Brockley in transition: the year in review

So as the year draws to an end and the seemingly endless cycle of freezing temperatures and snow carries on it seems like a good time to reflect on some of the things that the group have been up to throughout the year. Note, there's a deliberate slant towards the things we've been up to rather than talking about Brockley generally but if you do want to read about that then take a look at a good round up on Brockley Central.

Hilly Fields Orchard

We were hoping to have planted the orchard by now but we had to postpone the planting due to the recent weather however, Saturday 15th January is the new date for your diary so please come along between 11am – 1pm.

Members of the group have also undertaken orchard management training organised by the London Orchard Project and will be looking to train others up to help with maintenance after the planting.

Fruit Harvesting

Inspired by projects such as Sheffield’s Abundance project where unwanted fruit is collected and distributed we decided to map and collect Brockley’s unwanted fruit and redistribute to local people and refuge centres. A number of harvesting events took place and the whole project was very successful. Time Out online even featured us as one of London's best harvesting projects! Plans are afoot for next years harvesting where hopefully Brockley's fruit may manifest itself in a more preserved form...watch this space!

Brockley Common Planting

We held working days to transform a barren piece of wasteland into something more productive which could be used by the local community. This culminated in being part of the Brockley Cross Action Group's tenth anniversary celebrating the hard work done by the local community in transforming the area around the station.

Hilly Fields Fayre

This year we decided to take a slightly more proactive role in the Fayre by helping to organise a number of stalls alongside our own with organisations that have environmental interests at heart such as Global Action Plan, Frendsbury Gardens and Lewisham Waste Initiatives.

Other things we've been up to...

Alongside Transition Westcombe we took part in discussions with local supermarkets to discuss how they could cut their carbon footprints. We also got Brockley's local Costcutter shop to take part in Plastic Bag Free Day.

Continued to support such initiatives as 9 Carrots culminating Mr Lawrence Wine Bar becoming the first 9 Carrots project to reach its target; Frendsbury Gardens who continued to blossom with their useful workshops; St. Saviours Community Garden which keeps on growing and helped to stem the plight of Brockley's bee population following the workshop we had with Capital Bee last year.

Finally, we hope you've enjoyed taking part in any of the activities we've been involved in this year and hope that you will continue to support us as we will continue to support the local community by being as proactive and educational as we can!

Have a happy new year!

Merry Christmas!

From all at Transition Brockley have a happy Christmas!

Orchard update

Following the cancellation of the planned orchard planting in December we're now able to tell you of a new date which is Saturday 15th January 11am - 1pm. We also have more information about the varieties of apple we're planting below:

If you are interested in helping out with the planting or even adopting a tree to help with the aftercare and maintenance then please do come along. If you can't come but are interested in the orchard and the potential it offers then please feel free to contact email us.

Carina from the London Orchard Project has emailed to tell us about the varieties of tree will be planting at the new orchard. There's a mixture of eating and cooking apples and also 1 variety suitable for the cider lovers!

Egremont Russet
'The definitive English russet apple, with the charateristic sweet/dry "nutty" flavour.'

Lord Lambourne Apple
'Popular garden variety, many uses, good balance of sweet and sharp.'

Kidd's Orange Red Apple
'One of the best Cox-style apples, and adds some of the scented flavour of Delicious. A good apple for the gardener as well.'

James Grieve Apple
'A versatile cooking apple, excellent for juice, and widely used in breeding programmes.'

Saturn Apple
'An excellent modern English apple variety, developed at the famous East Malling research station.'

Arthur Turner Apple
'Attractive flowers and a versatile apple for cooking.'

Somerset Redstreak Apple
'A solid cider variety, the Somerset Redstreak is the apple behind Thatchers Redstreak Cider, which won the 2007 International Cider and Perry Competition.'

Hilly Fields Orchard Planting *UPDATE*

Sadly the weather beat us and we have had to postpone the planting until the new year. It is likely to be sometime in January where hopefully the weather will be a bit kinder to us!

