Friday 8 July 2011

pink fir apples

Just a quick first blog!- to say that the pink fir apple potato which i had from Rebecca at our seed swap in the Spring produced 24 lovely spuds! it was like digging treasure!



Other successes from seeds received at the swap are -mustard red frill, watercress which needs no water to grow, and dwarf peas!
Maureen, Saltash in Transition.

Natural Dyes - the Top 3 European Dye Plants

Natural Dyes - the Top 3 European Dye Plants

Looking to buy some organic cotton fabric I came across this useful site which sells all types of natural dyes and even gives info on how to grow plants such as madder.

The process of dying fabric causes terrible environmental damage and that's before the fabrics end up in some Chinese sweatshop and finally our high street!

Hardly any fabric gets dyed in Europe now as we have lawas to stop manufactureres polluting watercourses. In China and India the same laws do not apply.

Adopt a plot from as little as £20 :: Healthy Planet

Adopt a plot from as little as £20 :: Healthy Planet

Have a look at this website its very inspirational!

Rebecca

Thursday 7 July 2011

Compost Scheme

A free community workshop will be held at the Burraton Community Centre,
Grenfell avenue, Saltash on Tuesday 19th July from 7.30 to 9.30pm. The
event is organised by Cornwall Waste Action, an environmental not for
profit organisation as part of the Cornwall Community Food and
composting project which is funded through the Big Lottery's Local Food
fund.

Interested residents of Saltash and the surrounding areas, can attend
the workshop and will receive free training as well as on-going support
to become volunteer compost mentors. All trained volunteers are then
encouraged to mentor local people from their own social networks to
become home composters.

Art at Ashtorre

ART AT ASHTORRE
Hilary Hughes, Richard Sowman, Nicky Walker, Vincent Wilson
7 July to 18 August
Four of the most well-known and successful painters living locally are celebrated in this headline Summer Show.
Their work is strongly rooted in careful observation and an enjoyment of landscape, yet each develops what they see into powerful and contrasting personal images.
We are lucky to be able to host this selection of work and I hope you’ll be able to drop in.
Please forward to friends or display the attached poster if you are able.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

A Freeboot 'Sale'

Saturday July 16th 10-12 midday in the Small Hall at Wesley Church  
A FREEBOOT is like a car boot sale except that everything is FREE and please don't bring a car!
Bring something you don't need and take away something useful. Trade in each of your goods for a "Saltash Shilling". If you have nothing to spare "Saltash Shillings can be exchanged for a donation!

and finally but very importantly an advance notice...........
 
A visit to THE AGROFORESTRY RESEARCH TRUST CENTRE at Dartington, 6pm Fri 5th Aug
SEA members have been given the chance to visit this exciting project! Martin Crawford will give us a guided tour and explain all that is going on there. The visit starts at 6pm and we will need to car share to get there. The cost is £5 per person. To find out more ( and we recommend you do as it's a fascinating project!) visit
www.agroforestry.co.uk.
Please contact 
info@sea.pl12.org.uk  asap if you might be interested in coming as we need to get some idea of numbers.

Sunday 3 July 2011

Images for Messages

One of the things Stephen Sheppard mentioned in his talk on Wednesday was how images can be used to deliver and reinforce connections - he gave an example which I particularly liked:


I don't have his slides so I simply recreated it with a bit of google-image searching and some quick'n'dirty graphics editing. It's not perfect - the patio heater is at the wrong angle and perhaps a bit big and would be better positioned slightly rightwards, but it is hiding some flaws where I removed what was there before.
The funny thing was that while googling for a picture of an ice-floe I came across these - all being used as genuine original photographs...


1


2


3


4

All the same ice-floe, but different bears, penguins and skies. No 4 is the most obviously fake I think, but is one of them a real original photograph of something in the real world? Who knows?

So now you know the answer to the old question "What to polar bears do with penguins?" - they meet in photo-shop-land.

Incidentally you might like to print the patio-heater-on-an-icefloe image as a small sticker to attach to patio heaters in pub gardens this autumn - it might help someone make a connection...

Friday 1 July 2011

A388 destruction

Sometime in May a whole section of trees and hedges beside the A388 in Carkeel was cut down.I missed this as we were away but coming back from the station in early June we were horrified to see the trees piled up in heaps by the side of the road.

Importantly the period between 31st March and 1st July is the prime bird nesting season and anyone destroying hedgrows and trees during this period can be prosecuted under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

I've been talking to Natural England who are very helpful and are looking into the case.It is important for everyone to be aware that any cutting or removal of trees should always be carried out during the winter.