Wassail 2016

There's not been much action recently but one event that does continue is the annual Wassail at Hilly Fields! This year it will take place on Sunday 7th February, 4pm.

We will meet by the Stone Circle adjacent to the orchard.

To see details and reports of previous wassail events please click here

Trip to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

A book group made up of some Transition Brockley members went to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Sunday to discuss 'Feral' by George Monbiot. They met up in the Unity Cafe in Timber Lodge and then joined a tour of the park led by Simon of @hackneytours. Their next book is Naomi Klein's 'This Changes Everything' and they will meet up to discuss this in January and combine it with a local walk.

Anyone else interested in joining the boo group should email us at: transitionbrockley@hotmail.co.uk

Garden Update

Thank you to all for their hard work on the garden this morning. It's looking much tidier and we're happy to report that it seems to be fine shape.

With the garden in a more permanent state these days and the planting now orientated towards herbs which won't change each season, one of the things which we would like to do in the future is to get a proper sign installed. Our current sign is looking a little sorry for itself and we could do with something a little more substantial to match the effort that has gone into creating the garden.

Transition in Brockley - An open letter

 We hope you’re enjoying the summer and making the most of the sunny weather in your gardens and beyond! The reason for the email is to remind everyone of current activities and take stock of where we are and also try to drum up some more interest in the group and the transition movement in Brockley/Lewisham in general. I think it’s fair to say there has been a bit of a lull in the transition movement in Brockley and Lewisham in general in the last couple of years however there is still plenty going on.

What are we doing at present? 

The garden down at Brockley Common next to the station continues to thrive and much credit must go to Valerie and her assistants for maintaining it and ensuring that it continues to compliment the excellent work of the Brockley Cross Action Group. We also have a book group who meet regularly and of course there is still involvement with the orchard at Hilly Fields. Other projects that are still bubbling in the background but without much actual action at present include: Brockley Gardenshare and fruit harvesting. It’s also worth mentioning the newly-created South East London Community Energy group who are a separate group from us but exactly the sort of thing that the transition movement is all about. All projects mentioned could do with extra pairs of hands so just because the flowers are blooming and the apples hanging from the trees don’t assume that we couldn’t do with extra help! 

As a group we haven’t been meeting regularly for the last year or so which reflects the changing nature of members lives and interests. As many of you know one of the founding members of the group, Fran, passed away earlier this year and the absence of her enthusiasm and determination has been a great loss. It would be good to get regular meetings up and running again and to build on the work that has been done previously but in order to that we desperately need some new faces and people who can dedicate the time and effort to projects. We receive many emails from local residents and others expressing an interest in getting involved but unfortunately this rarely manifests itself in anything other than a passing interest and whilst we’re grateful for that, ultimately at the heart of the transition movement is the need for action and the act of doing! At present there is a core group of perhaps 5 people who all have busy lives and can’t necessarily dedicate the time required to keep the momentum going.

If you are interested in getting more involved in one of our projects, starting a new one or just want to offer opinion then please let us know! You can respond to this email (suggest direct responses rather than copy all in) or comment on the blog where this will be posted up as an open letter. Conversation and debate is a step in the right direction and if it leads to a continuation the groups activities then it will have been worth it. So, friends, local residents, interested passers by - this is your chance to help reinvigorate the transition movement in Brockley!

We hope to hear from you and spread the word!

Brockley Common Update

Many of you will have passed by our garden at Brockley Station which is now looking much better with the addition of edging to the beds and like the rest of Brockley Common is coming into bloom nicely for the summer. Much of the credit for this year's splendid appearance must go down to Valerie and those who have helped - thank you!

Brockley Garden Share: available in Brockley SE4

Some of you may be aware of the Landshare initiative started in 2009. Here in south east London we activiely promote this sort of thing because it seems that everyone is a winner! Our Brockley Gardenshare project continues and we've received an email from a local resident who has a garden available for someone to grow vegetables in.

The garden is located on Tyrwhitt Road SE4 1QE. If you are interested in finding out more we can put you in touch with the owner and you can take it from there.

Local events coming up...

A public talk about swifts has been arranged  for TUESDAY 1st APRIL in the St Peter's Church Hall on Wickham Road, 7.30-8.30pm.
 
Swifts are a fascinating and mysterious bird, one of the sights & sounds of a quintessential British summer. They are annual visitors to Brockley, arriving each May, and breed in many of Brockley's old Victorian houses. However they are in decline and need our help if they to continue gracing the skies above Brockley each year. Come and discover more about these wonderful birds from one of our foremost swift experts Edward Mayer - and find out how you can help them! The talk is aimed at anyone with an interest in birds and looking after our wildlife. The talk is free, but we are asking for a voluntary donation of £3 to cover our costs. Any profits will go to swift conservation in Brockley! We have plans to create new nesting sites for swifts in Brockley. Refreshments will be served and all are welcome to attend! Please arrive between 7.15 - 7.30 on the night.


