Garden - before and after!

The BEFORE pic, but believe me it was worse than it looks because all this overgrowth hides the fact that there was 2 skiploads of junk just strewn around the garden. The back wall had fallen down - probably Mr Skipyard man, whose skipyard is behind the wall, leaning his really heavy equipment on my wall for 30 years. [gallery] Basically, everything had to be gutted. AFTER:
Visit the other posts for more garden pics

The Bloody Well Smell It Yourself campaign...

Right, I'm launching some new campaigns. The first one will be called "The Bloody Well Smell It Yourself" awareness week. This means USE YOUR NOSE to test whether food is really off or whether you are just being ripped off by the manufacturer who are covering their backs by putting the Use By or Best Before date a week before it really needs to be there. OR the opposite problem is of course having loads of rotting stuff in the fridge. Particularly single people who are sharing domestic quarters do this, I find. They buy in bulk once a week or less, when hungry, and don't get around to planning or eating up leftovers. Either way, it's all WASTE. And that means methane emissions from landfill 23 times worse than Co2. So the answer - buy less more often, locally not at the supermarket, plan better, and don't believe the hype about dates. Here's someone who's started a charity to redistribute surplus food to the needy : http://www.fareshare.org.uk/

Shopping for vintage second-hand furniture

Out and about with the tape measure. One of the things I love doing is sauntering around second hand furniture shops - the vintage ones, with my tape measure and a mission to fulfill. I have to do this usually by myself, as friends and boyfriends tend to make me feel hurried and don't 'get' it. (or have far more important things to do). In order to stop myself buying on impulse, I take photos of the things I like with my iphone - and the act of taking the photo keeps me happy for a while... On THIS page is a list of shops. It's still in progress, feel free to suggest any by adding a comment - particularly in Stoke Newington, Hackney and the East end generally where I do not venture much. Meanwhile here are some buying tips: Tips for buying: Carry a tape measure everywhere! Measure the desired piece, then measure your room and really visualise how it works in the space and with the other stuff you've got. You might love it so much you just decide to buy it, but if you want to move it to another room for another use in the future, will it let you? How well does the style mix? I am in the middle of a style battle with chinese-modern stuff / dark furniture / white shabby chic painted furniture - and they're all mixed up in all the rooms - urrggh! Anyway, really imagine it in your space 'cos things look a lot bigger in a shop space. Do your research - find out the history of it, has it got a name, then google it - with image google - to find out who's got it elsewhere. You'll often find EXACTLY the same thing on Ebay - I found 6 other Austrian 19th C jam cupboards £200 cheaper than the one I bought from Chalk Farm Antiques - however, my purchase was nearer, and was perfect to the centimetre to fit in the space I needed. Remember you can adapt - with new knobs and handles or a new paintwork effect. Soooo much better than buying some laminated ikea crappo thing which you've paid for then falls apart two years later...Also think before you buy something really expensive. Can you get it made up yourself, finding the elements for example on www.salvoweb.co.uk and using a carpenter? Compile a dream board/book: One of the things I do is cut out pictures of styles or furniture I like, mainly from Living Etc magazine. I now have 3 art books full of pictures. It's a technique that stops me impulse buying, provides me with inspiration, and helps me weigh up and select from my options. You can see an example I did for my imaginary future loft conversion studio, HERE. Buying electrics - well some vintage light fittings are lovely but don't forget to factor in the electrician who'll have to hang them. Buying vintage guide:  http://www.livingetc.com/buyersguides/Buyers_guide_to_vintage_article_275345.html BEWARE, Living etc is great for inspiration but they also exaggerate to obtain the effect they need sometimes, which can be misleading. For example they photoshop furniture if it's not quite how they want, they show us shower room designs which are totally impractical. (links)

