Plug in, turn on

Oslo has racks of use n share bikes but it also has rows of sockets for these popular tiny electric cars.

Is is interesting to see the good impact of encouraging small footprint transport (as Tokyo does in other ways) here in Oslo. In the winter I cycle round London but a tiny battery car alternative would be good too.

The kindness of friends

Getting ready to sail our newly acquired 1907 Oyster smack "My Alice" back to her home in Brightlingsea and have been overwhelmed by all the good wishes and good advice. Pal John Saker who helped us assemble her from over a kilometer of rope and a mountain of bits dropped off this wonderful present of wooden spikes all machined on his state of the art CNC lathe, which usually does the most convoluted jobs making complex spirals for production machines and the like.

Wonderful mix of old and new technologies.

Common ground

Having an interesting chat yesterday about a community's need to have place where everyone can assemble together from time to time. I suggested that a well designed outdoor space could work well - we are in tough times in the UK for public service funding right now and economic solutions are needed.

Last weekend the place where I mostly live, Brightlingsea, held a Music Festival - not quite Glastonbury but great fun. Brightlingsea is blessed with a large village green set on a slope which is a bit useless for cricket but offers such a great natural amphitheatre. You can see here, despite some patchy weather, families and groups of friends gathered for a weekend of everything from Bach to Blues.

Communities need a heartspace: it needs some 3D shape, but in many countries (not too hot or too cold) it doesn't need to be a building.

We can learn so much from small communities with, in some places, a few thousand years of prototyping!