Abi 1 February 2014
Tread lightly with Permaculture‌
by Abi Denyer-Bewick ! PDC, Page 1
Abi 1 February 2014
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Ideas for a more abundant future‌
Disclaimer - all efforts were made to find the owners of any pictures, they will not be used by me for any financial gain 
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The Beginning… Why did I decide Permaculture was for me?
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Early summer 2010 I went on a guided foraging walk near Seaford Head, it was a beautiful sunny day and we walked in silence some of the way to take in our surroundings. Anna Richardson was our knowledgable wild food expert and introduced us to many of the edible plants growing in the sussex countryside. Whilst we were chatting about food growing and industrial agriculture she mentioned a book The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Hartmann. Little did I know that this book would provide answers and insights to many of the issues I had given thought to since I was a child. The blurb reads “Humans the world over are confronting difficult choices about who to create a future that works. Thom Hartmann proposes that the only lasting solution to the crises we face is to relearn the lessons our ancient ancestors knew - those which allowed them to live sustainably for hundreds of thousands of years - but which we’ve forgotten.” I read the book twice in 2010, once at home and once whilst travelling in India - in India, where many more ancient traditions make up everyday life, the book really came to life and I felt very strongly that as a human race we needed to face up to the fact that the way we are living on our beautiful planet is hugely destructive. This book introduced me another -Ecopsychology edited by Theodore Roszak and from there the work of Joanna Macy and Permaculture. “The anguish we feel for what is happening is inevitable and normal and even healthy. Pain is very useful. Because if we are afraid to feel that, we won’t feel
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where it comes from and where it comes from is love, our love for this world. That’s what is going to pull us through.” Joanna Macy Permaculture was like a light at the end of a dark tunnel of despair and hopelessness. The idea that there were people sharing their experiences and skills to design ways of living in the future filled me with hope and a sense of purpose, to work for future generations. Nothing’s gonna get any better if you don’t have a little hope, if you don’t have a little love in your soul. nothings gonna get any better if your drowning in your fear, if you got nothing but sorrow in your soul Forgiveness by Girls
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Permaculture Design Course Day 1
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! ! ! ! ! LEARNING STYLES / POSITIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCE Journal‌ Had an amazing day. It was great to start the course with the focus on how we learn best and considering our individual learning styles, really interesting that no one was an auditory learner. From the Vak learning styles quiz I identified strongly as a kinaesthetic learner. This definitely made sense to me, especially when it comes to my ability to recall information about how to do something. This will be much more successful if it is something I have actually done rather than read about or heard about. It feels as though I will really benefit from having a learning strategy as I can sometimes focus on my weaknesses and being dyspraxic I get easily overwhelmed once I receive a lot of information.
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Designing a great course… Learning from a less positive experience! Another course recently completed but frequently moaned about! SURVEY - environment felt unsafe and unpredictable with boundaries and expectations continuously moving around ANALYSIS - In experienced facilitators pretending to be experienced. Too much ego and a lack of self awareness, personal authenticity and responsibility were lacking. It would have been better with a more receptive space to give feedback (apply self regulation and accept feedback) clearly defined roles, to allow people to develop appropriate boundaries. DESIGN - A great learning experience for me would involve open channels of communication, attitudes of non-judgment and acceptance. Clear vision, criteria and outcomes. Safe space holding.
My Learning Strategy… Taking the information from the mini design around what hasn’t worked for me and what I value, also considering my dominant learning style. My strategy looks like this.
SURVEY Strategies that I use to learn - note writing, mind maps, non linear writing, doodling, trying things out, highlighting things I read Strategies I could use include speaking whilst others write, watching TED talks, you tube videos, social media engagement, use drawings or symbols on big pieces of paper, adopt a practice of writing reflection immediately after an activity, even if it’s just a few words.
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ANALYSIS How are the potential new strategies useful… Strengths - I retain things better if I have been actively involved in doing them. If i have experienced something it is easier to find ways of saying it in my own words. Watching and listening to talks gives a wider picture of issues, perhaps with evocative images that stick in my mind more readily than just reading Weaknesses - the reality of the discipline it takes to always write reflectively is quite huge. I am not always the first person to step forward to try stuff or demo stuff even though I know I will gain a lot from it. In the past I have made notes and then never looked at them again. Opportunities - Really designing these strategies gives the opportunity to try something different, rather than all the methods tried previously that haven’t worked most often. Each of these strategies open up learning to be more of an PDC, Page 6
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interactive experience, with others on the course but also through social media networks Challenges - the greatest challenge is to actually change techniques!
