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Transition Chester
www.transitionchester.org.uk
Next Meeting
Next steps for Transition Chester
Meeting at the Welsey Centre
St John Street
Chester
CH1 1DA
Tuesday 10th March 2015 7:30pm-9:30pm
Events
Hoole Green Festival
Join us on the 28th March 2026 to celebrate and connect with all things eco friendly in your community.
Diane @vegartemis will be offering a FREE spring wild food taster walk at 12:30.
Join us whilst we delve into the world of wild edible plants.
Foraging for food has been a part of history for as long as humans have been around, and although the art of foraging has mostly disappeared in the modern world.
It is a invaluable resource to better understand our past, present and future.
Learn the basics of plant identification, tips & best practices and of course different ways to use and eat wild plants.
Keep an eye on our socials in the coming days to see what else we've got planned.
www.transitionchester.org.uk
Chester Green Weekend
TBA 2026
In various City Centre locations. Food, Drink and Entertainment.
Newsletter
Follow up from the "Sustainable Chester?" meeting at Alexander's Jazz Bar - 26/01/15
We had 38 people come along to our event at Alexanders and there was a really good atmosphere during the evening. For those of you that came along, thank you for taking part
Meeting at Alexanders Jazz CafeThe evening looked at what Transition Chester has been involved with over the last few years and some of its achievements - and we were pleased to welcome two key activists from the Ashton Hayes Going Carbon Neutral initiative and Allan Arthur from Transition Frodsham and Kingsley to tell us the work they have been doing regarding sustainability.
Visitors to the meeting were treated to a complimentary mulled wine or hot spiced apple and this certainly helped to get the participation going.
As a prelude to the meeting , everyone attending was invited to share their concerns or ideas related to sustainability and we have now gathered all of these together under the following headings: •Energy efficiency
- Sustainable food use
- Green Day
- Sustainable transport
- Sustainable planning
- Recycling, education and awareness
- Renewable energy
- Sustainable retail
To look at all of the points everyone raised you can download the pdf document we have collated from all the ideas everyone contributed during the evening by following this link.
We had a stimulating and very participative discussion at the end of the evening which included the following topics:
- Green schools in Chester
- Better insulation in Housing Trust properties
- Greater awareness of need to reduce energy use
- Coordinator to collect and press apples from rare heritage apples (see WI 1989 map of heritage orchards in Cheshire) e.g. Sunken Gardens, Linnehall Car Park
- invite other neary Transition Groups to help out with Green Day
- Advertise Transition Chester on CVA website
- Joint promotion between all environmental/gardening/energy efficiency/green groups in Chester
- Set up Chester based 'Project Dirt'
We will now look carefully at all of the points raised and see how we can include them within our "next steps meeting" which we have organised for Tuesday March 10th at 7.30 pm at the Wesley Centre, St John Street in Chester City Centre.
Please reserve this date in your diary so that you can help us develop your ideas and work towards a more sustainable city.
At this open meeting we will be •outlining the amount of money available to commit to activity in the Transition Chester's bank account
• discussing and agreeing which of the the ideas could be developed arising out of the January Meeting
• agreeing who could be involved to take things forward and
• agreeing the next steps for the next year or so.
Please do feel free to invite anyone you think may be interested in taking part in this meeting and bring them along.
Finally, if you have any queries about what we are proposing or have any further comments or questions please do get in contact with us at mailto:info@transitionchester.org.uk?subject=Transition%20Chester
Chester Food Assembly
Chester Food Assembly is a social enterprise, developed to support local producers, make food routes more sustainable and allow producers/growers/farmers to build relationships with their customers.
The Food Assembly offers an online tool for producers/growers/farmers to sell direct to their customers. We try and work with food producers who are working in a sustainable way, conscious of their impact in the environment. All of our producers work within a 60 mile radius of Chester.
If our producers are offering a product which has ingredients in, such as jam or bread, we ask that the ingredients are sourced within a 150 mile radius of Chester.
