Wednesday 12^th December 7.30pm:

Please join us for our end-of-year celebration. We will be showing two short films (approx 10 minutes each) however the emphasis will mostly be on socialising, celebrating the successes of 2012 and discussing ideas for activities and projects in 2013.

Mince pies, mulled wine and other refreshments will be served, and there will be an opportunity to talk to members of the various project groups (community garden, orchard group, beekeepers, book club etc).

The first short film is a preview of a documentary we have been making about Ealing Transition’s efforts to create a more sustainable, more resilient future in the borough. The second is a short feature making a case for Local Food. Both should inspire our discussions.

The planned TED talks will be shown early in 2013

The venue is St Mary’s Church, St Mary’s Road Ealing W5 5RH. As ever, entry is free but we will ask for a voluntary contribution to help us cover costs. We hope you can join us

Streetbank

On Sunday 21st October we were delighted to welcome Sam Stephens, founder of Streetbank, who came to St Mary’s to speak about his project.

Streetbank is a website that gives neighbours the opportunity to lend, give away or offer items and/or skills to anyone living within one mile of their home. People simply sign up with their postcode, add at least one item or skill they would like to share, and they can see everything offered by their Streetbank neighbours. All for free!

Streetbank works like a giant garden shed, tool-kit, fancy dress chest, skills bank, DVD collection and library all rolled into one. With 5,000 plus members in London and over 17,500 across the UK, the organisation is living proof that community spirit is alive and well.

What’s more, people can make use of it however they wish. Some want to save money; for others it’s about living more sustainably and for others still it’s about getting to know their neighbours. In a world where the annual average usage for a household drill is 14 minutes, it makes sense to share!

It is a brilliant complement to the work of the Transition movement. You can find out more about Streetbank – and sign up if you wish – at http://www.streetbank.com

Fruitloader

Fruitloader is a fiendishly clever project which aims to map public fruit trees for foragers. Developer Gavin’s goal is to map all public free trees globally and to share this information with anyone who can use it. The map so far can be found at http://www.fruitloader.com. A mobile app for Android can be found here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fruitloader.map. An iPhone and iPad version is planned for release at the beginning of next year.