Signing off for summer

We are signing off for the summer break now. But do keep reading us! We have a stack of great reading material in our low carbon archive. If you want to know where This Low Carbon Life blog (and collective) have got to do check out our summer update:

Meanwhile I'm heading down to the Uncivilisation Festival in August with the Dark Mountain Norwich crew. I'm curating the literary stage there (Mark is doing a medicine plant walk too) and I'm really looking forward to meeting up with fellow creators on the edge. Our fourth Dark Mountain collection is out this week so do get your copy. Essential reading under the tree and by the sea this season.

We're also working on the third edition of Transition Free Press (out on Sept 1). Why not subscribe to our downshifting, food savvy, community newspaper and get one delivered to your door? Have a great holiday all!

In praise of bees

 It only seems to be a  few weeks since there was not a bee to be seen in the cold, windy weather and I had to use a paintbrush to pollinate my peach tree in the greenhouse.

Suddenly there are hundreds of bees all over the garden, enjoying the flowers and the clover in what passes for a lawn - so I got my camera out to record their industrious activity.

It all seems harmonious in the bee world,  you don't see them fighting over the best nectar.

After a belligerent week for the Parish Council with arguments and accusations over planning applications,  I wished that we humans could be more like the bees and find ways to work together and with nature.

Maybe we should eat less meat and more nectar?

The cat was not impressed by that suggestion.

So What is Permaculture Exactly?

Virtually all of us (some without knowing it) lead lifestyles only made possible by the ‘scorched earth’ policies of our growth-focused society. We are wildly out of sync with the ecological imperatives facing us.

The Transition movement offers a methodology for building resilient communities at a local level, so where does permaculture fit in?

Permaculture is a discipline which seeks to observe and apply the principles of natural self-sustaining systems. Originally an abbreviation of ‘permanent agriculture’ permaculture is far from confined to food-growing.

Understanding the ecology of say soil or a freshwater lake from a holistic perspective allows the distillation of principles which can be reapplied to the design of human systems such as water harvesting, energy use and buildings construction.

But the application of permaculture goes even further than this. As complex human beings we have our own personal ecology operating in our lives. Our relationships, our work, our finances, the way we raise our families and much else all function in a state of dynamic equilibrium; they are influenced by similar factors to any ecological system.

Understanding how self-sustaining systems work allows us to design out potential weaknesses (such as high energy consumption or personal stress) and design in long term resilience.

In August we are running Norwich’s first two-week residential Permaculture Design Course on 12 acres of land, 4 miles from the city centre. We will be using forest gardening, polytunnel design, ecological building design, woodland management and life-style case studies to learn and apply permaculture principles and to produce designs for sustainable living.

The course will be led by Aranya, one of the UK’s foremost permaculture tutors with several specialist guest speakers.

If you’d like to know more, including information about subsidised places, please visit:

http://www.designedvisions.com/course-dates-mainmenu-83/pdcs/272-park-house-pdc.html
 
Deepak Rughani is an ecologist and campaigner living in Norwich. He is a Co-Director of Biofuelwatch www.biofuelwatch.org.uk