Sunday 5th August 2018
12 noon til 2.00pm
Hexham Middle School Community Garden
To access the garden, walk up Broadgates, or through the main entrance to the school – via Maiden’s Walk.
There will almost certainly be potatoes to dig, gooseberries to pick and possibly some redcurrants too – so you might wish to bring along some gardening gloves. We have plenty of tools in the shed.
There will be some gardening chores too – we have our “It’s Your Neighbourhood” visit from Northumbria in Bloom next Thursday, 9th August, so it might be good to do some edging work and generally tidy up. Elizabeth may bring a list of things that need to be done.
So – hoping for some sun on Sunday, though the rain this week has been very welcome.
Best wishes,
Wendy
A great day was had by all on Sunday 1st July at the Hexham Middle School garden. TT advertised the ‘gardening and picking’ day with notices at the Wentworth Edible Hexham beds, and through the TT email list, and Elizabeth announced to the Hexham East Residents’ Association that there were strawberries ready for picking .I thought as a tribute to Susan, I would record for all some sense of Susan’s past and TT activity and highlights.We all have learned a lot from Sue over the years with her abundant knowledge, calm, reassuring manner yet with a firm understanding of the direction she wants to go. I would like to personally thank you Sue for all of the patience and understanding you have shown me over the years. Continue reading “Afternoon tea with Susan Hick.”
On the 24th March 13 trees – 11 apple and 2 plum – were successfully planted in our new mini orchard on Tyne green. This is part of our ongoing commitment to encourage people to grow their own food – to help reduce food miles and to demonstrate how easy it is to ‘grow your own. ‘ In Victorian times Hexham was famous for its orchards , we hope to renew that fame.
Many thanks to our wonderful band of volunteers and to the Lions who provided much needed rocks for a barrier against marauding cars and helped plant the trees too. The orchard is at the far end of Tyne green, at the far side of the car park by café Enna.
In years to come the fruit will be free for everyone to harvest. The surplus (if any !) will be crushed for juice at our annual Farmers market apple pressing day at the Farmers market. Check it out and enjoy the harvest !!
Transition Tynedale Limited will be holding their Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 14th March, 2018 in the back room of The Heart of Northumberland, Hexham.
Registration from 7:00pm, AGM starts at 7:30pm and aim to finish by 8:30pm
This page explains the processes that we follow when electing our Directors, and Officers.
Introduction
Why do we need cob and other sustainable building methods now?
What is COB?
Examples of cob buildings elsewhere
What areas within the school curriculum overlap with sustainable building methods?
How will working with cob as a school project benefit the children?
What is our proposal? Continue reading “A holistic view on Cob Building”
In 2017 cycling continued to grow exponentially in popularity. In recognition of this and the need to reduce vehicle impact, the Government committed some funding to make cycling safer and increase participation but nowhere near enough to do the job properly. Children continue to want and receive bikes for Christmas but cycling to school is only possible in a minority of locations.
The increased uptake of e-bikes widened the appeal of cycling but the infrastructure in many cities, towns and villages largely failed to keep pace with demand and reasonable safety concerns for a variety of reasons including funding, political will, a vociferous motoring lobby and the decision-making power of non cyclists.
Mass participation events thrived and subject to the limited funding available, trail centres and bike parks increased in size, variation and popularity. Women’s cycling grew as a sport, as a hobby and as a means of transport whilst cycling for health reasons also expanded. Cycle tourism continued to grow in popularity despite low levels of investment due to continued political inertia.
After plateau-ing in the early decade years, mountain biking further resurged whilst cyclo-cross and cycling as part of triathlons continued to increased participation numbers. Cycling clubs abound in the North East and once again professional cycle racing made a huge impression on the region but sadly again left no legacy due to political apathy i.e. the total failure for those in power to see the potential that cycling brings.
The three main reasons people say they don’t cycle are traffic speed, volume and size. Where it’s useful, even modest changes to the highway like removing the centre line to slow down traffic and introducing advisory cycle lanes which cars straddle when the lanes are empty can make a huge difference whilst big changes such as constructing off-highway cycle lanes can significantly release latent demand for safer cycling.
The question is will cycling in 2018 be any different. The certainty is demand will only increase, the variable factor is funding for cycling is scarce but it does exist. The most worrying factor is the political will and energy to prioritise where, when and why available funding for cycling can be wisely spent has been sadly lacking.
Cyclists deserve a better implementation system that guarantees facilities for safer cycling where needed. What we don’t need is the removal of even modest facilities that make cycling safer for no other reason than to appease a minority of motorists.
