A rainy evening on the outside, but on the inside…

Hard to believe, but our attendance at last night’s meeting was almost a no-brainer because it was raining, RAINING out! This week should be the coldest week of our year, and yet there we have it: a January evening hampered by rain! That didn’t stop many of us from getting together to chat about some of the interesting projects that people have on the go.

Gardening as a means of increasing our own food production is on the rise in our community. And doing it as a collective seems to be the way to go. There are plans afoot for many private gardens, and also the several community gardens that have sprung up on all sides of the peninsula. From Pike Bay to the West Road to the top of Moore Street, making gardens out of sunny patches seems to be on people’s minds. There are several grants approved for the school’s Transition Garden, and soon it will be time for the March seed exchange. Get your origami seed holders underway soon!

Trees are also were also a hot topic. We are soon to come into piles of them, thanks to a very generous donor, and our goal is to plant one tree for every permanent resident of the North Bruce. If you have an idea of how and where to plant, we would be happy to source you some trees. This will be a fundraiser for NBPTC, so donations will be happily accepted so that we can fund other projects.

We also tapped some brains for direction on the two big presentations we have  this winter/spring. We’ll be participating in the Outdoor Ed’s Making Peace With Winter Conference in 10 days, and the Sources of Knowledge Conference at Bruce Peninsula National Park at the end of April. Lots of good chatter about these events, and we appreciate the direction and offers to co-present from so many TC members.

Our letter to the County Planners was mailed before Christmas, and we’d like to thank those who scanned the TC’s submission before it left our hands. We kept our focus to Food, Transportation and Energy concerns, with specific changes we would like to see to the County Plan. We’re happy to share those with anyone interested.

The evening wrapped up with a live-streamed viewing of the new film The Economics of Happiness. Many wonderful voices added their voices and reminded us that local answers are the key to a resilient future. Meeting places, environment initiatives, the creation of markets to support our local farmers, and helping our young people learn about food production are all bright spots in our community. So many good things are happening on the Bruce; thanks go to all who are making our communities more caring, resilient and sustainable. And thanks to all who came out last night and made it such a great meeting.

Your Chance To Say…

NEW DATE: It’s autumn, and the planning has begun. If you are interested in bringing your ideas about our community’s resilience to the forefront of the county’s planning process, then join us Tuesday, October 4th. We are hosting  Sabine from Bruce County, who is eager to listen to the ideas from community members, Transition and otherwise. This is our chance to say what we believe is important in the future of our community.

Come with constructive ideas to BPDS at 4pm. We look forward to the chance to share and hear each other’s ideas. There have been so many good ones over the past 18 months we have been thinking Transition-ally, let’s see if we can work them into our local plan.

The post below has links to documents that may help you prepare for this meeting. Have a look around!

Summer Fun

Harvest from the school's Transition GardenSally leading the discussionDinner is served!

We kicked off August in the best possible way – with food. Welcoming Chris and Sally from Transition Guelph, we listened with interest as they shared their knowledge of the challenges of Peak Oil and Economic Instability, and progress of their own Transition group which has been active longer than our own. We believe we are on the right track with the meetings, projects, and connections being made. Of course the hi-lite was dinner, and was it ever good: a collection of dishes almost straight out of people’s gardens. Thanks to all who came and shared.

There is really important work ahead. As citizens of the Northern Bruce Peninsula, we have the opportunity to exercise one of our democratic rights and participate in Bruce County’s upcoming planning review for the 3 Northern Bruce communities of Ferndale, Tobermory, and Lion’s Head. There is an extensive planning document that can be accessed in hard copy at the Municipal Office, or online at this link: http://www.northbrucepeninsula.ca/siteengine/activepage.asp?PageID=19 .

Deputy Mayor John Bainbridge is maintaining a blog where he will be sharing his analysis of the process, so be sure to check that out at http://johnbainbridge9.wordpress.com/ . That should provide some background to what is happening over the next few months.

In mid-September, North Bruce Peninsula Transition will be hosting Sabine Robart, the county planner leading this review. She will provide an overview of the document and process and answer any questions the group has. Following her talk that night, we will begin the process of identifying our concerns, goals, and contributions to this plan.

This is really important work that lies ahead. This is our chance to comment on how our communities build resilience and deal with the challenges that lie before us, so that our communities remain vibrant, resilient and joyful places to live lives. Please be a part of this, all are welcome. 

Dates for these meetings will begin in mid-September, we will alert you as soon as the players are in place.

1 year later – students still gardening!

In spite of a rainy and cool spring, the BPDS Transition Garden is alive and well! Seeds have been started indoors, soil and manure have been shovelled into place, and compost is itself transitioning. Thanks to Jim Kuellmer and Patrick Lima, our students are being masterfully guided through their second growing season.

Heres what the students of all grades have been up to: Grades kindergarten and 1 are organizing onion sets in addition to their year-long composting duties. The latter involves visiting all classrooms in the school and gathering and emptying the green buckets. We do appreciate their enthusiasm and dedication to this job. They never forget! The grade 4/5 class has been organizing and planting seeds for weeks now. They will begin putting them in the ground as soon as the grade 9 science class has finished with the preparation of  beds. The grade 8s are also helping with this task, as well as fixing the fence.

The fruit trees are blooming, the cedar hedge is greening, and the butterfly garden is full of colour. The students can see the fruits of their labours even though we are far from harvest-time. Our students are learning skills for a lifetime of connection with their planet, hours of enjoyment, and resilience: all wonderful things.

Bee aware!

In an effort to address the problem of pollinator the Canadian Pollination Initiative is creating a network that will raise awareness and increase pollination research. This is important: cultivate the biggest garden you can manage, but you’re nowhere without a steady stream of pollinators visiting and doing their thing. And it’s not just true for agriculture, it matter in natural ecosystems as well.

They following is from CANPOLIN’s website, and neatly identifies the reasons for moving informing ourselves about the issue of pollinator decline:

1. A decline in pollinators and deficit in pollination is already documented.

2. The problems being faced by the honeybee industry are becoming ever more complex.

3. Future declines in both pollinators and pollination are inevitable with or without climate change.

4. The international community is well aware of the importance of the topic.

5. Agricultural, forestry and natural ecosystems will have to adapt to changes in pollinator distributions and abundances and it will be crucial to be able to predict these in order to design mitigation procedures.

6. Canadian research has been at the forefront in determining the crucial importance of bees as environmental indicators.

7. Expertise in all aspects of pollination biology is available among Canadian professors and scientific community

8. There is a widespread understanding of the importance of the topic in Canada and of the need to train highly qualified personnel in all aspects of the subject.

9. A “critical mass” of skilled personnel is ready to provide this training, along with a critical mass of people willing to learn.

If you think you are one of those willing to learn, then join BPEG as they host an evening with Tom Woodcock from CANPOLIN in Guelph. The information is on the sidebar under coming events. Links to CANPOLIN are also in place.

The Peninsula is special for a lot of reasons, but we know birds,  orchids, and endangered species like the Massassauga Rattlesnake really depend on a healthy Peninsula ecosystem. So do pollinators. Come and hear what you can do to help them bee here.

Only 300 Seconds?

You might be interested in this: the history of the Oil Age in less than 6 minutes. Thanks to Linda for sending this our way.

http://www.nextworldtv.com/videos/what-isnt-working-1/the-last-300-years-in-300-seconds.html

This film is part of a collection of films on a variety of topics; Transition, Permaculture, and Co-Housing to name a few, that can be found at Next World TV. http://www.nextworldtv.com/ By Clicking on this link, you can check out a compilation of many films, both short and long, that discuss many of the issues Transition Community is concerned with.

Check it out. Enjoy.

Almost like Christmas!

Look what I picked up at this past week’s Seed Exchange hosted by the Transition Community Initiative!

I’m no great gardener, but I do have a teenager who enthusiastically organises our plots into growing gardens these past couple of summers, and I think I have picked up all the seed we’ll need. S, purple potatoes I have no idea the name of, gourds, chard, and chocolate peppers to name a few. I’m even going to grow a pumpkin of the same breed Cinderella used for her coach! So we’re off to a good start.

The seed exchange was good fun, with a great turnout. Tina sent us origami papers to make our seed holders, and that was the first challenge for many that evening.

Once we had our designer envelopes, we cruised the room perusing the selection of seeds from our community members’ previous harvests…..

along with some visiting….

We then retired to the ‘screening room’ where we watched the film ‘No Impact Man’. There were many poignant moments in this film, and I’m not sure they were the ones the subject intended. There’s a chance his relationship with his wife was the real story here, and I would argue that she’s the one that was most challenged by their year, and made the most strides in her awareness of her impact. She had patience to spare, says one wife about another.

We welcomed the news updates from new visitors Mary Ann and Jan, who spoke to us about a possible upcoming citizen science monarch butterfly project coming to the Bruce. They also made us aware of the upcoming Cycling Celebration, and the Sources of Knowledge Conference. All of these are listed at the sidebar.

I’ll include here a link for the video the Hopi nation has created to express their solidarity with the people of Japan in light of recent events. This was brought to my attention by Roger and Susan this week. Included are apologies for not getting to it at the meeting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqmQlIikG9Q

A Man with no Impact



Here’s the movie on tap for the upcoming meeting in late March. After we share/exchange/trade seeds, either from last year’s heritage seed giveaway or from any other source, we’ll settle in for a movie. We thought we’d start the Transition Film Evenings with No Impact Man, and if you can’t read the blurb on the poster above, it says it all, so I’ll repeat it here…..

A New York City Liberal takes a giant leap and makes the decision to spend 12 months without television, taxis, or take-out, turning off the electricity to become a walking, bicycling, composting, tree-hugging polar-bear saving, local-food eating, sustainably living citizen of planet earth, all the while taking his baby daughter and caffeine-loving, luxury-seeking, retail-obsessed wife with him….

Sound like a lot of laughs! Details at the side-bar. See you there!

Earth Day

Join the rest of the world on Saturday, March 26th when the planet celebrates Earth Hour. Switch off your electrical appliances, toys, gadgets, lights, and doo-dads at 8:30, and find something fun to do in the dark for an hour. And if the activity is really fun and stimulating, then leave the lights out longer, and give Mama Earth an even longer break!

She’ll be grateful. Moms like breaks.

Plotting a Garden

It’s getting to be that time again. Thank goodness! For all of you who may be reading from a location where the temperatures are above 5c, we are looking forward to the long, sunny days of winter, when we can get to temps of above -10c and get some good long skis in. Yahoo!

 But this is also the perfect time to begin planning the garden.

And there are many initiatives going on locally that Bruce Peninsulites may want to be a part of.

Monday, February 28th is the next Transition Community Meeting, and it will be all things gardening. We are excited to think about all the people and their ideas being a part of the discussion. If you are planning a garden, and want to share your ideas, or harvest some of your own, come out! 7pm at Bruce Peninsula District School.

BPEG also has an exciting initiative. If you are interested in participating in a community garden, you can have your own plot of garden on the sunny side of Main Street, just north of Lion’s Head. There are various sizes available, and they’ll be available on a first come basis.

This will be a chemical free garden.

Join forces with a friend, and share the harvest. Or preserve the harvest! or sell it at the Lion’s Head Farmer’s Market this season! For more info, contact info@bpeg.ca and they’ll be happy to answer your questions.

We hope to see you Monday, with your ideas and your visions for the warm weather….because it is coming.

.