Join Transition Worcester and the Worcestershire Literary Festival for a low impact evening of entertainment at St John-in-Bedwardine Parish Church at 7pm on Saturday 18th May. The event, which was originally planned as part of international Earth Hour in March, but had to be postponed due to the snow, will feature poetry, spoken word, music and more. Tickets, available on the door, cost £7, with drinks and a buffet included. There will also be a ‘green’ raffle!

This is the third year we’ve run the plant swap and despite winter being reluctant to give way to spring warmth this year, we think the plant swap in 2013 will be better than ever.

We all tend to sow more veg seeds than we need, on the assumption that a proportion of the seeds will germinate. However, Murphies’ law reigns, and most years many of us end up 100% germination of some seeds, and 0% germination of others.

So, if you have veg plants to swap, then come along to the Transition Worcester plant swap, and see what interesting things you can find.  We’ll also be on hand to provide veg growing  advice.

Put this date – 18th May – in your diary, and watch this space for more details…

Trailer and tools which have been purchased with the grant funding

Our successful Orchard Workers group have recently been given a grant of £1522 towards vital traditional orchard restoration work in Worcester. The money will enable the group to replace worn out and damaged tools, purchase a new trailer, and also to extend the group’s activities into other projects.

One of the group’s new projects is to encourage fruit in every Worcester garden, both soft fruits and grafted apple and pear trees. It’s an ambitious aim but something that we can work towards as a city for the next few years!

The Orchard Workers group would also like to produce a forage hedgerow which will enable us to bring back old ways of looking for wild fruit to produce drinks, jams, and jellies. Of course, we will ensure to leave plenty for local wildlife to benefit from at the same time, taking only what is needed to satisfy your immediate requirements.

Transition Worcester Orchard Workers started off as Worcester Orchard Worker group approximately 15 years ago after a survey was carried out to assess old orchards in Worcester. It was found that a lot of orchards had been turned into housing developments, leaving viable fruit trees in many gardens. In most cases, householders do not know how to care for fruit trees and so there was an important education and assistance role to ensure that these trees survived. The group was lucky enough to benefit from a Heritage Lottery grant originally; this new grant from Natural England will take the group forward 15 years on.

The group’s base orchard is the New College Worcester (College for the Blind as was). The group has recently partnered with the City Council to revive an old orchard at Trotshill. Following the initial works, a core of local orchard enthusiasts has now formed to continue this work. Other key sites for the group include South Hayes Nursing Home, which provided us with a mountain of apples this year for use at one of our public juicing days.

The Transition Worcester Orchard Workers are very grateful to Natural England for the grant, facilitated through Worcestershire County Council, which will make a big difference to the work that can be taken on.

Trashed – Film Poster

“We buy it, we bury it, we burn it and then we ignore it. Does anyone think about what happens to all the trash we produce?” Jeremy Irons, Academy Award Winning Actor and Executive Producer of ‘Trashed’

“Trashed”, a newly released environmental documentary is to be screened at Worcester Guild Hall on Tuesday 23rd April.

Starting 7:30pm, the film is being put on by the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Action Group. It is free to see, and is sure to be very popular. The award winning film will be thought provoking, and there will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end. Places will be booked on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.

Please reserve your place by emailing Rob Wilden at wildens23@sky.com

Workday – Saturday 30 March 2013

Transition Worcester has the use of an allotment plot-sized piece of land on the Duck Brook Community Orchard site, just off the Bath Road in Worcester.This coming Saturday (13th April) we’ll be having another working session on our plot. The main aim will be to tidy the site up in preparation for planting fruit bushes and newly grafted trees.

So, don’t bother joining a gym. Come and join us instead at Duck Brook this Saturday. We’ll start at 10am. You can stay as long as you want.

Please bring suitable footwear, such as wellies/boots. If you have tools, such as a fork and/or spade, please bring them with you. A hot drink is good in this weather, so I suggest a flask of hot tea, and some sustenance to keep you going.

For more information and directions to the site, please contact Tony Kennell – 01905 424326

For those interested, we had a working session at the end of March, during which we cleared out a lot of wood, metal and slabs. There is still more to do. A selection of photos from this Duck Brook outing, are here….

Workday – Saturday 30 March 2013

Workday – Saturday 30 March 2013

Workday – Saturday 30 March 2013
“You put your left foot in….” Tony demonstrates the Hokey Cokey

Workday – Saturday 30 March 2013

The Worcestershire Literary Fest, in conjunction with Transition Worcester, is organising a low impact evening of poetry, spoken word, music and fun at St John–in-Bedwardine parish church on 23^rd March, starting at 7pm. The £7 entry fee includes drinks and a buffet.

