Transition Constantine

Constantine Community Library

Chris Hussey — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:15:14 +0000

Many people have collections of books sitting on their shelves gathering dust. Most people are happy to lend books to people they know. Lots of people would be glad to borrow a book rather than pay for a copy of their own. This state of affairs brought on a ‘light bulb’ moment recently for Robin Curtis, chairman of Transition Constantine. Why not publish a list of books available to borrow, with details of who has them, and then leave the potential borrower to contact the lender and arrange the loan? Within a small community the personal contact should create a certain level of trust and obligation, and it would be an opportunity to meet new people with similar interests.

A pilot online ‘library’ has been set up as a trial. The current collection of books available is broadly on ‘Transition’ themes, but it could be expanded to cover any number of subject areas. The only limit is the number of people participating and the books they are willing to lend out. The library is now listed under the ‘Links’ section on the right hand side of the page, or from this article just go to Constantine Community Library.

You can search the catalogue by subject or author (or just download a full list of what’s available). Selecting an individual book will bring up the contact details of the person who has the book (phone or email). It’s then up to you to make contact and arrange the collection. If anyone else wants to participate in the scheme and offer books for loan, please contact Chris Hussey (340007 or chris.r.hussey *at* gmail.com).

Cider making for fun and profit

Chris Hussey — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:25:25 +0000

I stumbled recently across a quirk of the regulations on payment of excise duty arising from the production of cider. Apparently any individual can brew and sell up to 7000 litres of cider a year without being liable to pay excise duty. Surprising, but it seems to be confirmed by the Customs & Excise website under the ‘Can I claim exemption from registration’ section. It seems to have set that way to allow small producers to get a foothold in the market, while not allowing them to become rich at the government’s expense. Any person wishing to take advantage of this would still need to apply for a personal license to sell any cider produced ( with more information here ). Any cider orchards remaining in the parish?

Flour mills in Cornwall

Chris Hussey — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:25:32 +0000

Now that we have baking on a commercial basis (Crumbs Bakery) in the village again, I found myself wondering where the nearest flour mill is. My initial suspicion was that there might not be a single flour mill in Cornwall, but some brief investigation turned up a handful:

The Cornish Mill and Bakehouse (near Newquay)

Cotehele Mill (far end of the county, near Calstock)

Zennor Mill (part of the Wayside Museum at Zennor)

Two of these are operated as part of a ‘heritage’ activity rather than on a purely commercial basis. Does anyone know of any others?

Sign of the times?

Chris Hussey — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:02:38 +0000

While visiting friends in Norfolk recently, I found myself marvelling at the Autumn Agricultural Review, produced as a quarterly supplement by the Eastern Daily Press. This is clearly aimed at the regular farming community, yet within its 24 pages I found:

7 adverts relating to farm-generated renewable energy (3 of them full page)
2 articles on electricity generation via anaerobic digesters
1 article on biomass-fuelled generation
1 article on wind generation
1 article explaining FITs
1 article about the resurgence of the East Anglian native breed of pig (the Large Black)
1 article focusing on the success of a farmer breeding Red Poll cattle (another native East Anglian breed)

What’s going on?

Gather at Scot’s Quay – Moved the Planet along ?

robinc — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 09:50:45 +0000

Saturday 24th September saw a gathering of folk in the fields adjacent to Scot’s Quay to mark 45 years of Resurgence magazine and local support for the international 350.org event Moving Planet . In line with Satish Kumar’s famous multi-thousand mile walks in pursuit of peace – Transition Constantine organised a walk from the village down to Scot’s Quay – ably led by children from the school carrying flags they had made earlier in the week. The Gather event included a number of musicians and bands, tree listening, charcoal buying, natural paint making, and dance – all leading up to a session with Satish Kumar being interviewed by Leo Hickman of the Guardian – on Satish’s wide ranging and inspirational thoughts over the last 45 years. During the afternoon everyone took part in creating two large scale human banners for 350.org – shortly to appear on the Moving Planet website.

Green Johanna composter still available

Chris Hussey — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 10:32:57 +0000

Last year Constantine school had a successful assembly about home food waste composting, and a number of council-subsidised ‘Green Johanna’ compost bins were bought by village families as a result. This type of compost bin is still available at a subsidised price (£25) from the S.O.F.A. project in Pool:

S.O.F.A., Unit C3, Pool Business Park, Dudnance Lane, Pool, Redruth TR15 3QW

Tel: 01209 719733

As of last week, they still had over 30 in stock – but be prepared to pay in cash.

Other types of compost bin (and other items associated with recycling) are also available to order on-line at subsidised prices from the Cornwall Council Get Composting website.

Climate Reality – worldwide event to raise awareness of Climate Change

robinc — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 07:14:08 +0000

Al Gore is promoting a worldwide rolling 24 hour event on 17/18th September – tune in to the broadcast coming out of London. One of our local Climate Change scientists based at Tremough will be participating from the LSE. Information here…..

Moving Planet – A day to move beyond fossil fuels – 24th September

robinc — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 07:09:46 +0000

350.org is organising a worldwide event on 24th September to raise the issues related to the continuing rise in emissions of greenhouse gases. 350 ppm is suggested as the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at which a global average temperature rise can be limited go 2C. We are currently at 393 ppm and rising….

Watch this space for announcement of local events related to the activity on 24th September .

Funding available for Solar PV for Cornish Communities

robinc — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 06:57:53 +0000

Over £20million is reported to be available to fund the installation of Solar PV systems on Community buildings in Cornwall. This funding provides for so-called “free” PV – i.e. the community will benefit if and when it can make use of any electricity being generated by the solar panels. The funders will benefit from the Feed-in-Tariff. However, this is a mechanism to get Community Solar PV systems installed. If anyone responsible for a community building in Constantine wishes to take advantage of this – please make contact with Transition Constantine or with CEP directly. These systems have to be installed by March 2012. Further information here

Villagers trial green energy

robinc — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 06:50:57 +0000

Ladock and Grampound have both benefitted from the Low Carbon Communities Challenge in November 2009 – we need to keep our eyes open for the next time around…….