The washing machine and other items are used in the day with apparently fractional electricity use. The heating in our largish house is what really adds up, despite much insulation. Mike Roberts-Butler expresses his dismay at the planning system. I am astonished that our planners allow such poor building regulations and that there is complacent acceptance of our heat- leaky homes. Passivhauses, being super insulated, do not need external sources of energy.

Yours faithfully,

Susan Chapman

On the downside – no thanks to the Echo for virtually ignoring the entire event. A shame. The website BH Beat , on the other hand, gave great lively coverage of several events as they happened. http://bhbeat.com/

Here are some photos of occasions I happened to catch on camera.

The BGF kicks off on Friday 20 May with East Dorset Friends of the Earth’s Eco Fashion Experience at the Pavilion Dance Centre (3–8pm)

On the evening of Sat 21 May there’s a treat in store – a screening of Yan Arthus-Bertrand’s stunning film “Home” at the Lighthouse in Poole (free!). [Incidentally, it’s not part of the BGF but there’s also the Green Party’s Barn Dance at YMCA Winton on Saturday 21st (tickets £5 from hfwoodall@googlemail.com).]

Next day (Sun 22nd) there’s a rare opportunity to visit Mark’s (from Tatnam Org Patch) amazing Forest Garden in Branksome (42A Gorleston Road, 11–4pm).

Tuesday’s talk by Geoff Jones on “Building an Eco Home from Scratch” at Bournemouth Natural Science Society promises to be interesting. Organised by Dorset Humanists.

On Wednesday 25th PA21 are screening “Age of Stupid” at Broadstone Methodist Church.

Then on Thursday 26th we have Transition Poole’s cycle-powered film screening and discussion at Hamworthy Fire Station. You’ll need to book in advance because there’s limited places. But invite your friends – we need a good crowd.

Saturday 28th is the Tatnam Organic Patch Open Day from 11-4.

Then on Tues 31st there’s a pretty hard-hitting film about food at the Lighthouse “Our Daily Bread” (8.30) with discussion. Tickets from the Lighthouse.

Wednesday 1st June Transition BH Hub and Association of Sustainability Practitioners invite you to a talk and discussion on “A Green Economy for Bournemouth and Poole” at the Green House Hotel, Bournemouth, 7.30 with Dr Alan Knight of Southampton University. An opportunity to get to grips with the tricky questions around our local economy (see http://tinyurl.com/bgf2011gh).

Fri 3rd daytime is “Public Heath Showcase: Going Green is Good for You” at the Wellbeing Centre, Bournemouth University (10–4).

Sat 4th join in the family fun at the Green Unity Fair, Bournemouth’s first offgrid entertainment and educational event, from midday until 10, Shelley Park, Boscombe. Free.

Finally, Sun 5th June The Big Lunch – in your own neighbourhood!

Further info about all these events at www.poolepartnership.info/BGF/ or www.bournemouth2026.org.uk/bgf/

Present: Harriet Stewart-Jones, Andy Hadley, Theresa McManus, Gwyn Jones, Paul Smart, Julie Smith, Gary Finch, Sue and Ian Challis
Review of Year
With the aid of flip chart & pens, the group came up with the following highlights of Transition BH
Events
Picnic in the Park
Grooves on the Green
Big Lunches
Big Green Fortnight 2009
10.10.10 Event plus this year’s Cycle
Communications
Overhaul of TBH website
Perpetuating the Google Group
Giving presentations & information to local groups
Transition Training
Launch of Christchurch website
Campaign Involvement
Airshow questionnaires
NOPE Portland Biofuel plant
Alaska Wind Farm
Air Show Symposium
Turner’s Field
Involvement in local consultations
Local Initiatives
Powerdown Study and Discussion Group
Food Co-Op
Herb Group
Green Drinks
Allotments & Community Orchards & Hedgerows
Film Screenings
Dorset Urban Food Project & other local food
Group wide initiative
Launch of Transition Together
Treasurer’s Report
The Steering Group holds funds for Transition Together plus funds for those groups that do not have a bank account. Current holding is £972.69.
Election of Steering Group
The following people were either re-elected or elected onto the steering group:-
• Harriet Stewart-Jones, Gary Finch, Andy Hadley, Jamie Heckert, Gwyn Jones (Transition Poole)
• Theresa McManus (Transition Bournemouth)
• Julie Smith (Transition Christchurch)
Transition Wimborne has temporarily folded, but a place is available on the steering group whenever they become re-established. Additional people can join the steering group during the year, up to a maximum of 12 people. It is desirable to have more representatives from Bournemouth and Christchurch.

