A Message for Abingdon

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How to create a winning wildlife garden

Come and hear Dr Steve Head, , keen gardener, naturalist, RHS Chelsea Show gold medallist, as he tells us  how to set up a wildlife garden, improve local biodiversity, and maybe even win the Wildlife Garden class of the Abingdon in Bloom competition!!

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Pruning the apple trees in Drayton - communal skill-sharing!

Want to learn how to prune your own apple tree? Come and join our annual Carbon Cutters pruning of the heritage apple trees on the Millennium Green in Drayton on Sunday 10th Feb at 2pm, where we will pool our expertise and share our skills. Wear warm waterproof clothing and bring secateurs and pruning saw if you have one.
More details from Fiona on mike@mhabermehl.fsnet.co.uk
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Our next meeting is a departure for us - a film in Peachcroft Christian Centre which we hope will be the start of something big - to consider re-localisation as it could apply to Abingdon. Have you heard about Transition Towns? Abingdon could be one, if we all work together!
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Apple Day Saturday October 13th!

Apple Day is upon us! Or will be on October 13th!

There will be plenty for children to do this year - from the Wild Waste Bus, to trying their hand at archery, and we are very excited to present plans for the proposed "Forest School" area which carbon cutters are helping to design and implement.

As last year, you are invited to bring your apples for Ruth Ward to help diagnose what variety they are, and windfalls to be crushed into juice.  There are very few apples around ths year, so if you know of any going spare, please collect them and bring them, or if they are in someone's garden, ask if you can collect them!

There will be soup and rolls at lunchtime, tea and coffee throughout the day, and a cake stall run by Caldecott School PTA.

There will also be a stall of second-hand children's books, do bring any you can spare.

The Mayor of Abingdon will visit and we hope the children of Caldecott School, who are having an "Eco-week" that week, will sing to her.

Bring your friends!

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Seen but not heard: Electric car in Abingdon

One of the Carbon Cutters was lucky enough to have an electric Nissan Leaf car to test last weekend.

The car drove like a conventional car, but there were a huge number of beeps, buttons, and screens inside. The Nissan dealer did explain that there is likely to be a version of the Leaf car with fewer gadgets inside, once production moves to the UK in a few months. Undoubtedly some early adopters of the new electric car technology will enjoy the electric handbrake, the absence of an ignition key, the mirror that automatically turns dark when needed, and other clever gadgets, but I couldn't help but feel that the car would move from being "good" to being "awesome" if the luxury features were all removed to save weight and cost!

One bonus of the multiple flat screens (that provide the driver with continuous information about anything and everything) was that it was possible to visualise the electrical energy coming out of the batteries (when accelerating and when driving). This was interesting, but far better was seeing when energy was put back in to the batteries when coasting or braking.

Having the car for a day gave a fantastic opportunity to try out the electric car charging station in Abingdon's waitrose car park.

There are two charging stations in the car park, a "big" one and a "small" one as you can see in the photo below:

 To use the small charging station, it is necessary to be a subscriber to the service provided by a company called Polar, who provide an electronic key to subscribers so that they can open up the socket on the charging post.

The big charger is branded as a Nissan charger, and looks very much like a petrol pump. It provides power free of charge, through the fast charging connector on Nissan electric cars. The Nissan garage does not recommend that every charge is a fast charge. A "normal" charge which gives around 120 miles of travel will take 12-16 hours by plugging the car in to a standard domestic British power outlet

Initially, we had to diagnose and rectify a fault with the"big" electric car charging point. The emergency stop button had been pressed and latched in, causing this error each time the system started up. I unlatched the e-stop button, and all was well.

 

 

 

37 amps reportedly filled us up down this black cable. The charger itself hummed a little, and some blue lights flashed on the dashboard. We were able to lock the car doors, and go in to do our shopping while all this was going on.

The electrical connector was fiddly to attach to the car, as it had a lever, a button, a springy part and a flappy cover for the lever.

