Kinsale Spring Fair March 31, 2008
Posted by Graham in : Transition Towns, community , 2commentsI was back down in Kinsale at the end of the Easter break on Saturday for the Transition Towns Spring Fair.
Organised by permaculture students and members of Transition Towns Kinsale with Kinsale Tidy Towns, it consisted of a market with stalls selling local produce in the town, with exhibits, talks, Transition TV and more stalls in the Temperence Hall.
In particular it was great to see the newly formed Kinsale Food Co-op with freshly baked cakes and wholefoods with a presence in the market.
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Of Tipis and Yurts March 24, 2008
Posted by Graham in : Yurts , 1 comment so farI have always been interested in the simple nomadic life- although I am now settled in Derryduff for nearly 7 years- and lived in a tipi in Shropshire for a year in 1989. During this time I made frequent visits to Tipi Valley in south Wales- a whole community of around 100 people living in tipis that has been there for nearly 30 years (if it is indeed still going).
Tipi Valley had fairly strict rules about the kind of structures that were permitted- in the lower part of the village tipis only were permitted. The lifestyle was harsh and dedicated- firewood collecting was a constant chore and in the absence of roads through the settlement most people were restricted to whatever dead wood they could carry back on their shoulder each morning, cut with a bow-saw. (more…)
Joe Polaischer R.I.P. March 3, 2008
Posted by Graham in : Permaculture , add a commentI only just noticed on David Holmgren’s website the sad passing on Feb 14th of Permaculture Elder Joe Polaischer.
Originally from Austria, Joe was founder, with his partner Trish Allen, of Rainbow Valley farm in New Zealand. I had the pleasure of meeting Joe at the International Permaculture Convergence in Croatia in 2005. I was struck by his charisma and breadth of knowledge which was infectious and inspiring.
Right: Joe and Trish (on right of picture) Ljubljana 2005
After the conference he traveled with some of us back to Ljubljana. He regaled us with tales of his very colorful life and expressed amazement at the extensively wooded countryside in Slovenia. The last time he had been in this part of the world was over 40 years earlier when he had run away from home at the age of 18 over the Alps into what was then Yugoslavia. Seemingly in those days there were many goats and few trees. The story goes that the then dictator, Tito, had ordered the removal of effectively all the goats from the countryside, allowing the impressive regeneration of the woods- a story I often recount to express the rapid ability of the trees to come back.
He also had stories from the war time in Austria when he was a young boy on his father’s farm. Previously wealthy people from the city would come begging for food. His father would let them stay for a day- but no longer. On one occasion he saw the visitors throw jewels onto the table offered as a fee to let them stay where there was food a while longer. the young Joe, not having seen such shiny things before reached out to take them but was told sharply by his father, “No! Don’t touch them! They are filthy!” The lesson was, anything that hadnt been earned by the sweat of the brow on the land was not to be trusted, a lesson that Joe embodied in his permaculture life.
You can read David Holmgren’s obituary here
Powerdown TV Show March 2, 2008
Posted by Graham in : Peak Oil, Powerdown , add a commentI have not been posting very regularly recently and part of the reason is that I have been very busy moving into the now (mainly) finished timber cabin. I am delighted to have moved into this cosy space. Warm, functional and full of light it promises to be a very comfortable and appropriately-sized living space.
Some of my first visitors were the crew from Cultivate who came down last week to interview me for the forthcoming TV show that will accompany the Skilling Up for Powerdown Course.
Right: Davie, Eoghain, Rob in the Cabin.
This innovative 10-week course is the brain child of Cultivate’s Education Officer Davie Philip who has been putting it together over the last year or so as a community learning resource. Davie has just started running it in Dublin for the third time, and it has also been trialled in Kinsale. When finished, it will be a groundbreaking resource for community self-learning on issues of community responses to peak oil and Climate change and will include a book and DVD-rom with a short film specially made to explore each chapter of the course. (more…)
The Transition Handbook March 1, 2008
Posted by Graham in : Peak Oil, Permaculture, Powerdown, community , 3commentsBook Review
The Transition Handbook From oil dependency to local resilience Rob Hopkins Green Books 2008 Pbck; 240pp The transition Handbook is available from www.transition culture.org
“The concept of energy descent, and of the Transition approach, is a simple one: that the future with less oil could be preferable to the present, but only if sufficient creativity and imagination are applied early enough in the design of this transition.”
-Rob Hopkins, The Transition handbook
The publication of the much anticipated Transition Handbook marks the latest landmark in what has become the fastest growing environmental movement since CND in the 1960s: the phenomenon that is sweeping the UK, the Transition Towns movement. (more…)
