Next Meeting … Wednesday 11th January 2012, 7.30pm in the Weaving Room, Amersham Community Centre, Chiltern Avenue, Amersham. Everyone welcome!
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January 2012 will see the launch of Amersham in Transition’s ‘Garden Together’ project
Firstly, with the support of Little Chalfont Parish Council, we hope to facilitate a Garden Share scheme, whereby people with large gardens that they cannot or don’t want to make full use of themselves, share a plot with a someone who would like to ‘grow their own’ but hasn’t the space. In return, the host might get a share of the produce grown, or perhaps another part of their garden maintained.
Secondly, we would like to help establish some Grow Together Clubs, where groups of gardeners work together in each others plots, sharing ideas, expertise and effort – and hopefully a lot of fun.
And of course, Susan Jeffery from the Amersham Allotments Association will again be running her extremely popular Grow Your Own Course, sharing her invaluable experience of growing fruit and veg.
On Saturday 14th January and Saturday 11th February, during the Farmers’ Markets, we will be at the Little Chalfont Village Hall handing out information and collecting expressions of interest. In between, you will also be able to pick up leaflets at Little Chalfont Community Library. And then, starting at 19:30 on Tuesday 21st February (Shrove Tuesday), we will be hosting an event at the library to launch the project and to give people a chance to meet other interested gardeners.
Hope to see you there!
… and the Bike Back in Your Life
 How many of us have bikes in our garage that we never get round to using? We give them a guilty glance, now and again, as we back our cars out of the drive, but we haven’t used them in so long that the tyres are flat, the gears are stiff, the brakes may be a bit dodgy and the whole thing definitely needs oiling. And servicing them ourselves – or getting them down to the bike shop for a professional service – just seems like too much trouble.
Well, Amersham in Transition is here to help you. For the month of July, we will be at Amersham Market on Tuesday mornings from 09:30 to 12:00, on the St Michael’s forecourt, offering a FREE basic service for your bike. All you have to do is bring your bike along and leave it with us for an hour or so, and hey, presto! A bike you can ride away, confident that it’s all in good working order.
So, after the first three sessions, how does John (one of our two volunteer repairmen) think it’s all going?
“Well, that’s a few bikes repaired now, with some nice feedback too! So a few people are happily using their bikes more than they did before – as a direct result of our efforts.
“We’ve also had quite a lot of conversations with passing people who were interested. They were all supportive, and sometimes surprised in a positive way that we were doing it voluntarily.
“But how do you measure success in something like this? It was good to target the day the street market is on. But it is quite a commitment of time to just hang around hoping for “business.” It was good that on the third session we were definitely starting to get busier, as people became aware of what we are up to.”
One idea for the future is that we team up with the cycling awareness courses at the local primary schools and help to ensure that the bikes the children are riding are in tiptop condition and correctly adjusted for their height. We might also consider running a ‘bike swap’ – helping people find homes for bikes that are no longer needed, and others to find affordable bikes in good condition. We’d love to know what you think of these ideas.
If you can’t bring your bike along on a Tuesday morning you can let us know that you’d like to get your bike fixed by e-mailing us at fixmybike@amershamintransition.org.uk. It might take a short while, but we will try to make arrangements to do it. You can also get in touch with us on the same e-mail address if you want to discuss any of our bike venture ideas … Or of course, if you’re a bit handy with bikes yourself, and you’d like to help!
Four Transitioners participated in this year’s wonderful ‘Grow Your Own’ Open Gardens, each reflecting different aspects of the commitment to growing their own fruit and veg.
 The Self-Sufficiency Garden
Described by the owner as ‘an adventure in sustainable and low-cost living’, this impressive garden is based round three large vegetable beds that are crop rotated and follow a 1940s plan for all-year-round veg production. There is also a continuous supply of fruit, starting with rhubarb in February, and taking in apricots, peaches, berries and, of course, apples and pears. Poultry supply eggs, meat and manure for the garden, while bees pollinate the fruit and veg.
 The Wildlife Friendly Garden
The owners of this garden have a large family but have nevertheless endeavoured to make the garden as bee- and wildlife-friendly as possible. Making the most of a relatively small space, they grow fruit, vegetables and herbs.
 The Second Season Garden
This garden demonstrates how much can be achieved in a short space of time. The owners both work full-time, so don’t have a huge amount of time to spend in the garden. Key to the success of this garden are two raised beds, growing a wide range of vegetables, including beans, peas, beetroot, courgettes, squash, salad leaves, rhubarb, chard and kale. The owners practise rain-water harvesting aim to re-use and recycle as much as possible.