Brockley Tree Conference
Such is the importance of trees not just in Brockley but the wider urban context, the Brockley Street Trees team have organised a free conference on the subject with aims to promote awareness of the many threats to urban trees, and to encourage the maintenance of old ones and the planting of appropriate new ones, whether in streets, parks or gardens.

More details including an agenda can be found here

Hilly Fields Wassail 2014

Every year since the orchard at Hilly Fields was planted we have held a wassail event which has always proved to be much fun and this year was no exception with a great turn out on a mild Sunday afternoon. With new additions to the orchard this year it was decided that one of the new trees should be dedicated to the memory of Fran Rogers who was instrumental in the creation of the orchard. We're very pleased that Fran's family could attend the wassail event and it was fitting that Fran's wassail song that was specifically penned for this event was sung again. The musical nature of this event has improved considerably over the last couple of years with the additions of an accordion, guitar and drum! Each tree in the orchard was toasted and we're happy to report that the orchard is doing very well and we look forward to the 5th birthday event in January 2015. If you would like to be more involved with the orchard please email us!

Brockley Common Gardening

Sunday 23rd February sees the first session at the garden on Brockley Common. Brockley Cross Action Group will be on site from 1-5pm to attend to the main flower beds and alongside this we could do with at least a couple of hours on our own plot. Details below of the BXAG event. All welcome!

Waes Hael 2014!

The annual wassail at Hilly Fields Orchard is taking place on Sunday 23rd February at 4:30pm. This will be the fourth event and has proved very popular! Please see details on the flyer below.

Fran Rogers

This week Transition Brockley sadly lost one of its founding members, Fran Rogers. Anyone who met Fran will know that she was not only a very kind and caring person but one that never gave up and always had a great level of enthusiasm for whatever activity she was doing, providing an inspiration to many volunteers who have made a connection with the group. There were a number of projects and events that, without Fran may never have got off the ground or been as successful including the Edible Garden at Brockley Station, the Orchard at Hilly Fields and annual wassail at Hilly Fields, Brockley Gardenshare and Brockley Harvest to name but a few.

Whilst trawling through the Transition Brockley image archive there were many pictures of Fran which just goes to show how important she was to the group and to the community as a whole. Below are a selection of photos which we hope you enjoy and help us to remember Fran for the wonderful memories and energy she gave us. Please feel free to leave comments and we will be happy to pass on to her children.

Fran looking very pleased at the first planting of the edible garden at Brockley Station.

Fran tending to plants at the new garden.

First pickings!

Apple juicing at One Tree Hill allotments, Honor Oak

Planting of trial meadow at the orchard in Hilly Fields

Picking apples in Brockley

Annual wassail at Hilly Fields Orchard during testing conditions!

Talking to local residents about Transition Brockley

First wassail at Hilly Fields with Fran holding up her own
apple-themed version of 'We wish you a Merry Christmas' 

Brockley Christmas Market - Saturday 14th December

Some of you will have seen that the garden down at Brockley Common now has a bit more structure to it with the addition of some small paths and edging through the plot. This was done over a couple of sessions recently and was partly enabled thanks to funds gained through helping out with last year's Christmas Market.

The Brockley Cross Action Group are again running the Brockley Christmas Market on Saturday 14th December from 12-6pm at Coulgate Street, outside Brockley Station. Always one of the most enjoyable events in Brockley's social calender so please spread the word! 

Once again we will be helping out with one of the mulled wine stalls and could really do with a few extra hands to man the stall. If you can offer just an hour of your time it would be greatly appreciated and should still leave plenty of time to enjoy the market as well. If you are able to help could you respond directly to transitionbrockley@hotmail.co.uk and we will co-ordinate from there.

Thanks in advance and if we don't bump into you at the market have a great Christmas!

Transition Brockley

Brockley Common Summer Planting Plan

This year's edible garden plan is now complete which hopefully gives a good overview of what is in the ground. As ever we shall let everyone know when plants are ripe and ready to pick. We will be replacing the current plan on the signage board with the one below in due course. 

Brockley Common looking very colourful!

Photos from the last gardening session at Brockley Common where we carried out weeding, planting and watering. We're pleased to report that all plants are looking healthy and there's a good splash of colour to compliment the BXAG's beds adjacent to the site. Hopefully this year we will not suffer so badly from the slugs and snails who had a field day! 

There's nothing ripe for picking at present so please refrain from doing so. We will let everyone know asap.

