COP21 Paris

Well this summit is looking more like a cop out according to Transition Towns' Rob Hopkins. It is a very sobering read.



It seems that focussing on what we can do in our lives locally is the way to get the changes we dream of and at the same time get a goodly way in changing the corporations and the governments that do their bidding.
We hope you have had a good year in your transitioning endeavours, one small step at a time and have enjoyed doing it.
Veggie boxes will be starting in January but we will have some veg by the kilo before then. Email us if you are interested.

Conference and film night # 55

Well the Local Lives Global Matters Conference was certainly an enormous feat to pull off with so many challenging speakers, workshops and panels. It certainly gave the activists a huge challenge and boost to our commitment to creating an existence that we aspire to rather than one we accept unconsciously or with bad will
Manish Jain  provoked my questioning further in an area that challenges the basic and most accepted tenet of our existence - 'education'
This film,  'Schooling the World', is a vital tool for re examining schooling from an historical perspective to current day iterations. It is a must see. View the trailer here

Local Lives - Global Matters a conference for future's sake

If you haven't heard about this conference already, just a hop, step and a jump to Castlemaine, go to the website and check out the amazing range of speakers from our local area and over the ocean blue, make your choice and register now. This is an amazing and unique opportunity to both be informed by  keynote speakers including Helena Norberg-Hodge, Manish Jain, Raphael Souchier, Camila Morena and Rob Hopkins as well as our own David Holmgren.
There will be workshops, panels, site visits, dinners, films and music to really nurture us towards a thriving local community.
Don't miss out! This is a really worthwhile conference supported by HRN.
Maureen and I will be presenting on Saturday at 4:15pm.
Spread the word whatever way you can, like the facebook page. Hope to see you there!

The cost is not great but if you're really stretched volunteering is an option
"If you have a skill or some spare time to offer, we will find a use for it. If you work for 3 hours you get a day pass to all sessions except Plenary Sessions (with the international guests). After that it’s negotiable." See the website, or ask Kaz, Volunteer co-ordinator
 kaziwnt@gmail.com
 0439 550 904

'Tis the Season to be Blooming

Let's celebrate the equinox together at a creative dinner on the day, Wednesday 23rd September at the Daylesford Town hall.

 Don your spring attire, prepare your best vegetarian dish from what's available in the garden now or from your preserved stocks and come on down at 7.30pm with a song, a dance, a poem, a short story or just good cheer. Reserve your place at the table here

In Chinese thought, spring is associated with the direction east – the sunrise direction as Earth spins us toward the beginning of each new day. Spring is also associated with the color green, the sound of shouting, the wood element, the climate of wind, things sprouting, 
your eyes, your liver, your anger, patience and altruism – and a green dragon.

Working bee at Captain's Creek farm

Spring has sprung and it is time to prepare your garden beds and get your seed in trays. Let's go and give farmer Rod a hand to put his seed in trays on Saturday September 12th at 11am for about and hour and a half. If it is a day like today we could sit around afterwards and share a picnic. Come prepared.

Bring the kids and we can have a fun time and learn a bit more about the farm and where the veggie boxes come from.

Book here for car pooling and to let us know you are coming

Introduction to “Sufficiency Economy”

Samuel Alexander from the Simplicty Collective has a new book of collected essays, Sufficiency Economy: Enough, for Everyone, Forever. This is the companion volume to Prosperous Descent: Crisis as Opportunity in an Age of Limits, published earlier this year. The paperback of Sufficiency Economy is available here. For those unable to pay or who would like an electronic version, the pdf is available on a ‘pay what you want’ basis here.

Dadirri

Last Friday a goodly number of people came to the film and this is what the filmmaker said afterwards

"Thanks to everyone with whom I spent some time during my recent visit to Daylesford. The Q+A at the screening on Friday was one of the most vibrant I have attended and I really enjoyed meeting and yarning with you all. I felt such a strong sense of community on that rainy winter's evening, which was only strengthened on Saturday when I joined the community gardeners to plan...

See More

A Journey Through Beautiful Homes

We bring you a taste of life from homes built using natural materials like clay, wood, stone and straw. Every picture will take you on a journey somewhere new.

