Category Archives: Food

Discussion Group: The Impact of Eating

03 Thursday Oct 2019

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The New Mills Transition Reading Group meets monthly in someone’s home to discuss a book or, occasionally, to watch a film/video or host a speaker. At the September meeting we discussed George Monbiot’s article in the Guardian on 9th August, ‘Here’s the true cost of eating meat. It’s worse than you think’ together with the piece on Silvopasture in ‘Drawdown’ edited by Paul Hawken and other online articles which deal with related subjects.
The George Monbiot article is here:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/08/ipcc-land-climate-report-carbon-cost-meat-dairy
Links to other articles that contributed to our discussion were:
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6392/987
https://greenallianceblog.org.uk/2019/08/20/whats-the-beef-with-beef/
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/6-reasons-why-practice-silvopasture-will-help-save-modern-farming
Monbiot argues in favour of stopping eating meat because of its carbon footprint and to completely cease meat and dairy production in order to increase the rewilding of the countryside. Some thought that these were not the only possibilities and this generated a discussion about land use.
One of the background pieces for Monbiot’s article talks about a variation between best and worst producers of meat by a factor of 50 in terms of environmental impact so it was argued that if the worst producers could be targeted then this would have a far bigger impact than trying to stop production altogether. In addition, mixed farming can use animal manure for fertiliser, reducing dependency on chemicals and associated repercussions like runoff and water pollution.
The discussion included the issue of protein and where that comes from in a plant based diet. Also, referring back to an earlier book (The way we eat now by Bee Wilson) there is the issue of the economics of the food industry and the issues around providing cheap and nutritious food.
The general opinion was that there needs to be a significant reduction in meat consumption and a cultural shift to see a plant based diet as healthier and cheaper. Some of this is already taking place. In addition, it’s not just about personal choice, changes are needed at a government level including the revision of agricultural subsidies to assist the transition and the need for major changes in the food industry. One article mentions the need for a ‘just transition’ for farmers so they are paid properly for the food that they produce.
We discussed food security and the comment in Monbiot’s article about the 55% of UK cropping land being used for livestock feed. Monbiot heavily criticises extensive as against intensive farming of meat but (as discussed with Isabella Tree’s book Wilding) extensive farming can encourage increased biodiversity. Also, the carbon footprint of meat production may conflict with the issue of animal welfare. There are both ethical and environmental grounds for changing to a plant based diet but some may be more amenable to a process of reduction rather than sudden elimination.
Our next meeting is Monday October 21st at 8pm and the book is The Wall by John Lanchester
You don’t have to read the books to come along – someone will give a synopsis and all input to the discussion is welcome. Email transition.newmills@gmail.org for details of venue.

Many thanks to Sue Cooper for the post.

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Reading Group: ‘The Running Hare’

23 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by in Biodiversity, Discussion, Food, Rewilding, Uncategorized

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Blog post by Sue Cooper, Transition New Mills Reading Group

The New Mills Transition Discussion Group meets monthly in someone’s home to discuss a book or, occasionally, to watch a film/video or host a speaker.

Our book this month was The Running Hare (The secret life of farmland) by John Lewis-Stempel published by Penguin Books. In some ways this followed a theme set last time in our discussions of Wilding by Isabella Tree, looking at what happens when land is managed or farmed differently to the modern methods of intensive agriculture – in this case a field in Herefordshire which the author takes on for a year to grow a crop of wheat, using traditional farming methods, and a wide border of wildflowers.

The results are fascinating and heartening, showing the power of nature to recover from the mono-cultures of agribusiness which create quite ‘dead’ environments, as well as a celebration and appreciation of the skills and cultural history of traditional agricultural workers.

This book was a ‘lighter’ read than our usual fare; as well as being an observant ecologist cataloguing and describing the emerging and changing flora and fauna he includes anecdotes of rural life, poetry, songs, discourses on agricultural history, language and literature, a rich weave of fascinating facts and engaging descriptions. Some of us found his style of writing attractive, enjoying the richness and depth, others were less enthusiastic, but all agreed that is was an interesting read and a welcome reminder of the rhythm of the seasons and a celebration of our connection to the natural world.