Keep checking for more updates or sign up to the email list.

-----------------------------------------

Planting is still going ahead as measures have been taken to keep the tree plots from freezing and our arboriculturalists have advised that there should not be a problem with the planting. The forecast is good for Saturday, so come and join us!!!!

Everyone is welcome to join in with (or just watch) the planting of a small apple orchard on Hilly Fields (next to the Stone Circle) from 11.00am to 1.00pm on Saturday 4 December (see poster above). This will be the first community orchard in a major park in the borough of Lewisham and we are delighted to be initiating this
project, together with the Friends of Hilly Fields and the London Orchard Project, with funding from Capital Growth and support from Lewisham Council and Glendale.

The orchard is being planted to promote the growing of fruit locally (in an area which previously had many fruit orchards), to provide habitat for wildlife, and for people to enjoy.

It will be a family activity day, with digging, planting, composting, mulching and treeguard staking.

Come along for some warming spiced apple juice, hot apple soup and apple-themed sweet things.

Lewisham Green Drinks

Lewisham Green Drinks is a social event that takes place every first Monday of the month at Mr Lawrence Wine Bar in Crofton Park. Everyone is welcome and it's a great opportunity to meet people from all walks of life - local allotment holders, real ale afficianados, Lewisham Cyclists, trade justice campaigners, Lewisham Council officers, Friends of the Earth, Christian Aid, World Development Movement, Lewisham & Greenwich CND, Sydenham Society, Forest Hill Society, the occasional politician and of course fellow transitioners!

The monthly event has been running for around 3 years and has a healthy turn out each month supplemented by the fine food and drink that Mr Lawrence has on offer.

If you've never been before then give it a go! It's a great way to meet interesting new people and share your thoughts on the world.

The next event is on Monday 1st November from 7:30pm. Drop in any time from then on. The night usually sees people coming and going at various different times so if you find yourself feeling lonely don't panic people will come!

If you would like to subscribe to the email list to receive updates on the events please visit this website and join up! You can also join the Facebook group and see who's coming and who's not.

On a separate but related note if anyone would like to talk about a particular topic at any of the forthcoming Green Drinks events then please send an email to this address and we will get back to you with some details.

Venue Details:
Mr Lawrence Wine Bar
389 Brockley Road
Crofton Park
SE4 2PH

Today is National Apple Day...

...so it would seem apt to tell you about the forthcoming plans for the new orchard at Hilly Fields.

11am, Saturday 4th December is the date to put in your diary when members of Transition Brockley, Hilly Fields Park User Group, The London Orchard Project and as many members of the public as possible will descend upon the land next to the stone circle to plant the new trees. Almost a year in the making what started out as a passionate speech at one of our meetings by Rowena from the London Orchard Project is now just over a month away from becoming reality.

Carina from the London Orchard Project (LOP) was hoping to be able to tell us which varieties of tree we could expect by now but for this particular planting LOP and their tree expert, Russell have decided to take stock of the existing orchards they have planted, not just LOP orchards but ones that Russell has worked on over the last 10 years, so that they can get a sense of which varieties work well in London soil. Hopefully Carina should be in a position to give us a list of suggested varieties by the end of October.

If you want to find out more about National Apple Day then please visit this website which gives details about events going on around the country, not just today but at the weekend too. Organised by a group called Common Ground the annual event has been running for 21 years. Sue Clifford from Common Ground says:

 “Apple Day is not a marketing device, its creation has been impelled by altruism and idealism for living better with nature – the apple and the orchard are symbols of hope. They demonstrate how we can have our trees, bees, bats, butterflies, birds and badgers whilst growing good fruit to eat and drink.”

Apples and Pears...