Green Unity Fair
There is a proposal for an off-grid day festival at Shelley Park as part of the Big Green Fortnight in June. This will be organised by a third party but they are seeking to use the Transition BH name to access funding and for publicity. Concerns were expressed over where responsibilities and liabilities lie, and these will be taken forward to a meeting with the organisers. The consensus of the group was that it would be better to defer the event rather than to potentially expose the group to risk.
The Future
It would be good to provide a summary of what Transition BH has done on the website.

Gwyn offered to send out a quarterly newsletter covering events & activities across the group. He will need the email contacts held by the various Transition groups to achieve this. Members of the steering group agreed to provide Gwyn with these. Gwyn will contact steering group members to request their articles for inclusion in the newsletter. The aim for the first newsletter is mid-May, to reach people before the Big Green Fortnight starts.
Anything Else
Paul said he has good contacts with youth groups in Poole and Bournemouth, and is happy to put people in touch with these. He has also had experience in Boscombe of the LETS group and Landshare.

I’m sure you’re aware that there is significant unmet demand for allotments in the UK.  We did a survey of allotment waiting lists in England earlier this year, and you can access figures for any principal local council with allotments on National database.

Bob Russell, MP, has submitted for an Early Day Motion (EDM 687) for debate stating “That this House welcomes the big increase in home-grown vegetables, with seed sales up 14 per cent last year; is pleased that the number of people wanting an allotment has increased by 20 per cent in the past 12 months; is concerned that according to the National Society for Allotment and Leisure Gardeners there are 100,000 people on waiting lists for an allotment; and calls on the Government, local authorities, other public bodies and private landlords to make land available for new allotments.”  To-date 28 MPs have signed the Motion.

I’m wondering if Transition groups around the England would consider checking if their MP has signed the motion and if they have have, thank them for their support and offer to meet with them to discuss the situation in their constituency and if they haven’t, to seek their support.

Margaret Campbell, Transition West Kirby

Which is very interesting (no local MPs I could see there yet), but it led me to look more closely at our local provision. Will update in a bit, but all is not as it seems;

Have created a separate page to summarise the allotment provision across the conurbation which is constructed mostly at Borough level from the FoI requests Jan 2010 undertaken by TT West Kirby, and at detailed level by me checking websites, and emailing people.

http://transitionbh.org/todo/allotments-around-bh/

OK, so it is time for anyone who has been waiting for something practical to do to act.

Members may be aware that we (Julie on our behalf) were successful in bidding to be one of the locations to roll out the Transition Together initiative, as originated by TT Totnes.

http://www.transitionnetwork.org/projects/transition-together

A few of us have been working to localise the handbooks that allow a small group of friends/neighbours/workmates/random souls to come together, explore the issues, and change aspects of our own lives to transition.

At a pace and in a style set by the group of maybe 8 or so households, you come together, using the workbooks, plus Transition films, fellow transitioners and anything else you think of to stimulate discussion, plan, and then act to make transition happen in your immediate surroundings.

The list goes something like
1) Getting started
2) spend less on energy
3) spend less on water
4) spend less, eat well
5) wasting away
6) getting around
7) celebrate

WHAT WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO DO NOW:
a) TO PARTICIPATE
b) to recruit others (maybe people who havent heard of Transition) and form your own group
c) to be prepared to help groups on any of the above topics

It is free to take part. We just need some commitment that your group will give it their best shot.

We hope that you’ll be inspired, make savings, and by the end some participants will be prepared to help promote the scheme to further groups, and support them in turn.

So if you are keen, please talk to others, maybe gather a group, and then contact Harriet, Theresa or Andy to let us know when you would like to start.

My wife Soo and I moved to Bournemouth five years ago. We have been involved in Friends of the Earth since the early 1980s and Soo was also a member of the Ecology Party in the mid eighties. I have always been interested in growing my own vegetables, ever since I first had a garden in the early 70s.

I used to grow runner beans , strawberries and potatoes. However it was only when we moved here in 2005 that I decided that as we had such a large garden I would try to grow more fruit and veg. Soo loves fruit so I planted a few raspberry bushes. I also planted an apple , pear, plum and cherry tree too. These take a few years to develop before they produce any significant amount of fruit.

In addition I bought about 40 strawberry plants from local car boot sales. These spread very quickly and I now have hundreds of them, not only in the original strawberry patch but around the garden between other fruit bushes I have purchased , like loganberry , blackcurrant, red currant , gooseberry etc. I found lots of weeds grew around them so I dug out the weeds and replaced them with offshoots from the strawberry plants . All these plants look after themselves and require very little maintenance. I bought several grape vines a few years ago and these are doing very well now although the grapes are only pea size.

