students from Brussels
On 26th January 25 students from Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussels came for a visit. The master students from the Bachelor's and Master's program on Environment, Health & Safety management (MEHS) had some specific goals:
-to get an idea of how a transition town is organized
-to meet people who are active in Transition Finsbury Park
-to join in with an activity
We hosted them at the Edible Landscapes London site, part of Transition Finsbury Park. The site is run by Metropolitan Support Trust, part of Metropolitan Housing. The site is run as a community asset for a wide range of social enterprises and was an excellent place for students to see a transition town working with business.
Nuran BilginFirst, Jo Homan gave an introduction to transition towns and then Jen Hawkes explained her work on the Finsbury Fruits project - food growing at the children's stay and play space, Jamboree Playhuts. Debbie Warrener and Frankie Agnew explained how they run inner transition activities using meditation and the work of eco-psychologist Joanna Macy. Nuran Bilgin told us how she started a parents' cycle training project and finally Gemma Harris and Phil Gelhorn talked about the plant nursery. After an interesting Q&A session we tucked into a lunch of bagels, hummous and salad - the wild leaves, such as red deadnettle and chickweed, were foraged by the students.
students loading up leavesIn the afternoon, we set to work in two teams. Nuran's team collected leaves from the Finsbury Park depot working tirelessly until all our leaf bins were full. Gemma said, "I'm just amazed, it would have taken me 10 years to do that!"
Phil's team dug up the unwanted hedge and replanted the shrubs along the boundary of the Green Routes site. 
replanting the shrubsThe showcase perennial bed will now enjoy more full sunlight and be much more visible to gardeners keen on seeing our unusual edible plants.
At the end of the day we had a closing circle with the students giving their feedback on their time with us. Many said they enjoyed finding out what transition towns are like to experience in a very practical way, and they particularly liked picking their own wild leaves for lunch. The students' lecturer, Marijke De Prins, said "The presentations gave us a good idea of the activities of TFP and of the people involved. The enthusiasm of the presenters gave the students the energy for their afternoon of work in the tree nursery."
Phil Gelhorn and Gemma Harris