Here's some more images of the fruit harvesting project. This time apples and pears were harvested by members of the public alongside Transition Brockley's fruit harvesting team. Fran has invested in a telescopic fruit picker which seems to be proving very useful to reach fruit that is out of reach by hand or on a ladder.

For more info on how to get involved with the fruit harvesting please contact Katie at:

brockleyharvest@yahoo.com

Hilly Fields Orchard Update

As most readers will be aware this year we have been planting herbs, vegetables and fruits at Brockley Station to complement BXAG's flower beds and have been trialling the harvesting of local fruit. Our last field major field activity of the year is the planting of the new orchard in Hilly Fields Park. Having spent most of the last year planning this in co-ordination with the London Orchard Project and the Park User Group we now have a date for your diary for the actual planting of the orchard: Saturday 4th December

All are welcome and we'll have a more detailed schedule of events closer to the time.

Frendsbury aims to break bulb planting record

Stella from Frendsbury Gardens has been in touch to highlight a potential world record event taking place at the end of the month. She writes:

The Friends of Frendsbury Gardens in conjunction with The Rotary Club and Brockley Cross Action Group, will be planting 2500 crocuses at Frendsbury Gardens and other SE4 locations on 31st October 2010 as part of a bulb planting record attempt. This is also an opportunity to raise awareness about immunising children against polio, which is an objective of the Rotary club.

They aim to beat the current record of 331 people planting 5 bulbs each in an hour so need as many people as possible to come and support the attempt .

You are invited to join them in this attempt and the details for registration can be found here. If you are interested in participating, please contact : friendsfrendsburygarden@gmail.com

Transition Brockley mentioned as one of London's best harvesting groups!

From time to time we like to let people know when a well-known organisation or publication decides that our group is worthy of some coverage so here's a link that Time Out London ran recently on its website with regard to our fruit harvesting project.

We're not actually aware of the criteria for judging the 'best' harvesting groups in London so can only assume that the author of the article has sound judgement when it comes to assessing fruit hauls. It's good to see other groups also participating in harvesting unwanted fruit and perhaps in the future we can hook up with them...

Brockley Common - A Post Celebration

For anyone that made it down to Brockley Station on Saturday they had a treat as the Brockley Cross Action Group and Transition Brockley alongside many volunteers and some of Brockley's very talented people came together to provide visitors with food, drink, musical entertainment and hopefully a bit of inspiration! The Brockley Cross Action Group have done wonders in transforming the area around the station and it will only get better as time goes on with plans for a performance space and hopefully new station facilities sometime in the future providing a welcome gateway into Brockley for residents and visitors.

It's early days in our quest to harvest Brockley's unwanted fruit and we're quickly finding out about the logistics of such an operation but I'm pleased to report that it's proving to be very rewarding and great fun!

Our first harvest of the day began at a house in Breakspears Road, Brockley where we were confronted by the most wonderful site of huge pear trees, likely to have been a part of Brockley's past heritage and many different varieties of Apple. We were tasked with picking Bramley cooking apples from a very well-trained tree which has obviously had a lot of love and time given to it over the years. The pictures below show the tree and volunteers in action. We tried out our new fruit picker with its handy prongs and basket which allow you to pick the apples easily and collect them in one move without straining too much. In all we picked around 10 boxes of apples of which 4 were to go down to Brockley Common to be given away to passers by.

The Apple Tree

Using the new apple picker

The second harvest at a house in Algiers Road by Katie and Caroline in the afternoon provided eating apples to compliment what we had on offer but we didn't just have apples though as we also gave away the damsons picked earlier in the week alongside fruits picked at the station from our own plot and also the hedgerow nearby.

One of the highlights of the day was one of our visitors who took it upon herself to take some of the apples and bake a pie only to come back within an hour and allow us to sell it to very willing customers! A prime example of how quickly fruit can be transformed from the point of picking to something different but very tasty.

Our stall in front of the garden we created and some keen customers tuck into the apple pie that one very generous and enthusiastic visitor made after taking some apples frm our stall.

