h.Energy Saver volunteer facilitator training.

I spent yesterday (Fri) doing this training, funded by Herefordshire New Leaf  as part of a project to actively engage Herefordshire residents in their own long-term household and personal energy descent plans.

The training has equipped me, and other people from around the county as h.Energy Savers, to work with small groups of 5 - 6 local people (friends, neighbours, community members) in order to start to address the energy efficiency needs of our households.

 The training was free of charge, and was provided by Hal Gillmore and Mary Popham of Transition Town Totnes. 

The h.Energy Savers training is based  on an adaptation of a proven, award-winning peer-to-peer model developed by Transition Town Totnes where groups of friends and neighbours meet every few weeks,  with a practical workbook to help seed ideas,  to make easy changes in how they use energy, water, food, packaging and transport.  

I help to get things going in my neighbourhood and go to the meetings to give any support needed as the group works through ideas from the workbook  but it is NOT my meeting and the workbook is NOT a text book which has to be followed to the letter but  more of a general guide, full of good ideas.  I like that :-)

As the h.Energy Savers website says

Previous experience suggests that householders working together in this way will save an average of £570 per annum and reduce carbon emissions by 1.3tonnes, whilst learning more about issues such as water use, waste, transport and food.

In addition to this the project hopes to generate up to 250 home energy assessments, carried out by accredited Green Deal Assessors. These homes will then be regarded as 'Green Deal Ready' - i.e. eligible for finance to support their recommended energy efficiency measures once the Green Deal provider network locally is established (work to develop this network is continuing alongside the h.Energy Savers project).

I know this pattern of engagement works as it is how the Master Composter and Master Gardener schemes work and I know they work really well!

I really believe we need to be building more sharing and resilient communities around us all  as the impact of Peak Oil and other issues begin to really hit home. I already try to help with this as a Master Gardener and Master Composter and the other things I try to do and this looks like a good way as well.

I really enjoyed the day of training ( although it was a very long  and tiring day's work!)  I am very excited to be a part of this.

Watch this space!

A very catch up post!

Gosh, I have not posted for more than a week!

The reason being, it is *that* time of the year! Like many of you I am madly busy in my veg patch, the first crops are now ready to harvest (new potatoes, carrots, broad beans, spinach, courgettes, shallots and onions, strawberries, cucumbers, salads.....) and weeding weeding weeding is a priority!

As is grass mowing and compost making...Compostman has been scything the long grass and the comfrey today, and I have been filling up the newly emptied compostbins.

The compost has been dug out of them to go in various raised beds, and I have been planting climbing french and canadian beans up beanpoles cut from our own woodland ( feel very smug about this!) as encouraged by the Small Woods Association, of which I am a proud member! and who I occasionally work for...If you want a great place to go, visit the Green Wood centre in Coalbrookedale, its wonderful!

In the last 10 days I have also done 5 full days of Master Composter stuff which I organised, booked, transported the display etc to and from (and made sure the lovely other Master Composters had a good time )



This is me joining in the drumming at the World Environment Day stands at The Big Event.

I spent Sat and Sun this weekend just gone at Hellens in Much Marcle, at The Garden Festival, which is the Hereford Waldorf School Summer fair. A wonderful place and a very worthy cause to help, and it is a pleasure to go and do a stall at such a lovely event.

While I was there I did an interview on BBC Hereford and Worcester..click here to listen...go to 45 mins into the programme.

Last week I started the first session of a new Eco Club I have been commissioned to run at a school near Bromyard and I went to a meeting of the new Transition Town Ledbury group and have been asked to join the Steering Group, to help get things "transitioning".

So lots of outside activities going on here, must be because it is approaching Midsummer! I DO feel energised and buzzing with life at the moment, I must say, despite still feeling a bit rough from the nasty flu bug thingy.

At Compost Mansions, as well as all that harvesting and weeding and compost moving and making, I have earthed all up the spuds again, harvested a lot of new ones, planted out climbing beans, mowed(with the push mower!) around the edge of the veg patch and I have cleared all round the clearing and log circle in the wood. I have potted on numerous brassicas and salads both for home and for the school garden use.

I am preparing for a couple of days of school party activities in the wood at the end of this week which is very exciting. I have also been writing course notes and brochures and web pages for my environmental activities in the wood and I have planned a series of courses to be held here in the wood in 2010, training early years practitioners in "having fun in the woods" type of stuff.

AND we now have a house wreathed in scaffolding, as we are having a few bits of work done/doing a few bits of painting on the roof and up the top of the walls and Compostman is going to be putting up THE SOLAR PANELS !!

Yes, the ones which he was going to do last year, but then he had to have an operation so couldn't . But now he is well again and we are SO excited about the fossil-fuel-free hot water we will be getting.

Having scaffolding and building work going on does make it more "challenging" to try to get on with anything, however......

And sadly as a result I have been unable to do much in the way of housework AT ALL as there is too much other stuff to do..

So thats a shame ;-)

World Environment Day Fri 5th June 2009

On Fri 5th June I shall be in Hereford High Town doing my Compostwoman bit to promote composting at home. I am doing this (with other Master Composters) as part of Hereford Earth Watch, a 2 day event celebrating World Environment Day.

