On 15th October we did what should be the last outdoor event for this year, Think Green at Thatcham Nature Discovery Centre near
Newbury.
It was the first outing for a new stepper
motor based generator. It is a quite small version of the upright
format where the drive chain is almost vertical and the generating
motor is very clearly visible on top of the wheel. The idea was to
produce a generator which enables very small children to power our
bubble machine, and also an experiment in re-using a small bike with
plastic wheels.
We were impressed to see an excellent one man show by
the amazing Mr Alexander on his portable
stage next door.
Considering the time of year, the weather was very good; although there
was just enough wind for our small wind generator, it was calm enough
for an inflatable binliner monster to go
really well.
The wind was good for bubbles too, sometimes sending them along the side of the centre but occasionally they got
caught in a thermal when the wind dropped, and went straight up in a
column.
The sun was so consistent that we dared to get out the solar power demo
and use it for a bit of direct solar powered
piano.
On 20th September we took our direct
pedal powered mp3 DJ system to
Kingston University's Green Freshers Fayre. The day got off to a
slow start as not too many students seemed to be awake in the morning,
but luckily we found a source of programme and some enthusiastic
pedallers at the Kingston Green Radio stall.
From 18th to 21st August we were at Sunrise Off-Grid, a
small festival near Cheddar www.sunrise-offgrid.co.uk/.
The weather started off
a bit miserable, but then we got loads of sunshine and unusually there
was enough wind at night for our LED windmill
display to work well. In the days it was mostly too windy for
binliner monsters but swirls of bubbles were whizzing off in various
directions all day.
On one side of our stall there was a lively African
drumming
group, and over the road some well restored old swingboats.
It was a good event for windmills, as well
as a new multi coloured LED one with transparent blades we also put up
our original 'Office Equipment' stepper motor and desk fan one. On
Sunday we tried using it to directly power a Gameboy but turbulence
from trees behind us made it difficult to finish a level and we changed
over to direct solar power instead.
On 13th
August we provided pedal generators with a bubble machine, sound system
and inflatable binliner monster for Ridgeway Family Fiesta in the Buckskin
area of Basingstoke, somewhere we hadn't
been for a while. Apart from loads of bubbles, there was a lot of
interest in competitive pedalling on the 80 Watt lamp load.
Just outside, Paul from Drum Runners was doing a junk percussion workshop featuring instruments made out of
plastic bottles and other recycled stuff.
During July we did some school events for Sustrans Bike-It, but there
aren't any photos available for those.
On 18th and 19th June we provided pedal generators as
well as small wind generator and solar power displays at Summertown Stars Football Tournament
in Oxford. The bubble machine was so popular we had to arrange an
emergency run to Toys R Us on the Sunday for more bubble fluid. There
were plenty of energetic footballers queuing up to compete on the 80
Watt lamp load, though pedalling in studded boots was a problem we
hadn't had before. The weather was good but a bit uncertain with some
sudden wind gusts, one of which wiped out a gazebo next door.
On 11th June we were at Warfield
Village
Fete supporting Warfield Environment Group. We had a stall space between the WEG
one and the Gladys Glass glass painting
stall. We set up the iPod Booster and some
illuminated stuff inside the rain cover (which luckily we didn't need).
It was another day when the wind was too much to run inflatable
binliner monsters but the bubble machine was going well and got a good audience.
Some of the people who were too small for the smallest generator still
had some fun on the pedal powered piano
running off a spare output from the bubble machine generator.
On 21st May we provided a set of pedal generators to
promote the St Josephs Primary School
Travel Plan at St Joseph's
Church Parish Day in Chalfont St Peter.
It was a smaller setup with our toddler
generator, a mid sized child's one and a teen/adult friendly chair type
generator. The larger one spent most of the time running our sound
system in between shutdowns for school choir performances. It was too
windy for inflatable binliner monsters, but the bubble machine was
going well again with bubbles swirling around the site.
As the day went on we got busier; as often
happens we acquired several 'regulars' who kept coming back for another
go.
Meadow Madness, the opening event of Reading
Council
Children's
Festival was on 14th May. It was the first
event we'd used the new motor caravan for. It's a bit smaller than the
old one and I'm still figuring out how to pack it but we still managed
to set up six pedal generators as well as hand crank devices and a
small wind power demonstration.
Most of the time it was quite windy - it sent a cloud of bubbles from
our machine around the Scouts climbing wall
next door, but it was too windy to use our inflatable binliner monsters.
At times the weather looked quite threatening,
but
as
usual
for
the
last
two
months
it
never
came
to
any
rain.
Our small pedal powered sound system was
very popular in spite of competition from Readipop's nearby stage.
On 7th May we provided pedal generators for Low Carbon West Oxford at a 'Bring
And Take' at West Oxford Community Centre, an indoor event for a
change. The event only lasted for two hours, but it was very busy. We
blew a lamp in the 80W power load and the speaker in the Robot Voice
Megaphone packed up but both were easily fixed afterwards.
There was hardly any time to take photos, but I did get one of our
latest inflatable binliner monster.
On Saturday 2nd April we were back in Oxfordshire again,
this time in Eynsham helping promote Transition
Eynsham
Area www.eynsham.org/teahome.html
with a combination of children's and adult sized
pedal generators. This was the fourth Saturday in a row when we've been
able to do an outdoor event without any rain. There was plenty of wind,
and the the bubbles from our bubble machine did some amazing swirls and
spirals in the Market Square. There were two separate indoor
exhibitions which I didn't get to see, and outdoor displays by local
solar suppliers and a bicycle repairer.
On Three Saturdays in March 12th,19th and 26th we did our
first outdoor events this year at Summertown
Oxford for Low Carbon Oxford North www.lcon.org.uk to help draw
attention to their
stall. We set up three pedal generators outside the Co-op
store
using our pedestrian trailer to move from a
car park. The bubble
machine was popular as usual; other attractions included inflatable
binliner monsters, directly powered Nintendo games and a small sound
system. At the final event we tried out a new
bubble machine which is definitely more effective than our original
recycled one.