It is an open criticism of modern agricultural methods; he writes of the ‘chemical brothers’ in the next field whose use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers together with modern farm machinery delivers high yields but a mono-cultural environment, ‘every time one buys the lie of cheap food a flower or a bird dies’. His field produces an abundance and variety of wild flowers, attracts all kinds of wild life including the hares of the title and also produces a decent crop of wheat but at the cost of some heavy physical work. No easy answers. We had a lively discussion on the book which moved on to include a debate on the Common Agricultural Policy, farming subsidies and Brexit, and the worrying issue of modern disengagement from the natural world.

Our next meeting, on Monday February 18th, will look at the 12 principles of permaculture, through song! Contact us at transition.newmills@gmail.com for details.

Transition New Mills December Newsletter

08 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by in Discussion, Energy, Events, Food, News

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Season’s Greetings to all Transition New Mills supporters! There have been strong signs of hope in what has often been a difficult year. Frequently these have come as a result of ordinary people doing wonderful things for their own communities. New Mills is fortunate to have a good number of active citizens, contributing in their own ways, without whom all our lives would be much poorer – so thanks to you all! Transition is all about local action, and there are some opportunities below. Please contact us on transition.newmills@gmail.com if you’d like to get involved!
Incredible Edible update

Some progress has been made on the projects mentioned in October’s newsletter, and we hope to be able to bring you some positive results on all three in the New Year:

  • New Mills Primary School are working on a funding package for improvements to their edible garden capabilities, including the installation of a greenhouse ,
  • a proposal has been tabled for the creation of a series of planters around the town with edible plants
  • funding has been committed by New Mills Community Orchard for the creation of a Forest Garden trial; a planting session will be arranged for spring 2017.

These are great practical projects; if you want to get involved, email us at transition.newmills@gmail.com
Egg Map

In addition, we are working on a town egg map. This will map the locations where you can buy locally produced eggs, normally using an honesty box. In future, this concept can easily be extended to cover many other locally produced items, ending up with a local directory, maybe something like Falmouth’s. If you know of any locations, or you want to sell eggs or other sustainable local produce yourself, let us know and we can put it on the map.

Discussion Group Next Meeting

The group is tackling the Universal Basic Income as its next topic; an attempt to get away from linking income with work or benefits. Here’s a short introductory video explaining the concept.
Sue will also give a report on her recent visit to Marrakech during COP22. The meeting is on Monday 12th December at 8pm; all are welcome. Please contact us on transition.newmills@gmail.com for details if you want to go.
New Transition movement website

The Transition Network now have a brand  new website! It’s not just a re-design; they have started afresh, making it more readable and accessible, and are introducing new features and lots more specific content.  Check it out with this link to our launch blog from Rob Hopkins, where he explains some of the key elements of the new site, and helps you find the things of greatest importance to you.
The Gift of Death

Before you buy any further Christmas presents; just bear in mind the consequences!  I’ve recycled one of my favourite George Monbiot articles from a few years back on what does and doesn’t make a good Xmas gift.
How to Save Energy and Be Warmer

Dreading the next fuel bill? A few years ago I participated a Global Action plan project on everyday household sustainable living, and created a series of handy ‘top tips’ guides, with a range of solutions to suit different interests, abilities and pockets. Rather than waste them, we’ll be offering them up in the newsletter at intervals, and putting them on our website. Check out this month’s, topically on energy use, and make it your New Year Resolution to try some out.

Local Giving

Any donations through our Local Giving site will be matched using lottery cash. This offer lasts until April 2017, and could give us up to £500 of free cash! Needless to say, we are very keen to reach this target, and being an environmentally based group there is flexibility over the projects for which we can use the money. Please help us reach this total in a very efficient way by donating as much as you feel comfortable at Transition New Mills | Localgiving

Forthcoming events

Discussion Group Monday 12th December, 8pm On the Universal Basic Income. Email transition.newmills@gmail.com for details
Solstice Stroll, Wednesday 21st December, 6-9pm Come and celebrate the Winter Solstice, with a gentle stroll visiting some of New Mills’ pubs, from the Masons Arms, through the town centre, to the Rock Tavern. May involve litter picking on the way!

The Parties Respond to Our Questions! Q3 – Local Food

29 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by in Food, Politics

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Election signpost

Here’s the third blog in our series of High Peak General Election candidate responses to our questions. The full, unedited responses for this question are available in this document: Candidates Responses-Q3.

