I have no idea what is going on with Ideas & Information. There is a slight change in its direction with every thought I have, it seems—I thought a programme of thoughtful workshops and lectures would be great; I thought I’d concentrate on workshops; I briefly thought about disseminating a series of “introduction to…” leaflets ( introduction to energy, introduction to fairtrade, et cetera); I started to focus on organising a screening of Pig Business; I wanted to give away sunflowers for people to enjoy; I’d really like to work with educational institutions and small businesses who are interested in reducing their environmental impact; I’d like to start a waste project; and I recently thought that to organise an ordinary people’s version of TED Global would be fantastic.

I am supposed to be distributing leaflets and posters to get people interested in working with me, but I haven’t started with that yet. I would love to be able to do everything I have in mind. It just seems that things can take a long time to start progressing.

What I will do now is concentrate on the workshops. I would like Ideas & Information to be able to offer a programme of workshops in sustainability in Oxford, and leave the lectures/discussions to somebody else, perhaps.

I am looking for collaborators for this, people skilled in foraging, preserving, butchery, and such useful skills. If anybody is reading this and thinks they’d like to work with me on this, please do contact me at jasmine @ ideasandinformation dot org dot uk.

Foraging; hunting; making cheese; butchery; making wine; preserving food; urban gardening; basic cooking; recycling; and clothes altering are on the draft list of possible workshops that could be offered. I would also be interested to do something like an introduction to the seasons for food. Perhaps it could be a monthly thing, where we cover what is in season, at its best, what is coming in, and what is going out. Also, I am interested in herbs and wildflowers, and I think it’d be nice to have a day of being in a meadow or something, looking at the plants.

I’d like it if anybody reading this feels they’d like to be involved in such a workshop, or has ideas for other workshops, do let me know (jasmine @ ideasandinformation dot org dot uk).

Further posts will be made on any progress.

Watching the sunflowers grow, and watching the heads open up, I found exciting, and it was always a pleasure to look out of the window and see them all there.

Everybody should feel the same excitement, so I plan to grow around 30 sunspot sunflowers in coir pots and give them away (hopefully I will get hold of some buckets to give for potting on). I hope to put up some leaflets about this.

If you would like a sunflower, do contact me at jasmine at ideasandinformation dot org dot uk, and I will let you know when the seedlings are ready. I can’t remember when they are supposed to be sown, but all will become clearer when I get the seeds…

The film is about factory farming and the impacts it has. This is to be the first Ideas & Information event, chosen to be the first because I thought it would be reasonably simple to organise a film screening. I thought that if there was food it would encourage people to come along, and if there were notable speakers and a discussion it would be more of an event rather than simply a film screening.