NATURALHOMES.ORG

Dadirri - Deep Listening film this Friday

Good communication is the secret to relating to each other well and now is the time to start/continue the quest for better ways of doing this. With energy descent and greater need to power down let us continue on our community strengthening endeavours. This film will inspire. Bring your neighbours and/ or visiting friends. Tell your friends.
A really worthwhile film and as a bonus you get to meet and talk to the filmmaker, Helen Iles.
Put it in your diary and be at the Town Hall at 7.30pm Friday July 17th

           
                                             Pre pay for $6 or $10 at the door

Deep Listening / Dadirri - A Documentary For Our Time

Friday July 17th , 7.30 at the Daylesford Town Hall
Yes, This film has been a while in the organising but it is really happening this time, and meet and discuss with the film maker/ director, Helen Iles (of Living In The Future .org), so be  sure to let your mates know about the film... send this poster around to help us get the word out about this once off opportunity. Helen, from Wales has been living in Australia with her partner, a medical researcher for just over a year and is coming back from the Northern Territory soon where she has been further documenting one of the aboriginal communities/people there and will be heading back to the UK in the near future so this is truly a rare opportunity. Book now for the early bird ticket

Sunday June 21st,come join us as we mark the longest night of the year with a celebration of the first steps towards spring.
Put on your thinking caps and create a delicious dish to share from what you have in the garden, your preserves or the vegie box and bring it wrapped up in a blanket, ready to serve. Please make it vegetarian so it is easier to share.
Bring a candle for the welcoming of the light ritual.


Bookings are essential to secure your place at the table and any offerings of solstice music will be accepted with gratitude and delight.




 

Winter Solstice Community Dinner

June 21st, 7pm ...mark the date on your calendar 

It's 8 degrees outside at 1.30 in the afternoon on the first day of June, in three hours it will be starting to get dark ...and in three weeks we will be at the darkest time of the year; the winter solstice again.

But hey, from then on, the days will start to get longer, ever so slowly at first and then rapidly as we near the September equinox, so we are going to celebrate the solstice. Come out of hibernation and join with us on June 21st at the town hall at 7pm for a warm community dinner together.

The challenge is to bring as much as you can from your own gardens or pantries....and cook up a storm! More about the food guidelines and an event poster coming soon.

Isn't it exciting ... we have new web and email addresss! Cross fingers the difficulties with our friendly subscribers not getting our notifications will be a thing of the past.

STOP PRESS
At the same time as this computer transition stuff is happening we had to postpone the "Deep Listening" film to July 17th,

but all is not lost as we will screen the film "EcoVillage Pioneers" on Friday 15th May instead (and entry will be by donation)  ... That's tomorrow, so see you at the senior citz room tomorrow for 7.30 start.

Deep Listening / Dadirri - A Documentary For Our Time
Friday May 15th , 7.30 at the Daylesford Town Hall
We hope you can come to the next HRN film night, and meet and discuss with the film maker/ director, Helen Iles (of Living In The Future .org). This film has been a while in the organising and we're not sure when the next one will happen, so come along and make contact with like minded folks, meet newbies, and hopefully the general public (tell your friends).... send this poster around to help us get the word out, about this once off opportunity. Helen, from Wales has been living in Australia with her partner, a medical researcher for just over a year and is heading up to the Northern Territory on Saturday week to further document one of the aboriginal communities/people there and will be heading back to the UK in the near future so this is truly a rare opportunity

Share in a Solar Offer

Our local Hepburn Sustainability Group, SHARE, is partnering with Castlemaine Environment Shop, to bring an offer to the people of Hepburn Shire that will increase the level of solar in our community. 


Share has helped HRN in many ways over the years, particularly with insurance at events and auspicing us when we have applied for funding. We support what they do and want to spread the word about this new solar offer. If you are at all interested get yourself along to the Solar Information Sessions at the Senior Citizen’s Room at Daylesford Town Hall on Tuesday April 28, 7-8.30pm and/or Saturday May 16, 2-3.30pm (email castlemaine@enviroshop.com.au to book a place).

As of April 2015, updated figures from the Australian Photovoltaic Institute show that 15.2% of homes in the Hepburn Shire, have solar. SHARE would like to see this increase to 20% of the Shire’s homes running on solar power by the end of 2015. To support this goal, Castlemaine Environment Shop is offering 200 discounted solar systems, with a range of options and products to suit different needs.

Click here to find out more or register for a FREE, no obligation, site inspection or call Castlemaine Environment Shop on 5472 4160.