What initiatives would you introduce that would support local food producers and farmers to sell their produce in an environment dominated by a small number of large food retailers?

Caitlin Bisknell (Labour)

As Leader of High Peak Borough Council Caitlin has championed schemes such as the Serpentine Farm in Buxton which aims to renovate the former council nursery to grow food and offer training, and Totally Locally Glossop which brings together local independent businesses. Caitlin also tries to use local shops as much as possible for all her shopping.

Caitlin would also work to improve access to public sector supply chains for local food producers and farms by encouraging the division of contracts into smaller lots they are able to bid for, such as through Derbyshire County Council’s Source Derbyshire and Trusted Trader schemes.

Labour would give local communities the tools they need to protect and improve nature and supports changes to the Common Agriculture Policy to do more to protect the environment.

Stephen Worrall (Liberal Democrats)

Farming support from the government should be focussed on ‘sustainable farming’, such as support for local food producers and farmers selling their produce locally. Stephen thinks there is a societal change happening, in which people care more where there food comes from and are willing to pay more for locally-produced and well-produced food. Central government should help accelerate this trend with information campaigns; local government could provide more support for farmers’ markets and similar food events.

UKIP

UKIP’s policies on agriculture and fishing include: leaving the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy and instituting a British Single Farm Payment for farms; letting the British parliament vote on GM foods; leaving the Common Fisheries Policy and reinstating British territorial waters; making foreign trawlers apply for fishing permits to fish British waters when fish stocks have returned to sustainable levels; labelling food to include country of origin, method of production, method of slaughter, hormones and genetic additives; and abolition of the export of live animals for slaughter.

Andrew Bingham (Conservative)

Andrew says that there is becoming a more prevalent attitude to food provenance with people looking towards locally produced foods and ‘artisan’ ranges and, when given the chance, preferring to buy locally High Peak produced goods. Farm shops and farmers’ markets allow farmers to sell food and other produce direct to the general public. This benefits both farmer and consumer as it increases profit margins while offering locally produced fresh foods.

All the products on sale at farmers’ markets should have been grown, reared, caught, brewed, pickled, baked, smoked or processed by the stallholder. Such markets help cut out the middleman and improve financial returns; help producers receive direct customer feedback; reduce the costs of transport and packaging; have a regular market outlet, which is important for new producers, producers in organic conversion and small scale producers.

Charlotte Farrell (Green)

Charlotte says that the Greens will require local authorities and communities to draw up local food plans to safeguard and encourage local processing, distribution and retailing of produce; encourage non-commercial food production and community involvement in food growing, such as allotments, urban food growing, community orchards, and school gardens. In the long term, we will enable all communities to have access to and control of land that can be used for growing basic needs.

The Greens would also limit the power of supermarkets and global corporations, and use planning regulations to favour local markets. The Greens would also encourage local authorities to favour local suppliers in their procurement of food, such as schools using local produce.

Growing Spaces at New Mills Community Orchard Apple Day

14 Sunday Sep 2014

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appleday6 poster

New Mills Community Orchard will be holding their 6th annual Apple Day celebration as part of the festival on Sunday 28th September, 2pm-4pm, at the High Lea orchard.

The Community Orchard supports the Growing Spaces project, and it is anticipated that this year’s event will include two things in particular that may interest you:

  • a Produce Swap table: if you’ve a glut of fruit or veg crops at the moment, bring surplus produce along and swap them with other growers
  • Growing advice from local gardeners: if you’ve a question about growing fruit or veg in New Mills, come along and ask the advisors

As well as these, of course its a great family afternoon out, and has the added attraction of the Powderkegs Morris group!

Hope to see you there!

Julian, on behalf of New Mills Community Orchard

Growing Spaces Starts to Germinate

09 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by in Food, Plants

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Growing Spaces is all about encouraging people in New Mills to grow their own food. We’ve blogged about this a couple of times and also had an ideas-generating meeting back in November. (Follow this link to see more details: https://transitionnewmills.org/2013/12/08/getting-involved-with-growing-spaces)

Last week, a number of us met up to discuss what we could do in practice. We decided to focus on two strands with a number of specific activities:

1. Providing opportunities for practical ‘hands-on’ experience

  • Beardwood Farm is providing a space for people to use to grow their own food, known as Beardwood Natural Living Project. We want to help people to cultivate crops there, involving a mix of new and more experienced gardeners to share skills, experience and confidence.
  • We want to provide people the materials to kick-start them in growing food on their own premises.