ABOUT World Environment Day

World Environment Day (WED) was established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment.

Commemorated yearly on 5 June, WED is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. The day's agenda is to:

Give a human face to environmental issues;
Empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development;
Promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues;
Advocate partnership which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.

The theme for WED 2009 is 'Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change'. It reflects the urgency for nations to agree on a new deal at the crucial climate convention meeting in Copenhagen some 180 days later in the year, and the links with overcoming poverty and improved management of forests.

This year’s host is Mexico which reflects the growing role of the Latin American country in the fight against climate change, including its growing participation in the carbon markets.

I am at the Earth Watch event as one of a group of Master Composters. Master Composting training is provided by Garden Organic. Garden Organic is the UK's leading organic growing charity, has been at the forefront of the organic horticulture movement for 50 years and is dedicated to researching and promoting organic gardening, farming and food.

I am very proud to be a member and am a passionate supporter all they do, especially their Composting and School Gardening programmes!

And Garden Organic have some very good ideas on how to celebrate WED!

Organic gardeners have a carbon footprint a third smaller than regular gardeners, which is why Garden Organic is urging more of us to go organic in the garden for UN World Environment Day.

Adopting an organic approach to the way we garden, farm and eat could massively contribute to protecting the planet for generations to come. And on Friday 5 June, it hopes more of us will look at how we can be greener in our gardens, for the sake of the environment.

At present, we are living well beyond our means, with the world requiring the equivalent of 3.4 planets to sustain it. However in research conducted by Garden Organic, which looked at the gardening and lifestyle habits of its members, the charity calculated that the figure could reduce to 2.5 planets if we were to simply garden organically and grow more of our own food.

Garden Organic's Dr Gareth Davies, who headed up the research said, “We monitored a sample of our members, some of whom were keen organic gardeners, others that had only just started out. What we found when we looked at each member's gardening habits, was that those who were the greenest in the garden and grew their own organic food, made a bigger reduction to their carbon footprint.”

“There are so many bad practices used in the average back garden, from spraying weed killer, to laying a garden full of concrete slabs, right down to burning rubbish. On UN World Environment Day, we hope to inspire people to think about what they can change to be more sustainable in the garden and in doing so we hope to raise awareness of how growing and gardening organically can help to protect the planet.”

So...some ideas to help you celebrate on Friday :-)

"The Age of Stupid". showing in Ledbury

7pm Friday 22 May

Free screening of "The Age of Stupid".

Venue: Main Theatre, John Masefield High School, Ledbury

PLEASE, if you are local , come and see this film!

Attending "The Garden Festival" again...

I have just attended the 2nd "Garden Festival" at nearby Hellens manor in my guise as "compostwoman" - spreading the message of composting to all and sundry.





I have borrowed a display board now so can put up more information and carry it around more easily!









I had to bring all the items on the stall this time as I was setting this one up single handed, with a fellow Master Composter ( and friend) coming along to help later on during the day!

It is a LOVELY place, very old and beautiful, with THE MOST amazing gardens as well...and the Festival raises money for Hereford Waldorf School...so a good cause!

Near to where my stall was situated was a lady selling chicken houses and such like. Very beautifully made and she had some beautiful 2 week old chicks in one ark....compostgirl was entranced!

Earthwatch day event

I have been doing my "compostwoman" stuff at an event in Hereford for the last couple of days...this event tied in and celebrated "Earthwatch Day"...it was a series of stalls and talks at the Kindle Centre in Hereford...spread over 3 days.


My compost stall...I think it looks good now!
Some of the other stalls, just before the event opened and the rush began!


A lady playing my compost game...( you have to decide what goes in the compostbin..)




and finally...my friend and collegue from my environmental advocacy days...Paul Mobbs giving his VERY informative and interesting "Energy without Oil" talk...he is REALLY good and his book is a very good read indeed( If you EVER have the chance to go and hear him speak....DO SO!)

A day at a Spring Green Fair.

I spent all of yesterday doing my "compostwoman" stuff at the Spring Green Fair in Ledbury...it was great fun!

I took my compost stall and bins and display boards and 3 fellow Master composters came to lend a hand during the day.

The Mayor officially opened the Fair, announced by the "Bill the Bell" (the Ledbury Town Crier) with his hat, robes and bell......

and then Felicity Norman of the Herefordshire Green Party gave an opening address...Felicity is our Green parliamentary candidate for Leominster and is a tireless green campaigner on local and organic food, better public transport and slower speeds on our roads.

The Fair was organised by the Really Use-less group in Ledbury who are encouraging people to live a more sustainable, lower carbon emitting lifestyle.

Eco-friendly shopping bags were being given away ( made with recycled material) there were cake, book and plant stalls, presentations from local primary and secondary schools, some fabulous live music throughout the day, a cafe, members of the allotment group, a stand providing energy efficiency advice and, of course, our composting stall and demo bins!

It was great to be part of something so positive and inspiring...