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Loved reading this! You needn’t have had any doubts, brilliant piece of writing. You’ve just won yourself another subscriber. 😊

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Aug 1, 2023·edited Oct 11, 2023Author

I'm so pleased you liked it, M.E., thank you so much for pressing that button!

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What an inspiring story for your first post! Thank you for the shout-out in the embers. I love embers. ❤️ And your photos, and Pam in the TED excerpt. Much here to love. Sorry you've got COVID, but good job not letting it keep you from that Publish button! Ka-pow! Clink (champagne) for your lovely debut. 🥂 🎉

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Aug 1, 2023·edited Aug 1, 2023Author

Saúde, Tara! (Of course, champagne!) And I think magic is in the embers, not the flames. Strangely I woke in the middle of the night wanting to re express something about that section in a more positive light, but post-viral sleep meant I didn't wake up before the post went out! Oh, well!

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I didn't find anything un-positive. I love to stare at embers. I suppose they enchant. ;-) I hope you get to sleep through the night soon.

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Great post and very inspirational. The Incredible Edible Todmorden still has a website https://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/. After the initial great idea and the challenge of setting it up, you need a leader to keep it going.

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They are indomitable women, for sure! I'll be talking next week about what happened next and what we can take away to start similar movements of our own. Charisma does definitely help. Thank you for your subscription, Kate, and I recently experienced the inspiration for your own newsletter. A friend of ours died and his family is unable to access his computer. It was a timely reminder for our own household to put our digital affairs in order. You have a convert too!

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Thank you so much for subscribing. I am sad to hear about the death of your friend. My condolences.

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This is such an interesting read. I didn't know something like that existed in Todmorden. It is really interesting to see the increasing appeal from millennials to grow their own crops and keep chickens. There are now thousands of TikTok videos encouraging others to grow their own food and sharing their tips. Even myself, having been gifted a few tomato and bell pepper plants can instantly see the difference between them and what is sold to me in supermarkets. The aroma, the flavour! I gifted one of my friends a year long seed box with different varieties of vegetables that can be planted throughout the months and it has caused her to landscape half her garden with raised beds and has plans to do the other half soon. It is wonderful to see the development and growth of all her vegetables (the same can't be said for her houseplants which she can't keep alive). She is always sending me images of her home-grown meals.

This is definitely a space that is becoming more popular world-wide. I have recently been reading about edible cities, but wouldn't it be wonderful if we lived in a world where that was the norm?

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Part of my hope for this newsletter is to show that the kinds of responses you have mentioned, e.g. your one small act and the change it has created in someone else, is part of an enormous movement for change. We get to hear about the placards and protests, but less of the quieter revolutionary, but they are just as powerful.

I have this notion in my head, which I will talk about in a later post, that there are now so many doing something that does make a difference, that we will reach a critical mass (a bit like the tipping points in climate talk that create crises rather than change), where suddenly it is the norm, the growth being so exponential, that it will halt (reverse?) the situation we are in. I think by sharing the stories, (and having others share again) more people will think, well, if a granny can do that, then I could ..... I live with hope!

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This is great Safar. I went to university in Manchester and took the train out to those towns on occasion to look around. Hebden Bridge was always a favorite. It's so good to hear of these positive changes.

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Thank you, John and welcome to The Fiertzeside! I had to work from memory as it's a while since I went that way. Hebden Bridge is great. Knew quite a few people who lived there. I'm not sure I'd like a garden there, not with my aging knees! Did you ever get to an event at the Trades' Club?

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Thanks! It's good to be here. Trades Club? Alas no.

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It's a good place in Hebden Bridge for local musicians and bands. I always enjoyed the gigs there.

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I was there in the early 1970's!

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Before my time there, I landed there (from Ireland) in 1989. But I suspect it has history.

I just checked - it does! Built in 1924. https://thetradesclub.com

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Older than me then! I imagine they'll have quite the party next year.

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