2. Skill and experience sharing, with the emphasis on what works in New Mills

  • This will involve demonstrations of techniques, both at events and through real case studies and examples.
  • Skill and experience sharing through question time type events and meetings.
  • Document experience and techniques of what works in New Mills, and make this available online.

There is the potential for the project to expand in various directions in future, for example by addressing the end uses of produce, like cooking, preserving, marketing, composting, etc., or into animal foodstuffs such as egg production.

Of course, we’re not doing this alone and we’re not starting from scratch so Transition New Mills be working closely with New Mills Allotment and Gardening Society, the Community Orchard and Beardwood Natural Living Project. And also reaching out to other organisations that might like to get involved such as local businesses.

We’re quite excited about this project and would like as many people involved as possible. If you have expertise in growing food, or land for growing food others could use, or the time to help out with admin or publicity, please do get in touch: we would love to hear from you.

If you think you (or your friends or neighbours) want to grow more food and could stand to benefit from what we’re doing, watch this space for what’s going on and join in! Follow this blog for updates.

If you’re the kind of person who likes a bit more detail, have a look at the current draft of our project plan. Growing Spaces Project Plan-DRAFT1

And feel free to provide feedback and tell us what you think by commenting on this blog.

The Fast Diet and Transition

06 Monday Jan 2014

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I’ve always rejected the idea of dieting, almost on principle: they’re faddy, pander to idealised body images, they’re substitutes for fulfilment, and – most damaging I guess – they simply don’t work.

Over the past few months, however, I’ve changed my mind as I’ve been following one diet in particular – the Fast Diet. This diet has no difficult rules to follow* and doesn’t involve constant deprivation; it just involves eating up to about 20% less.

For those who are not familiar with the principles, the idea is to ‘fast’ for two days a week and eat what you like the other five days. It’s not a complete fast on those two days – men can eat 600 calories and women 500 – but the idea is to go as long as possible without food.

The main motivation for me was not so much weight loss – I was reasonably happy being a bit porky. However, there is a widely-held view that the slightly chubby demeanour that passes these days as normal for western societies leads to a whole host of chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease. The principle of the fast diet is that, instead of your body constantly processing food, it’s beneficial to have some downtime where it can perform essential maintenance to repair cells, deal with toxins and so on.

However (and why I’m blogging about this here!), I would also suggest that this diet is very much in tune with the principles of Transition. Eating around one-fifth less is good for society as well as individuals: 20% less energy/carbon is needed to grow, cook and transport our food and, in principle at least, there is more room for wildlife if the diet’s adopted by a large enough number of people. If the diet really has the claimed health benefits then it would also mean less strain on our health services.

I’ve also found the diet to be personally transformative beyond (I feel I have to admit!) rather liking the new slim-line me. I’m saving money, I feel more vital – all that food was making me sluggish – and my life is newly-liberated knowing that if I don’t eat at a set time, I’ll won’t just expire on the spot. For me, fasting also allows a better connection with my spiritual needs (there has to be a reason most religions recommend fasting in some shape or form).

Perhaps the killer point is that fasting opens up much more time. For two days a week, I get up later, have a shorter midday break and I don’t need to cook in the evening…or do the washing-up. Just think how much transitioning we could achieve with all this time to do other stuff.

* Although most people take a while to work out a routine that works for them; for me, I skip breakfast, have a very late lunch of a boiled egg and banana and a small bowl of cereal in the evening

Getting Involved with Growing Spaces

08 Sunday Dec 2013

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In late November, fourteen of us met to discuss projects we could in the Growing Spaces theme (see previous blogs https://transitionnewmills.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/growing-spaces-what-can-you-do/ and https://transitionnewmills.wordpress.com/2013/11/20/growing-spaces-why-growing-your-own-food-matters/).

We felt it was a pretty positive meeting with lots of enthusiasm to do something in New Mills to make our food more local, fresher, healthier and more sustainable.