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Best to keep this in mind then - "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
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DESIGN ACTIONS - I will incorporate a mixture of styles into my learning, making use of taking pictures, sharing note taking responsibilities and I make a promise to myself that I will act quicker and trust my intuition if I feel that doing things in a different way will be more effective, even when it feels quite scary
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IMPLEMENT/MAINTAIN I will begin to bring these new ideas into practice throughout the course. I will celebrate successes of any new strategies, and remember to use them in the future as then they will no longer be new!
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MY ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT Completing my ecological footprint calculation was quite eye opening and really got me thinking about the small changes that I can make that will absolutely make a difference. Given that if everyone lived how we do in the UK we would need three planets to support us there was definitely some work to do with my requirement of 4.6 planets. I would like to reduce my ecological footprint by half at least, and I guess ideally it would be so that we don’t need more than our 1 planet. I decided to complete the chart again to see if the small changes we have made have had an impact. Below is a table of comparisons
Ecofootprint Areas
September 2013
February 2014
Home and Energy
27%
27%
Transport
17%
17%
Food
23%
23%
Goods
14%
14%
Government
7%
7%
Capital Assets
4%
4%
Services
9%
9%
Total no. of planets required
4.6
2.7
Ecological Footprint
8.3 GHA
4.9 GHA
Carbon Emission
21 tonnes
11.2 tonnes
Really interesting results, with the totals being halved but the percentages staying the same. I am also aware of unusual events in the last 12 months that will have skewed both sets of results - for example flying twice in one year is something that I’ve not done before. CHANGES Much greater awareness of materials with regard to waste, before making any purchases just stopping to think - where will this material end up, can it be recycled or reused. Also we have changed how often we flush the toliet so are saving on water and have reduced baths to twice a week (challenging in the winter) or 3 maximum and always shared. Another change has been finishing a job that required me to drive 60 miles a week so working more locally has improved this. Since the start of 2014 we have also
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committed to not shopping in Supermarkets. We have also swapped our veg box for a farm that is closer to home. The garden is currently ready for planting this Spring and we are hoping to grow more of our food this year than the previous 2 years.
MY DESIGN PROJECT… My ideas at this stage were all over the place - from redesigning how I use my time and space at home, the management structure of Synergy, design of my new office space in the summer house, tools to use with clients in one to one consultations, forest garden area at home, extension to Dyke Road Community Garden. So lots of ideas. In relation to my ecological footprint…… Growing more of my own food would be an improvement, more food available locally through community gardens. Creating the right environment at home - time space and summer house may lead to me being more productive without travelling. Current ideas don’t address the most significant areas that need to change - further action plans required even if they’re not the design I choose. It is great to see from the February calculations that things have already changed. Keep it up!
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Designer Lunch
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SURVEY What did you bring for lunch? Mung soup - part of a 10 day Mung Bean fast on a Ayurvedic Diet What did you notice about lunch? There was quite a lot of bread based items on the table. There was also a lot of homemade food, including some of the bread. It was clear that a lot of thought and love had gone into the food preparation. ANALYSE In what ways did lunch meet the permaculture ethics of earth care, people care and fare shares?
Earth care - some food was homegrown and organic, shop bought organic, people had used reusable containers to transport their food and there wasn't too much of anything. Lots of the food was seasonal. People care - some food was labelled to help people with restricted diets or food intolerances. The things that were homemade were made with care and love Fair shares - everything was being shared between everyone. Much of the organic produce had been bought locally from food co-op or farmers market. In what ways did lunch not meet the permaculture ethics? Some items the supermarket not all organic. things were in portions and difficult to between the group. A things were not making it more assess for everyone.
were from and it was Some very small were more share whole number of labelled difficult to suitability
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DESIGN How could lunch be done differently so that it would meet all three ethics? With a bit of team planning there could be a range of food challenges for the group to meet. We could also avoid having so much of the same thing if we liaised beforehand about who was bringing what. Perhaps each home group could take it in turns to be responsible for food on different weekends.
