Meeting to discuss workspace space and future event plans

We’re planning a meet up on 29th July 2019 at 7pm to discuss the possible uses of a garage space at the rear of Fearon Hall that we’re being offered the rental of.  This would give Transition Loughborough dedicated space to store some larger items (such as our gazebo) and also space that could be used for workshops, especially “messier” ones such as apple pressing courses, bike repair sessions, and woodworking projects. We’re meeting at the old garage itself – accessible to the side of Fearon Hall at 7pm to look at the space available, discuss how we could use it and then decide if we want to commit some of our funds to rent it and fit it out for our use.

After spending an hour or so in the garage, we may then walk down to the Boat Inn to discuss planning for events later in the summer such as the Mela, Fair Trade Fair, the next Repair Cafe, a BBQ celebration at the allotment, apple pressings and the Christmas Tree Festival (yes, Christmas planning in July!).

All are welcome to come along – its a great chance to meet up with some Transition folk and help influence what we’re going to be working on in the next six months. Just arrive at Fearon Hall before 7pm and we’ll take you to the garage space to start the discussions.

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Fete on the Green this weekend

This Saturday sees the return of the Fete on the Green held on the grass at Fearon Hall/All Saints Parish Church (near the Three Nuns pub, just up Churchgate from the town centre) from 11am-3pm.

Transition Loughborough will have a stall at the event, and Caroline from Marches Energy Agency will be bringing the Fantastic Homes van along as well to help distribute energy saving advice. Our stall will have some plants grown by the LAGS students on the University campus, and we’ll have volunteers on hand who you can talk to about Transition, reducing your carbon footprint and how to get involved with some of other projects.

There’s lots more to see and do at the event and the weather looks set to be great this weekend, so hopefully we’ll see you at the Fete!

Eco-social at The Boat Inn 24th June 2019 at 7pm

It’s time for another get together to talk about eco-friendly projects and what different groups in Charnwood are up to. Yes, it’s another eco-social evening!

As before it’s being held at the Boat Inn alongside the canal in Loughborough. The date & time for your diaries is 24th June 2019 at 7pm. If you’ve been wanting to get involved more with Transition Loughborough, find out what we do, or just want to meet some like minded folk for a chat and a drink (non-alcoholic too!) then this relaxed, informal meet up is for you! Don’t be shy – pop along, buy a drink and then join us for a chat.

Picnic in the Park stop press venue change

We’ve just been told that, because of the expected rain & wind tomorrow (Saturday 8th June), the Picnic in the Park stalls are being moved to Fearon Hall, in Rectory Road (opposite side of the town centre from Queens Park). We’ll still be there with information on Transition Loughborough projects and energy saving advice – just a lot drier than we would otherwise have been!

Picnic in the Park Saturday 8th June

One of the highlights of the summer in Loughborough every year is the Charnwood Arts Picnic in the Park event, and this year is no exception. The event takes place on Saturday June 8th 2019 in Queens Park in Loughborough. The Picnic in the Park is the opportunity for local people to enjoy watching dancers, listening to music and talking with community groups from the town.

We’ll be there with some stalls hosting information about Transition Loughborough. This year the Marches Energy Agency “Fantastic Home” mobile exhibition van will be with us thanks to a grant from Charnwood Borough Council to help offer energy efficiency and money saving advice. The whole event is free, so please pop round to Queens Park on Saturday 8th June and say hello! If you or people you know want to find out more about how to get involved with Transition Loughborough, this is the ideal event to come along to as we’ll have plenty of time to chat (hopefully in the sunshine!)

Transition Loughborough stalls at a previous Picnic in the Park

 

Need somewhere to garden whilst helping others?

We’ve been contacted by Roz from BACA, a local charity specialising in providing specialist supported accommodation and development training for young people who are 16 years and over. They specifically work with separated young people who are seeking asylum, some of whom have been victims of trafficking.

They have recently purchased their first house in Loughborough which is a very exciting time for them. The house has a large garden and lots of allotment raised beds for growing vegetables.