Please come to our launch event on the 1st September at Telford's Warehouse Chester 6:30pm-8:30pm
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jul/10/new-way-buy-local-produce-food-assembly-coming-britain
https://thefoodassembly.com/en/p/farmer
www.foodassembly.com
Through the food assembly customers will be able to buy:
Local raw honey
Local organic eggs
Home made bread from Hoole Village- subtitle for freezing
Local organic butterLocal free range pork sausages
Local free range bacon
Local free free range gluten free sausages
Jam and chutney using locally grown fruit and veg
Yogurt from a local herd of award winning Guernsey cows
Local traditional cheeses
Locally grown organic fruit and vegetables
Free range, grass fed beef from a local heritable herd
Chocolate truffles, meringue bites and sweets treats using local cream and eggs
(Food Assembly is allowed one or two "exotic" ingredients and we have gone for Chocolate)
And the list is growing Please let me know if you have any further questions. It would be lovely to hear from you.
Katie Lyttle @Chesterfood
 www.facebook.com/TheChesterFoodAssembly
katielyttle@hotmail.com
Gift Economy
www.gifteconomyuk.wordpress.com
Voices From Transition Chester
An astrologer predicted the world would end on the middle Tuesday of October. He was wrong. However, that was the week of extreme turmoil on the financial markets, events that have jolted the certainties of many. Presently, I keep meeting people who are reassessing what is important to them. I like to think that he was right, that our choices today are shaping a new world.
In traditional Japan, the New Year’s holiday was 3 months long. Down on the allotment today, I could sense how the energy of nature had gone quiet, how it seemed to be taking a break after another season of growing. Perhaps the old timers were copying the natural rhythm. I would gladly swap the regular rhythm of bills and the 5 day week for something earthy.
In this issue, articles have been submitted by different people. We have:
- The Story of Stuff
- Finding Our Roots
- Changing the Dream Symposium
- Share Tips from the Trading Floor
- The Transition Chester Wiki
- News from Transition Chester
- Events for your Diary- starting next week!
The Transition Library
A funding application has been completed for a collection of books and DVDs that inspire the change to a sustainable society. If successful, the titles will be kept together to make it a browser’s delight. You might go to learn about keeping chickens in your backyard, but also be thrilled to find out how to make sour dough bread.
Transition Chester go online!
Our wiki site on the Transition Towns website is now up and running. Check in to http://transitiontowns.org/Chester/Chester for regular updates on what’s happening with the different working groups, Transition Chester events and other local groups. It’s about as low tech as you can get, but it’s enough to keep the lines of communication open and start a dialogue.
The site is meant to be used and meant to be interactive, so if you have any events you would like to advertise, would like a link to your local group or business, or have ideas for new pages for the site, please get in touch – transitionchester@yahoo.co.uk or 07717 828819.
Wanted: I.T. enthusiast to help maintain our wiki
- Love I.T.?
- Want to support the great transition in Chester?
- Got a (very) little time to spare?
Members of the Coordinating Group admit to being I.T. challenged.
If there’s anyone out there with enough IT skills to boost up our wiki and help keep it up to date,
we’d love to hear from you. As far as we can work out, once you know what you’re doing,
it won’t take up too much of your time. We just don’t know what we’re doing.
Trees for Chester
We are working hard on our vision to have fruit and nut trees growing in the city. Bags of plump sweet chestnuts, hazelnuts and monkey puzzle nuts have been collected. They all taste great. We will plant the remainder and give the saplings away for free. Also, we are applying for funding so we can plant mulberries, medlars, walnuts, goji berries, edible fuschias, that sort of thing, on suitable land. Finding land is proving challenging work, but we are confident.
A list of useful trees and shrubs will appear on the wiki before Christmas. Donations, help and enthusiasm would be greatly received.
