So whats the catch? well, the King oyster is a bit of a slowcoach. The sample pictured below took around a month longer to produce from the same amount of coffee compared to the regular oyster, but its still a good show considering the density of coffee grounds the mycelium had to eat.

WE ARE RECRUITING!
Trust Links is a small community-based charity in Southend supporting people with mental health problems and learning disabilities as well as environmental education and awareness.
We have exciting opportunities for enthusiastic, flexible and responsive staff to join our team.

Mental Health Support Worker (Salary: £26,000 pro rata; 20 hours per week)
Growing Together is a therapeutic and social gardening project in Southend providing a recovery service for adults with mental health problems and learning disabilities. The Mental Health Support Worker will provide support and care co-ordination for our Growing Together project members and must be a qualified Social Worker or CPN.

Administration Officer (Salary £15,000 pro rata; 30 hours per week)
Providing administrative support across the range of Trust Links projects including responding to all enquiries and processing financial transactions.

Support Workers – Bank (£7 – £10 per hour)
To provide one to one and group support for our Growing Together project members. Must like working with people and gardening or art activities and have experience of working with people with mental health problems and/or learning disabilities.

Project Workers (Self Employed)
We have a new short-term project talking to the public about energy saving. You must be enthusiastic and have excellent communication skills. Must be available mid February to end March.
To apply visit www.trustlinks.org in the first instance. Deadline 5 p.m. on Thursday 9th February 2012.
For an informal chat about this posts please call Matt on 01702 213134.

Advert

We have been given 420 native saplings from the Woodland Trust and need to plant them as a hedgerow at Tye Meadow(on the Essex/Suffolk border)-they are Wild Harvest-hazel, blackthorn, crabapple, cherry plum,elder and dog rose. We are turning the 2 acre meadow from a field to a ‘Forest Garden’.

It would be great if you could join the team to help plant them on the morning of Saturday11th Feb and then retire to the Brewer’s Arms over the road for lunch on us. Once we know who wants to come, we’ll sort out transport. It’s about 1¼hrs drive from Southend.

As it’s 11^th Feb, we can’t guarantee the weather!

Contact: Matt & Eleanor King, 01702213264 matthew_a_king@yahoo.com

http://www.firstsite.uk.net/page/conference-transforming-spaces

Saturday 17 March 2012 9.30am – 5.15pm @ firstsite, Colchester

Lewis Gardens, High Street, Colchester, Essex CO1 1JH

£32.40 incl. VAT, lunch and two refreshment breaks. 50 free places available! (see booking form attached for further details)

A Regional conference hosted by UK premier Empty Shop organisation Slack Space Colchester, in partnership with firstsite. The event will look at working in empty shops and other disused spaces and will combine an interactive focus on case studies and success stories with practical advice and contextual understanding. This event is suitable for: Artists / Community groups / Arts and regeneration professionals / Landlords and developers. All delegates will receive a copy of the Slack Space Manual and the Empty Shops Toolkit

Partner profile:

Slack
Space is one of the premier ‘empty shop’organisations in the UK and has been successfully putting art and performance into empty shops for over two and a half years

firstsite
is a contemporary visual arts organisation based in Colchester with a mission to make contemporary art relevant to everyone.

Artside
is a CoExist project featuring two weeks of art and interventions in Southend High Street with artists working directly with venues to create site-led work.

TAP
is housed within a converted water works. Currently it houses CoExist Galleries and Studios,The White Bus, MEET, Solug and Open Arts.

We are Bedford is a community collective. The group put on the Castle Quay Weekender in March 2011, an arts festival in 7 empty shops, and run various other successful community events.

Meanwhile Space is led by the Development Trusts Association as part of the Advancing Assets programme, with support from the Dept. of Communities and Local Government.

Empty Shops Network is the National Network for organisations and individuals working in empty shops and other disused spaces.

3Space
offer a brokerage service between landlords / developers with empty space and charities or other organisations wishing to use that space.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Southend in Transition, is a group made up of local residents supporting a personal and community level Transition to a more localised, happy and resilient lifestyle. Enjoy having a look at what we are working on with our friends and support local projects, attend events, bring your friends and families and volunteer.

Current Projects

New! Saturday Transition Potluck

14th Jan 12:00 to 15:00, Growing Together gardens

The November potluck was well attended and feedback was that you would like them to continue. We were given a number of dates from Growing Together up until March. Suggested donation £2 to go towards costs of the venue and support the work of Trust Links.

To keep the juices flowing shall we have a walk around the garden at 14:00:)?

