Reading the Great Book of Life October 27, 2009
Posted by Graham in : Biodiversity, Environment, Human Ecology, Permaculture, book review , 4commentsBook Review:
The Living Landscape: How to Read and Understand it
Patrick Whitefield
Permanent Publications 2009
334pp
48 color photos
When I first saw in the recent Permaculture Magazine that Patrick Whitefield had written a book on reading the landscape I became very excited and thought, “That’s probably a book David Holmgren would have liked to have written!”
Holmgren called it “reading the great Book of Life”- looking at the living landscape of the countryside through the lens of ecology,botany, geology, archaeology, history and even politics and economics.
Observation of the natural world is the starting point of permaculture design and with this book Whitefield helps us gain an insight into the myriad of the many natural and human processes that make up our landscape, and how to interpret their hidden indications.
Patrick Whitefield covers all of these impacts on the British Countryside, taking his examples from all over the country, and shows us how to be a kind of landscape detective, painstakingly uncovering the meaning of signs and indications of past land-use, some obvious – the absence of trees indicating ongoing grazing- some much less so- the horeshoe bat indicating an intact mosaic of different habitats.
The book begins with some chapters on general patterns in the landscape and underlying features of geology, soil and then climate and natural succession before moving onto more specific cases including animal signs; niches; succession; Different Kinds of Woodlands; Grassland; Heaths and Moors; Water in the Landscape; and finally, Hedges and other field boundaries and Roads and Paths.
Throughout Patrick gives us pages from his extensive notebooks that he has kept over the years which show actual examples of reading the landscape in a wide range of landscape types he has encountered on travels up and down the country, from the Highlands of Scotland to the Somerset “Levels” – or Moors as they are more usually known locally; the remnants of diverse wildflower meadows still found on the chalk downs, and the semi-ancient wood of Lady Park Wood in the Wye valley.
Patrick is always an agreeable travel companion and makes fascinating observations throughout. The pleasure he takes at discovering new landscapes or unpicking the story of a woodland and how it got to have the species mix it has- the subtle interplay of geology, microclimate and grazing patterns- is always obvious, becoming most so when discovering a new hedgerow with large number of species ( a possible indicator of antiquity).
we have been using Patrick’s previous books, The Earth Care Manual and How to Make a Forest Garden on the Kinsale course for the past several years; The Living Landscape is another great addition which fills an important niche in permaculture literature. A fascinating and engaging read with great color photos, it will have to find a place on every designers’ bookshelf.
Dont Sweat the Hard Stuff October 22, 2009
Posted by Graham in : General , 1 comment so farMy eye was caught this morning by a story in the Grauniad recounting the death of three people after a new Age sweat lodge in northern Arizona:
According to local police, at 3pm on Thursday 8 October – the final day of the retreat, and following a buffet meal to break their fast – more than 60 people crammed into a space measuring just 415 sq ft. An initial 12 hot rocks were thrown into the fire pit, then doused with water and sandalwood to create steam and a scent of incense. By the time the ceremony was halted two hours later, another 46 hot rocks had reportedly been added to the pyre, turning the enclosure into a human cooking pot. A 911 emergency call reported that two people had no pulse and were not breathing.
The seat lodge was the culmination of a retreat lead by New Age guru James Arthur Ray who appears to have scarpered unharmed to “meditate” after the deaths occurred. The article quotes his comment from his Facebook page in which he explains:
despite considerable criticism, I have chosen to continue with my work. It’s too important not to. One of the lessons I teach is that you have to confront and embrace adversity and learn and grow from it. I promise you I am doing a lot of learning and growing.
Worse still, the Guardian goes onto say:
One of his staff members, called Barb, was quoted from the same call by Associated Press as saying that those who died “left their bodies during the ceremony and had so much fun they chose not to come back, and that was their choice that they made”.
One reason why this drew my attention is that in my distant youth Ioften enjoyed sweat lodges along the Native American style, with a small bender under canvas and a pit which was fed with heated stones, the same way as the tragic one at the Angel Valley Retreat Center, usually just for fun and accompanied by drumming and plenty of cold baths in a suitable river or pond afterwords.