Roz would like to get in touch with anyone who would consider volunteering with BACA to help them maintain their new garden space. The opportunity might sometimes involve showing the young people what is being done and how the garden is being maintained. Full training and induction would be provided to anyone joining their volunteer team, including all safeguarding training. Any volunteers who would be interested in providing them with help maintaining their garden would also be able to grow vegetables of their choice in the raised beds and keep all produce grown.

So if you’d like to get involved with this project, help young adults get into gardening and be able to grow your own, please contact Roz via email: roz.crouch@bacacharity.org.uk

Weekly Wednesday Gardening Sessions Restarting

It is March, so that means that our regularly Wednesday summer evening social gardening sessions are restarting!  From Wednesday 20th March we’ll be meeting from 5pm at our community allotment plots off King George Road  The postcode for sat navs is LE11 2PA – go through wooden gate (as shown below), down path, along on the right to find our plots.

The gate for the lane that leads from King George Road to our allotment plots

No gardening skills are necessary! Bring some good shoes though. Its a great place to garden socially with others, get in some outdoor physical activity and have fun whilst growing food and flowers.

We will be there regularly again every Wednesday, and some of us may start earlier in the afternoon, depending on availability. If there’s nobody there when you arrive, grab a seat on the patio near the shed and watch the local wildlife in peace!

For Wednesday 20th March, the plan is to plant out the first potatoes which we kept for chitting from the Potato Day. We can also plant out some more onions and garlic plants.

Come and bring some friends along too!

Thank you for recent events – and film heads up

A quick note to say thank you to all the people who have supported and attended our two recent weekend events.  They were both great successes!

The Potato Day last week went very well and we were in profit by 9am. Our income was boosted by refreshment sales in the Baptist Church hall on the Saturday morning, so many thanks to the team there as well as on the market stall. The profits from Potato Day go towards paying for Transition Loughborough’s annual expenses – things like the event insurance and rent for the community allotment. By doing this we aren’t relying on grant incomes for basic operational costs, which can some times be difficult to get or limited in what they can cover.  It allows us to give free or low cost entry to other events throughout the year. Of course we’re also helping local gardeners get reasonably priced seed potatoes, onions, garlic, seeds and supplies . We hope you all enjoy the resulting crops later in the year, and we look forward to seeing your photos.

This weekend saw our bumper repair, energy advice, upcycling and seed swap event take place in Fearon Hall.  It was very well attended and we saw lots of smiling faces! Many thanks to all who volunteered their time to help – and we’ve had several people contact us wanting to volunteer for future events which is great. And thank you to the folks at Fearon Hall for hosting us once again. We were teamed up with the folk from Leicester Fixers who run their own regular electrical repair events in Leicester, and we talked with people from other towns who came along to see what we do that they can replicate in their localities.

Blue movie poster

And now for a quick heads up for an environmental event that Transition Loughborough isn’t organising, but which you might be interested in.  On Wednesday 20th March, 2019 at 6:30PM a group are aiming to show the environmental documentary film Blue at the Odeon in the Cattle Market in Loughborough. Blue looks at how the oceans are broken, and what we can do to fix them. The last forty years have seen a massive loss in marine life, and we’re on course to having more plastic than fish in the seas with the next thirty years. Pollution, loss of habitat and species extinction are all problems that the film looks at. The organising group (which includes some Transition Loughborough members) need 40 people to reserve tickets in order to make it viable – you can reserve yours online here.

Stop press additions to Saturday’s event

Just a quick posting to give everyone a heads up about some last minute additions to the event we’re holding between 10am and 1pm at Fearon Hall this coming Saturday (2nd February 2019).

Firstly we have another new volunteer repairer join our team this week who will be able to tackle basic bike repairs and troubleshooting. We’ve had bike repairers at Repair Cafes in the past which have proved popular, so it’s great to have Jonny coming along to concentrate on bikes this weekend. We’ll also have repairers covering electricals/electronics, toys, garment repair, general repairs and tool sharpening, as well as a stall demonstrating how to “upcycle” household items to give them a new life.