In addition every year I grow lots of potatoes, runner beans, chard, kale, lettuce, leeks, corgettes, cabbage, cauliflower etc etc. I intend to grow a lot more potatoes this year. Last year 60 lb kept us going for months but I would like to grow enough to store for a longer period, even the whole year if possible! Some veg we start off from seed on our windowsill others I purchase from a stall at Ringwood market on a Wednesday, very cheaply too! Poole car boot on a Sunday spring morning is good for fruit bushes as well

More recently I have bought 25 raspberry plants and eight blueberry bushes. We intend that the whole garden becomes a small forest growing fruit and veg all over it. I must confess that I am not a great gardener but like to plant things that need little maintenance. We have three compost bins so all weedings and surplus vegetation go back into the soil as do all veg peelings. Even some newspaper is soaked, shredded and put in the compost. We collect rainwater from butts from the house downpipes and other plastic containers around the garden from two outhouses. Plants prefer rainwater to tap water. We rarely have to use the latter now. It’s a real pleasure not having to mow the lawn anymore!

Now that the forest garden is under way I thought it time to deal with energy in the house. We have spent months going through everything in the house, be it clothes, furniture, books, TVs etc and deciding whether we really need it or can pass it on to Dorset Reclaim, local charity shops or clothes bank. We had already replaced most light bulbs with low energy models, turned off lights not being used etc.

We turned to ‘Save Energy’ in Poole Road. They have installed a solar thermal panel at the back of our house on a wall above our balcony, right next to the bathroom where the hot water tank was situated. A new water tank was needed, a lot bigger with lots of additional guidance systems that takes up a lot of space. However it has already pumped 61 hours of hot water into the boiler despite the very cold weather lately. Hopefully for 8 months of the year it should provide free hot water.

In addition we decided that as we will be running out of cheap petrol and gas in the next 10 years, this would be a good time to replace the gas central heating with an Air Source Heat Pump system. Consideration had been given to a ground source system but there can be reliability problems as well as having to dig up half the garden! This was installed immediately after the solar panel. The heat pump system is about three feet square, a foot deep and is mounted on a metal stand attached to the wall outside where the gas boiler attached to the hot water pipes.

The way it works is that it is kept on 24 hours a day at a set temperature. A thermostat inside the system compares the outside temperature with the inside and fans inside the system suck in cold air and convert it to heat. Water drops from the condensation underneath and can be reused in the garden. A single pipe collects the water into a water butt. Keeping the heating on 24 hours a day means the radiators never get very warm , just a mild heat, the point being that once the house is warmed up it doesn’t to use a lot of energy to maintain a warm house. Just like driving at 60 mph saves lots of petrol rather than speeding up to 80 etc. It works effectively even during the recent cold spell.

The average kilowatts used each week has been 417 since early December when it was installed compared to 568 each week last year at the same time for total gas and electric kilowatts used. I estimate about a 20% saving at the moment. Should be a lot more when the weather improves. Only slight problem is a low pitched noise it makes which I find irritating at night, which they are trying to fix.

On top of all this we intend to get photovoltaic solar panels fitted as well. These generate electricity that is fed directly back into the national grid via a meter which records all energy made. The problem has been that the Government have been holding back on their promise to increase the feed-in tariff. The tariff at the moment is roughly half what you pay for your energy, eg if you pay 10p a kilowatt from your energy supplier, they will only pay you 5p a kilowatt for any you generate and pass on to them, ie they make 100% profit! However the new tariff has now come in, it’s now 41.3p per kilowatt, so you can get over 4 times back what they charge you!!! In addition you can get them to install a ‘reversing meter’ so that any energy you generate and use yourself they have to also pay you an additional tariff of 3p to 5p for using your own self- made electricity!!! This will be a 25 year contract so after about 5 to 10 years you will be making a profit!

However, some companies are not keen to install reversing meters for obvious reasons. Having generously increased the tariff, the Government, after a few days’ grace, has completely removed the £2500 grant to persuade the public to install PV solar panels!!!!!!!!!!!!! I believe they are transferring it to other forms of renewable energy! You can get grants to install heat pump systems too. It is rumoured that next year the Government will also be giving additional bonuses to those who have solar thermal panels and heat pump systems. Whether this promise will be kept might depend on who the new government is in May!

There is also a problem about the detail about how exactly the private energy companies will be reimbursing us for these new tariffs. No one seems to know if they will pay us weekly, monthly , quarterly or yearly etc. Every company seems to have its own policy. It’s worth checking out how to get the best deal anyway for the energy you buy. I have recently switched from N Power to Ovo Energy because they charge less for an online no paperwork account.

I now find Ovo Energy have no plans to install reversing meters! In addition, when I cancelled with N Power they told me they offered a cheaper tariff if you had an online no paperwork account too! So it’s worth checking them all out to find out the best offer. I may stick with Ovo Energy even without a reversing meter if I find the other companies’ regular tariff is a lot higher. You have to sit down and work out the best deal. I would much prefer that the whole system went back into public ownership so we were all treated in the same way. The future cannot be trusted in the hands of private companies, in my opinion.

Hope this information is useful. If anyone wants more info or would like a tour around the house and garden please email me.