Transition in Kensal Rise

Back in October '07 at the Be the Change symposium in London, (www.bethechange.org.uk), I met Rob Hopkins who started Transition Town movement in Kinsale, Ireland first of all, then Totnes in Devon.  I wondered how it could be done in London and took a long time feeling defeatest about it, but realised when I heard Duncan Law in Brixton was initiating it there of all places, I realised it could be done. Once I'd got settled in my new abode in Kensal Rise, London, I slowly set about trying to find anyone else in the area to set it up with. It wasn't until May 2009 that I met a group of others who were thinking the same thing, and we've now properly set it up! We've got no end of ideas but since our initiating group is only 4 in number, we're concentrating on getting funding and raising awareness to get others on board. People need to have a certain amount of self-starterishness about them - too often people wait to be told what to do and how to do it. We've all got jobs, and families, hobbies and commitments, so everything must be done in our spare time. But it's worth it because we bring the community together on a small, grass-roots scale. So far, in 6 or 7 months, we've networked madly, built a website, got at least 130 people to join, held several stalls, had 3 or 4 film nights with discussions and speakers, so we're really pleased with ourselves. However, as usual, i am swamped with ideas and bogged down with admin. (See my other posts on OVERWHELM!) BUT, anyway, it's taken on it's own momentum and it's all about delegating and empowering others. For more on what transition towns are all about, see www.transitiontowns.org or google it, and see my other posts. For OUR LOCAL WEBSITE, see www.ttkensaltokilburn.ning.com: [caption id="attachment_62" align="alignleft" width="830" caption="our Transition Town website"]
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documenting good-doers

This is an environmentalist who now takes photos. She did some studies of people who are doing things to make a difference to the world, using her photography and the short films are on the Community Channel. http://howtomakeadifference.net/about/

Getting the Plot...allotment plans!

My name is down for 2 allotments (greedy!) which should be coming up in the next year. Because I am unlikely to be able to tend to them all by myself, let alone eat the produce, I'm planning to turn them into permacultured forest gardens in which my local community can learn to grow  and share food by close observance of nature and how it behaves in order to get the best fruit and veg. Seeing as I only took up gardening in September 08, I've gotta lot to learn! So in fact, I'll be looking for teachers and gardeners ready to come along and show groups what to do and why. I attended a short permaculture course at Naturewise in the Lea Valley in July '09 and there's certainly a lot of fascinating theory to learn about too. Wish I had time to attend the longer courses. http://www.naturewise.org.uk/page.cfm. There is even a Permaculture Picture House in east London devoted to showing films on this topic. The best known is Rebecca Hoskings BBC documentary "A Farm for the Future", which you can probably find a copy of somewhere. I'll be returning to this post to write more about permaculture and to start mapping out how we might plan the plots and if you have any suggestions as to planting combinations you have found successful, I'd love to hear. EG - maize supports the climbing runner beans and squash plants used as ground cover beneath them prevents weeds. On the other hand, I need to get the community involved so I'll leave a lot till then. I'd also like to get a local artist on board to document our plots development.  Also, I'd like to see bikes with trailers selling the produce door to door, all over the community. As always, how to fund it?

Children's books on climate change

I'm interested in how the kids are being taught about climate change through story-telling and tales, so I'm looking out for any books coming out on the market. I haven't got any time to devote to this but I'm going to start collecting a list here when I come across any:(with reviews or synopsises if I find them) 1) "‘Hope and the Super Green Highway’ is Helen Moore’s brilliant page turning sequel to ‘Hope and the Magic Martian’. The author cleverly weaves together evocative facts about Nature from around the world with the web-surfing lifestyle of today’s children. The appearance of an exotic tropical tree frog in a box of bananas sets Hope off on a quest to learn more. The efforts of her internet pen pal, Cloud Boy, to protect his tropical rainforest inspire her and her grandmother to take steps to look after their own local, badly littered and dangerous wood. By setting this gripping story in a time when carbon is traded with ‘Ice Caps’, Helen Moore gives a glimpse of how life could be when fuel is rationed and the cost of food reflects the miles it’s travelled. Warm, intelligent, inspiring and thought provoking, this story is ideal for children from 8 to 12. It should be in every primary school. The meaning of this tale is in the heroine’s name. This is a story that gives hope, something that we all need right now." review by- Eric Maddern, storyteller and children's author 2) a teenage fiction book called 'The Carbon Diaries 2015' by Saci Lloyd. What struck me as a strong point of this book is that it gives a glimpse of what would happen if the government suddenly imposed carbon rationing upon people who had previously not made any of their own journeys into Transition. There are those who believe that carbon reductions should all be done at government level and then implemented downwards (the 'they will solve it' way of thinking). This book really highlights why that will not work, and although the book chronicles hard times as the characters all adapt with having to get by with less of everything, it is ultimately not cynical and hopeless. (Jane - member at Transition Network)

A vertical garden or living wall

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63D2UkkTtBQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Of course, how long they last or how easy they are to maintain is another option. But there's no reason we shouldn't be trying them for growing food..

WATER WARS

Change our value systemsa and our lifestyle %80 of energy springs frm homes