Brilliantly witty, insightful and thought provoking. Well worth watching – whatever you think about Dawkins he does challenge you to think.
church of the flying spaghetti monster
Meanwhile, I must mention the Church of the Flying Spaghetti monster if you have not yet been touched by HIS noodley appendage then you have a treat in store..
Jun 19
Sarah Pugh bought her Bristol to course up to Wales on more than a few occasions adn one year they gave me a copy of Stepen Harding#s Animate Earth as a thank you for showing them around CAT and Chickenshack. Its in the course library and I can only claim to have read about a third of it even now, it goes in such amzing detail. Here really brings how the Earth really is a complex living being of its own to life. His tremedous enthusiasm for the wonderful complexity of life is very much a permacultre type of view on things. Well worth a watch
Jun 18
Here’s Rob Hopkins talking about Transition Towns and some of the things they have been up to un Totnes/
This is a nice short piece, Martin Crawford is a forest gardener and was featured on the Farm for the Future video.
Here he showing some of the wonders of his garden
Jun 17
To say it is madly busy here at the Workhouse at this time of year is an understatement! with the next workhouse festival looming things are happening all over the site and people busy laying paths and pipes and drains. I have tried to be as useful as I can to getting ready for the festival whilst also trying to make the next plans for S39. Still putting all the pieces back together really after the May PDC but also begning to plan for the next one. So, October it is then, first 2 weeks here at the Workhouse.
I am still putting the plans together and waiting to here back from coleagues but we want to offer a slightly different experience with a team of teachers who togeher bring an enourmously wide perspective and experience on the subject. Its going to be great!
Jun 12
Thanks to the biology dept at Llanfyllin school for inviting me to give a talk on permaculture to a year 9 group there. I really enjoyed meeting the group, who seemed really interested in what I had to say and was rewareded with a token from a local Garden centre to buy a fruit tree for the Workhouse Forst garden. I really enjoyed the session and look forward to building closer links with the school.
Jun 11
People have been contacting me about wanting to do a day course at the Workhouse, as an introduction to permaculture. So I am hoping to put this together soon and want to hear from anyone interested.
Jun 11
My latest promotional venture is developng a marketing plan for Bertolacci, fine plaster finishes. It turns out to be an amazing ancient technique using lime and marble to create these stunning stone like renders for walls and ceilings. He is moving into the Workshop next door to me at the Workhouse. We are going to do courses in it, 2 days for 5 days and he is aiming to develop his own product range of lime putty and pigments. Its all very eco friendly of course and amazingly creative, i am planning to go on his first weekend course, so I will keep you posted!
Well its been a big adventure and a huge change for me, but i have moved on from my home of 14 years at CHickenshack housing co-op, which is near Tywyn in Gwynedd, to live in the borders in Powys and to take on a Workshop at the Llanfyllin Workhouse.
I am building a partnership of sustainability facilitators and crafts people etc, called Sector39 and our aim is to make a genuinely sustainable livelihood developing courses, training events, local food events and more for the purposes of local and global sustainability.
have just completed running my first 2 week PDC (permaculture design course) at the Workhouse ( I have run 5 previously at Chickenshack) and am now planning for more courses and events, including a one day permaculture course introduction, a 2 day intro for Llandrindod Transition Towns group. The main thing on the horizon are well 2 tings, the Workhouse festival, which is in June and then the Workhouse Green-fayre which is planned for August. More about these events soon.
Jun 11
New Blog, I wrote one for Chickenshack for a couple of years, and here i go again for S39.
Here is the flier from my first Workhouse PDC
