Community Power
Transition St Goran is a small group which was set up in our local community over 2 years ago. We are trying to improve our community ties, encourage people to work together, meet up, share food, help each other & learn new skills. So far, it has been a very slow process & although we have lots of folks on our mailing list - there are usually only 8 of us that attend most meetings & support events...
Our neighbours really don't know what they are missing! We have such lovely times together & on Saturday, we will be celebrating Earth Hour with shared food & hopefully a bonfire. We are very lucky that 2 of our members - Sara & Dave live at Cotna, a fantastic home with land, just a mile from our house & they host most of our get-togethers. We will also be celebrating our first big achievement - 2 community wind turbines! Which will be going up this Summer. It's an exciting project & means that local people can invest & become shareholders. Investors will receive annual payments for the electricity made & there will also be some money left in the pot to fund other community projects... We have a huge amount of tourists here during the holiday season & we think that the turbines will be a great advert for our community & will hopefully lead to others being set up across the country.
For Earth Hour, we intend to make the evening power free. The food, we aim to prepare with little impact, raw where possible & one of our other friends, Sheila even has A Haybox, which she uses to slow cook food. We shall eat by candlelight & Sime may even take his acoustic guitar... Our feasts are always great, so really looking forward to it & how clever of the Earth Hour people to choose Kay's birthday for their event!
The transition group has opened the door to some lovely friendships & last year, 4 of us - operated a community cafe for a few months. We opened just on Mondays & although it was very tiring - it was a great experience. The 4 of us have remained close - & no doubt always will. Margaret is the Mum of the group & is very organised, in fact she's just bought tickets for us to go & see The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain at The Daphne Du Maurier Festival in Fowey, which we're all excited about! Sheila is very good at chairing meetings & sorting out any admin around the group. And of course you know us... We don't really see enough of each other - we're all so busy with our own lives, but it's always nice to catch up & now we have a village pub again, we have vowed to meet up more (though we've only managed twice in 2 months)!
Tomorrow, we're taking Hugo & 2 other lads from the home ed group to the outdoor activity centre. It's near Falmouth, so our plan is to go off & find a quiet beach, take some books & have a picnic - if the weather's good!
Hope so...
Bye for now,
Kay & Sime xx
Have fun celebrating Earth hour. It sounds like it is going to be a good time.
ReplyDeleteSounds and looks like you have a super extended network and great bunch of like-minded people around you. Being like-minded makes all the difference as you don't have t explain yourself - you just know and accept each other as is. People are friendlier I think in the villages (well that's my experience) where we live is very mixed race community where everyone gets on reasonably well together despite the differences. Trouble is we don't always know who our neighbours are as we just don't see them for one reason or another and where you can really feel quite alone.
ReplyDeleteTake care and enjoy
Pattypan (Tricia)
xx
Thanks Mel - we're looking forward to it!
ReplyDeletePattypan - You're right, people all know each other here (especially us - we're known to all as "That vegetarian family"). We like the feeling of being very much part of the community, stopping & chatting to neighbours - it's nice.
Kay :)