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We did set ourselves food challenges - food from as close as possible to where we live, and food that we have come by for free. These experiments were a lot of fun and challenging in some places. It was great to come together as a home group and see how our random selection of ingredients could come together to form a delicious meal. We were at an advantage doing this in the late Autumn when many seasonal vegetables are available in abundance.
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Day 2
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Food growing on a small scale!!
Where in the world does my food come from?
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Zones 0 to 6! 0 = Home! 1 = Urban! 2 = Peri Urban! 3 = Rural (100 miles)! 4 = UK! 5 = Europe! 6 = World!
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When I first carried out this exercise and completed my food diary I had been doing the mung bean fast - which mainly consisted of eating mung beans (!!) with Indian spices, some rice and a variety of vegetables. This resulted in zone 6 being quite dominant with India and China being the main sources for flavours, beans and rice but with all the vegetables being either grown on local farms or foraged locally or grown in my garden. This did cause me to reflect on how much I like to eat food flavoured with spices, how many meals feature rice or quinoa. It caused me to not only think about my own consumption but the responsibility I have when making dietary recommendations to my clients. It has often struck me how the most popular “health foods” and “superfoods” are coming from the other side of the world and it is very easier to see them only in light of their health benefits rather than considering how they are farmed or how many food miles are involved. Recently I was reading about coconut palm sugar, frequently discussed as a useful sugar substitute, the truth is that coconut palm sugar destroys the tree’s ability to produce coconuts and actually it is only another source of fructose. Never mind the fact that coconuts certainly don’t grow on trees anywhere near here!
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FOOD ACTION PLAN DESIGN Given what I learnt from the zoning exercise, which may not have been an atypical week but nevertheless drew my attention to my use of foods from far away places. My action plan is to focus on these areas and look at what seasonal local alternatives are available THE SWITCH LIST
Tofu
Locally sourced fish (Catchbox)
Brown Basmati Rice
Root vegetables - swede, carrot, potato, squash
Mung Beans
Sprouting homegrown/saved beans such as peas or borlotti beans
Indian Spices
Herbs from the garden, research wider selection
Quinoa
Root vegetables - swede, carrot, potato, squash or buckwheat groats
Coconut Oil
Local organic butter/ghee or water
Herbal teas/Green tea
Herbs from the garden/park More homegrown
As a general ongoing ambition I would like to gain more confidence and experience in growing my own food this year, further increasing my resilience. One way in which I hope to do this is volunteering at the Brighton Permaculture Trust plot once a month this is realistic with work and would also help with my own self care and needs to be working with my hands and working outside. Our local food lunch worked out well and there was a delicious variety of foods, highlighting just what can be found in Sussex. A common thing that was commented on was the use of flavours and seasonings, how difficult it was to get these locally. We were certainly all thinking more seasonally by the end of the experiment!
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INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE VS PERMACULTURE
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How sustainable is industrial agricultures management of ecological resources? When considering the differences between permaculture and industrial agriculture, the most striking difference seemed to be the focus on the short term for industrial agriculture. One example of this that I observed in California last May was the huge industrial agricultural area of the San Joaquin Valley which is now suffering the effects of a severe drought. It was clear that soil erosion was a problem, monoculture crops were the norm and there was a thick haze of chemicals in the air through many areas. Unsustainable management
Sustainable Management
Soil erosion
Soil enhancement/Compost schemes LOCAL
Animal feed
Animals to eat human food waste COUNTRY
Ugly fruit wastage/
increase awareness/education/policy LOCAL/ PERSONAL/COUNTRY
Wasted surplus fruit and veg on farms
Gleaning networks/food waste action groups LOCAL
Air/ pollution / pesticides
Tax on air fuel/ education/ health COUNTRY
Using the example of wasted food produced on farms and the sustainable management solution being the gleaning network ,and food waste action teams.