The Story of Stuff
www.storyofstuff.org
I urge you to check out the internet film ‘The Story of Stuff’
This short 20 minute film takes the viewer on a provocative tour of our consumer driven culture. It’s a rapid fire, fact filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns.
Annie Leonard’s narration complements some simple but highly effective visuals that expose the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues.
The film taught me things, made me laugh and definitely changed the way I view my ‘stuff’
Join the 4 million viewers that have already caught the film.
A professional trader chooses the hot sectors that will provide the best returns. Vince also tells you what will bomb. Sign him up for the transition movement. (it is an edited version so the argument is not coherent. It does get me thinking of community-owned alternative energy schemes and local currencies. Ed)
“ I think the time of LONG TERM investment in stocks has come and gone..
the printing presses are running, creating more and more dollars that are worth NOTHING. It is all based on illusion and good faith. What happens when it falls, which it will! What will have real value are the basic things that really create abundance: Food, Energy, Shelter, Water. These are the sectors to invest in.
Inflation is going to get worse and you need to ensure you are not losing in this hidden tax.
I heard it best last night when a comedian said, "Can you believe that the broke people are now bailing out the rich people.” If anything, this economy has caused a wake up to some people. I will tell you, I feel quite different about the USA than I used to. I think we Americans have been asleep at the wheel while our wealth has been stolen by greedy politicians, CEOs and bankers. ”
Did you know? 1 steak has the same CO2 footprint as driving 19 miles in a 4x4?
Or that transportation accounts for only 11% of food’s CO2 emissions?
Finding our roots - The Heart and Soul of transition
In these times of change, as the news gets gloomier by the day, I have often had cause to reflect on the ancient Hermetic wisdom
As above, so below
As within, so without
In essence, this tells us that the outer world we see around us is a reflection of our inner state of consciousness. From this point of view, our current society, of industrial estates, road rage and ASBOs is simply the manifestation of something deep within the collective consciousness.
As I navigate through Chester’s traffic jams and supermarket queues, I have come to understand this ‘something’ to be a fundamental disconnection with our natural environment and our real needs as human beings. When we lead our lives in this modern way, we often feel stressed out and unhappy or dissatisfied at some level. This in turn further disconnects us from our environment, numbing us to our natural rhythms and real needs, and so the outer world obliges by reflecting our pain back to us, with more stress and more ugliness.
Why is this relevant to transition? It is relevant because the combination of peak oil, climate change and economic unrest is, in my view, going to shake our society and our communities here in Chester to their foundations. The very fact of modern life means that a scant few of us have stable foundations to shake: notice what has happened to the world economy in the past few months and how it has affected our lives in this country.
The world wasn’t always this way. Speaking of the contrast between indigenous and modern Western cultures, Don Enrique Salmon, a Mexican-American medicine man observed: “If a big storm comes along, Native Americans’ roots are deep into the earth. But for a lot of Anglos, there aren’t many roots. The next storm comes along and they would all be blown off the universe.”
I believe that the Transition Town movement offers a way out of this predicament. Sure it’s an experiment, but I do know that by simply coming together in collective endeavour, while holding a strong positive vision of the future, we are already fulfilling a deep-seated human need – that of mutually beneficial and nurturing relationships within a supportive community - surely a recipe for greater personal and collective happiness? As we achieve small successes, so our inner map also begins to change to reflect a more positive and empowered world view. The first half of the saying I began with reminds us that we have the capacity to create our own heaven, right here on earth.
Peak oil will ultimately force us let go of our addiction to the material ‘stuff’ that somehow seems so fundamental to our quality of life at this time. But, as we learn to live more simply, we also liberate space and time to enjoy priceless pleasures, like learning to create objects of real practical value and of beauty, growing our own food, or spending time with people we love. Thus, by stages, we are reconnected back to the web of life, and with the place we call home.