A few years ago however I attended a sweat lodge at the end of a small festival in West Cork which was to be my first- and last- experience of a more formal, ceremonial initiation, lead by someone who, like Ray, claimed he knew what he was doing.
The difference in this lodge compared to the ones I used to set up myself was that it was exceprionally hot- far in excess to anything I had previously experienced (and the idea was always to get as hot as possible) and there were certain protocols and rituals according to, so we were told, native American tradition. It was to take the form of four “rounds” each one with a different spiritual theme, perhaps one for each of the four elements or something.
At the start of the first round people were invited to invite into the lodge with us whatever “spirit guides” we wanted to accompany our “journey”. One girl asked to be joined by quite a few such guides: ” I call spirit of Dolphin… and Bear… and Redwood… and eagle…” by which time the already cramped and squashed space started to feel very crowded indeed.
As the water was splashed onto the stones and the temperature increased, I could hardly breath and felt very uncomfortable, but not wishing to disturb the gathering i stuck it out until the end of the first round.
I couldnt go back in and in fact have never been in a sweat lodge since. The rest of the group continued and I seem to remember one of the group becoming very distressed at one point; she was congratulated by the “leader” for doing a “good job” in achieving whatever state she reached- not a pleasant one as far as I could tell.
It was only on this occasion that it occurred to me what is probably obvious that the traditional sweat lodge was not a fun evening with your mates but designed to be a cathartic experience in common with many other spiritual and religious rituals from many traditions around the world. The organism is put under such stress that another state of consciousness is reached, with visions of Other Realities perhaps with messages from the beyond for the tribe.
One danger mentioned was that in this and similar cases where people have died in sweat lodges a plastic tarp was used which would have kept the lodge hotter and perhaps less breathable.
The other reason I was interested was because James Arthur Ray appears in the film The Secret which as regular readers may know is one of my pet hates. The Secret has made millions for its makers by cynically exploiting people’s gullibility and willingness to believe that the Universe will provide for them anything they want. For me, this warped and retarded concept is as powerful symbol a symbol of what is wrong with the world as any- a pity then that it is so popular with many in the environmental movement- or at least its New Age wing.
The secret of the Secret’s success is that it based on a partial truth of course- that positive thinking may help and have a real effect on your confidence. In a sense it could be seen as a kind of self-hypnotism. But crossing over from the (limited) abilities we may have of deliberately improving our outlook on things into the classic New Age belief that we create reality with our minds is both dangerous and reactionary.
There are a billion or so hungry people in the world who rarely get a proper meal. I have occasionally been very hungry when there was no food to be had- on camping trips for example- and I am well aware of the power of the mind to conjure up strong visions of food in such circumstances. Id be dreaming of cream buns and seeing pizzas flying at me through the mist.
The whole concept is based on the idea that we all get what we deserve- karma, it is all written in the stars, but the lure of The Secret is that you can break out of this -simply by wishing!
In fairness, Mr Ray’s retreats seem to have been more demanding, but the whole concept of people paying thousands of dollars to undergo such rituals on the guidance of such a person fills me with horror. These are intelligent, well educated people from one of the richest nations on earth.
Even New Agers who have never heard of The Secret dance very close to the ideologies and dangers of this kind of thinking every time they utter the phrase “You create your own reality”. Out the window goes social justice issues, out goes any concept of oppression and discrimination. Its all your fault, if you dont get a better lot that proves you dont really want it.
It all seems to be just an extreme version of the Myth of unending progress and the ideology of personal entitlement that has come to dominate in the modern world- secular individualism dressed up with beads and feathers.
Perhaps we should take a pause on reading of such hubris and accept that what we cant conjure up with wishful thinking or by conning others we might have to earn by the honest sweat of our brow.
Tom Wagner brings the Lumper back to Ireland October 21, 2009
Posted by Graham in : General , add a commentWashington State plant breeder Tom Wagner of Tater-Mater visited Brown Envelope Seeds last weekend near Skibbereen to give a two-day workshop on breeding new varieties of tomatoes and potatoes.
