Monday 25 October 2010

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

Thursday 21 October 2010

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.”

Wednesday 13 October 2010

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




Tuesday 12 October 2010

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

Saturday 2 October 2010

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...