! “When we address the microcosm of the eating experience, we extend out into the macrocosm of who we are as human beings and further into our interrelationships,our social networks, and even how we can change the planet by being more aware� Dr Deanna Minich
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HOW DOES THIS SOLUTION MEET THE PERMACULTURE ETHICS? Earth care - as a result of this technique meeting the fair share ethic, demand on the land is lessened and the more food that is produced and then used the need for the land to work hard again is also reduced. People care - surplus food can be used by food banks or charities helping to address the rise in food poverty and giving people access to fresh seasonal food. The activity of volunteering to be part of these groups can provide people with valuable skills and a greater sense of community Fair share - Gleaning and sharing surplus foods is all about the fair share ethic with good food that was going to be wasted, instead being used for good causes and shared fairly amongst people who may not otherwise have access to it.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Feeding the 5000: St Luke’s Prestonville, Brighton SURVEY SURVEY Given the exciting blank canvas of St Luke’s Church the client brief was to create a space to be used by the whole community, people in the local area as well as church goers. The church required a larger food growing area which would ideally be quite low maintenance. They would like the quality and fertility of the soil to be improved. The rubbish bins close to the church were sometimes a problem. Coming up in the near future was a harvest festival where some of these ideas could be shared with the community. We were given the south and south east facing side of the church to apply our design.
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Our observations indicated that the resources that we had available to us were ÂŁ1000, community compost bins, the outside sign projector, guttering, recycled rubbish and other reusable items around the rubbish bins, trees already planted, heat from the building, and the walls for things to climb or be attached to. ANALYSIS Looking at the micro climate we identified that our area had lots of sun due to its south and south east facing aspect. The long south facing side gets the most sun, with minimal frost. Most of the wind is right on the corner and water comes off of the roof. The challenges we are trying to address in our design are to make something beautiful in an area that is currently not in use, one of the challenges is the lack of soil although there is compost available for food growing. Another challenge is the rubbish bins, they are often over full and rubbish is often left on the side of the church. Can our design make creative use of this challenge in some way? The design is also trying to bring the community together and provide some green space in an urban environment. Analysis looking at the principles being used showed that some are being used with the current situation.
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Currently in use at St Luke’s Church
Permaculture Principle Met
Community Compost Site
Catch and store energy - making compost Produce no waste - making compost Use edges and value the marginal - positioning of the compost bins
Secure Bike Posts
Integrate rather than segregate - catering for range of people in the community Use and value diversity - value those people who use the church and cycle
Olive trees in large planters
Use edges and value the marginal - siting of the trees at the outside edge of the south facing side of the church Obtain a yield - one day there might be olives to eat!!
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Our redesign of the garden attempted to use as many of the permaculture principles as possible. The table below shows what this looks like Principle
Design idea
Observe and Interact Catch and Store Energy
Setting up rainwater harvesting from the gutters and drain pipes Making use of the community compost for growing Improve the fertility of the soil by sheet mulching Make use of peoples energy in the community
Obtain a yield
Community relationships are built through working together Growing food
Apply self regulation and accept feedback
Community engagement workshop Regular evaluation of what is working and what needs changing Sharing the harvest, what do people want to see growing
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Principle
Design idea
Use and value renewable resources and
Volunteers of all ages with a range of skills and experience are involved Making use of donated and recycled materials in local area Use of community compost
services
Produce no waste
Make use of materials left by the bins or for recycling Compost food/tea and coffee waste in the church
Design from patterns to details
Community engagement process, looking at the whole space and what people want to use it for before breaking it down into separate areas
Integrate rather than segregate
Provide accessible boxes for inclusion of all ages and abilities Wild flower garden for children
Use small and slow solutions
planting more fruit trees for a long term harvest
Use and value diversity
Positioning of different types of plants where they will grow best Fix bird and bat boxes high up the walls to encourage a bio diversity Engage with the community to find out who has particular skills with growing and building
Use edges and value the marginal
Making use of the walls to grow things. The south facing side is the edge of the church Create a greenhouse structure out of recycled plastic around the bin area
Creatively use and respond to change
Continue to consult the local and church community to accomodate changing needs and desires
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DAY 3
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Food - Broad scale food growing
Journal‌ Wow we are nothing without the soil, amazing to really learn about the world beneath our feet. So many similarities with human gut microflora, without the right balance of microbes communication throughout different systems in the body can break down, resulting in health problems. The situation felt similar in the forest environment. I especially love the fact that trees are talking to each other via underground networks of mycorrhizal fungi. It really brought the forest alive and highlighted our interconnection with our environment.