At the end of the day we managed to give away all the fruit we picked which was great and make people more aware of the things we do and promote the fruit harvesting and new orchard underway this autumn.

You can view more photos of the day here

Thankyou to all that helped out!

Dam good harvesting!

Tonight saw the first harvesting event of the year as two members of Transition Brockley made their way to a home in nearby Grove Park to pick Damsons which will be given away to visitors to the event at Brockley Common on Saturday.

When the offer of harvesting Damsons was first suggested by a friend we lept at the chance to use it as a bit of a trial run before the major harvests of the autumn. With tarpaulin, boxes and our new handy apple picker we managed to pick around 200 Damsons.

Picking Damsons

Our damson haul and a couple of apples

 

Brockley Common - A Celebration

Rupert from the Brockley Cross Action Group has emailed to let us know about an event taking place soon to celebrate the fine work that has been done and ongoing at Brockley Station. It sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun!

Click on the image above to find out about all the main event details but in addition to this Transition Brockley will be there too. We'll be available to chat to any interested visitors about the community garden we created at the end of the ramp where hopefully a performance space will one day materialise.

Transition Snippets...*UPDATED*

Tomorrow night (Weds 25th August) members of the group will be meeting up to carry on the maintenance work at the Brockley Common community garden followed by a meeting at The Orchard bar to discuss the fruit harvesting.

If you're interested then just turn up! We'll be at the end of the ramp up to the station amongst the leaves!

There will be a further update with some photos after tomorrows meeting.

*UPDATE*

Unfortunately owing to the terrible weather we had to postpone a session of weeding however the watering was well taken care of!

Here's an image to show you how the garden is progressing though! Fran has now installed a temporary sign showing visitors what you can find in the garden.

Summer fruits [updated]

Transition Brockley and now founding member of Transition Sydenham, Alona sent us this link to an interesting article in the Guardian which looks at the potential for foraging in the streets and land that surrounds us. This ties in nicely with our proposed harvesting of Brockley's currently unharvested fruit trees this autumn.

A particularly useful link in the article is this one which takes you to a 2 page supplement illustrating the 'food' year and when certain fruits and salads are available.

To illustrate just how much free fruit is available to us if we look at our bushes and hedgerows a little more closely a friend of Transition Brockley picked two bowls of blackberries last week (see above) and there is still more available so get out there, take a walk around and see what you can find! If you do find something let us know via the comments section or email this address and we'll add it to our edible foraging map which will be something a bit like this but for Brockley.

*UPDATE*

One TB member took upon himself to seek out Brockley's bounty and the fruits of his labour are shown below in the form of a Blackberry Crumble!

9 Carrots help Mr Lawrence see the light

9 Carrots reports that Mr Lawrence Wine Bar in Crofton Park has managed to hit its target of changing its light bulbs from old style incandescent bulbs to energy efficient ones in just 3 months!

Mr Lawrence said: “We all want to do our bit to help the planet, of course, but this scheme is a great incentive to really look at how we can save energy. I'm delighted to be the first business to reach the target and make a green upgrade. We're proof that the scheme really works!”

Transition Brockley member, Fran Rogers who helped sign the wine bar up to the 9carrots scheme, said: “We're always hearing advice about how we should save energy as individuals, but we need to get businesses interested in sustainability too. Transition Brockley sees the 9carrots scheme as a great way to get businesses involved.”

Mr.Lawrence has asked 9carrots to advise him on how else he can save energy, and is now looking at installing solar panels. Hear about his new target and how other businesses are going green by signing up for updates.

Transition Brockley bumped into Annesley from 9 Carrots last week before the monthly Lewisham Green Drinks held at Mr Lawrence Wine Bar. Annesley had been trialling some of the new light bulbs with Mr Lawrence but unfortunately there are a few teething problems as the current dimmer switch system doesn't support the bulbs they were hoping to install however they are hoping to overcome these fairly soon.