Registrations for the discounted solar systems close on May 29 so get thinking now.

Not long till the Bio regional medicine workshop April 4th is fast approaching

 - don't miss this one off by Jayne Azzopardi from Community Apothecary will be leading this workshop.

In the workshop Jayne will cover 5 local plant allies, with each of these allies we will look at.. 

- Harvesting and drying techniques 

- Spirit of the plant 

- Energetic considerations 

- Mechanism of action and key constituents 

- clinical efficacy and therapeutic uses 

- Creating culinary or Medicinal preparations 

- Safe application of these preparations 
Bookings close on Thursday. Don't miss out!

Bio Regional Medicine Workshop

Remembering Fukushima

Thank you to the 60 or so people who came along to our recent event, Don't Forget Fukushima: A farming perspective. It was a hugely successful night where stories were heard, insights shared, food eaten and music appreciated. Thanks to Yae, Hiro and Rick for providing the insight.

Yae Fujimoto, Rick Tanaka, Hiro Fujimoto in Daylesford, January 2015

Don't Miss This- The Fukushima Aftermath

A Farmer's Perspective-ONE NIGHT ONLY

Get an update on the state of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and the state of contamination in general. Nearly four years on, is it safe to be there? What about imported food from Japan? What can we Australians, do? Do we need to know?

When: January 22nd 2015

What time: 7pm  

Where: Daylesford Town Hall

Cost: Dinner + event: $15 Bookings essential 

Presentations and music 8pm $10 at the door

Read Rick Tanaka's article written 3 months after the earthquake and tsunami on this link:

What's luck got to do with it?

Don't Forget Fukushima - a farmers' perspective ONE NIGHT ONLY

Nearly four years have passed since that the fateful day in March 2011 when northern Japan was hit by massive earthquakes and tsunami. It was the beginning of the worst nuclear accident the humans have experienced. Though some of the scars from the natural disaster have been healed, the disaster continues at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. 

Though proclaimed "under control" by the prime minister Abe to win the Olympic games for 2020 in Tokyo, nothing is far from the truth. If you trust  words like this, and believe everything is back to normal, look harder. But who do we ask to find out what is going on in Japan? Our own Rick Tanaka will fill us in. Before settling in Hepburn, Rick spent nearly two years with the Fujimotos, before and after 3/11. Ironically,( for he was an original nuclear refugee from way back)  he was in Japan when Fukushima happened. He left Japan when there were only 22 reactors.  Mostly in radio, he made a number of programs on nuclear power, ended up an accidental nuclear traveller, having visited the "Europe's worst environmental disaster", a nuclear dumps near Siilamae in Estonia, numerous reactor sites in Japan, and the Ranger uranium mine in Kakadu. 

Nukes and Quakes (Rolling Stone Aust, 1996)

When the answer becomes the problem (ABC, Mar 15 2011)

Japan one year after the earthquake and tsunami (The Science show, ABC, Mar 10, 2012)

He will give an update on the state of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and the state of contamination in general. Nearly four years on, is it safe to be there? What about imported food from Japan? What can we Australians, do? Do we need to know?

HRN is extremely pleased to host the evening of community dinner (Japanese theme)with a visiting young farmer family from Japan in January. The Fujimotos are not from an ordinary background. They run the Kamogawa Shizen Okoku farm, one of the best known alternative farms in the country. The pioneering organic farm on the Boso peninsula, about 100kms east of Tokyo, was  established in early 1980s by a former radical student movement leader, Toshio Fujimoto. Toshio was the vanguard in the back to land movement as well re-connecting farmers and urban consumers. The farm is credited to be one of the first in the country (therefore in the world) to introduce a subscription farming and Community supported agriculture (CSA). 

Yae and Hiro grow rice in small paddies, totalling 1.5 ha, grow veg and run workshops and lectures on the farm. Both are highly regarded among the ecological conscious population. 

Yae, mother of three young children, not only farms but also has a successful singing career. Her mother, a household name in the country, Tokiko Kato also takes part in rice planting and harvesting at the farm.

Happy Birthday 311 (song commissioned by UNICEF Japan)

When? January 22nd 2015

What time?:7pm  

Where?: Daylesford Town Hall

Cost?: Dinner + event: $15 Bookings essential 

Presentations and music 8pm $10 at the door