YOURMINDFIRE

2010-04-22T20:01:00.003+01:00

It was strange how right it felt, like we had turned a corner and started building the world we wanted. In the mornings Claire and I opened up the back doors to birdsong and the beautiful sound of absence from altitude. It was like a different sky, a bigger sky above us. Someone wrote to Claire saying that looking at the sky now was like looking at the sky in old landscape paintings. Inside

Diploma In Applied Permaculture Design

2010-01-29T17:33:00.005Z

I've decided to return my energies towards completing the Permaculture Diploma. Last weekend I attended a Diploma Induction Weekend, facilitated by Graham Burnett and Hannah Thorogood. It was a good reminder session/space for those "what about?" questions/and gave some structure to what had been for me a pretty loose set up.The next achievable (and important step) seems to be getting a regular

Human Ecology Writings

2010-01-07T20:58:00.007Z

The best of last year's human ecology writings are now up on scribd. Some of the formatting appears to be out - but the content is pretty much there.

Mend & Make Do to Save Buying New

2009-11-04T00:08:00.003Z

The MSc in Human Ecology is over, the thesis is written. Read it, or download it from, here:http://www.scribd.com/doc/22084827/Mend-Make-Do-to-Save-Buying-New-Decoding-Messages-of-Austerity-in-a-Consumer-Culture

Designed Visions

2009-09-25T15:42:00.002+01:00

After completing the Human Ecology dissertation I planned some downtime, instead.... I spent 8 days on a Permaculture Training of Teachers Course run by Naturewise and Designed Visions.

Claire White Gardens

2008-12-10T12:45:00.005Z

New site by Forest Garden designer Claire White:http://www.clairewhitegardens.co.uk/

Office Recycling

2008-03-07T12:54:00.003Z

I'm part of a group pushing "Green Issues" up the agenda where I work. We have had some success, but there's still a lot to do. I've created a new Collection on the London Permaculture Flickr site for issues to do with "waste?". One of the included Sets features photos and explanations of the recycling facilities in the offices of Amnesty International in Central London.The already

The Gift

2008-03-07T12:30:00.005Z

The GiftThe giftAnd the feeling behind the giftThe character of the givingThe process and actionWhich presented this gift.A dance around the questionOf selfishnessAnd selflessnessAn attempt to actIn a way which is ‘Right’To offer each action upAs some recompenseOr sacrificeFor my no doubt myriad other sins?Failures to take itTo stand where I amSpeak what I thinkNot lieNor circumventLook for easy

Facebook

2008-01-22T17:51:00.000Z

I’ve retreated from Facebook. Tom Hodgkinson’s article in The Guardian was the tipping point, but that just crystallised a number of thoughts I’d already been having. The fact that when I talked to friends who weren’t on Facebook they reminded me of me a couple of years ago before I finally relented and got a mobile phone – which made me think maybe I should have held out. Each one of these

Imagine No Possessions

2008-01-09T10:21:00.001Z

To Have Or To Be Erich Fromm Jonathan Cape, Great Britain, 1978 We've Had 100 Years Of Psychotherapy - And The World's Getting Worse James Hillman & Michael Ventura HarperCollins, USA, 1992 _______________________________________________________________ As the global situation deteriorates in the face of resource depletion, climate change and ecological destruction it is becoming

Wakey Wakey!!!

2007-03-29T17:11:00.000+01:00

Been a bit slack here of late, but active offline. Attended the first "Transition City London" event on Tuesday this week at the LARC (London Action Resource Centre) in Whitechapel.It's still hard to see how this would work on a city wide scale, especially in a city on the scale of London. A general feeling is that dividing the city by its boroughs would be an appropriate approach - which does

Orphic Trinity - Orphic Resonance

2007-03-02T13:54:00.001Z

Last night I attended the first of the Gaia Foundation’s 2007 evenings, this one with Brian Goodwin, leader of the MSc in Holistic Science at Schumacher college (and thus a close colleague of the previous speaker Stephan Harding’s whose talk I covered here). As you would expect there were many parallels with Stephan Harding’s talk, and both were based around new publications – in

An Inconvenient Truth

2007-03-01T15:56:00.000Z

Another tip from Keith, the full version of Al Gore's climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Watch it here by clicking above. Taken from the source on Daily Motion.(To good to be true (inconveniently) the producers would prefer you not to see this film for free I'm afraid. It's now been taken down) The official site for the film is here, and features more information including a