If you are interested in exploring these and other related issues over a cup of tea and a slice of cake, the Heart and Soul group run monthly open space gatherings. So far, we’ve been sharing things that have inspired us, celebrating the good things and building the group energy through simple meditation exercises. Please join us, and bring your own point of view to the circle. The next meeting is on 26th November, in Handbridge. Contact me if you would like to know more – 07717 828819 / rebeccaimber@gmail.com.
Clothing with a Conscience
invite you to join them for
Christmas with a Conscience
At Wesley Methodist Church, Chester
If you are tired of the commercialism of Christmas then this could be an evening for you.
They will be modelling fairly traded clothes and gifts, giving demonstrations and giving you the opportunity to make your own Christmas cards and decorations. Transition Chester will run a stall there with: a display about transition towns and what’s been happening in Chester, sample “Morsbags”, a slideshow, a mini Freeconomy giveaway, Wompom cards, with profits to Trees for Chester, plus Laurence will be making natural Christmas decorations.
Where on Earth are we going? And what can we do about it?
These are two of the questions that are at the heart of the Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium.
The Symposium is an unusual and engaging inquiry into a bold vision: to bring forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just human presence on Earth. The Symposium originated in the US and has spread across the globe with the help of volunteer facilitators and enthusiastic promoters. Using sometimes beautiful and sometimes moving video images along with well researched expert opinion, our local facilitators will help the gathering to explore four key questions:
1. Where are we?
2. How did we get here?
3. What is possible for the future?
4. Where do we go from here?
Does this vision and these questions intrigue you? Are you ready to explore what this means for you? Do you yearn for the opportunity to create an inspiring future? If so, we warmly invite you to attend the Symposium on Sunday 18 January 2009.
EVENTS FOR YOUR DIARY – all welcome!
* Toastmaster Training with Jane and Tom
19th November, 7–8.30pm, Quaker Meeting House, Frodsham Street.
If you would like to become more confident when speaking in public, then this event is for you. No experience needed. FREE
* Christmas with a Conscience
20th November, 7.30pm
Wesley Methodist Church, St John’s Street.
Tickets are available from the Chester Fair Trade shop at Wesley or on the door
£3, to include refreshments
* Bag-making stall
20th November, 7.30pm
Wesley Methodist Church, St John’s Street
Some of TC will be there with sewing machines and patterns, making shopping bags to give away for free to unsuspecting members of the public. (See www.morsbags.com for more information about the concept behind it). Come along to help or learn new skills. Email us for times.
* TC Social – riverside walk
Sunday the 23rd of November, 1.30pm at the entrance to the Duke’s Drive.
We are meeting for a walk. Please come and join us. We would love to meet you. Starting at 1.30pm at the top of Duke's Drive, we will walk to Eccleston and follow the river back to Chester, where will warm up in the Bear and Billet. Bring a mug and a mince pie/snack. We will brew a cuppa en route with our Kelly Kettle.
Heart and Soul
26th November, 7.30-9pm, Handbridge
There are lots of exciting possibilities for taking this group forward. Come along and join us for our third open space gathering. Brian has also prepared a presentation on our relationship with nature, on which he would like feedback. Contact Rebecca if you would like to know more – 07717 828819 rebeccaimber@gmail.com.
Rhythm of the Heart – an evening with John Lockley
4th December,,6.30-9.30pm Quaker Meeting House
Transition Chester are hosting an evening of storytelling, drumming and ceremony with a traditional medicine man from South Africa. This event will start with a communal supper. 20% of profit to Trees for Chester. £10 on the door (£5 unwaged/low wage). Contact Rebecca for more info – rebeccaimber@gmail.com
Transition Group Meeting
Our next meeting will be Thursday 8th January at 7.30pm in the Cross Keys.
New faces are very welcome.
Awakening the Dreamer ,Changing the Dream Symposium
Sunday 18 January 2009, 1.30pm - 5.30pm at Wesley Methodist Church Hall, St John’s Street, Chester. Warming refreshments will be served. To book your place phone 01244 323 037
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