Transition Culture

19 May 2008

Is Burning Wood Really A Long-Term Energy Descent Strategy?

One of the most essential publications to which I subscribe and which I most look forward to the arrival of is Agroforestry News, produced by the Agroforestry Research Trust. It is scholarly, always illuminating and at the same time is brims with the possibilities of an entirely different way of looking at how we could feed, house and heal ourselves. The latest issue features a fascinating article which, as someone about to install a woodstove, caught my attention, and which I thought would be sure to generate some debate here at Transition Culture.  Thanks to ART for permission to reproduce it here…

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9 May 2008

The Wonder of the Worm and a Cautionary Tale About Slugs

One of the downsides to gardening at this time of year is the torchlit slug hunts, wandering around in the dark prising hissing snails and impossibly sticky slugs off tender young runner beans and emerging salads. Years ago I lived in a house in Bristol with an impossibly sluggy garden which was host to my first gardening attempts. I came back from the pub one evening, collected a large plastic pot full of slugs and snails in order to transfer them to the front garden instead, away from my young salads. En route I stopped to make a cup of tea, which led to a chat, which led to more chats, and in the morning, when I came downstairs, I was greeted by the sight of an empty slug pot. Where they all went I never found out, but I often wonder if the current inhabitants are still puzzled to find slugs emerging from under the countertops. Anyway, I digress, for what I want to write about here is the wonderful creature that is the worm.

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10 Jan 2008

Book Review: Eco-House Manual.

**Review of ‘Eco-House Manual: how to carry out environmentally friendly improvements to your home’ by Nigel Griffiths.**

This Christmas, for those of my family who would appreciate such things, I either gave vouchers for nut trees that will be planted in Totnes in February, or copies of the Eco-House Manual. Although most books in the green building library focus on new build, there are a few books on what to do with the millions of buildings we already have, but many of those that I have read tend to be quite superficial.

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9 Jan 2008

The Joy of Loft Insulation.

In an episode of the Alan Partridge radio show, one of his guests is a Lord, who had just written his autobiography (Partridge: “you’ve just published your autobiography. What’s that about?”). The statesman in question has a strong reputation for being outspoken and outrageous, and he ends up having a heart attack and dying live on the show. During the interview, Partridge asks him why he has always been such an outspoken advocate for pornography. The Lord replies “what a man chooses to do, in the privacy of his own attic, is his concern and no-one else’s”. Over the last few days of the Christmas break, I spent a few days in my loft, but for far more laudable motives. I did however experience the strangely delightful solitary pleasure that can only be achieved by insulating one’s own loft.

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7 Aug 2007

All Aboard the Eco Ark!

Just back from the wonderful **Big Green Gathering**, so many things to write about and share, but I’ll start with one of the things that really impressed me, the Eco Ark (alternatively the Junk Boat). One of the wonderful things about festivals such as the BGG is the creativity they unleash, people who put a huge amount of time into creating things that just exist during the festival. On the Friday night I was walking back to my tent in the early hours, and came across a boat, complete with sails and rigging, sat in the field, full of people sitting chatting by candlelight. I passed by and went to bed that night, my mind racing with thoughts about how anyone got a boat to Cheddar, why on earth would they, and what an extraordinary thing it was to do. The next day I inspected it closer.

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