Dealwali 2015

Deal With It, held its end of season solstice gathering at the Landmark Garden on Saturday 19th December.

We had a really great event in the Garden on Saturday, with our Dealwali. It was great fun and many, many people contributed jars, lights and food to share. There was a real sense of community and at couple of stages the garden was packed.

We struggled a bit with getting all the candles lit because of the wind; but once it died down at 5pm, the Garden was covered with light and looked gorgeous .

We would like to thank everyone who contributed and helped on the day. We are especially indebted to

our fantastic performers who really made the event the Deal Hoodeners, Sue Watson and Chrissie, Jon & Elaine Dean, the Sunshine Ukes and storyteller Roisin Murray. We also grateful to Kieran from Choculation, Pete St Ange and Lucia Stuart.

The Dealwali also marked our third season in the Garden. Now the Winter Solstice is passed we can get planning on the 2016 season in the Landmark Garden

All our Photos are here

Deal Hoodeners

Pete the Rock

Sunshine Ukes

Sue Watson & Chrissie

Jon & Elaine Dean

Victoria's Green Matters - 17th December 2015

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:

It has been called ‘a major leap for mankind’ by French President, François Hollande, and, for those of us who have been campaigning against climate change for many years, it has given us a long awaited cause for celebration.

It has taken more than 20 years of very difficult negotiation to come up with an agreement from 195 countries present at the COP21 talks in Paris to hold global temperatures to a maximum rise of 1.5°C, thereby avoiding the worst effects of catastrophic global warming.

The participants have agreed to reduce carbon emissions and to accept a new goal of zero emissions by later this century. Alongside this has been the promise to raise $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor countries achieve these goals.

The elation is tempered by caution. Many scientists believe that the 1.5°C target may be over ambitious as human induced warming is already approaching 1°C and is set to reach 1.2°C by 2030 so keeping the temperature down to 1.5°C will be a huge challenge; 2°C is more achievable.

Although this agreement has been welcomed by everyone it has been criticised for not going far enough. However, there is a commitment to ratchet up pledges and make stronger cuts in five years which could bring us to the magic 2°C by the end of the century.

Promises have to be carried out and it is feared that resistance from the huge and powerful fossil fuels industry will present the largest challenge.

Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.

DealWali - Deal's Festival of Light in the Landmark Garden Saturday 19th Dec

We are organising a special 'Seedy Saturday' event to round off the end of another year in the Landmark Garden and to celebrate the winter solstice.

With DealWali our own festival of light we want to cover the garden in candle light and bring the community together for some music & song, storytelling, seasonal fayre and just being together.

Last year's event - A thousand lights to chase the darkness - was very successful (last year's report here) and great fun.

The event is free - we will collect for donations but much rather people contribute by bringing jars and tea lights, food to share and a warm spirit


There will be seasonal fayre to eat and drink, lots of music from Deal Hoodeners, Sue Watson, JonnieLane & the Sunshine Ukes; storytelling with Roisin Murray;

We will have also local forager Lucia Stuart of the 'Wild Kitchen' with edible delights from our shoreline (and hopefully some oysters!);

Chocolution local raw chocolate specialists with their foraged chocs (

Kentish Cobnut and Milk Chocolate

Sea Buckthorne Toffee and Dark Chocolate

Rosehip Jelly and Dark Chocoalte

Hawthorne Jelly and Dark Chocolate

Meddler Jelly  and Dark Chocolate)

to sample and buy


Pete the Rock from SeaCafe with his famous stone readings will be on hand to get some conversations going

Saturday 19th December starts at 4pm and finishes about 6:00pm.