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What solutions does permaculture offer for large scale food growing? Journal‌ Today I felt like I was being introduced to powerful knowledge which has the potential to feed the planet and move beyond the idea of sustainability and instead replenish and rebuild. Exciting stuff! Moving from growing food in small spaces to thinking about large scale food production was presented as entirely realistic, rather than the common view that organic cannot feed the world or that permaculture cannot work on a large scale. It was great to understand how soil erosion can occur and also ways in which we can design to avoid this from happening. I felt quite challenged by the drawing and some of the technological info from today but by engaging actively with it I could bring it my best. I was mindful to ask questions of others and not be afraid to say that I struggled with conceptual stuff sometimes, rather than sink into the background.
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Working with the A frames in the orchard made much more sense to me of contours than drawing maps, so important for me to be doing things if I really want to learn them!
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! ! Since learning about the importance of soil I have taken sheet mulching and chicken tractoring very seriously! Coming into the Spring both beds in the garden are ready for a super successful food growing year. It is clear that in a garden the size of mine the potential for growing a lot of food is huge. I am inspired!
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DAY 4 People, You and Groups
Wowo Camping weekend‌
Ecological Succession applied to working in groups I identified Synergy Creative Community where I run the food project as a group that I work with and they seemed mostly to identify as a young woodland moving towards a mature woodland In the group at this stage there is quite a solid foundation with a management committee and key facilitators, there are also a number of important beneficial connections between outside groups. There are a number of volunteers stepping up into more facilitator roles and leading sessions. The group changes size regularly with people coming and going, taking more of a leading role or stepping back. The group has a very organic feel to how things work. As a peer led community decisions are made with agreement from everyone. PHASE
CHARACTERISTICS
TASKS
Pioneering phase (bare soil?
Introducing each other and establishing processes for communication. Planting ideas. Enthusiastic vision sharing. Identifying skills and contributors
Sharing roles and responsibilities. Meetings, visions, sharing shortcomings/ hopes/fears/concerns
Developed/ evolved group dynamics. New members joining and developing roles and responsibilities. Holistic management of the group consideration of all needs
Observations noted/ survey and review. Readiness to flow with new ideas. Maintain an effective system of communication
Bonded, clear strength and resilience. Long term view. Results/yields. Fulfilment, energy and satisfaction
Adapt and change, maintain and evaluate, with constant reflection on how we can further improve resilience
grass and herbaceous)
Differentiation phase (scrub and young woodland)
Integrative phase (mature and dynamic)
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Journal‌ I found this a really interesting way to think about the development of Synergy and found it useful when thinking about the potential design project of reorganising Synergy, in fact one of the most useful ways in which I felt it could be used was backwards, thinking about what the group could become and what would be required to get us there.
Applying permaculture design to our home group‌ Survey
All of our group were very embarrassed to claim high level skills in anything, even when it was something they did professionally, this was the main thing we all had in common! Once we got over ourselves we noticed that one of the things we had in common was all being quite good organisers and supporters and that we had a good balance of initiators and supporters. What particular learning needs do people have in your group? We discussed English as a second language and some of the challenges around this. The group member for whom this was difficult took care of the need by using a dictaphone to ensure she was able to listen back to anything she had missed. We discussed how we could best support this challenge when it came to sharing things with the whole group. By offering time to practice speaking out loud in our home group. I shared how sometimes I struggle with organising information and can take a while to understand things due to being dyspraxic. It was decided that I was to ask more if I didn't understand things and with others patience and understanding it felt really good to be honest about what I needed. We also spoke about finding time to meet up a pruned working full time
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When we looked at our team roles it was interesting that we covered the whole range, (each of us scoring high on two each) between the four of us except the plant! So it seemed we all needed to focus our energy on coming up with creative ideas and solutions to problems. It was interesting to note that we had such an equal spread of dominant roles as we felt as though we were functioning well as a group and had been enjoying working with each other.
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ANALYSIS
Earth care - careful consideration of where we meet and sharing resources between us in our group People care - preparation for when someone is not going to make the weekend, how do we take notes for them and get the information to them Fair shares - share responsibility for what we can all do a bit of, for example note taking or sharing the vital info from the link work videos and reading.
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Reflection on how the our group - it feels as busy timetables could to meet the ethics as we could do it suggest. to meet up between resources may not think we would all like other and support each our current timetables
ethics may not be met in though our individual result in us not being able fully as our ideas for how For example finding time sessions to share actually be possible. I to hang out with each others projects more than allow for.
