Well apparently the Workhouse website has received 200 emails from people wanting to join the ‘community’ after 2 episodes of the Going Green programme .. well that is brilliant and a big thanks to Presentable TV for showing us all in such a positive light. (well so far anyway) Of course the reality is slightly different, there is really a very strong community in the the mid wales and borders area. but we are much more spread out, diverse and less coherent than they portrayed us on the telly.

The Changing Lives programme is very much about the Davies family and their personal journey towards sustainable lifestyles, and we are just the setting for that to happen. So naturally we come across a lot better than we really are.. or rather the real world is much more complex and is many overlapping communities, families and so on, rather than exactly as portrayed. But that is not the point of the programme and for those purposes we are happy to be portrayed as we have been, it is just a simplification of the reality.

On saying all of that, actually there is a very real community in this area of people who are and have been dedicated to exploring non consumerist lifestyles for decades. The secret is keep it simple, the trick with money really is to not need it .. then you dont have to be rushing off to a job you may not necessarily want to go to. I am not saying its easy,  you do have to apply yourself.

Working together with other people can be very difficult, we are not really trained by society to work cooperatively, but there are many advantages and potential rewards for those that can find a way to do so.  I was involved with a group who started a permaculture,  low impact living community in 1995, (after 2 years research) it is called Chickenshack and is based around a house,  cottage, a bungalow and flat in 5 acres of Snowdonia park. I have drawn a lot of experience from doing that and have plans to take the idea further.

Currently with a group of people here near Llanfyllin we are working together to hopefully buy a farm and outbuildings with considerably more land with the intention of doing the same on a bigger scale.

One of the sustainability themes I am currently feeling most alarmed about is the quality and security of our food supply. I will not go into why here, but just say that I am really keen to get a community scale permaculture/ food production business going and am looking for key people to get involved. So maybe we can start realising more of our ambitious about developing sustainable community. We still need a coupl eof investors so if you are seriously interested then get in touch

For every one else interested in find out more and thinking about how to apply some of the sustainability ideas to your own lives then i encourage you to come on a permaculture course.  Invest some time and energy into finding out a lot more about what is all about and the potentials and possibilities. I am planning to be running an introductory weekend in early Feb 5th 6th and a two week on in Mid May, so do get in touch to find out more.