A Transition Loughborough bicycle maintenance workshop

Secondly Caroline has offered to do a third talk at 11.30am called ‘Stay Warm at Home This Winter’.  It will cover saving money, switching suppliers and help available for people struggling with energy bills. Caroline will also touch on energy efficiency options that can save money whilst also cutting your carbon footprint. This talk is in addition to the one-to-one energy advice stand she’ll be running for the the rest of Saturday morning at the event. The other two talks we have on Saturday are by Marie from Leicester Fixers at 10:30am on encouraging the spread of repair education at home and in schools, and a talk on growing exotic vegetables given by Hiron at 11:00am. All the talks are free (as is entry to the events as a whole).

The last addition to the previously announced plan is the possibility (weather permitting!) of having the neighbouring wildlife garden attached to Fearon Hall open. Gardeners coming along for our seed swap are encouraged to pop “out the back” for a few minutes and see what the team working there have achieved. You can even lend a hand!

It’s worth mentioning for gardeners that we’ll also have the remaining “buy on the day ” seed potatoes from last week’s successful Potato Day available for sale. Not many left mind, so please get there early if you missed out last weekend. These will be alongside the free seed swap with Martha.

Repairing, restarting, upcycling, seed swapping and energy advice event

On Saturday 2nd Feb 2019 in Fearon Hall from 10am to 1pm we will be running a bumper event that covers a number of Transition related topics.  A little something for everyone… so read on to find out what may interest you.

Firstly we will be partnering with the Leicester Fixers group to hold another of our popular Repair Cafes. As before if you have something that is broken, that you don’t know how to fix and that you are just going to throw away, bring it along to see if one of our volunteer tinkerers can show you how to repair it. We can do many repairs for free there and then, but if not the repairer will explain what parts might be needed, where to get them, how much they should cost and how you can fit them.  You need to stay with the item you want fixed (this isn’t a repair shop where you can drop things off and pick them up later – our repairers will want to talk to you and show you things!) and whilst there are obviously no guarantees we’ll do our best to fix things. A new addition this time is a “toy hospital” which may be able to resurrect toys that didn’t quite survive from Christmas into the New Year!

To complement the repairing, we’ll have the Emily from Upcycle Your Life on hand to demonstrate how items that are normally wasted may be able to have useful second lives around your home. There’ll be information  on reducing waste & saving money available and maybe some giveaways too..

Alongside the Repair Cafe, Marie Lefebvre from Leicester Fixers will be giving a short talk at 10:30am on encouraging the spread of repair education at home and in schools. If you have children or are a teacher, this talk will be of great interest to you. Having our young people pick up both repair skills and a culture of repairing rather than buying-and-dumping is something we need to work on to give us a sustainable future. There are already moves afoot in worldwide to get repairability of products given more emphasis during design & manufacture, as we need to ensure less material is consumed and heads to landfill.

Moving on from repairing, we will have our annual Seed Swap running all morning. This is usually very popular with local gardeners and is very simple. Just bring along any old, unwanted, duplicate, part used or self saved seeds that you have, drop the packets on the swap table and then have a rumage to see what seed packets you’d like to take away. No money changes hands and it’s a great way to weed your seed tins whilst picking up interesting new seeds to sow this season. You can bring and take as many packets as you like – you don’t need to do a one-for-one swap. Our gardening expert Martha will be on hand to help with growing and sowing advice.

To fit in with the seed swap, another talk will take place at 11am when Hiron will be telling us how to grow and use more exotic vegetables in the UK. This will interest our Food & Gardens supporters, who may find some exotic veg seeds in the seed swap! We have had people grow all sorts of Asian vegetables at our Community Allotment plots off King George Road, so we know exotic veggies can grow in the town.

Last but not least, Transition Loughborough’s Energy Group will be represented by Caroline from Marches Energy Agency. She will be able to give you expert advice and information on home energy issues. Want to improve the energy efficiency of your home? Wonder if you can apply for a grant? Or want to save money by switching energy supplier but don’t know how to? Caroline can help!

Entry to this event is free so come along and get help with repairing, upcycling, growing and improving your home energy.