 

We were on charge for 20 minutes, and the car's battery went from 60% charge to 90% charge.

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Foraging again

Followers of this blog will recall the post from last year about the foraging map that we maintain.

View Abingdon Foraging in a larger map

Carbon Cutters have been in touch with the Oxford foraging map team who are investigating the opportunity to link our maps with an international foraging map at www.foragersfriend.com


View OxFood - Food for Free in Oxford in a larger map ... Read this ...

Bees and Honey

Hello all,

Here's a reminder that Abingdon Carbon Cutters' next meeting is on 19th September, and the subject is Bees and Honey. You may have heard about bees in the recent news (click here). This will hopefully be an interesting and enlightening evening, with a well renowned local speaker.

At the last Carbon Cutters planning meeting, there was a discussion around setting up a group to encourage the planting of bee friendly plants in municipal and other flower beds. Maybe this talk will be the encouragement you need to get involved with that group.

There is a poster for the meeting attached to this post - please display one if you are able. The meeting will be at St Ethelwold's house, on East St Helen's street in Abingdon, at 7.30pm. (click here for a map) There will be refreshments!

Apologies that the Carbon Cutters blog has not been updated so much recently. Work is ongoing to set up a new and improved Carbon Cutters website, which will be "going live" in the autumn.

At the last Carbon Cutters meeting, we shared in watching a film introducing the concept of a transition town. It was an informative and challenging evening. Click this link to find out more, and do get in touch with your thoughts about Abingdon Carbon Cutters taking this direction.


See you on 19th September,

Abingdon Carbon Cutters. ... Read this ...

Carbon Cutters AGM - and film on Transition - on Weds 18th July at 7.30pm in Ethelwolds House

What IS a Transition Town?

At our AGM we will be sharing out the jobs, looking at what we have been doing in the last year, and what it has cost us, and sharing ideas for the coming year. One of the possibilities is to work towards becoming a "Transition Town", and we will watch a short video on Transition to help us make our minds up. Do come and help us answer the question: Should Abingdon become a Transition Town? Would it be good for us as a community? Fun, even?


Should Abingdon become a Transition Town?

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Tea time

From this

The Carbon Cutters TEA TIME event on Saturday was a great success. The participants brought "what they had" - and created an excellent meal which everyone shared. Some people brought fresh items, others had a clearout of their cupboards, and some brought things that were surplus from their weekly shop.
Eleven Carbon cutters worked together - were reminded of the benefits of such traditional items as Lard and Tapioca - even if we did lean that Tapioca comes from Malaysia.

To this

Keep your eyes and years open for information about future events like this - and in the mean time think about ingredients in our cupboards that you might need either help or encouragement in using up.

Made these

And these

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Veg Van at Northcourt Centre

Dan Betterton of Cultivate will be bringing the Veg Van to Northcourt Centre, Northcourt Road,  Abingdon tomorrow morning and every Friday, 8.15am to 9am. Get up early and grab your local fresh veg, fruit, eggs and bread before it all goes! ... Read this ...

The Veg Van comes to town!!

Really exciting news - the Cultivate veg van will be in Abingdon market-place tomorrow at the Local Excellence market, and will then be calling at Northcourt Centre EVERY FRIDAY from 8.15am - 9am. Look for the psychedelic van on the forecourt, and buy your weekend fresh fruit and veg there!. All the fruit and veg will be sourced from as close to Abingdon as possible.
Come and have a look!   Find out more about Cultivate and the Veg Van here! ... Read this ...

"Cultivate" veg van talk Weds 20th June!

Come and hear Dan Betterton of the new Social Enterprise "Cultivate" (see link opposite) tell us how their new market garden at Long Wittenham is getting on. 

Bring your ideas about where the "Veg Van" could stop in Abingdon.

 Then come to the Local Excellence market on 30th and buy some veg yourself!