Sites for sore Is

2007-02-27T11:56:00.000Z

There’s been a slight site redesign, more forced on me than chosen by the “modernising” ethic of the new blogger… anyway that’s boring geekspeak, I’m falling asleep already myself. In the course of putting the site back together again I had to re-upload the banner links in the sidebar, and this seems a useful point to reflect on those:The Oil Depletion Protocol“A Plan for a Sensible Energy Future

Stop the War/Stop Trident March

2007-02-26T12:27:00.000Z

Slumming It

2007-02-22T13:23:00.000Z

"The city is our ark in which we might survive the environmental turmoil of the next century. Genuinely urban cities are the most environmentally efficient form of existing with nature that we possess because they can substitute public luxury for private or household consumption. They can square the circle between environmental sustainability and a decent standard of living. I mean, however big

Rethink Trident

2007-02-15T12:47:00.000Z

I’ve talked about this before – nuclear weapons are a nonsense. In the UK we have an opportunity again to call a halt to this madness. Let’s not replace Trident.Today the Compass Parliamentary Group launched RETHINK TRIDENT with a front page story in the Independent. This is what they have to say on the matter and how you can help: "The Government is proposing to replace the UK’s fleet of

Memories of romance

2007-02-05T13:05:00.000Z

Yesterday I walked over Golders Hill Park and Hampstead Heath to visit the Keats House, where the poet John Keats lived before leaving for Italy in an ultimately vain attempt to recover from tuberculosis. The disease had killed his mother and brother before him. Tuberculosis was known at the time as consumption or 'phthisis' from the Greek for wasting. When I reflect on the fact that he died aged

Weary of Time

2007-02-01T13:28:00.000Z

Last Sunday the Renoir Cinema had a screening of “Ah! Sunflower” a 1967 documentary on Allen Ginsberg in London originally shot for WDR Television in Germany (now available on DVD from The Picture Press). The screening was introduced and later discussed by the novelist psychogeographer Iain Sinclair who had participated in the films production. The programme also included some short films,

Art (not just) for Art's Sake

2007-01-25T12:45:00.000Z

Last year I read the revised edition of Suzi Gablik's 1984 book Has Modernism Failed which dealt quite a lot with how divorced from the "world" art was becoming in the 20th Century - disappearing up its own fundament in a post-modern frenzy of self-congratulation and self-flagellation.Well here we are in the 21st Century, I wonder if anything is different? I think there is a movement towards more

Call Me A Kaafir

2007-01-19T13:45:00.000Z

“The mother and father are your attachment to beliefs and blood ties and desires and comforting habits. Don't listen to them! They seem to protect, but they imprison. They are your worst enemies. They make you afraid of living in emptiness.”The Essential Rumi, translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyne (Harper, San Francisco, 1997) “I do not believe in Belief. But this is an Age of

In Barbarity There Are No Comparisons

2007-01-11T16:55:00.000Z

“I will say nothing about Nuremberg. In barbarity there are no comparisons. Whether it is here or there, it is all “here”.” Gandhi, Letter To Prema Kantak, October 16, 1946 In a ghoulish manner, but with an intellectual excuse to paste over my amorality I went on to YouTube last week found the full version of the Saddam execution and downloaded it (using firefox/greasemonkey) [I wont post

It is poverty to decide that a child must die

2007-01-09T11:52:00.000Z

“It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”Mother Theresa of Calcutta The “Money” section of Saturday’s Guardian newspaper had a half page article titled “The green revolution: Why wheat is luring the breadwinners” – which detailed how commodity dealers are taking advantage of the increase in global wheat prices. “After making millions from pumping up

A Day of Permacultural Fun

2007-01-05T21:52:00.000Z

Anybody out there in the London area thinking about Permaculture, but feeling they need to know a little more about it before committing to an Intro course or full Design course? Then this may be the event for you:A Day of Permacultural Fun* Ever wondered about Permaculture?* Wondering where to take your garden's design next?* Want to be more involved in active sustainable solutions in

Low Energy Computing?

2007-01-02T16:51:00.000Z

A couple of stories I saw today reminded me of the computer stuff I was going on about a while back. Sparked off by a Ran Prieur piece (Ran's site seems to be down in 2007 anyone know what's going on?).Andrew Brown has an anti-Vista broadside on the Guardian online site, indicating the continuing inefficiency, pointlessness and greed associated with software upgrades. The raft of subsequent

Do you want ice with that?

