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Making a Home for Lacewings

How to make Dandelion Salve

Newham Heritage Month Film: Floating from dawn till dusk

‘An Ear to the River’ part of Totally Thames 2020

Newham Heritage Month

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More to share from this morning’s informative wa More to share from this morning’s informative walk around the Long Wall Ecology Garden meeting some of the wild plants growing there….
Fascinating and inspiring morning with conservatio Fascinating and inspiring morning with conservationist Nick Bertrand from @creeksidediscoverycentre walking around the Long Wall Ecology Garden meeting some of the wild plants choosing to root themselves there. As Nick says although most urban land has suffered traumas of upheaval and concrete this site has had some years to regenerate so there are a lot of wild plants on the site. We learnt about the importance of observing before doing, getting to know the personalities of the species you find, observing their behaviours throughout the seasons and across the years to make informed choices about how to use your human hands to balance the growth through cutting back and removing thus allowing less forceful species to grow through and diversify the habitat. 🌿🌀🌿
The event was in celebration of @thames21 #londonriversweek2023 - check out the other events on across the catchment via their bio. With gratitude to ‘Our Space Award’ and @groundworklondon for the support.
Celebrating the Channelsea today and every day! Lo Celebrating the Channelsea today and every day! Loads more events from @thames21 #londonriversweek2023 coming over the next few days, we’ll be on the riverbank tomorrow with Nick Bertrand  from @creeksidediscoverycentre - sadly our event is sold out but check back here for pics of the plants we’ll be meeting, and check out @thames21 for other events around the London rivers near you!
It’s exciting to see the welcome archway for the It’s exciting to see the welcome archway for the Long Wall Ecology Garden coming to life! After consulting with participants at our Spring workshops and amongst coop members the design has been finalised and fabricated by @leeandjenart ready for installing in the next couple of weeks! Keep an eye out for it next time you’re along the Greenway and let us know what you think! Thanks to @newhamlondon #peoplepoweredplaces for the support to make it happen.
It’s not always good news on here - the thing ab It’s not always good news on here - the thing about working within a public space with 24 hour access where everything is for all to enjoy, is that sometimes people take that a bit too far, and someone has walked off with four trees from our modest apple orchard! These will have to be replaced next year. It adds to the complexity of stories good, bad and in between when working with diverse ecologies, human and otherwise. It would be great to hear from other groups with similar or different experiences. 🌱💙
Today Nick Bertrand from @creeksidediscoverycentre Today Nick Bertrand from @creeksidediscoverycentre came down to the Long Wall Ecology Garden to start surveying the plants, and support us with a conservation strategy for the area. 
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He’ll be back on Saturday 3rd June to lead us all around the site - join us for a morning of identifying and learning about the variety of wild flora that thrives in and on the unique inter-tidal habitat of the Channelsea river, meet the wild plants that make their home here and get involved in our conservation composting project. FREE for all - sign up link in the bio!
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This event is part of 'Channelsea Community Composting', a new project that will give us invaluable support and guidance from Nick over the coming year to identify the species in the area that will benefit from careful management to ensure a biodiverse eco-system can thrive.
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This event is part of @thames21 ‘s 'London River's Week', a week-long annual campaign inspiring the public to celebrate all of London’s rivers and the many projects taking place to protect them.
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This year’s theme focuses on climate resilient rivers and how river restoration can reduce the impact of the climate emergency for both people and wildlife, through restoring habitats and reducing the impacts of drought and flood.
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With thanks to the 'Our Space Award' and @groundworklondon for the support.
And finally - a wonderful ending session with Beck And finally - a wonderful ending session with Becky Lyon @elastic_fiction - taking us through contemplative moments to consider the water in our lives, bodies, surroundings, the meaning of ‘waste’ and how it’s a human-created concept without parallels in other ecologies, and the entanglement of our inter-connectedness… thanks so much to @compost_mentis_coop for bringing in collaborators to the garden space over the last few months, as we think together about the space and the coming compost toilet! The build will begin soon with plenty more opportunities for all to be involved, keep an eye out here!
Continuing on from the last reel about the final ‘Creative Ecologies’ at the Long Wall Ecology Garden on the banks of the Channelsea - as part of our ‘Welcome to the Channelsea’ series in collaboration with @compost_mentis_coop supported by @newhamlondon #communityassembly. @pond_dipper Micahel Holland gave us creatures and stories from the waters - the Cadis fly weaving together it’s home with silk, the lesser boatman with a loud and engaging mating ritual, and the leeches swimming like tiny sea snakes. 💦💦💦
Beautiful day on Saturday with @compost_mentis_coo Beautiful day on Saturday with @compost_mentis_coop for the last in our ‘Welcome to the Channelsea’ workshops supported by @newhamlondon’s #communityassembly. Great to meet Compost Mentis member Olly who guided us into the soil ecologies of the site. We explored the site taking soil samples from different areas to look at later under the microscope. We identified plants too, discovering the jumbo dandelions amongst other beauties! More from the day in the next two reels - @pond_dipper taking us into the watery ecologies and @elastic_fiction leading us into thoughtful and engaging conversations and sensings… 💚💚💚