The ‘Do More Outdoors’ Garden
Based around a series of outdoorseating areas which provide different environments within the same medium sized garden, this garden is designed to make the most of available sunlight. It provides areas for fruit, vegetable and herb growing, as well as two places for cooking outdoors, including a purpose-built fire pit.
We were delighted so many people turned out on a lovely Saturday afternoon to view the gardens – some from as far away as Watford and Beaconsfield. Many visitors were happy to stop and chat and seemed genuinely interested in what we were trying to achieve.
And when the public part of the day was over, Transitioners were treated to delicious salmon and dahl cooked over the fire pit in the ‘Do More Outdoors’ garden.
Thanks to Davida, Sue, Colette and Rob, who were generous enough to open their gardens, and to all the other Transitioners who helped with serving teas, directing visitors, answering questions and all the other tasks necessary to make these events run smoothly.
 Getting up early on a Sunday morning is never very appealing. Getting up early on the morning after the clocks go forward is even less so. But despite that, the people of Amersham turned out in force once again for Clean Up Amersham Day on 27th March.
The day was organised by Amersham Town Council in conjunction with the Amersham Action Group and was supported by The Rotary Club, the Scouts and Amersham in Transition. As last year, Amersham in Transition took responsibility for ensuring that as much as possible of the rubbish that was collected was recycled rather than being sent to land fill.
We were blessed, this year, by reasonably fine weather. The day started off chilly but grew warmer as the morning progressed, and by midday, the sun even managed to shine.
In total, 90 bags of rubbish were collected from three stations (in Amersham-on-the-Hill, Old Amersham and Amersham Common), from which plastic bottles, cans and glass were separated out and sent for recycling.
All those who turned out to collect rubbish deserve huge thanks from Amersham residents. Some areas were particularly foul, with piles of rubbish that seemed to have accumulated over years, and uncomplaining souls who tackled those must be particularly commended.
 On the 23rd March Amersham in Transition and e.on jointly hosted Talking Energy…Live! a discussion forum on home energy efficiency held at Dr Challoner’s High School.
A panel consisting of TV presenter, Philippa Forester, Sam Free from Amersham in Transition, Emma Thompson from e.on and Andy Deacon from the Energy Saving Trust gave short presentations and answered questions from the audience, focusing on:
- How can we best insulate our homes?
- How can we reduce our energy consumption?
- How can we generate our own energy?
Talking to the local press beforehand, Cat Pearce, of Amersham in Transition, said: “We are delighted to work alongside e.on to inform people of the community about ways to save energy and money in their home. It’s important for communities to pro-actively engage with businesses to discover new ways of helping the environment and an event such as this one allows us to do just that.”
In the event, the forum was lively, relaxed and informal. The audience, for the most part, were well informed, with a wide variety of experience themselves and the evening quickly became a platform for everyone to share information.
Perhaps the most satisfying outcome was the opportunity provided for people to make connections with one another. Someone looking into community-scale micro-generation was provided with some key contacts. Someone else found useful contacts for setting up a group of volunteer mentors to help people make their homes more energy efficient. And so it went on.
Sam said “So many interesting topics came up that we could have done with twice the time to discuss them.” If you are interested in finding out more about the discussions or being involved in future meetings about energy efficiency and energy production do get in touch – info@amershamintransition.org.uk
 Saturday 12th March saw us holding our Make Do and Mend Workshop in the hall at St Michael’s church. Being a rugby weekend, it was fairly quiet in Amersham that day (though as England weren’t playing until the Sunday, at least the streets weren’t deserted). But the sun was shining and Beth and Charles did a wonderful job on the forecourt of persuading curious punters to come and see what we were up to.
Inside, a fascinating array of stalls provided displays and demonstrations of old skills (and some new) in repairing and restoring things that, in recent years, we have been more inclined to just chuck away. And for those in need of sustenance, tea, coffee, home-made cakes and the very last of Amersham in Transition’s own locally pressed apple juice were being served.
Several stalls were devoted to revamping old or damaged clothes. Gwen’s Workbox (Woodside Road, Amersham) demonstrated how to repair holes in jeans and how to cover up marks on T-shirts. iFashion Design had brought their funky ideas for totally transforming old clothes. And Vera and Davida were giving a demonstration of knitting and showing how one item of clothing (a pair of trousers) can be turned into another (a trendy waistcoat).
Another AiT member, Barbara, showed how to make cushions and draft excluders from old curtain material and other off-cuts. And Marjorie from the Buckinghamshire Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers brought her spinning wheel.
