We are showing this multi-award winning film in Wilmslow at The Old Dancer with a hot chilli supper (vegetarian options available) on Thursday 18th January (supper from 7pm, film from 8pm, tickets including supper and the film £12; all details will soon be posted on our diary page but put the date in your diary!

However if you want a preview our friends at Transition New Mills are showing it on 19th September at Spring Bank Arts Centre, Spring Bank, New Mills, SK22 4BH as part of the New Mills Festival (https:www.newmillsfestival.com

If you do go, let us know what you think. We have heard it is absolutely inspiring!

Recently 5th Wilmslow Beavers have enjoyed two sessions harvesting vegetables that they planted in the Spring. This took place in Transition Wilmslow’s community garden in the park known as The Temp, Gravel Lane. The first session saw the boys digging up the first of their new potatoes. “Cooks” were appointed from the group and, while the rest played rounders, the potatoes were boiled over a log fire. Everyone was able to taste their produce before going home. The photos show Beavers digging up their potatoes and then cooking them.

The second session was to harvest the rest of the crop, about 10 kg, and 60 to 80 carrots; all of which was distributed among the group. This experience of following the process of growing your own has been a marvellous experience for the children. Please let us know if you would like to help us encourage young people into food growing, we welcome helpers, however much or little time you have to spare. 

It’s not often that the subject of a Transition Wilmslow lecture makes the national press, but our first Transition Lecture, given by Derek Whyte from Preston City Council last year, described the way Preston have been working with the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES, based at Manchester University) to develop a local economy for social good. By bringing together local anchor organisations (NHS, Police, Fire Service, social services and business) the City Council is able to procure collectively on a very large scale, and aims to procure locally as much as possible to encourage local jobs and businesses. It was good to see this featured in the press this week (http://www.citymetric.com/politics/could-preston-provide-new-economic-model-britain-s-cities-3243). The economy is central to the Transition Town movement…the ReEconomy project is a series of locally based initiatives to develop sustainable communities which are more resilient and focussed on wellbeing and equality. You can read more about this at www.reconomy.org

This year’s Transition Wilmslow Lecture will be Professor Chris Baines on Wildlife Gardening and the Wider Green Landscape, Friday November 24th at the Guild. Booking link via our diary page.

While climate change may not seem much of an issue to us in Wilmslow (as we write, it is August and pouring with rain) but anyone who has been to Italy or Greece this year knows it has been incredibly hot….the heatwave dubbed “Lucifer” has already claimed lives, the United States is having its worst drought in 56 years and the world has seen some of the highest temperatures ever recorded this year. This is climate change. Al Gore’s new film, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power is in cinemas across the UK on Friday 11th August 7.15pm (including Curzon Knutsford and cinemas in Altrincham and East Didsbury) with a live Q&A with Al Gore; and the film will be across the UK from August 18th. Go….and take a climate denier with you if you can! We’d be interested to know what you think

CFWI Climate Change Week of Action in Cheshire: Cheshire Meres & Mosses

Over the last 5 years, Transition Wilmslow has been raising awareness of Lindow Moss, where peat cutting still continues, as a potential carbon sink and a site of extraordinary archeological, historical and ecological interest, as well as a place of exercise and recreation.  We have run workshops, walks and study days to raise awareness of the Moss, and we are delighted that the WI have recognised the importance of Cheshire Meres and Mosses.

Photos have been submitted to the WI by Pauline Handley and Jean Hill. 

Fossilized pine roots: From around 6,000 years ago pine trees were able to colonise the surface of the mire and the pine woodland persisted for 2,000 years until wetter conditions prevented pine regeneration. The pine trunks and roots were preserved beneath a blanket of Sphagnum moss. Today the magnificent ancient pine stumps are trashed and discarded by the peat operator.

A full set of photos are on our Lindow Moss page.

Our Community Garden at The Temp looked a picture for the Wilmslow in Bloom judges this week! Thank you to Garry and the TW Food Group for all their efforts over the last year, to all the Brownie, Rainbow and Beaver groups and their leaders and parents who helped with planting and caring for the garden this spring, and to everyone who has helped with tending and watering. We await the judges’ report with interest!

Photos: Pauline Handley

It was a real pleasure to have a walk with the “Time Out” group last week, as one of our CEC supported “Wilmslow Walks”. We started at the group’s headquarters, in The Paddock in Handforth, walked through the gate in the car park into Meriton Park and down to the Transition Wilmslow Orchard. This is a little orchard that we planted a few years ago, and it was lovely to see the apple and plum trees really developing well with plenty of fruit, surrounded by long grasses and plants good for butterflies and insects, including hogweed, rosebay willowherb, nettle and goosegrass.

Thank you to Jo and her team for allowing us to share a walk in such beautiful sunshine with the group. If you know of anyone who would like a walk arranged, let us know.