Meanwhile, the Worcester Roots Foundation, a young people’s environmental charity, is organising an exciting event at King George V Community Centre and playing fields. Pop along for a fun filled night of food,  electricity free entertainment, activities and games for all the family. Don’t forget to stick around for the volunteers lighting extravaganza at 8.30pm. It all kicks off at 6.30.

Worcester Roots are looking for donations of jam jars and tea lights for their event, if you are able to help please drop these off at the King George V Community Centre or at the Worcester Volunteer Centre.

We’ll be outside the Guild Hall from 12pm to 3pm on Saturday 2nd March, swapping seeds – mostly veg seeds – and also providing fruit and veg growing advice. Come and ask us a question!

If you have too many seeds in one packet, you could tip half of them carefully into an envelope and bring them to the Seed Swap. Then, look at what others have brought and take a packet of something a bit different. You never know what you might find!

Can you help us publicise the event? Why not print out our TW Seed Swap A4 Poster 2013 and put it up somewhere?

Food- the food group organises events to promote local food production and consumption, such as seed and plant swaps, seasonal cookery demonstrations and apple juicing events.

Transport- the transport group promotes less polluting forms of getting around, such as walking and cycling. The group organises events such as family bike rides and takes part in consultations to try and ensure that local developments include good sustainable transport infrastructure.

Energy- the energy group promotes local renewable energy production and energy efficiency, currently looking at the introduction of the government’s new Green Deal.

Communications- the communications group promotes Transition Worcester through production of display materials and literature and through the website and social networking media.

The groups all have regular meetings and would all welcome some new faces- see the Events Calendar for details.

If you’re more interested in helping out with practical, hands on activities, the Transition Worcester Orchard Workers have regular volunteer days. We’re also always on the look out for volunteers to help out at our many events. See the Events Calendar or email us to find out more! Look forward to seeing you in 2013!

The next Transport Group meeting is on Thursday 17^th January, at 7:30pm in the Plough on Fish Street, all welcome!

Just Leisure Rides – the next ride is 20^th January, from The Pumphouse as usual, about 14miles along lanes through Fernhill Heath and Hadley. For more details, take a look at their new blog page at Worcester Leisure Rides. Congratulations to Mike Cooper for being awarded Sustrans Volunteer of the Year 2012, in part for his work running this fun and friendly leisure ride group!

There is a campaign for changes to the new layout of Whittington Roundabout  and the group are holding meetings to discuss the problems and hear people’s views. Look at the campaign’s facebook page for more information -”Campaign to change the road layout at Whittington roundabout Worcester.”

OK, on to the rest!

Sustrans presentation 8^th December– Henry Harbord from Sustrans gave a presentation on the achievements of the Connect 2 scheme in Worcester, which included the building of the Diglis Bridge, and improvements to other cycle links. Visitor counts on Bromwich Parade showed an estimated increase from 31,400 per year in the year before the bridge was completed in 2010, to a staggering 465,000 in 2011! Henry reported a very positive response from local businesses and users of the new routes, as you might expect. Also present was Ed Dursley of Worcestershire County Council’s Sustainable Schemes Team  -he was able to give updates about various project around the County, including the Worcester to Malvern Pedway link via Powick. He reported that no objections were received for the routes from residents, and that things are looking positive for the first phase starting in the near future, funding allowing. If you have any comments on this or any other projects contact the Team at schemes@worcestershire.gov.uk.

Bikeability – Do you want to increase your road confidence? Three levels of Bikeability cycle training are being offered by the County Council, from an introduction to cycling aimed at ages 8 up, to skills for tricky roundabouts and main roads aimed at 14 years to adult. For more details, visit www.worcestershire.gov.uk/bikeability.

Recently, a couple of us from the Transition Worcester Transport Group attended the South Worcestershire Cycle Group – this is attended by various cycling and sustainable transport interest groups: Sustrans volunteers, Cycle Touring Club (CTC), Local Access Forum, St. John’s Worcester Cycle Club, Evesham Cycling Forum, and Just Leisure Rides. This group is hopefully able to act as a hub of cycling information to pass out to all interested parties, and it often makes representations on planning matters.

If you have any cycling concerns or ideas, or want to be involved in future meetings (roughly quarterly), contact them at swcg@hotmail.co.uk. There’s lots more to report from this meeting, but not enough room here!

Happy cycling in 2013!

Ideally, we would like to get some root stocks of fruit trees in late autumn. Our aim is to enable “fruit in every Worcester garden” – this may be a very ambitious aim but it gives us something to work for!

Come and get involved – together with the Community Co-op, we are planning a working party on Sunday 4th November, followed by a bonfire in the evening. Please come along and help out! Likely to start around 14.00 in the afternoon. If you are interested please let us know on transitionworcester@gmail.com and we will let you know finalised details. Please bring a fork or spade if you can.