TWO TICKETS AVAILABLE!! We’ve just had 2 cancell TWO TICKETS AVAILABLE!! We’ve just had 2 cancellations to this Saturday’s 'Creative Ecologies along the Channelsea River’ workshop - the last of our ‘Welcome to the Channelsea' workshops in collaboration with @compost_mentis_coop this Saturday - LINK IN BIO!
Workshop facilitators Becky Lyon (@elastic_fiction) Olly Edmonds (Compost Mentis) and @pond_dipper Michael Holland (Growing Understandings) will guide us in exploring the weird and wonderful ecosystems that make up the Long Wall Ecology Garden alongside the Channelsea River. You’ll get to look at soil and water in the microscope (finding teeny tiny creatures like the diatom pictured here) and survey larger critters, plant and tree species with ecologists, artists and neighbours.
With thanks to @newhamlondon #communityassembly for the support.
Lovely eco gathering at the Long Wall Ecology Gard Lovely eco gathering at the Long Wall Ecology Garden last Saturday. The apple trees are budding nicely, collecting logs from @_abbeygardens for future insect habitats, planting comfrey for future mulch for the trees, litter picking, willow doing well, and updating the dead hedge. See you next month! Link in bio 👆🌱
Just an addition to this as a few people are askin Just an addition to this as a few people are asking - this is an invite only workshop for local volunteers who are part of these three nature spaces - so there are no tickets and you cannot turn up on the day! Sorry for any confusion 🫢 
This Sunday we’re hosting a workshop with Surge members @blancsceol lead by @sound_camp to bring together people from other nature spaces in the area, learning to build affordable DIY field transmitters that can relay live sounds above and below water. Streams join a network of remote listening points, giving attention to less heard places and projects. We will spend time exploring three ecological sites in Newham, and use the steamboxes to listen to them remotely. We’ll be joined by folks from Plaistow Eco Hub, and we’ll be taking a stream box over to @_abbeygardens to transmit from their Spring festivities. We’ll post listening links on the day so you can tune in from wherever you are! Keep your ears open… Thanks to support from @aceagrams 💚
This Saturday we’re back with our monthly eco ga This Saturday we’re back with our monthly eco gathering session! We will be there whatever the weather, so get your raincoat and come and join us - we’ll have comfrey to plant around the apple trees, the usual cleaning and tidying of the space, checking in with the temporary compost toilet and generally chatting about our future plans. Come and join us! Link to sign up in the bio to let us know you’ll be there.
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Wonderful session with @compost_mentis_coop yester Wonderful session with @compost_mentis_coop yesterday at @stratford_library - imagining, discussing. dreaming, drawing and moulding our dream toilets in preparation for the compost toilet build at the Long Wall Ecology Garden this summer. Thanks @newhamlondon #communityassembly for the support 💚
Here’s the second lots of clips from fantastic ‘Clay-time’ workshop lead by @compost_mentis_coop at the Long Wall Ecology garden last Saturday. @nissamarianishikawa lead us into the tactile nature of clay, encouraging us to play with creating tiles and objects that will be incorporated into the compost toilet, from taps to soap dishes to thinking about ‘STP’s/stand to pee’ devices, which we renamed ‘MUD’ - mobile urine device - which do you prefer?  We can’t wait to see these once they’ve been fired and are already imagining other forms we could make! 💚
To round up the day we created this beautiful one word poem:
Mud health.
Digging air.
Texture, touching, tactile, sticky.
Mirror, squish, dirt, worm.
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Thanks to @newhamlondon #communityassemblyfunding for supporting these workshops.
A few scenes from the cob-experimenting part of ye A few scenes from the cob-experimenting part of yesterday’s ’Clay-time’ in collaboration with @compost_mentis_coop - Hari and Sib bought some London clay from an allotment in Barnet, and we tried different mixes and methods, using sand and straw to add stability and tensile strength, and packing the mixes into block shapes to make bricks! These are now drying in the temporary compost loo on site, looking forward to seeing how they turn out in the next couple of weeks! Thanks to everyone who came down, keeping warm squishing and stomping clay, and creating some beautiful objects for the loo which we’ll post here next! 
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Thanks to @newhamlondon #communityassembly for the support to host these workshops, collaboratively & creatively learning about composting ecologies and alternative approaches to working with ‘waste’ 🍃🍃🍃
Last few tickets released for 'Clay-time' workshop Last few tickets released for 'Clay-time' workshop in collaboration with @compost_mentis_coop this Saturday! 
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Underneath all the concrete, roads and skyscrapers, London has rich clay soils which can be used for building, making ceramics, crafting and of course food growing! This experimental workshop is an opportunity to get your hands into some local clay, and try out making tiles, bricks and artefacts for our new community compost toilet!
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Join us for a learning and making session with ceramics artist @nissamarianishikawa. Link to sign up in bio!
There’s a new poster in our noticeboard - ‘Lis There’s a new poster in our noticeboard - ‘Listen to the Channelsea’ gives you a QR code/link taking you to a collection of audio works created by Surge members @blancsceol (@stephen_shiell & @hannah_mary_white) - amplifying the sounds, ecologies and people on and around the river for your listening pleasure! Link is also in our bio 👂