To find out more about what 9 Carrots is and how they are working with local businesses see here. Other local businesses signed up to 9 Carrots include:

The Shop on the Hill
EXP Chinese Takeaway
Royal Tandoori Indian Takeaway
Cafe Crema (New Cross)
Marquis of Granby pub (New Cross)

Brockley Fruit Harvesting

Have you got a fruit tree? Donate part of your tree's harvest for distribution to the local community (you get first share, of course). 

Or volunteer to be an urban harvester (September and October) and have fun getting involved with picking, distributing and / or processing the fruit. 

Then.... come along to a harvest celebration

Further info:

 

Brockley has an abundance of fruit trees and a lot of fruit goes to waste because the fruit isn't picked.

 

As a preliminary to the fruit orchard planting in Hilly Fields Park in November, and also as an independent project, Transition Brockley is organising some local fruit harvesting in the autumn. The aim of harvesting is to benefit from our local produce, raise awareness of the fruit bounty on our doorsteps, help people harvest their fruit and redistribute the surplus amongst the community on a non-profit basis.

 

We will need lots of volunteers for the actual harvesting and distribution, but to start with we'd like to map what fruit trees there are in the area. Most of them are in gardens, so if you know of any, we'd love it if you could tell us the type of fruit tree (ie apple, pear, plum etc) and the address. If you know approximately when the fruit is ready for picking that would be helpful too.

If you'd like to be involved in any way, please let us know. Some of the things that need doing are:

• Mapping the trees (with details of address, cropping time, owner's contact details)
• Contacting owners of fruit trees by knocking on the door, talking to them and leaving a leaflet.
• Identifying sources of, and collecting boxes and crates for carrying fruit.
• Harvesting (tree climbers, tarpaulin holders and sorters).
• Loan of equipment e.g. fruit picker, bike trailer, large juicer / crusher
• Helping with an event to celebrate with juicing and sampling of other uses of fruits (possibly on Hilly Fields).

This is an exciting project very much in tune with Transition priorities for working as a community to reduce our carbon footprint and we hope that you will be inspired to assist in some way.

If you can help please contact: Brockleyharvest@yahoo.co.uk by the 11th September, if possible (after that date also ok)

Performance Planting > Take 2

This evening members of Transition Brockley spent some time tending to the temporary performance space planting on Brockley Common which was started back in June. As well as weeding the plants we also gave the site a good water along with the main beds planted by the Brockley Cross Action Group.

We picked our first vegetables with some rather large radishes having grown extremely quickly! Also progressing well are the tomato plants, sunflowers, various lettuce varieties and more radishes!

Hilly Fields Fayre

Last weekend saw the annual fayre at Hilly Fields take place and Transition Brockley was there alongside other environmentally orientated organisations such as Lewisham Waste Initiatives, Frendsbury Gardens, Global Action Plan, and Sustainable Energy in Lewisham. Fran kindly took some pictures which you can see below:

Hilly Fields Fayre - just days away!

This years Fayre at Hilly Fields organised by the Brockley Society is just days away! This year Transition Brockley have been co-ordinating a 'green' themed area with a number of local environmentally-themed participants including Global Action Plan, Lewisham Waste Initiatives, Lewisham Sustainable Resources Team, Frendsbury Gardens and 9 Carrots alongside our own stall which will have information on all the things we have been involved in. You can find out more details about the Fayre and view the programme here Come along and say hello!

Hilly Fields Orchard Update

Carina from the London Orchard Project has sent through details of the proposed orchard and we've now prepared a plan of the site with proposed trees shown (see below).

Carina writes:

We are proposing to plant 7 fruit trees on the level patch of grass at the bottom of the slope with the stone circle. Semi-mature trees on the patch will be retained, and planting will be amongst the existing trees.


