Transition Culture has moved
I no longer blog on this site. You can now find me, my general blogs, and the work I am doing researching my forthcoming book on imagination, on my new blog.
Come find me at robhopkins.net
7 Nov 2008
One of my favourite Transition Tales in the Transition Handbook was the one about Celebrity Love Allotment, in which aspiring starlet Letitia Lloyd emerged victorious from an allotment in Crouch End, having become a more proficient gardener than the other competitors. The article spoke of a planned followup series called ‘Pimp my Patio’. At the time it seemed absurd, but rapidly it is looking entirely plausable. Things are moving so quickly with regards to the demand for space to grow food and the whole idea of urban food growing that it sometimes defies belief.
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6 Nov 2008
I feel I just lived through a seminal moment in history. Yes, I know all the reasons why we ought not be excited about Obama’s election as President of the US (it will inevitably go sour at some point, his Afghanistan policies, he is still an economic growth man etc. etc. etc.), but just for now, for a few days, I want to bask in the glow of something really quite extraordinary having happened. In Naomi Klein’s seminal ‘Shock Doctrine’ (a must-read) she explores how neo-conservatism has pounced on (and actively engineered) moments of shock and social disorientation in order to intervene with drastic and self-serving measures that would have been otherwise unimaginable. The reverse of this is that times of disturbance also offer the potential to do positive things. Sharon Astyk put it beautifully when she wrote;
I think it is true that had Americans been told after 9/11, “We want you to go out and grow a victory garden and cut back on energy usage” the response would have been tremendous – it would absolutely have been possible to harness the anger and pain and frustration of those moments, and a people who desperately wanted something to do.
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5 Nov 2008
Last year’s Soil Association conference was an extraordinary event, one that took its delegates on a powerful journey into peak oil and out the other side. Its insights and developments have informed many of its new projects and initiatives since, and this year’s conference takes the theme deeper, and is entitled “Transition: Food and Farming in 21st century Britain”. Like last year, it looks like an event not to be missed.
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4 Nov 2008
The second film that emerged from my dusty archives is a programme called Leargas, an Irish language programme from RTE television. This programme is from 2002, and is called ‘A Gra for Straw’ (Gra is Irish for ‘love’). It offers a fascinating snapshot of the young and emerging green/natural building movement in Ireland then. It also features a somewhat younger and more windswept me co-ordinating a strawbale building project on a windswept hillside in West Cork.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYPKKd4R3_k
Part Two | Part Three
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3 Nov 2008
Unfortunately I just heard from Jeremy Leggett that due to urgent commitments, he is unable to participate in today’s Transition Chat…. we will reschedule and let you know. Sorry about that. If you want to meet there and have a chat anyway, do feel free. Next week’s will look at structure and organisation for Transition initiatives.
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One of my favourite Transition Tales in the Transition Handbook was the one about Celebrity Love Allotment, in which aspiring starlet Letitia Lloyd emerged victorious from an allotment in Crouch End, having become a more proficient gardener than the other competitors. The article spoke of a planned followup series called ‘Pimp my Patio’. At the time it seemed absurd, but rapidly it is looking entirely plausable. Things are moving so quickly with regards to the demand for space to grow food and the whole idea of urban food growing that it sometimes defies belief. 