The Chesham based charity WorkAid brought a big display of machines and tools that they restore and send to Africa. Their stall included a demonstration of a knitting machine at work which attracted a great deal of interest, especially from the children who were delighted to have a go.
A member of the Amersham Allotment Holder’s Association brought along a wealth of ideas of how to use recycled objects in the garden in place of expensive gadgets from the garden centre. And across the way, Robert was demonstrating basic repairs of garden implements, such as fashioning a new handle for a rake.
Phillip was kept busy in his ‘computer repair shop’. With the back taken off a computer base unit, he explained the basic components of a computer and demonstrated how to install a new power supply.
John demonstrated the construction and energy benefits of a home-made Winter Thermal Blind. He also did a roaring trade servicing a few bikes in the course of the afternoon!
Finally, Kat and her mum showed off some old fashioned recipes for cleaning without chemicals (including removing some very nasty burnt-on scrambled eggs from a stainless steel pan).
Those who came through the door seemed genuinely interested in the skills on display and the stall holders were kept busy chatting all afternoon. Perhaps a sign that the tide is finally turning on our throw-away culture?
DID YOU KNOW that for the last year, Amersham has been on its way to becoming a Transition Town?
Yes, Amersham in Transition is now exactly one year old, and we are very proud of what we have achieved in our first year.
For the past twelve months, we have worked together to promote waste reduction, recycling, local food production and sourcing, energy efficiency, sustainable transport and community revitalisation.
We try to focus on the small changes that we can all make that, collectively, can make a big difference. What’s more, these changes can save us money – something that is going to be important to all of us in the next few years!
The First Year’s Events and Actions
Looking back over this blog, recalls some of the highlights of the year’s activities.
Recycling at Amersham Clean-Up Day
- Volunteers from Amersham in Transition ensured that all glass, plastic bottles, and drinks cans were recycled at the Amersham Community Clean Up Day in April. As a result 16 sacks of recyclable waste were saved from landfill.
Promoting Food Grown and Sourced Locally
- We ran a 5 day course in conjunction with the Amersham Allotment Holders Association to teach people about growing their own fruits and vegetables
- We held a plant stall in spring selling seedlings grown in Amersham by AiT Members.
- We carried out a fruit tree survey at Old Amersham Heritage Day, and collected unwanted apple crops for juicing at Chiltern Ridge fruit press. The bottled juice was sold at various events throughout the autumn, culminating at the Amersham Christmas Cracker, when we offered Hot Apple Punch to the chilly shoppers!
- We hosted a Love Food Hate Waste Demo in conjunction with WRAP. (It is estimated that the average family could save £680 a year by cutting down on food waste.)
Engaging Young People
- We helped carry out a Waste Survey at Chestnut Lane Infant School
- We held a workshop during a Sustainability Day for Year 8 girls at Dr Challoner’s High School, looking at the waste produced in an average household, could be recycled and what can be produced from these waste items. (For example, did you know that 25 plastic milk bottles can be use to make a fleece jacket?)
- We teamed up with Change4Chalfont to run an activity station at an eco-event at the Hertfordshire Girl Guides Centenary Camp, making bead bracelets out of old magazines.
Educating People about Energy Saving
- Our eco-house open day gave people a chance to see at first hand what changes can be made to an ordinary house to make it more energy efficient.
Coming Up
We have no intention of resting on our laurels in 2011.
On 12th March at St Michael’s Church Hall, we will be holding a ‘Make Do and Mend’ Workshop from 1pm to 4pm. This will feature a wide variety of demonstrations of basic skills our parents knew but which have been half-forgotten – from mending clothes to repairing bicycles. Watch this space for more details. If this receives enough interest, we may set up a regular ‘self help group’, where people can come to share ideas and relearn lost skills.
As you may already have seen, we are lending support to the Grow Your Own course, being run by the Susan Jeffrey of Amersham Allotment Holders, starting on January 26th in the Community Centre. And we are looking for potential participants in our Open Garden event, to be held later in the year.
We will be holding a plant stall, selling plants and seedlings raised by local gardeners, in Amersham-on-the-Hill on Saturday 14th May. We will also be involved again in the recycling campaign at the Amersham Community Clean Up.
And we are on the lookout for ideas to promote more sustainable transport within the Chiltern area.
Regular Meetings
Our regular meetings are held on the second Wednesday of the month, at The Boot and Slipper, Rickmansworth Road, Amersham. The next one will be at 19:30 on 9th February 2011. We are a very friendly bunch, from all walks of life, and newcomers are always welcome.