The proposal is to plant 7 apple trees, including a mixture of common and heritage varieties, with fruit of different colour and cropping at different times throughout the harvest season. Some of the varieties are known for their hardiness, making them more likely to succeed, or are doing particularly well on our current sites.


The proposed varieties are as follows.


1. Egremont Russet: Late Victorian English variety, most important commercial Russet, good frost tolerance, nutty flavour ripe in mid-September.


2. Tydeman’s Late Orange: variety raised in 1930s in Kent, rich aromatic flavour, firm and sweet, orange to red in colour, picking time mid October. A cross between a Laxton Superb and a Cox Orange Pippin, but a lot easier to grow than a Cox Orange Pippin. Picking time mid-October.


3. Greensleeves: green to yellow mid-season apple, popular with children as it is a cross with a Golden Delicious, picking time mid-September.


4. James Grieve: Received an Award of Merit from the RHS in 1897, produces juicy and tangy fruit and crops heavily and regularly.


5. Sunset: Raised in Kent in 1918, produces golden fruit with red stripes, with a firm, crisp texture and an intense cox like flabour. Picking time late September.


6. Arthur Turner: Cooking apple, excellent for baking and famous for its outstanding pink blossom. Picking time is August to September. Raised in Berkshire in 1912.


7. Kingston Black: Cider apple, producing small conical fruit, maroon colour. The flavour is bittersweet and aromatic, ideal for making cider.


Varieties will be finalised after the Hilly Fields Fayre where people will be allowed to vote for their preferred choices, and depending on our suppliers’ availability closer to the time of the planting.


Two of the trees will be grafted on MM106 rootstock resulting in trees that will grow up to approximately 4 metres after 10 years, and produce 90-110 lb of apples. These trees are “semi-vigorous”, and will be placed closer to the side of the ditch. It will be easy for passers by to help themselves to the fruit.


The remaining five will be grafted on M25 rootstock, which will produce a standard tree, over 5 metres high. These bigger trees are the ones found in traditional orchards, and their larger size will make them more in keeping with the other semi-mature trees in the area, although fruit collection will be more difficult. These trees will be placed amongst the existing semi-mature trees.


The trees will be double staked and double guarded, to minimise the risk of accidental or deliberate damage.


It is suggested to hold the planting event on 27th November, with training of park users and Transition Town members planned for the 6th or 7th November (to be confirmed).

We'll keep you updated on progress.

Performance Planting

You might have noticed the new planting beds at Brockley Station recently completed by the Brockley Cross Action Group. This site has been in planning for many years and with the new London Overground arriving in Brockley it is a timely improvement to the area. In addition to the beds is a planned performance space at the end of the ramps at the Brockley Cross end of the site. Due to funding issues this has had to be put on hold so BXAG approached Transition Brockley to see if we would like to co-ordinate the temporary planting of this area.

With no set budget and the group appealed for plants and people to help spruce up the barren patch of earth and in just a few hours the hardwork of 5 or 6 people turned the space into a productive and more beautiful patch of land. The plan below shows the different types of plant that have been planted. Many of them have been planted from seed so you might not see much for a little while!

The job is not finished though as careful nurturing and watering of the plants is required and a joint effort between the Brockley Cross Action Group and Transition Brockley members will carry out maintenance. The planting in this space is not yet finished so if you would still like to contribute any plants or seeds then feel free to plant them; all we ask is that you avoid planting where any plants or seeds have already been sown and continue to help with the maintanance of the site.

Transition hits Hilly Fields Fayre!

This years Hilly Fields Fayre will be graced with an environmentally themed area with Transition Brockley leading the way by co-ordinating other like-minded people such as Global Action Plan, 9 Carrots, and Frendsbury Gardens to join up and raise environmental awareness in Brockley.


Also expected is home-made ice cream using eggs from some of TB's members' own chickens alongside a wide range entertainments, activities and other stalls.


The Fayre is on Saturday 19th June and is one of the highlights of the local calender so do come along!