This was a fascinating experience, and a great opportunity to learn some of the man’s great art. Tom has been breeding thousands of varieties of these vegetables over more than half a century, including the famous Green Zebra Tomatoes and specializing in varieties of potato that withstand late blight, as well as selecting for other qualities such as late frost resistance and keeping abilities for tomatoes and even potatoes that could be grown for their spectacular flowers, along with increased nutrients, flavour, texture and colour.
Blight resistance is the holy grail for potato growers in wetter parts of the world, and Tom has shown that by constant selection of resistant varieties grown from True Potato Seed (TPS) it is possible to keep ahead of the fungus.
Above: Tom collects tomato pollen
Tom has a large germplasm of potato varieties and True Potato seed and showed us how to sve the seed from the potato berries and discussed the genetics of potato breeding.
The course was attended by a posse from the Irish Seed savers Association as well as several more local gardenenrs and seed savers, so it was a great chance to catch up with old friends.
Tom showed numerous slides of his plots around Washington State and talked us through some of the plant breeding operations and seed saving, as well as practical demonstrations on hand pollination.
Quite unexpectedly, he had also a special event planned for this, his first visit to Ireland: Tom has a connection to this part of the world through his grandfather who came from the Isle of Mann and has retained this connection through his breeding work with the Lumper, the old variety which was grown extensively in Ireland through the famines of the 1840s and the one which succumbed to blight, wiping out much of the food of the Irish peasantry and resulting in the great famine.
It has been a dream of Tom’s to bring back improved, blight resistant varieties of the Lumper to Ireland, so on the Saturday we drove out to the Abbeystrewery famine graveyard near Skibbereen where Tom said a few words about the famine and then ceremoniously scattered some of the new seed on the graves of the 9000 famine victims buried there. It seemed a poignat and historic moment as we stood in the quiet and beautiful graveyard while Matteo of the ISSA played a lament on thie fiddle.
More on Tom and his amazing work here.
Many thanks to Madeline and Mike for hosting the event that is sure to usher in a new era in Ireland as the seed savers here become seed breeders and maybe we will even see a return of the Lumper.
Five Years On: Oil Price Sweepstake October 6, 2009
Posted by Graham in : Peak Oil, collapse , add a commentTom has just blogged here about a sweepstake he initiated five years ago with myself, Rob Hopkins, Tom’s partner Ruth and a couple of other friends.
We each made a prediction on what we thought the price of oil would be in five years time.
My first thought when Tom told me the five years was up was blimey doesnt time pass quickly, but oddly enough it actually seems a long time ago looking back on those dim and distant days of Peak Oil initiation and endless late night discussions about the end of the world.
Astonishingly, Peak Oil seems to have passed, most likely a year or so ago, and although it has probably played a role in precipitating the current economic collapse , the price at the pumps has hardly changed- in fact it has only gone up 14cents!
Ruth won the sweepstake with the most conservative etimate of just 2euros while yours truly was way out at 10 euros a litre! Which just goes to show you shouldnt believe a word I say (you know that already of course…)
La plus ca change as they say, but five years did seem like a long way into the future in those days when anything could happen. In reality, price is not such a good indicator anyway, because demand destruction as a result of economic collapse could keep it quite low even in much more challenging times than we have currently.
A better indicator would be how much we are able to actually afford; I confess that in those early days when peak oil awareness was still quite new, the possibility of shortages and rationing did not seem out of the question.
There is still a lot of oil left, and although we may have passed peak, there may be a while to go before the system collapses, although as Dmitri Orlov so poignantly says, collapse when it does happen will be an intensely personal affair.
Let us not forget that the understanding of peak oil has given us a lot of impetus to redouble our efforts at building resilience and personal preparedness- and we have all, I’m sure, come a long way on those counts in the past five years.
So many congrats to Ruth and now I know who to go for when I need advice in the futures markets!
