Intrigued by the idea of Hugelkultur raised garden beds, Transitioners from Book Group 6 got together October 21 for a old-fashioned garden bed raising at Emily Rosen’s Greenwave community in East Palo Alto. 

The idea is to create a mound with a rich mix of organic material that requires little irrigation.

We started by digging a trench with mounds of dirt on both sides.

Then we added kitchen scraps, then green clippings,

Piled on old rotting logs, added leaves, raked the dirt back on,

And then put straw on as the icing.

Then finally, all relaxed with a picnic!

Thanks to Emily for hosting and to William for leading the effort.

If you’d like to learn more about Hugelkultur, here’s a good link: http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/ And to be included in future reskilling activities, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tpa_reskilling/ and sign up for the group.

A contingent of folks from from Transition Palo Alto and Transition Silicon Valley joined other Transitioners from all round Northern California for the first ever Northern California Regional Transition Conference in Richmond. People came from as far as Humbolt, Nevada City, and Santa Cruz to meet with each others, learn about what’s happening in other communities, and get ideas on how to work effectively to build strong local communities.

The challenges and opportunities we all face were beautifully symbolized by the location of the event.  Hosted at the old Ford plant in Richmond, attendees were delighted to step in from an industrial landscape to the Buddhas by the Bay museum where the conference was held, to be surrounded by rooms with beautiful and spiritually uplifting Buddha statues and other artifacts from all over the world.

Attendees learned about how the Transition movement is growing around the world and some of the inspiring work that various Transition initiatives are doing, from seed banks and local currencies to involvement in local government and sharing of food, clothing, and crafts. In addition to sponsoring their own projects and events many initiatives are working with other social action and faith-based organizations to  further extend Transition ideas.

At the conference, our own folks from Transition Silicon Valley and Transition Palo Alto hosted an Open Space session on Resilient Lifestyles. This is a new TSV project with the goal of supporting people who are looking for alternative lifestyles and livelihoods that break away from the corporate rat race. If you’d like to get involved in the project, you can join the new Yahoo group we’ve set up, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tsv_resilientlifestyles

If you want to learn more about the Northern California regional group, you can get information by going to the Transition US website at http://www.transitionus.org.

All had a grand time at our 100 mile potluck to celebrate the end of the Digging for Solutions series from Films of Vision and Hope. Everyone shared their reflections on the series, and as  special treat, folks got to see two beautiful short films from the Sonatas of the Soil collection by filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia.

Documentary filmmaker Elizabeth Thompson visited the Conversation, Community, and Calling group this week to share her new film, The Dewdrop World. It’s a moving reflection on Elizabeth’s attempts to help her mother adjust following a diagnosis of ALS, and explores the parallels that she sees with climate change and the decline of our fragile planet.  Conversation group members especially appreciated the incredible spirit of Elizabeth’s mother, and the message that even with impermanence and loss, each moment can be precious and joyful. For more on Elizabeth’s film work, see http://www.thompsonfilms.com. 

The Conversation group meets every two weeks. For more information, go to the Groups and Project page.

The Conversation, Community, and Calling (a.k.a. Conversation) group welcomed new and old participants on a chilly but glorious evening this past week.  Affectionately dubbed the Transition Palo Alto “support group for activists,” the Conversation group started in 2010 with some sessions that Cecile Andrews did on helping folks identify and pursue their personal purpose (their “calling”). Since then, the group has given support to people exploring new ideas and projects, looked at personal and political activism, and even supported folks with issues in their personal lives. Communication has been a frequent topic, and the group turned to it again this week. Mary Jane Marcus led an exercise in compassionate listening, and Chris Selberg shared ideas from a recent workshop on non-violent communication.

The Conversation group meets every two weeks. For more information, go to the Groups and Project page.

Book group 6 took a week off from our summer reading to enjoy July 4th.  We met behind Acterra in Palo Alto for a delicious potluck, then all 16 of us walked out to the Baylands to enjoy fireworks from around bay.

A great time was had by all!

The book group meets on Wednesday nights and is currently reading The Empowerment Manual by Starhawk. If you’d like to participate, go to go to Yahoo Groups (http://groups.yahoo.com) and search for tpa_book6.

Our local Transition – Slow Money folks teamed with Slow Money Northern California on the fabulous Farm Fest head at Pie Ranch June 30. To join our local Slow Money group, go to Yahoo Groups (http://groups.yahoo.com) and search for tpa_slow_money. And for more on the Slow Money movement, go to http://slowmoneynocal.org/.

Transitioners and friends gathered in Los Altos for a marathon lemon marmalade reskilling Saturday June 2. They enjoyed a wild afternoon of peeling, pulping, boiling, stirring, and jarring, making lots of lemon, lemon ginger, and orange marmalade before firing up the grill and retiring to the back yard for food and conversation.

And the results were delicious! If you’d like to participate in future reskilling activities, just sign up for the Transition reskilling Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tpa_reskilling/).

Super Films of Vision and Hope film night last Friday (5/4)! Everyone loved the Urban Farming Guys videos. To see the ones we saw and some more, go to http://theurbanfarmingguys.com/.

Next Friday, May 11, 7:30pm, we’ll be showing YERT, Your Environmental Road Trip. Don’t miss this award winning adventure. Called to action by a planet in peril, three friends hit the road – traveling with hope, humor, and all of their garbage – to explore every state in America in search of the extraordinary innovators and citizens who are tackling humanity’s greatest environmental crises.

Should be another excellent evening of film and discussion. Then on Friday May 18 we’ll close the series with our 100 Mile Potluck – starting at 7pm.

All at World Centric, 2121 Staunton Ct, Palo Alto