Fruit Harvesting in Brockley

Inspired by Grow Sheffield's Abundance project and in conjunction with Transition Brockley's own attempts to recreate Brockley's strong history of orchards Katie recently hosted an evening of tasty snacks and chat about the potential of fruit harvesting in Brockley. 


As we found at the meeting fruit harvesting can be quite a daunting task with plenty of logistics to overcome before the first fruit is plucked from a tree. However, as can be seen in Sheffield with the Abundance project it is possible to do and can produce many benefits for local groups. Helpfully the group in Sheffield have now produced a handbook which will no doubt prove invaulable to harvesters.


The next stage for the group is to establish some key parameters for the project:


- Who will benefit from the fruit?
- Which areas to target?
- Mapping Brockley's fruit trees
- Sourcing equipment required for harvesting


If you're interested in harvesting or have fruit trees which don't get harvested then please contact Katie

Hilly Fields Orchard Update

Back in February Rowena from the London Orchard Project (L.O.P.) came to one of our meetings to talk about a new London-wide scheme with the aim of increasing London's orchards and to see if we would like to be involved in setting up a new orchard somewhere in Brockley. One of the aims of Transition Brockley is to improve the area's self-sufficiency and awareness of the abundance of food freely available to us. Brockley has a long history of market gardens and orchards with some very old trees still surviving in back gardens so it seems quite apt that Brockley should once again house more orchards.


On Saturday 15th May Carina and Rowena from L.O.P. came to Brockley, firstly to check out the orchard that they helped to start at Lilac House which is reported as doing very well, but also to check out the site at Hilly Fields in preparation for a new orchard to be planted in November 2010. Carina and Rowena brought Russell Miller (L.O.P. principle tree expert) with them to assist in deciding on suitable positions for new trees. Also present were Rachel from the Hilly Fields Park User Group and Alex from Transition Brockley.


There was plenty to discuss including siting of the trees, potential varieties, funding, maintenance, protection etc. The site of the new orchard is planned to be on a lower part of ground next to the stone circle which is sheltered and would be ideal for new trees. After a walk around the site Russell suggested we could probably look at about 7 new trees on the site. We discussed what type of fruit trees to have and it seems that Apple varieties and possibly Pear or Plum look likely. Carina will narrow down our (very long) list of choices and we'll put it to the vote at the Hilly Fields Fayre.


Funding is also looking positive with £1000 already received in grants and another application to the Forestry Commission just going in. It is hoped that the orchard will be used by local school children and enjoyed by all. Fruit harvesting is unlikely to take place for the first couple of yearsd while the trees develop but when they are established Brockley's chances of feeding itself will increase just a bit!

Transition Brockley is a year old!

Today is a momentous occassion for the group as we have reached our first birthday. We think we've achieved a fair bit in the first year and hopefully we've managed to wet peoples appetities for more of the same and made the people of Brockley just a little more conscious about the local environment we live in and the impact we have on it.

9 Carrots comes to Brockley!

Throughout the last year we've been working in conjunction with 9 Carrots to help sign up businesses in Brockley to take part in an iniative aimed at improving local businesses' environmental impact.


To find out more about what 9 Carrots is and how it works see here


Already signed up in Brockley are:


Mr Lawrence Wine Bar - aiming to replace all light bulbs with low energy light bulbs
The Shop on the Hill - aiming to replace current lighting with low energy lighting
EXP Chinese Takeaway - aiming to replace halogen light bulbs in main restaurant area
Royal Tandoori Indian Takeaway - aiming to buy an electric car to replace their current petrol-powered car


So if you're using one of these shops then remember to ask your 9 carrots receipt!

Welcome!

Welcome to Transition Brockley's new blog where you can find out about all the latest events and conversations the group is having with regard to reducing our energy consumption and working towards a healthier future for all.


You can join up to the mailing list via our Yahoo Group here and receive updates on events and conversations within the group.