Aim: To provide the participants with a quick start 'get you up and running' Permaculture course, to enable the participant to immediately apply Permaculture practices in their own gardens, allotments, or land.

Context: Permaculture is about working with nature, not against it. By understanding patterns and systems in nature, we can use nature as our teacher, and apply a set of principles to develop and enhance our own gardens and lives.

Duration: 2¼ days +1 further optional day, providing an opportunity to discuss, develop and refine your designs and ideas, as well as gain additional knowledge.

Who should attend? This course is designed to be open to anyone who would like to gain the benefits of understanding and working with nature and from this, develop a more diverse, thriving abundant landscape. The course will also build on and develop the collective knowledge of the group.

Learning Outcomes: On completion of the course, participants will be able to understand:

- what Permaculture is, and what its underlying ethics are;

- Permaculture Principles, and give practical examples of how to apply them; and,

- the importance of observation in Permaculture practice.

Participants will also be able to utilise the Permaculture principles in their own gardens, allotments, or land, and produce a Permaculture design for their/a piece of land.

Welcome to the August edition of the Transition Narberth Newsletter. July saw the Transition Narberth team out and about in the community, including a successful participation in a Food Quiz which took place in support of the forthcoming Food Festival. Where sizeable articles have come to us for inclusion, we've included a short excerpt or review and then a link to a webpage which has the full article. If you have any suggestions for future content or comments on the format of the newsletter please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  The deadline for articles to be considered for inclusion in the September Newsletter is 26/8/10. Many thanks, Mike

Contents

1. Transition Narberth News

2. Narberth Group News

3. Get Inspired, Get Involved!

4. Peak Oil Update

5. Climate Change

6. Transition Town News

7. General

News from transition town Llandeilo

BBC at the Civic Centre: BBC Radio 4 will be recording an edition of Home Planet in the Civic Centre, Llandeilo on Friday August 6th at 3pm. The programme invites questions about the environment from climate change to wildlife. Some questions will have been sent in pre-recording, but questions will be taken from the audience. Anyone is welcome to come along and be part of the audience either to put a question or just to see how a BBC Radio programme is put together. The programme will be broadcast on Tuesday August 10th.

Car share schemes: The Energy and Transport group is interested to know how much support there might be locally for setting up a car sharing scheme based in and around Llandeilo. We'd be interested in receiving comments on two possible projects.

One possibility is that the group would simply provide help to people who want to establish car-sharing arrangements with friends and neighbours, by dealing with the insurance issues. The other option we'd like you to consider is that we could set up a car club based in central Llandeilo with vehicles that belong to TL2. Llanidloes and Machynlleth have schemes like this already. You can read about how this kind of scheme would work by looking at the Llanidloes website at http://www.llanicarclub.co.uk/

If you are interested or wish to comment, please contact Steve Brown - Transition Town Llandeilo / Tref Trawsnewid Llandeilo 01550 740655 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Tai Chi and Qi Gong in Llandeilo: A Tai Chi movement class has been running for a few weeks on Tuesday mornings in Llandeilo, from 11 am to 12.30 pm, but Vince Millband needs one or two more people to keep the class viable. A number of transitioners are finding it wonderful, gentle, relaxing and energising. Please contact Vince on 07954 994518 for more information.

Transition Haverfordwest News - Pembrokeshire Permaculture course

There's a fantastic chance to learn about permaculture and see examples of sustainability in action at the forthcoming course in Talbenny, Haverfordwest this autumn. We start with 2 days in September based at a site that's being developed for enivronmental education and eco-tourism, with nature at its heart. We then continue to witness practical demonstrations of sustainable technologies at a variety of properties near Crymych in October. The 3 day permaculture course is being held in Talbenny near Haverfordwest on the weekend of 25th and 26th September 2010 followed by a full day Ecotour on Sunday 10th October.  It is being run by Aberystwyth University in liaison with Transition Haverfordwest and costs £75 (£65 concessions). 
This is a wonderful opportunity to be immersed in the principles and practise of permaculture so that you can acquire the tools to design your own household, land, lifestyle and/or community to be more sustainable. We very much hope you will join us. Please contact Angie Polkey (Permaculture teacher) for any queries about the course content. Contact  Josie and Matt for info on camping at the venue. http://www.millhavenplace.co.uk/  or  01437 781633.

Thurs, 7 pm, 15th July – Black Lion, Lampeter (upstairs meeting room)Come and join us for our second skills sharing meeting. All welcome whether you have a skill you want to learn, a skill you want to share or a skill you'd like to swap for another.

Last time we concentrated on skill sharing, i.e. putting people together who wanted to learn skills from each other or teach skills to each other.

Following that meeting back in February, a textiles group formed. They meet regularly to share skills such as spinning, weaving, fabric dyeing and rag rug making. All really enjoy getting together socially as well as having the opportunity to learn from each other and more people are joining in all the time.

Since then we've had enquiries as to whether we're organising skill swapping too, e.g. aromatherapy in return for gardening help. So we'd like to use this meeting as an opportunity to explore this further too.

Other skills that were offered and wanted at the first meeting included various cooking skills, IT skills, plant identification, massage techniques. These skill-sharing sessions are still to be arranged.

In terms of "wanted" skills – there were various people who asked for basic car maintenance but there was nobody there to offer it. However, we've since had the offer from an ex-mechanic who will hopefully be coming along this time.

So, whatever your offer or want, why not join us next Thursday and we'll see what we can do to match you up.

RENEWABLE ENERGY QUESTIONNAIRE

FE COURSES for this autumn

Credit Union banking

Transition Network (UK) conference 2010

Cwm Arian Renewable Energy

West Wales Eco Centre 30th anniversary

Heart Mind & Soul Group. Next meeting Thursday 22nd 7.30pm RAOB
Narberth. There will be screening of the DVD, "Joanna Macy. The Work that
Reconnects. Views of Life"
Support needed for Plants Sale!
http://transitionarberth.org/events/plant-sale.html
The SPAN plants sale in Narberth is approaching fast and we need your help!
The sale is now only 2 weeks away, and we need more commitments and
donations of plants in ensure our stall is well stocked. An attractive stall on the
1st May will help us to raise funds for Transition Narberth and provide an
opportunity to meet visitors and members of the community and publicise
Transition.

News about

General Election Hustings

Energy and Transport Group

A Council of All Beings