This is a collection of notes on initiatives, web links and ideas which revealed themselves to me as if by fate, sometimes seemingly in quick succession while I was waiting for the clouds to part and let some sunshine through. (In retrospect, I should have created a travel blog and then I would have been able to post all of these notes while on location. I've got my eye on one of those netbooks.)

While the purpose of the trip to England was primarily for all of my family to unite with relatives in the UK together for the first time (and maybe the last), (Julie hails from Liverpool with roots in England and Ireland), I had hoped to meet up with folks at a couple of Transition Initiatives.

Transition Totnes

As it turned out, both Rob Hopkins and Ben Brangwyn from Transition Totnes were unavailable. Regardless, I was quite prepared to take the train to Totnes to enjoy the famous Devon countryside (remember Rebecca Hosking's video A Farm for the Future ) and even bring home a Totnes pound as a souvenir. The long travel (4 hours maybe) was a strong deterrent but the persistent rain was the deciding factor. Oh well, maybe some other time.

Rob HopkinsBen Brangwyn

Schumacher College

Totnes is also the home of Schumacher College, "Transformative Learning for Sustainable Living", with teachers and faculty members including, Stephen Harding, Satish Kumar, Jonathan Porritt and Colin Campbell.

	Satish Kumar Gandhi disciple and founder and Director of Schumacher College
	Stephan Harding with Rob Hopkins Gaia Coach and author of "Animate Earth"
	Jonathon Porritt "Prosperity without Growth?" Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission author of "Capitalism: As if the world matters"
	Colin Campbell speaking with Rebecca Hosking Retired petroleum geologist author of "The Coming Oil Crisis" and "The End of Cheap Oil"

Transition Liverpool

I would have liked to meet and chat with Peter North at the Department of Geography, University of Liverpool and author of "Local Money", published by Green Books, to be available in the fall of 2009 (now pushed back to Feb 2010). As my luck would have it, he was away on holidays the week that I was in Liverpool.

Peter North - Local Money

http://greenbooks.co.uk/store/transition-guide-money-p-320.html

http://transitionculture.org/2008/11/11/a-call-for-input-for-the-transition-guide-to-money/

http://transitionculture.org/2008/09/30/a-sympathetic-critique-of-localisation-by-peter-north/

http://www.liv.ac.uk/researchintelligence/issue20/consumer.html

London Borough of Camden

Julie and I traveled to London to meet up with a friend, Marek Wiluszynski, a district manager involved with housing development and sustainability. He emphasized the importance of establishing strong partnerships with existing communities and developers. Marek gave us an extensive tour of the Borough of Camden, visiting community gardens (what the English call allotments), container gardens, vegetable gardens in skips, an outdoor gym and the green roof on City Hall.

Green roof at City Hall

Your Outdoor Gym

The Co-operative

One evening, this ad on the telly caught my attention. A 2-min 30-sec video of danelion seeds floating in the air to the background music of "Blowing in the Wind" by Bob Dylan.

You may also view this ad at The Cooperative and The Guardian.

I had to check out the Co-operative website and was amazed at what I discovered.

http://www.co-operative.coop

The scope of the co-operative in the UK is extremely broad. While this is a business enterprise covering banking, financing, mortgages, insurance, legal services, funeral services, pharmacies, travel agencies, grocery stores and local agriculture, its heart is in the right place.

There are many interesting pages on their website under "ethics in action". For example, see their page on "Climate Change".

http://www.co-operative.coop/ethicsinaction/climatechange/

Check out this solar panel installation at the Co-operative Insurance Solar Tower in Manchester. Over 7000 solar panels covering three sides of the building generate 390 kilowatts of energy, enough to power 55 homes or 1000 PCs. Wicked.

CIS Solar Tower, Manchester

I checked out the nearest Co-operative store which happened to be a 15-minute walk away from our stay in Harpenden. The store was the size of a typical convenience store and similarly stocked with everyday necessities. Colourful posters and displays were a constant reminder to buy local and trade fairly.

Ecomart

While all of this was going on, I received this email from Australia on Wed. Jul 22, 2009.

Email from home

Magda Luchter sent me email with some interesting links:

http://www.moneyfreeliving.com

http://www.swapsity.ca/landing

Incredible Edible Todmorden

Dave Carson brought this to my attention. I didn't get to visit Todmorden but I just thought that this is such a neat website that I would list it here for reference.

http://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk

Garden Share

Rhonda Smees Bowman sent me this:

Fooling around on Carnaby Street

While not thinking about climate change, I had the opportunity for some fun. Here I am busking on Carnaby Street.

Ok, this may not have anything to do with Transition Towns, but it certainly is about sustainability - sustaining a man's spirits!

I checked in on my pub on Harrow Road, London.

Wind turbines on Albert Docks in Liverpool

2009 Aug 04

Julie and I visited the lovely town of St Albans, about 10-min drive from Harpenden.

St Alban is now #196 on the official Transition Town list.

Bicycle stands fashioned after penny-farthings.

St Albans Cathedral

and what did we find inside the Cathedral? A display on ecovillages from around the world!

Presented by Christian Aid.

On the same day on our return from St Albans, I read this article about Terry Waite. 14MB rtf

Terry Waite

Emmaus Communities

Bringing Emmaus to the USA
The Pathfinder Project - 377KB pdf

I had just returned from a visit to St Albans when I read about this in a local magazine. I didn't get a chance to see the facilities. Too bad my stay here will be over tomorrow otherwise I would have gone back to St Albans, 10 mins drive from where we are staying. There is also an Emmaus Store in Harpenden.

http://www.emmaus.org.uk/st-albans

Books

With the number of rainy days, I was able to catch up on some important and entertaining reading.

Agenda for a New Economy - from Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth David Korten (2009)

David Korten tells the truth like no one else — a truth our planet needs us to hear,

and what the bankers and those who hold power don't want you to know.

David Korten has his own website and is also the Chair and Co-founder of Yes!Magazine.

For a quick summary how how we can build a new economy, read:

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/the-new-economy/why-this-crisis-may-be-our-best-chance-to-build-a-new-economy

The Revenge of Gaia - Earth's Climate Crisis & The Fate of Humanity James Lovelock (2007) I bumped into this book at the Harpenden library. I spent a few rainy afternoons in the library reading the first half. Very compelling reading.

A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson (2003) A fascinating book that explains modern science to the lay person.

Harpenden

Population of 30,000, about 50Km north of London, 25 minutes by train to London. This is a little village where we stayed, about the size of Dundas. With no power centres in sight, the shopping area appears to be more than twice that of Dundas.

We travelled to London by train on a number of occasions. Weekend fares were quite inexpensive. An adult Day Travelcard for £8 (C$16) will get you return train ride and an all day pass on the London transit system. Don't let the Tube Map (shown below) intimidate you. By the end of our trip we were very much at ease travelling on the Tube and street buses.

Click on the map for a larger view.

Since the Tube map as shown above does not follow the geograhical layout of the underground, the London Tube Journey Planner can be useful for first time visitors to London.

If you want to print out your own Tube Maps or explore more on various maps, go to:

http://owen.massey.net/tubemaps.html

And this concludes the report on our trip to England. I hope this has been informative to you.

Please send me your comments at kchin (at) lets-doit.ca