This blog isn’t an attempt to recant all that was said (you really had to be there!). Instead, we like to think of it as a call to arms to get involved.

We came up with five distinct projects we felt could work as a starting point. We’d like you to vote for your favourite ones by commenting on this blog. But there’s a catch! We’d like you only to vote if you are prepared to help make the project happen. It would also help if you based your votes on whether you think the project is doable, how much of an impact it might make and how well it meets the objectives of sustainable local food production.

We’ll be having a follow-up meeting in January to take this forward – we’ll let you know the details soon.

Possible Projects

  1. Establish a shared communal allotment(s)
  2. Promote growing food in small containers. For example, give Housing Association residents window boxes, some compost, some seeds, a trowel and simple instructions to grow, say, a selection of salad vegetables
  3. Extend a Garden Buddies scheme (which is already running but is quite small in reach). This would, for example, match an older person who has a garden and expertise but who is now too infirm to work it with someone who has the time and inclination to work with the landowner to grow food. Both parties share the harvest
  4. Establish a programme of talks from local food growing experts
  5. Establish a knowledge sharing forum, e.g. like Gardeners’ Question time or an open discussion session. Possibly capture this expertise on video and create an online resource

Other Information

As well as the project ideas, there were a number of things that came up that may be of interest:

  • There are funds available to community groups to support projects
  • There is a waiting list of forty people for an allotment in New Mills which could represent a potential interest in growing spaces elsewhere
  • There are plans for a Horticultural Library at New Mills Library which will have reference and general books to assist.
  • There is already a collection of fruit-related books available for reference in the library, courtesy of New Mills Community Orchard
  • A food-growing event run by New Mills Allotment Society is to be held on 16 December 2013. Details to be confirmed but the event follows the very successful Seedy Sunday and Seedling Saturday events aimed at new growers
  • The Vertical Veg project (http://www.verticalveg.org.uk/) which inspires and supports food growing in small spaces.

Special thanks go to Barry Bate who helped introduce the meeting on behalf of the Allotment Society and to Phil Frodsham, Julian Ashworth, Alex Bond, Angharad Hughes for setting the scene, leading and facilitating the meeting. And of course to all those who turned up bearing such positivity. Let’s keep it going!

Growing Spaces: What Can You Do?

25 Monday Nov 2013

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In advance of Thursday evening’s Growing Spaces meeting at the Library Lecture Room, let’s take a quick look at some of the possible solutions to your food growing problems that we might be able to help deliver:

Lack of Space

Many houses in New Mills only have small yards or gardens, and within these there’s competition for space between catering for children, pets or washing, and the conditions may not be conducive due to shading or poor soils. If you recognise this problem you’re probably unlikely to be able to become completely self-sufficient, but then this is rarely the aim for most people. If you can grow even a limited selection of a few carefully chosen plants then you will experience the fundamental satisfaction of producing your own food, as well as making an important, even if limited, contribution to reclaiming better, healthier food, with lower carbon emissions, lower pollution, less waste and in all likelihood, a better taste.

The chances of getting an allotment soon are, for most people, as slim as a green bean. You may not want the demanding task of cultivating such a large space at a distance from your house anyway. The obvious way to tackle this problem then is to make best use of the space you have. This may be through wall or window boxes, window-ledges inside and out, pots and other containers. You can move these about to provide a flexible space and to tackle shading, and have control over the soil used. Various products can help keep the soil moist, from regular watering to gel granules, mulch, plastic bottle watering adapters through to fully automated watering systems. You can choose what you grow carefully to ensure the plants you choose are adapted to thrive in these conditions and preferably can save you some money compared to supermarket produce; there is a wide range, from herbs to fruit trees. There are even new types of fruit trees available which just grow vertically, taking up no more than 18” diameter – small enough for just about any garden.

There are other ways you might be interested in: one option is to start a community garden in a bit of otherwise unused public space. You can see these in many town and city centres these days, including not just the widely known Incredible Edible Todmorden, but less ambitious projects such as the New Mills Community Orchards, down to the veg planters in Piccadilly Basin or Levenshulme.

Or you could join up for a landshare scheme, where someone with a garden or land they cannot look after is matched up with someone who wants land to cultivate. There’s no need to set anything new up here, Channel 4’s Landshare scheme http://www.landshare.net/ already exists to fill this gap, and may just need significant local publicity.

