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With last Sunday living up to its name, lots of people turned up for the Festival of Life in St Albans.

Read how it went and see some pictures here

Come along to the free St Albans Festival of Life this Sunday, and find out more about the activities of local community groups and clubs in protecting the environment, improving health and providing access to sport and arts.

Where and when: the Market Place, St Peter’s Street, Sunday, 4th July, 12 noon till 4pm.

The Transition St Albans stall will be near the new Tesco (where Woolworths once was).

Do come and visit us. To help get you started growing your own vege have some bean plants to give away !    More…

On Sunday 20th June 2010, we ran a Transition St Albans stall at Larks in the Parks in Fleetville.

We had lots of things on display, and also many things to give away courtesy of STACC, St Albans City and District Council (SADC) and several of our members.

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Wednesday 16th June, 3rd Wednesday of the month, was our monthly Open Meeting again. The usual time and place, i.e. 7.30pm at Fleetville Community Centre.  

We started the meeting by discussing activities, displays, helpers etc for our Transition St Albans stall at Larks in the Parks, next Sunday, 20th June. (Note: we want to re-use as much as possible on another stall, our stall at the St Albans Festival of Life on Sunday 4th July)

The idea for running the stall followed on from our last Open Meeting, where Action Groups identified projects they would like to see happening in the future, and it became clear that, to allow us to do those projects, we needed more people to join Transition St Albans. 

A stall at Larks in the Parks, to publicise what we have done, are doing and would like to do, seemed a good way to attract more people.

Apart from several good ideas for the stall and people stepping forward to help on the day and making materials available, it was said that, recollecting last year’s stalls, probably more important than the things we have on display etc, would be our enthusiasm to engage with the public and tell them about our concerns, hopes and aspirations.

After the plenary session, Action Groups had the opportunity to use the rest of the evening to meet up and work on future projects as last time. The Education/Schools/Children group, the Community group and the Transport group did that, and, in addition, an ad-hoc group led by Heather further looked into the detail of organising the Larks stall.

BTW, this year’s theme for Larks is “The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” and our stall will be at the Larks in Fleetville (Fleetville Recreation Ground on Hatfield Road, near Morrisons). Do come and visit us!

Kate Bretherton, who previously published ”St Albans Heritage Tree Trail”, now wants to produce a comprehensive guide to the “Remarkable Trees of St Albans”.

Working together with David Curry, co-ordinator of the St Albans Tree Warden Scheme, residents are invited to nominate trees and share the story behind the tree.

If you have a favourite tree, and you are allowed to have more than one, then let them know before the end of June. Continue reading →

Open Farm Sunday is a great opportunity for everyone, young and old, to enjoy the living, vibrant countryside. Take time to listen to the birds, soak up the scenery, experience the smells of the farmyard and really get in touch with the land that feeds us. Discover at first hand what it means to be a farmer and taste the produce.

Many farms all over the country will open their farm gates to the public next Sunday, 13th June 2010.  Each will be unique with its own activities, based around the host farm’s individual story. Activities during the day may include a farm walk, nature trail, tractor & trailer rides, pond dipping, activities for kids, mini farmers market or picnics.

The nearest farm to us in St Albans is Annables Farm in Harpenden. This is the farm run by Ian Pigott, the guy who came up with the idea of Open Farm Sunday’s a few years ago! 

There are other farms to choose from, a bit further away. Use the  ”Find a Farm to visit” tool on the Open Farm Sunday website to find one you like.

On Tuesday 13th April 2010, St Albans Friends of the Earth, together with WDM St Albans,  Transition St Albans and St Albans Campaign Against Climate Change, organised a “Green Hustings” to give the people from St Albans an opportunity to quiz the local candidates for parliament on matters relating to the environment and sustainability.

All five candidates for parliament for the St Albans constituency were present. In alphabetical order: Jack Easton (Green Party), Anne Main (Conservatives), Roma Mills (Labour), John Stocker (UKIP) and Sandy Walkington (Lib Dems).

The event hosted at Marlborough Road Methodist Church was a success, with at least 100 peope turning up to ask questions and to listen to what the prospective parliamentary candidates had to say. 

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The graph below shows the results of the two secret ballots at yesterday’s Green Hustings, one before the start of the hustings and another at the end of the evening. The number of people who voted “Undecided” went down noticeably in the second vote, which seems to indicate that the event helped people to make up their mind.

Click on the graph to see a bigger version or click here if you want to see the actual numbers.  

For more information, please visit www.stalbansfoe.org

Climate change is happening now! … and it is devastating people’s lives.

Because of their work, Oxfam can tell you all about this. To find out more, attend the Oxfam Social evening on Friday 26th March. More info here.

Following on from the meetings on climate change that Rev Heather Kent held at Homewood Road URC in Saint Albans in August 2009, Graham Rutherford, a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), led a series of four discussion meetings in January–March 2010 with the title “2050 and all that. Climate change – and the solutions”.

The purpose was to understand more deeply the basis for the projections on world climate change and the proposals for correcting the trends.

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