News May 2022

STS has a seed swap at Haltwhistle's plant fair on Saturday. Haltwhistle Growing Together and the Community Gardeners will also be there with a range of specialist nurseries selling veg plants, bedding and perennial plants. Come along to find out about getting involved in these community activities, to buy new plants for your garden or simply to enjoy lunch at the superb local produce and fair trade festival cafe!



We are supporting Haltwhistle Growing Together by providing free ploughmans lunches at this talk - although a ploughman is the last thing you'd want to see in a hay meadow!! Do come along to hear the two excellent speakers, Gill Thompson, the National Park's ecologist who created the living roof on The Sill and our own Lesley Silvera who leads our verge walks every summer.




Verge walks 2022
Lesley and Libby have very kindly agreed to run another series of walks this summer, details to be confirmed but this is the draft program:
Tues 28 June 7pm, park Haresby Lonnen lane end, walk up to B6318
Tues 12 July 7pm, Halton Lea Gate, park in estate
Tues 26 July 7pm, Burnfoot to Featherstone Bridge, roadside parking



Nature, wild stuff and farming

North Pennines AONB - festival of nature
Talkin Tarn, Saturday 18 June from 12 noon to 11.30pm, and Sunday 19 June from 7am to 4pm. Free entry.
Celebrating nature around the themes of water, woodland, and meadow, the festival will bring together families, wildlife recorders, budding naturalists, farmers, environmental organisations, and communities. There will be something for everyone, from guided walks and nature spotting tips to pond dipping and species identification, from composting and wildlife gardening to arts, crafts, and family games, from trail camera and moth trapping demonstrations to geology activities and a sensory walk.
https://www.northpennines.org.uk/festival-of-nature/



30 days wild - 1st to 30th June
30 Days Wild is The Wildlife Trusts' annual challenge where we ask everyone to do one wild thing a day throughout the month of June. https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/30dayswild



Carbon Calling - Regenerative agriculture, on farm conference in Cumbria, 25th June
Greg Judy is the main speaker and will be joined by Shelia Dillion from the Food Programme on Radio 4 and Janet Hughes from Defra. There will also be a selection of farmers talking about their systems lizgenever.com/carbon-calling.html



Plastics and recycling

World refill day - 16th June
Refilling and reusing is better for the environment than recycling - check out all the hints and tips here: https://www.refill.org.uk/world-refill-day/

Locally there's The Refill Station at 22, Market Place in Hexham or Ria-plenish at 22, High Cross Street in Brampton.
McQueens dairies deliver milk in glass bottles, check on the website for delivery days and areas https://www.mcqueensdairies.co.uk.
You can buy milk, and delicious home made ice-cream from the vending machine at Temon farm on the Cumbria/Northumberland border on the A69.

Any soft single use plastics can be taken to Haltwhistle Co-op and left for recycling. STS has a collection points for HDPE No 2 plastic at The Film Project and Hillside (Young & Sweet) in Haltwhistle. Contact me, sue@mosspeteral.com or Julie juliegibbon3@gmail.com for info about out of town collections.



Domestic energy

STS, with our partner the Haltwhistle Renewable Energy Group, is planning an event to provide info on the appropriateness of the range of renewable energy options for domestic properties around here. Details next time, but in the meantime:
  • The Great Homes Upgrade is a campaign to get the government to upgrade the millions of cold and leaky homes in the UK. Join the campaign here: https://greathomesupgrade.org/about/home
  • Did you know you can get free energy advice, to help you save money and keep cosy at home, from Community Action Northumberland? Contact Leanne leanneshipley@ca-north.co.uk - 0772 4867010.
    Leanne, or her colleague Myra, will visit you at home and besides offering free advice will be able to install simple things, like LED light bulbs and draught excluder strips, again for free to improve the energy efficiency of your home.
    (Only for residents of Northumberland - there is a similar service, Cold to Cosy Homes, in Cumbria).

  • The Rebuild site, a community interest company in Carlisle takes surplus materials from construction sites and puts them to good use https://www.rebuildsite.co.uk/

  • Think Energy https://www.t-energy.co.uk/ in Hexham and Eco Energy in Barnard Castle https://eco-energ.co.uk are locally based specialist installers of renewable technologies.



Get in touch
Any questions, comments or contributions to this monthly e-newsletter?
Please contact sue@mosspeteral.com 016977 47359



South Tyne Sustainability aims to reduce the impact of the community of Haltwhistle and surrounding villages on our environment. This will help individuals, families and our community save money and resources and ensure a more sustainable future for us all.

To join STS contact Sue Seymour, sue@mosspeteral.com 016977 47359