2006-12-19T11:34:00.000Z

Calculating future sea level rises seems to be an inexact science - there are just far too many variables - this however is not a reason for complacency - quite the opposite, when you cannot be sure of the degree to which an effect will manifest then you have to include the conceivable worse case scenario in your planning.The online version of the journal Science recently published an article

Together in Electric Dreams

2006-12-14T12:42:00.000Z

If we accept that we face a future of energy descent, and/or that our current profligate use of energy is contributing to global climate change (and I think we accept both right?) then we must use less energy. Using less - and ideas of reduction can be unappealing and hard ideas to sell. Most of us, even those of us who accept a need to use less energy would prefer to keep as many of the

The Great Escape

2006-12-12T16:27:00.000Z

A Trailer for Escape from Suburbia, Greg Greenes’s sequel/follow-up to The End of Suburbia is now available via YouTube/Google Video/BitTorrent and here! (The trailer can also be downloaded from their website, but this is a dis-preferred option as it increases their bandwidth costs). Escape from Suburbia is currently due for release in March 2007, you can put your name down to pre-order

Grizzly Men

2006-12-11T13:30:00.000Z

I’ve been a fan of Werner Herzog since some point in the 1980s when I saw Aguirre, Wrath of God on TV. I think it was during the great reign of Alex Cox on Moviedrome, when a stuck at home teenager could depend on a regular stream of the coolest, weirdest cult films coming out of the television (although on researching this it appears that Moviedrome never featured Aguirre!). Nowadays, the dvd

The Whole of our Efforts

2006-12-08T11:13:00.000Z

I got into an interesting debate this week in the comments section of Transition Culture. Rob posted a short entry on Wednesday titled “The Idiocy of Renewing Trident” where he reflects on how the £20 billion being pledged for renewal of the Trident nuclear missile system could be better spent on energy descent preparations. Jason Cole writing in response to Rob’s piece presents his

Animating the Earth

2006-12-07T13:09:00.000Z

One of the advantages of moving back to London this year has been the proximity and frequency of interesting events one could attend. In fact it can be overpowering at times and in fact lead to a profound inertia. Also it can be quite expensive, so it’s always good to find events that one is both interested in and which are free. All of which is a preamble to saying that after the Pugwash event

Climate Breakdown

2006-12-06T10:34:00.000Z

Yesterday I went to an event to a public discussion ‘Climate Breakdown: Can it Be Controlled? Can We Prevent it?” arranged by the Pugwash Group. Pugwash is an international movement of scientists and others with a professional concern about the social impact of science and seeking ways to prevent its misuse (They are named after the site of their first meeting the village of Pugwash in Nova

Playing the Margins

2006-12-05T13:05:00.000Z

"If the economy, and your place within it, is really important to you, you will be really hurt when it goes away. You can cultivate an attitude of studied indifference, but it has to be more than just a conceit. You have to develop the lifestyle and the habits and the physical stamina to back it up. It takes a lot of creativity and effort to put together a fulfilling existence on the margins of

Naturewise Permaculture Introduction Courses

2006-12-04T16:57:00.000Z

I know I posted only the other day about Naturewise Permaculture courses, but Nicole has just forwarded the Flyer for the Intro courses in an electronic form, so it seemed worthwhile to post again.Dates and Venues: Introductory weekends: Holland Park, 27/28 January; Hornsey Rise 31 March/1April, 28/29 April, 26/27 May, 30 June/1 July, 25/26 August. Full accredited Permaculture Design Course; 7

Polycultures, Rockets Stoves and Plot 21

2006-12-04T12:29:00.000Z

I went down the Naturewise Allotment - Plot 21, @ Alexandra Palace on Sunday. Thankfully despite predictions it was a clear day, unlike the rainy mudfest of my previous visit.Niels Corfield was visiting Plot 21 to talk about polycultures, and he also did a bit of practical tree pruning tuition for those of us there. Niels has a yahoo group Polyculture People for sharing and spreading knowledge

End of Suburbia

2006-11-28T15:24:00.000Z

Many of you will probably have already picked up that the documentary End of Suburbia is now available free to view on YouTube. I'm sure you'd rather watch it there, so the above is just a promo trailer.I personally am now rather looking forward to the sequel Escape from Suburbia. But I'd much rather see a UK based documentary looking at these issues and possible solutions. If we're going to take

Design for sustainable Living - Now!

