Sunday 26 October 2014

Wildlife Wanderings in Clare Wood on 25th October 2014

By Jade Cawthray (posted by Anna on Jade's behalf)

Wildlife wanderings is a simple project to encourage Cambridge residents to get to know their green spaces that little bit better.  Once a month we meet at a different nature reserve, wildlife site or green space and take a wander together to see what plants and animals are living there.


We were granted the most beautiful autumn day on Saturday, and 14 of us gathered together, along with two children, to walk along Hobson’s Conduit and into Clare Wood. These, along with Bentley Road Paddocks and Empty Common allotments and community garden, make up a wildlife corridor to connect the south Cambridgeshire countryside with the urban ecosystem of the city.  This corridor is being carefully managed and monitored by the council the local wildlife trust and a couple of local businesses to improve it for our wild city neighbours. 

Whilst management of the area hopes to encourage water voles to set up residence and improve the hunting habitat for bats which are known to roost in the area, there are already tawny owls, kingfishers, common toads and grass snakes around the site.

With this being an autumn wandering we were keeping our eye out for fungi, and managed to find a few.  

We decided this was turkey tail Trametes versicolor a common woodland fungi found on rotting stumps and fallen trunks.



We also discovered that it is relatively tricky to match a fungi in the field with fungi in a guide, but we had a good try.


We found this clustered in a group around a decaying tree stump, and we believe it to be the glistening inkcap, Coprinus micaceus, which is described as having egg shaped caps that appear to be pleated, the under side of the gills turning inky black with age and the brittle stem pale in contrast to the cap.

Maybe one of the most surprising things we found in the field connecting our walk to Long Road, was three, yes three, four-leaved clovers.  I couldn’t quite believe it, I had never seen one, never mind three all sat together, and they were big leaves as well.



Here’s the evidence, three four-leaved clovers.  You have to see it to believe it.

As we got closer to Long Road, we divided, with some of our party venturing beyond Long Road with the thought of a good pint over in Grantchester on their minds, whilst the rest of us turned back towards the city, and enjoyed late afternoon sunlight, yellowy orange, beaming through the trees.

A wonderful walk, with wonderful company and some fab fungi.


If you fancy coming along to one of our Wildlife Wanderings our next venture will be at 2.30pm on Saturday 22nd November – location to be confirmed (it will be announced on the Transition Cambridge web-site).

Monday 20 October 2014

Annual General Meeting tonight!

The Transition AGM is tonight, starting at 7.30 at the Friends Meeting House, Jesus Lane, CB5 8BA. This is the biggest meeting of the year for the movement, we'll hear from each of the Transition groups about what they've been up to in the previous year. Our own media group will be reporting about the skillshares that Toni has supported, and this blog here.

It would be really great to know who is reading this, and what you'd like to hear more about. We're hoping to start doing some short interviews to get more regular and interesting content, but are there any topics or local issues that you would really enjoy seeing some research and thinking about?

Hope to see some of you at the AGM.
Best wishes,
Oscar

Monday 13 October 2014

Restart party is a success!

Cambridge's first Restart Party took place at the Cambridge Computer Museum on the 30th September

The Restart Project is a social enterprise that helps people learn to repair their own electronics in community events called Restart Parties and in workplaces.

Would anyone turn up? Would we have enough repairers? Would people be grumpy if they had to wait for their phone/laptop/other electric device to be examined? Would people even find their way there OK? What if . . . You get the idea, I'm one of life's worriers, and if you are too, you'll recognise the mixed feeling of anticipation and anxiety that I experienced as I walked into the Cambridge Computer Museum to set up the welcome area for Cambridge's first Restart Party.

Of course, my worries were needless. Most of the repairers/restarters were all set up before I got there, 23 people turned up with faulty items and hardly had to wait at all to get their items examined, Janet Gunter (Restart Project Founder) came up from London to join in, Stuart Leithes from Anglia TV arrived to film the event and Jason Fitzpatrick from the museum got stuck in with some of the repairs. In short, the first Cambridge Restart Party was a great success.





There are some amazingly talented people in our community with specialised tools, knowledge and skills who are keen to share all these with those of us whose skills lie in other areas. Watching them made me think of an operating theatre, with phones, laptops, loudspeakers prone on a table, their internal organs exposed to the surgical probings of precision tools, eager interns watching, listening, learning and then having a go themselves.

My lasting impression of the evening won't be that X faults were diagnosed, Y items were repaired and Z advice was given. What I'll remember is the atmosphere in the museum . . . busy, co-operative, friendly and fun. People arrived not really knowing what to expect, but left happy and gave us great feedback.

The most asked question was "When's the next one?" We're not sure yet, but keep an eye on the (wonderful all new) Transition Cambridge website for details, or check out the Cambridge Repairers, Menders and Fixers Meetup group.

(Posted by Oscar on behalf of Kate Boursnell)