 Is this the year that you are going to start growing some of your own fruit and vegetables? Would you like a bit of guidance? Susan Jeffrey, chair of the Amersham Allotment Holder’s Association is going to run a beginner’s course starting on Wednesday January 26th at 8pm in the Weaving Room at Amersham Community Centre in Chiltern Avenue. Susan ran a grow your own course last year for AiT which was very informative and enjoyable and led to some great results in the garden. One attendee said “It was great to be able to get straightforward, practical advice on what to be doing (and not doing) in the garden over the following few weeks.”
We asked Susan why she grows her own: “I enjoy the challenge and the feeling of being independent of the supermarkets. I like spending time outdoors on my own. It gives me time to think, get some gentle exercise and have peace and quiet all at the same time! I can have as much as I want as once I’ve bought the seed the cost does not change. I think this last one is probably my favourite reason – I can be greedy ‘on the cheap’.”
Susan says that you don’t need an enormous garden “Anyone can grow something, even if it’s only a window box. My daughter has no garden at all and she has three quite small troughs that hold 12 strawberry plants. She gets a real buzz out of having 3 or 4 strawberries each day for about a month.”
Dates for Susan’s course are January 26th, February 16th, March 16th and April 13th. Each session costs £5 and you can get further information from the Community Centre on 01494 433436 or email info@amershamintransition.org.uk and we will put you in touch with Susan.
On a cold but sunny afternoon in October, we were lucky enough to be invited to an Open Day at the home of Charles and Judy, who have made a major investment to make their home as eco-friendly as possible. But unlike projects you may have seen on Grand Designs and the like, this was not a new build, but the adaptation of an existing, traditionally built, bungalow (something perhaps more within the grasp of the average family).
The modifications made to their house include:
- Insulation and sealed ventilation
- Installation of Solar PV
- Biomass boiler to replace old gas boiler
- Installation of Solar Heating
- Rainwater Harvesting
 Charles is an experienced engineer himself, with a background in sustainable development, and he has been able to carry out a detailed analysis of the costs and benefits of the work they have carried out, in terms of return on investment and of carbon reduction.
Altogether, he calculates that they have reduced the CO2 emissions from their house by 78%, and the running costs (in terms of utility bills and maintenance) by 23%.
However, some of the changes they have made show a better return on investment (both in financial and environmental terms) than others.
Charles’ experience has led him to recommend a rough ‘order of priority’ for eco-projects in the home:
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INSTALL LOW ENERGY LIGHT BULBS
This is a complete ‘no brainer’. A simple thing we can all do that will start saving us money straight away.
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INSULATE LOFT AND CAVITY WALLS
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INSTALL THE BEST QUALITY GLAZING YOU CAN AFFORD ON ALL OUR WINDOWS AND DOORS
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GO AS FAR AS YOU CAN TO ‘AIR SEAL’ YOUR HOUSE
Remove sources of drafts, seal floors, etc
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INSTALL SOLAR PV PANELS
These are the ones that provide electricity rather than heat/hot water. In Charles’ and Judy’s case, this has replaced 60% of their annual electricity needs. The government’s new Feed In Tariff now makes this particularly attractive, as electricity generated will be sold to the grid. More details can be found at the Energy Saving Trust website, but it is estimated that the average family, with an installation size of 2.2 kWp, could reap savings of over £920 per annum (after installation costs).
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INSTALL AN ECO-FRIENDLY HEATING SOURCE
This is the single most important decision you will make. The ideal choice will depend on your exact circumstances, and we will go into this in more detail in our Big Energy Saving Projects section of the website (coming soon).
Options to consider include biomass boilers, ground source or air source heat pumps and combined heat and power (CHP).
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WHAT ELSE?
One of the key things that Charles’ says he has learnt is that once all the above things have been implemented, the returns you get (in terms of saving money AND in terms of reducing carbon emissions) can be marginal and may even be negative.
Other things that might be considered include Solar Heating, Rain Water Harvesting, Roof Insulation, Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery.
However, Charles recommends that once the fundamental things have been implemented, you carry out second audit, to determine what, if any, further action may be beneficial. Thermographic imaging, for example, will show you where you are still losing heat and can help you to target your efforts effectively.
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One other piece of advice from Charles is to understand very thoroughly before you begin what your aims and priorities are. The relative importance you place on saving money, on saving carbon, the comfort of your home and the ease of maintenance will all affect your choice of the best solutions for you. And remember, this is an investment you are making for the long term! You may be happy now to have to chop wood or climb on a roof now – but will you still be willing and able to do these things, say, ten years into retirement?
Thank you to Charles and Judy for their hospitality and for sharing their wealth of knowledge and experience with us.
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