We've been talking about getting a banner made for a little while now - who knew it could be so complicated. Fortunately for us, Anna Briggs offered to guide us through the process of making a fabric banner based on the beautiful logo Joanne Lee designed for us some time ago so we can have one ready for the upcoming Transition Conference.

So we met at Garston Park Church late Saturday morning, a little daunted at the prospect of turning our complex logo into a fabric version. Anna assured us though that IT WOULD WORK and so we set about cutting out shapes from the banner in fabric.

By the end of the day we had made all the shapes needed and Anna has very generously offered to put it all together for us in time for the conference this weekend.

We all can't wait to see how it will turn out. Thanks to Helen, Pete, Polly, Gabriel, John and Ed for coming along on Saturday. Thanks also to the Garston Park Church for hosting our work party. But most of all thanks to Anna for teaching us some new DIY skills. 

10th February 2009, Aigburth Cricket Club,

The money has dried up. Unemployment is rising. People can’t get jobs, but there are huge needs to be met. Car workers are on short time – they could be making busses, electric cars, windmills, hydro electric turbines. People with carpentry and building skills are being laid off, but our Victorian homes leak heat, emit greenhouse gasses, and burn scarce fuels. It doesn’t make sense.

Transitioning has always been about doing what we can ourselves to solve our problems, rather than waiting for someone else to act. Our communities are full of unused skills, yet we often are unconfident about what we can do, or our skills are unused. Some skills ate highly valued today, but perhaps less valuable tomorrow.

On a wintry night with a train derailment limiting numbers, a small but enthusiastic group of us discussed the skills for transition and ways we might develop and exchange them. We talked about knitting, cooking vegetarian or vegan food, do woodwork, and how to grow food or raise animals. We talked about the skills that older members of our community have, and where they meet so we can share their experiences. We discussed how we might exchange and develop the skills we have, perhaps through a lets scheme.

Two lessons emerged from the discussion - that developing real lasting sustainable alternatives to what we have now is hard, and takes commitment and time. Can we find, within our community, the enthusiasm to go beyond watching films and developing local manifestations of what we want to see? Perhaps we are spreading our energy too widely, and need to concentrate on one or two central projects. There seems to be energy for looking at energy - so perhaps in the spring we could organise trips to the Manchester Ecohouse, and the centre for alternative technology.

15th July 2008

Ruth Jacobs and Don Headey from Liverpool Organic Gardeners gave an introduction to composting and wormeries, complete with slides, compost samples and worms!

Tom and Roisin introduced their plans to set up a charity that will collect household food waste in the Aigburth area, and compost it off-ste. Their plans are still in the early stages and they would really love to hear from you if you'd like to help them get it going!

The event was attended by all kinds of people ranging from the well-experienced composters to the complete beginners, which meant everyone was able to learn something new or share their knowledge with others. The event demonstrated just how much people in the group already know and are doing everyday that is so important in reducing both our impact on the environment and our energy dependence.

For anyone interested in starting their own wormery - or for those who want to make theirs work better, Ruth brought along a highly recommended book, 'Composting with Worms: Why waste your waste' by George Pilkington