Natural swimming pools - I want one

I'd like a natural swimming pool in my future eco-house. My dad has tried to transform a set of ponds into swimming poinds, up in Yorkshire, but it's very murky and there's only about 1 day each year when you might consider swimming in it... these ones look a lot nicer: http://www.theswimmingpondcompany.co.uk/about.html and a video: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTjHbXzvG6M&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Food Waste

Following on from my Bloody Well Smell It post, I want to investigate how food outlets and restaurants in my local area deal with their waste. Here's a professional service for food waste collection and composting, but it's based in Essex. I wonder if anything similar exists in Brent. I need to get a campaign going under the Transition umbrella... and then tie it to free compost for our gardens... Juniper Food Waste Run by a team of dedicated and experienced professionals, our sole purpose at Juniper is to provide a food waste collection service that is cost effective and efficient, that addresses corporate social responsibility and regulatory requirements, in a manner that is environmentally sound.

Sprouting - the joys of

I've given up using the 3 tiered sprouter from Planet Organic as it didn't work - seeds went mouldy, water went stagnant, seeds all clumped up, etc. Turns out you just need a large jar anyway. 1) wash the seeds. Lentil, mung bean, alfafa, chickpea, fenugreek, try 'em all. Bigger ones take longer to sprout. 2) Fill the jar with an inch or 2 of water and leave the seeds in there for 24 hours. 3) Rinse out the water and leave the jar on its side with the seeds spread out. Cover with a teatowel - they have to germinate in the dark.Don't screw the jar lid on too tightly so a bit of air can escape. 4) Every 24 hours or so, rinse the seeds. 5) after 3 days, check to see if you can harvest them.... It's absolutely worth getting into the habit of doing this because they're so yummy in salads - and they are the healthiest food you can eat, full of living enzymes. See these for inspiration: http://www.sproutpeople.com/cookery.html https://www.livingfood.co.uk/

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

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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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?