And if you have a poster you’d like to put in the notice board get in touch!
Another wonderful workshop today with @compost_men Another wonderful workshop today with @compost_mentis_coop as part of our ‘Welcome to the Channelsea’ series, contemplating the ecologies and waste systems around the Long Wall Ecology garden, and today more co-design chats to feed into the design of the accessible compost toilet we’re building on site. Thanks to all who came, such fruitful thinking and talking about roofs, water flows, materials, smells and everything else! 

Thanks to @newhamlondon #communityassembly for the support ✅❤️
Have you ever considered what your dream toilet wo Have you ever considered what your dream toilet would look like?
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Considering the fact that we humans spend a large chunk of our time on the toilet (apparently as much as an 1 hour and 42 minutes per week according to one study), it's both surprising and telling that we rarely discuss the systems used to recycle our deposits, and the environment in which we make these deposits.
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Join us for a co-design session in collaboration with @compost_mentis_coop to input into the creation of an accessible community compost toilet on the site of the Long Wall Path ecology garden. The toilet is being built this summer, to create a humanure composting system for the new community orchard, and become an inviting and enticing space in which to consider our role in the ecosystems of the area. This weekend's workshop is a chance for you to input your ideas into the design. 
Link to sign up in the bio!
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These photos are from the last workshop session.
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