Nurturing Health

is an initiative of Milton Community Partnership. We believe that high quality, fresh, locally grown food is fundamental to a healthy life and a healthy world, and so we are supporting local people to grow their own vegetables and fruit using their gardens, allotments or even patios, balconies and window sills. Visit www.topofthecrops.org.uk. To help out at events or contribute ideas please get in touch Milton Community Partnership tel. 01702 213264 miltoncommunity@hotmail.com

Transition Together

The Transition Together project forms small, social groups of friends, neighbours and colleagues and then supports them in taking a number of effective, practical, money-saving and carbon-reducing steps. Visit our local website Transition Together in Southend to get involved or if you want to be kept up to date.

Transition Drinks

Last Thursday of each month, next Transition Drinks – 26th Jan 2012, 19:00 onwards. Cricketers Pub

Mapping Southend Food Growers and Producers

Let us know of any events or projects to add to the map.

Blogging space
Share your experience and thoughts and inspire others. If you need online space to tell the world about your project or would like to write a regular post about your personal efforts to Transition your life let us know. The website www.SouthendinTransition.org.uk receives a good number of daily visits and attention so let me know if you are interested. See a couple of posts by James ie. Enter the Oyster.

Local News and Events

Free Shop was open at Chase Road Community Project Sat 7th Jan 11am – 4pm – look out for the next one.

Chase Road ‘Sewing Shop’ from 7pm and usually every 1st and 3rd Monday of the month. Next one on the 16th of January

SEEOG latest newsletter online

Talk Still Pioneering: Food, Farming and the Peckham Experiment  16/01/2012 19:00 to 21:00

South East Essex Seed Potato Day 2012 Saturday 25 February at Growing Together “some volunteers needed to help the day along”

S E Essex Women’s Environmental Network

Earth Day celebration Saturday 21 April

Foraging in Southend on Sea group – members are thinking of future beach and wood forages, why not register your interest?

GROW YOUR FOOD CLUB Every Thursday afternoon 3:30pm We have a community edible garden at St Mark’s Centre. Fresh air, exercise, friends, refreshments. And advice and help for growing fruit and veg at home even on a window sill.

Milton Community Partnership, St Mark’s Centre, Princes Street, SOUTHEND-ON-SEA, Essex SS1 1QA, Phone (01702) 341605, Email: miltoncommunity@hotmail.com

Growing Together is doing a £3 per week veg bag scheme – organically grown veg and fruit grown onsite by our members (with mental health problems & learning disabilities). Just come to the site (corner of Fairfax Drive and Prittlewell Chase) to order your weekly bag. Open Mon – Fri 9 am – 4 pm.

Christmas Arts, Crafts, Toys, Clothes, Wares & Food Exchange - visit the website to read about some great swaps done on the day and I can’t wait for the film from the day.

THUNDERSLEY ON FOOT

Transport

Events and activities by Cycle Southend

Southend Wheelers weekly rides

Volunteer at Turning Tides Personalised Travel Planning pilot

Wellbeing

Free Yoga Nidra at Dharma Yoga Saturday 14/01/2012 Time: 2-3pm

Transition News and Projects

There are 407 413 Official initiatives 458 Muller initiatives In approx. 34 countries

January 2012 Transition Network Newsletter

‘In Transition 2.0′ is nearly ready to be unveiled to the world!

A December Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition

Your suggestions will help us

The content of the newsletter can be be generated by you, the community members and compiled by the Steering Group. Any news about activities, updates and forthcoming events should be sent to kamilpac@googlemail.com for inclusion in the next newsletter and I will try to incorporate them as time allows.

Contact Details

Southend-on-Sea in Transition– tackling peak oil and climate change, together, now

http://www.southendintransition.org.uk

part of www.transitionnetwork.org/

email:kamilpac@gmail.com

text or call 07411457259

On Twitter

Southend-on-Sea in Transition on Facebook

and on WiserEarth

The book was a fun collaborative effort with various people in the local community contributing photographs, line drawings, maps, historical details and information about the natural environment.

Although the book was intended simply as a book of walks it has become a celebration of Thundersley as a good place to live and has, I like to think, gone some way to encourage local residents to feel a sense of community and a sense of attachment to and ownership of their ‘place’.

In the 15 months since publication most of the books have been sold and a walking group ‘Four Seasons’ has been set up with walks around the area taking place four times a year.

The book is being sold at various retail outlets and profits, so far amounting to £1,250, have been donated to Friends of Coombe Wood, Castle Point Swimming Club for the Disabled, Essex Crossroads Young Carers group and Southend Mind.

• Around 150 books (retail price normally £3.50) remain unsold and are available free to any local charity who would like to sell them for their funds. If you know of a local charity who would like to sell the book for their funds please contact Eileen Peck on 078 1369
  3107.

• Guidelines on how the book was financed, produced and sold – ‘Your Town On
  Foot’ – are also available for anyone who would like to make a book for their own locality.

• The next Thundersley on Foot walk is planned for  Sunday 19^thFebruary starting
  promptly at 2 pm from the White Hart pub,Thundersley.
  

Eileen Peck

January
2012

www.Thundersleyonfoot.co.uk

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.