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How to Make Our Voices Heard. May 16th

Come to our next Carbon Cutters Evening Meeting on Wednesday July 15th at 7.30 at St Ethelwold's House, and help to find out what makes very successful groups, such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, so good at capturing the public imagination. To spread the word we could do worse than emulate them! Coffee and cake provided as always. ... Read this ...

Gardener's Question Time Weds April 19th 7.30pm

Our next Carbon Cutters Meeting promises to be a real treat. Bring your questions to put to the panel! Or email them in advance to Robert Longstaff at robert@theOGP.org - The Oxford Garden Project, http://oxfordgardenproject.com/ ... Read this ...

Local author and food activist Colin Tudge at Carbon Cutters on Feb 15th!!

On Weds Feb 15th we are lucky to have Colin Tudge to talk to us about How to Feed Everyone Everywhere. He is the inspiration behind the recent Oxford Real Farming Conference and the author of a new book "Feeding People is Easy". He is part of a revolution in the way food is produced!
You can hear him and the people from Cultivate and catch the excitement of the new food movement on this week's Food Programme here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b019rd9c
Cultivate launched in Oxford last Monday. You can join the revolution with a minimum investment of £100 - if enough people in Abingdon join, the veg van will come every week to somewhere near you and bring local fresh veg, and as a member you will get a 10% discount for life!  See  http://www.cultivateoxford.org/
Hope to see you on Feb 15th at 7.30pm at St Ethelwold's House! ... Read this ...

January 17 Meeting: Claire Morris at the Durban Climate Talks

This month we are very excited to join forces with Abingdon Peace Group to hear Claire Morris, recently returned from travelling overland from Nairobi to Durban for the UN Climate Conference, tell us about her first-hand experience of the effects of climate change in Africa, and the Youth for Eco-Justice training she received in Durban. Read Claire's blog from Africa here A one-off chance!
Note this month's meeting will be on TUESDAY 17th January, not Wednesday as usual, and will be in the Northcourt Centre, Northcourt Road, Abingdon OX14 1NS, not at St Ethelwold's House.

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Cultivate Oxford - a new way to feed Oxfordshire

At last, what we have been waiting for! A way to connect food producers in the area with the local population. Follow the link below to find out more, and please fill in a survey here to show your support: http://www.cultivateoxford.org/survey

cultivate

www.cultivateoxford.org

Cultivate is about new ways of feeding Oxford. We are a not-for-profit social enterprise that will bring fresh, local, organically-grown food direct from farmers to the city and surrounding communities. Our five-acre market garden and other small farms nearby will provide the produce sold in our mobile greengrocery, the Cultivate VegVan, which will set up wherever communities want it.

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How to Meet Future Energy Needs Locally

Our next meeting is on Weds 16th November at 7.30pm when we will be thinking about how Abingdon can meet its energy needs in the future. Of course a large part of the equation is reducing the amount of energy we need, for instance by draught-proofing and "cocooning" our houses so we don't waste energy heating the great outdoors.. we will be launching our campaign to take infra-red photos or thermal images of the outside of some Abingdon houses to see where the heat is escaping. Would you like us to photo your house? Email us on carbon.cutters@googlemail.com if you would.

We will also be hearing the latest about the Abingdon hydro scheme (click on the picture above left for more details). And of course eating home-made cake and meeting like-minded people over a cup of tea or coffee. Do join us. ... Read this ...

LOCAL EXCELLENCE MARKET THIS SAT 29th! 9.30 - 2.00

Do come and look for the ACC stall at the Local Excellence market this Sat. It will feature the latest info about Abingdon Hydro, and a display about the Thermal Imaging Camera owned by the VoWHDC and on-loan to community groups in Abingdon until Christmas, so that we can all see where our houses are losing heat. We will also have our usual foodie treats, and a demonstration of an amazing device which peels, cores and slices your apples at the turn of a handle! What could be better! ... Read this ...