Lack of Time

The trick here is to grow undemanding plants that tolerate some neglect and don’t produce a bumper crop all at once. Many herbs are ideal, but there’s plenty of easy vegetables as well, such as leeks and spinach. Even better are more traditional perennial ‘forest garden’ plants that come every year, such as Good King Henry or currant bushes.

Lack of Cash

Certainly if you visit the garden centre the array of materials, tools and seeds can seem overwhelming. But it’s quite possible and practical to make growing your own food save you money if you know how, as much of the kit isn’t essential. Should we be looking to create free ‘starter kits’ to grow easy crops to reduce the risk and increase confidence, maybe? Coupled with better advice, this could unlock growing your own food to many more people.

Don’t Know How

All the above solutions require some knowledge to be really successful. Local knowledge, of suitable crop types and conditions, is even better. There’s loads of this around from experienced gardeners and allotment holders, but you may need to be able to learn from them more easily, or be given the confidence to try things yourself. Alternatively it may the cooking part that you have doubts about; do you need some really good recipes or better cooking skills to get the best out of your produce?

Over To You…

This isn’t a comprehensive list of solutions. Some might appeal to you more than others. You probably have other ideas, or other problems we haven’t addressed. That’s what Thursday’s meeting is about – we want to know what you’d like to do, and what’s stopping you. Then we can decide what we can do about it. We want to leave after the meeting with some practical ideas, and fill people with enough enthusiasm to help deliver them. Let’s make it happen!

See you Thursday, 7:30pm !

(If you can’t get to the meeting, but are interested in the project, send us your thoughts at transition.newmills@gmail.com; we’d love to hear from you!)

Growing Spaces: The Spring Bank Arts Centre Pollinator Garden

31 Thursday Oct 2013

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We know many of you are keen to grow things, whether for food or wildlife; this is the reason we’ll be launching the Growing Spaces project shortly with a public meeting on the evening of Thursday 28th November (more on this soon).

Some Transition New Mills members have already been getting stuck in though: here’s the inspiring story from Jill Hulme about how Transition teamed up with St James Arts Centre and New Mills School to make the most of a small patch of land at St. James’; turning it into something both beautiful and useful.

In the beginning……..

When the builders handed over the beautifully restored building in 2012 there was a tidy little lawn at the front. Following conversations at the Transition Food Group we formed the idea to rip out the lawn and plant up with something more useful. Food production was considered but the pollinator theme won hands down.

The Arts Centre Trust was delighted with our proposal and gave the go ahead. A third partner, New Mills High School, was invited to join in since they have a first class plant supply business. In addition we were keen to involve local young people. So, our pretty garden is the result of a community effort between Spring Bank Arts , Transition New Mills and New Mills High School.

It is here to make the area beautiful and to provide food for bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects. Without our friends, the bees, we would not get any of these favourite foods:
Apples, plums, pears, damsons, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, black currants, gooseberries and many more. What about the vegetables? Don’t forget courgettes, cucumber, tomato, peas, mange-tout, French beans, squash, and your halloween pumpkin.

Getting our boots on…..

New Mills High School produced a wonderful design. School grew a delightful collection of flowering plants in their own nursery. A planting day in May 2013 with students, staff and volunteers working hard together, got all our little plants nestled into their new home ready for summer. Volunteers have maintained the garden and put in some extra plants from their own gardens.

Come over to inspect the garden and see how many plants you recognise. There is a full name list, with photographs, inside the Arts Centre. Feel free to walk in and take a look.

And for the next steps………..

There are more plants to go in. Some ideas include Dwarf apple trees, spring bulbs, climbing plants along the wall, lavender in the gravel area by the main door. What do you think?

We hope everyone who passes by enjoys this garden. Perhaps you can take some of these ideas into your own garden or yard. A small bed, or a just few tubs, can be given over to plants for bees and butterflies where you live. Soon we will put more information on our website so you can find out more about bee-friendly gardening. Let’s make New Mills the pollinator capital of England!
If you want to get involved with maintaining this garden and developing it further we’d love to hear from you.

SJ1

SJ2
http://www.springbankarts.org.uk
Jill Hulme.