Queen to leave her mark on Hilly Fields

Brockley tree planters

Nicola from the Brockley Society has emailed to let us know about a forthcoming addition to Hilly Fields tree population courtesy of the Tree Council's Jubilee Diamond Trees programme. As keen planters of trees ourselves we like this sort of activity and Hilly Fields is big enough to accommodate more trees.

The Jubilee tree donated by the Tree Council will be planted at Hilly Fields (very near the cafe)

on Wednesday May 22nd, gather from 12.45 at the cafe.  Old folk from the Brockley social club and girls from Prendergast school will plant the tree in a short ceremony at 1.15. A digital record will be made which along with the other 59 Jubilee trees will make up a digital book to be presented to Her Majesty in June. It would be great if as many groups and local tree lovers could  be represented. Friends of Hilly Fields and Brocsoc have chosen a disease resistant Elm tree - an American cultivar Princetonia for which Barchams has the exclusive license. Please do come and spread the word to others.

For those that aren't aware the Brockley Society has its own tree wardens who pay close attention to the areas trees and you can find out more about their dedication to the cause here.

Coming up...

There are a couple of events coming up to tell you about:

Our next gardening session at Brockley Common will take place on Monday 6th May from 10am - Midday.

Please bring suitable clothing and gloves (if you have them).

Secondly we have been in discussion our neighbours Transition New Cross for a while about putting an joint film showing. The event has changed somewhat from a film showing in someone's front room to being part of the New Cross and Deptford free film festival!

The film we were planning to show is called Dirt! The Movie and will be shown on Sunday 5th May at the Tidemill School, Deptford with a midday start. There are lots of other films being shown as part of the festival so take a look at the link below and see what takes your fancy!

We hope to see you at either or both of the events above.

Hedge Planting & Guided Tree Walk - Saturday 16th March

Nicola from the Brockley Society has emailed to let us know about a planned hedge planting happening in Hilly Fields adjacent to the orchard we planted this Saturday (16th). If any transitioners would like to help with the planting please go along. Additionally there is also a guided tree walk around the park from 1pm. See poster below for more details:

Brockley Common Update

On Sunday 24th February a couple of volunteers helped carry out a quick tidy up of the edible garden and the planting of sweet peas, rhubarb and herbs including Thyme and Rosemary. The Artichokes seem to have suffered somewhat by the contractors constructing the new cycle shelter as they decided to use and cut some of the paving slab stepping stones to replace others near to the cycle shelter and in the process trampled all over the artichokes..sigh. There is lots of lambs lettuce available to pick and it would appear that the fruit bushes planted late last year have taken. The garden has also gained a seat in the form of a cut tree trunk which used to live in one of the cafes on Coulgate Street and was kindly donated to Brockley Common so take a seat and contemplate the next time you're there...

The garden post tidy up and planting

The Brockley Cross Action Group were also on site and we helped them to tidy up the larger beds as well as taking down some of the fencing where the planting is now well-established. At the recent BXAG meeting it was suggested that gardening sessions become a regular monthly event. More news on that and other Brockley Common items to follow...

Community Gardening - Sunday 24th February

A date for your diary as we carry out our first community gardening event of the year on SUNDAY 24th FEBRUARY (12 noon - 4pm) in conjunction with the Brockley Cross Action Group (BXAG).

 

The BXAG will be holding a general tidy up session from midday - 4pm. Details from BXAG Chair, Rupert below:

 

This is our annual spring clean so a good attendance will be essential! We will be doing the usual litter picking, weeding & pruning and will do our once a year clear out of all the rubbish in the wildlife area. I think we also need to do two other things: (i) bag up all the excess green waste at the back of the site for the Council to collect and (ii) take down some of the temporary fencing which is now well and truly rotting, as you can see down at street level.

 

Besides this we would suggest that we spend from midday - 2pm concentrating on our plot and also the areas around the base of the Brockley Rd trees planted last year to get it into shape. Depending on the weather we may also put in some new plants if we have them but would encourage anyone who has any cuttings to bring them along too.

 

As ever please remember to wear suitable clothing, shoes and bring some gloves.

 

If you can't make it the whole session that's not a problem, just come for whatever time you can. With the BXAG beds having now had a good couple of years to take root this could be the best year yet for the areas around the station so if you want to part of this just turn up!  

Waes Hael!

Sunday 27th January saw the annual Wassail take place at the orchard on Hilly Fields. Last year was a rather snowy affair and we just missed that this year alas melted snow makes for a very wet ground under foot!

This year was arguably the best wassail yet as we improved on the whistles and pots from previous years with the addition of an accordion and violin to help us along with the singing of traditional and improvised wassail songs. After toasting all the trees in the orchard we finished off with a tasty hot drink rich in the traditional of wassail.

Toasting the trees

Pre-toasting singing