2006-11-27T11:39:00.000Z

This weekend I completed my Permaculture Design Course, a fantastic experience. I met some really great people – those teaching on the course, people we met on various visits (including OrganicLea, Growing Communities, Wholewoods, Soteriologic) and those fellow travellers attending. I’d like to send out a big thank you to everybody, many new friendships have been formed over the last few weeks,

Climate Change March

2006-11-24T16:41:00.000Z

Just had my pictures from the Climate Change March processed. Above is the American Embassy, where it all began with speeches by George Monbiot, Caroline Lucas, Zach Goldsmith et al.Here are the marchers leaving Grosvenor Square, through the tiny corner exit.A bubble rising over Picadilly Circus.Watched from the sky, by the ever vigilant authorities!

Life in the Round

2006-11-23T17:20:00.000Z

Hot on the heels of my talk about “inhabited geometry” it was great to see these pictures of Tony Wrench’s roundhouse at Brithdir Mawr, which the ever alert Keith alerted me to. They are part of a series on housing and ways of life in the UK, so make a synchronous follow on from my recent musings.Keith, Helen and I are were privileged to meet Tony and visit his roundhouse early this year during

My attempt to engage with Web 2.0

2006-11-21T12:12:00.000Z

a.frappr_promo:hover img{width:209px;height:28px;}a.frappr_promo2:hover img{width:171px;height:28px;}a.frappr_promo3:hover img{width:28px;height:28px}a.frappr_pending:hover img{height:28px;width:178

The 5 Questions

2006-11-20T16:05:00.000Z

I’ve been reading a fair bit of Derrick Jensen’s work recently (as have my compadres Mark and Keith). It has been an interesting mind bath, that’s taken off some dirty thinking I’d missed earlier and revealed some sores that are sensitive to the hot water of his thought.Keith has had some interesting thoughts on Jensen and his attitudes towards religion (is his tarring of all faiths with one

SPAN, Lovely SPAN!

2006-11-20T11:35:00.000Z

Last Thursday lunchtime, Rebecca and I visited the new exhibition at RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects).The small exhibition is on the work of the architect Eric Lyons and his SPAN housing. Lyons wanted to integrate the natural environment, housing and communal spaces - in a vision of what we would now call 'sustainability'. According to a news item on the exhibition from the BBC

Our Daily Bread

2006-11-13T08:52:00.000Z

Another one of those stories that makes a paragraph on page 12 of your newspaper maybe and is written as a casual news piece with no bigger picture contextualisation: the price of bread. The price of bread, cereals, pasta, pastry and flour in the UK is rising as a result of a 10 year high in the cost of wheat ‘partly due to a drought in Australia’. Other causes pointed out here are ‘soaring

Castles Made of Sand

2006-11-10T12:45:00.000Z

As a long term fan of the airship, for their beauty and grace, their engagement with the ‘cruising’ element of travel – slow travel – if you will, I’m always pleased to hear about new developments promising their return to the skies.While I’m waiting for a Hindenburg scale helium dirigible, with restaurants, state rooms, ballrooms etc. built using the best of modern knowledge and materials (see

Engines of Indifference?

2006-11-10T10:19:00.000Z

For the first time in print, I’ve seen someone express how I feel about progress in computing – its from good old Ran Prieur in his November 9 entry, where he calls for an end to the wasteful use of processing power that’s become endemic: “The people who most want to save high tech are doing the most to crash it, by reaching for more and more candy instead of working to build the stability that

Got Democracy?

2006-11-09T09:31:00.000Z

As the dust begins to settle, and I reconnect with the news media after a period of ignoring it – I decided this morning to see what’s up with the US mid terms.Well it appears that the Republicans took a beating, and that Bush is now a ‘lame duck’ president as they say. My initial feeling about this was, great – now violent action against Iran will have to come off the timetable. I don't see any

Chasing the Perfect

2006-11-02T14:13:00.000Z

My thoughts of a while back on Modernism in architecture and elsewhere, were rekindled today when Keith forwarded on an article by Natalia Ilyin from Adbusters. In “The Birth of Modernism” Ilyin considers how the First World War impacted on the shape and style of Modernism. She makes a brief but strong case for how Modernism is an architectural style born out of fear rather than love – using

Round 'em Up

2006-10-31T15:57:00.000Z

Roundup of stuff time, Rob Hopkins has also posted about David Suzuki over at Transition Culture and made some interesting comments as ever, well worth a read. An unexpected guest speaker at my permaculture course this weekend was Donnachadh McCarthy , author of Saving the Planet Without Costing the Earth. He had a lot of interesting things to say. A couple of little practical ones: