Blackdown Hills Transition group

Blackdown Hills Transition ~ The Transition Network supports community-led responses to climate change and shrinking supplies of cheap resources, building local resilience.

We’ve had a good year. It’s been a year of finding our feet on the foundations we’ve built. The website has been very much alive; we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to be at some local events and our own apple day was such fun that we hope to hold four next year across the Blackdowns. It really feels as though it’s coming together, that we are pulling together.

At our December meeting, after a fabulous bring and share lunch, we began to plan for the year ahead, agreeing the dates and places for meetings; beginning to pull together leaflets, books and films to loan to anyone who would like to learn more about some of the challenges facing us and the exciting and creative responses to them from the world over. Keep an eye on the diary of events for details of up-coming events or to contact us using the link on the left.

So here’s to a New Year, one of learning how we can best help each other become more resilient to whatever challenges come to meet us. Here’s to all of us, because when we pull together wonderful things happen.

Blackdown Hills Transition Group….

Transition; changing from one condition, style or place to another.....

Sometimes the process of Transition is awkward and difficult. I find myself stretched between worlds; the first where I work to buy food and resources, energy and services; the second where I use my time instead to provide some of those things for myself. As the recession bites I’m faced with the choice of chasing work or chopping logs, using more resources [diesel mostly] to go further afield to work, or staying put and using less of everything. I have a foot in each world and neither seems quite enough to sustain us.

Sometimes as a group, we struggle to find what it is that we can do for our diverse and wonderful community. There are so many brilliant ideas waiting in the wings, and recently, with the genius and commitment of a small band of us….one took flight at our Apple Day on the 23^{rd October. In a beautiful orchard in Otterhead, people came with an apple mill and presses, cakes, soups and mulled apple juice, music and games, apples and willing hands. People came to press their own apples and take home the juice in every colour from pale lemon, through scarlet to russet. It was a great day. "…..something happened in Geraldine and Gordon's orchard that to me seemed to have a gentle flow all of it's own. Just the right number of people to create little queues long enough for everyone to catch up with their neighbours, someone putting extra wood on the fire as it was getting colder causing a cheery blaze that tempted people to stay longer, feet tapping fiddle playing , children sitting and chattering in an untidy circle in the twilight ..... I could go on and on describing the heart-warming images I will hold in my head about today."}

^{Sometimes the experience of Transition is full of hope and optimism for the future.}

Sometimes I lose my footing. My mate Ade said he'd take me to this beautiful place, a nature reserve on the coast, and we'd fish for our supper. Once there all I could see was rubbish; lost lines and drinks bottles and carrier bags. Closer to home; WhilstI am incredibly lucky to have work at the moment, I'm driving more not less. The news, the ceasless pursuit of growth not sustainability, of wealth instead of need, the desperate race to see who can find, sell and use up the resource du jour first. Sometimes I lose my footing and despair washes over me.

Generally, I live on the bright side of life, excited by all that is possible, energised my the marvel of human creativity in the face of adversity. It is important to understand though, that we can all get battle weary, or feel impossibly small against the seemingly unassailable wall of needs ahead. I have to strike a balance between trying to educate myself about what is happening, and not letting it frighten me so badly that I'm rendered useless.

When I feel a bit lost, I look close about me. Sometimes it can be the smallest thing that gets you going again. I was out walking my friend's dog along a local footpath and thought I'd run out of signs, but then I looked down at my feet and saw an arrow made of flints pointing the way. It really made me smile. A few days later our lovely Apple Group put on an Apple Day at a friends lovely orchard. So many people came with bags and barrels of their own apples to press. There was a camp fire and music and just the best atmosphere.

I'm sorry if this one has been a bit sombre, but it reflects what I have seen in many people in Transition....we all have an off day sometimes. This blog started out as my journey, sometimes it seems I'm still just kangaroo-starting,

How do I get down....?

Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline.

Energy descent is the post-peak oil transitional phase, when humankind goes from the ascending use of energy that has occurred since the industrial revolution to a descending use of energy.

Climbing up was easy. We learned to drive, learned to love it in fact, like the awful toad in 'Wind and the Willows'. Pretty nearly every single thing we use has oil in it or used oil to make it. But every finite thing has it's 'peak', not just oil, but minerals, uranium coal and gas, and from there the only way is down. So how do we get down? Some more established Transition groups are working on Energy Descent Action Plans, or EDAPs. Go to totnesedap.org.uk to read about theirs. Clearly the challenges of energy descent will be many, but so will the solutions. It won't just be government policy, or grass roots movements, it won't be just education or corporate bandwagonning. It will have to each of us in what ever way we can, and the more we help each other the safer the descent will be. Like being stuck at the top of a ladder, don't fix on looking down just take one step at a time and before you know it you're there. One great first step used by Taunton Transition Town is their 'Transition Together' book. Based on the Totnes one but written for Somerset, it is a seven step programme to work through with a small group of neighbours or work colleagues to help reduce your carbon footprint and cost of living supporting [or in healthy competition!] with each other. If you are in the Taunton Deane area contact Chrissie Godfrey, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it 01823 321731 for more information.

Up here on the hills, BHT is trying to set up an apple day, with talk of planting community orchards and having good quality equipment to loan those who need to find something to do with all those apples.

Churchinford has a more immediate solution to peak oil with an offer of a liftshare to and from Taunton each day:

Car sharing to Taunton

In the spirit of transition, I would like to offer lifts to anyone who needs one from Churchinford into Taunton. I leave the house at 8.10 am on Mon, Wed, Thurs and Fri and around 9 on Tues. I drive into the centre of Taunton and then return around 4pm, except Tues when it’s around 8pm.

If you would like a lift there or back on any day, please either wander up my drive at "Rowans" in the morning or call me at York House in Taunton on 01823 323206 for an afternoon lift home. If anyone else would like to join in a car share scheme, either as a driver or lift-seeker, please give me a call or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and I’ll try to arrange it for you.

(Burglars please be advised that my husband works from home, so there’s always someone in!)

Karen Atkinson

…...of course going downhill can be great fun, whether it's on an old feed sack in the snow, or through beech leaves in the Autumn. It's bound to be different, each generation is, but every generation has it's hey day...here's to the next one!