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Analysis of home group Strengths
Weaknesses
Locality/ IT capable, complimentary and a
We are all very busy outside of the course and when we looked at our timetables there were clashes making meeting up in person outside of the course challenging.
broad range of skills between us, enthusiasm and willingness to listen to others ideas Action focused and an ability to identify and make beneficial connections. Similar reasons for coming to the course
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According to Belbins roles we were lacking a “plant� suggesting we may lack ideas! We scored highly between us on the people oriented roles and action oriented roles but not so high on the cerebral roles
To reduce the effects of the weaknesses we decided to use email and text communication as much as possible rather than meeting. We also agreed to check in with each other at the start of course days to see how we could best support each other. According to Belbins quiz I identified most strongly as a Co-ordinator and a Resource Investigator. This was quite interesting as they are not necessarily roles I would naturally place myself in, although over the last couple of years, particularly since facilitating the food project at Synergy and co-ordinating events in the community garden my confidence in co-ordinating has definitely increased. I would probably have suggested myself as more of a team worker or plant as I feel I work well with other people and also have an abundance of ideas - some that I never follow through with!
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Although we thought of a lack of plant as a possible weakness of our group it also seemed to represent us well to be people and action oriented, suggesting that as a group we could get stuff done. Exciting!!
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WORKING WITH GROUPS
Tools
How do they help groups?
When are they appropriate?
Think and Listen (use of 4
Allows everyone to have their say without interruption
For personal sharing, checking in, when people are quiet
Talking Stick
Individual ideas can be heard when people are free to speak and express themselves. Avoid people speaking all at the same time
Can help problem solving, can help to build trust and strengthen relationships between prop members
Movement and Play
Shake up energy
After long periods of sitting, after lunch, after serious head concentration
Fair Shares - no one speaks
Allows everyone to have their say, gentle encouragement for people who otherwise may not speak
When consensus is needed from the whole group, to keep the balance between people who speak a lot and those who don’t say much
“I” statements
Help to avoid judgment or blame if individuals own what they are saying
When discussing potentially sensitive subjects
Check in - thumbs up
People care / expressing with body may be more comfortable than speaking out about how someone is
Start of a session with a group to help gauge energy and mood. After breaks and at end of the session
SWOT/SWOC - Strengths,
Bring focus rather than endless To evaluate observations made discussion. by groups, to inform decision making processes
questions)
twice until everyone has spoken once
Weaknesses, Opportunities, Challenges PMI - Plus, Minus, Interesting
Bring focus. Helps to keep discussions neutral and objective
A useful analysis tool to help make decisions over resources, ideas.
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Tools
How do they help groups?
When are they appropriate?
6 thinking hats - Edward De
Help people to think in ways that may not come naturally to them. Draw out all possible information in an organised fashion
When faced with complex decisions that need to be focused
Bono
Silence
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Allows for a quiet reflective When considering complex space. People can access ideas ideas. After a period of active from a deeper place conversation
The tools that I think might be most useful when problems occur in a group would be the ones that allow the space for people to express themselves fully without interruption. This includes speak and listen, the talking stick, I statements and silence. These techniques help groups to listen to each other. Using some of the more objective tools may help if a conflict risks getting personal, PMI would help to regain some neutrality in a difficult situation, a change of physical environment such as switching seats or going outside can also help to dissipate stuck energies.
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Home Group Design DESIGN
1.Observe and Interact – Process of paying attention to each others needs and providing guidelines for effective communication. 2. Catch and Store Energy – Make the most of the opportunities when we are together, arriving early to check in with each other on course days. 3. Obtain a yield – Friendship and like minded support on projects, to continue beyond the course. 4. Apply Self Regulation and Accept Feedback – Through regularly checking in we are informed of what is working and how to meet each others
changing needs. 5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services - Plans to share books between us, sending email links to interesting permaculture topics. Contacting each other regarding materials we might need or have seen somewhere (skips/freecycle etc). Awareness of how our individual skills can support each other.
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6. Produce No Waste – Use of home group to initiate sharing items, e.g. streetbank or clothes swaps. Share responsibilities for tasks so no individual wastes energy. 7. Design From Patterns to Details – Our plans all evolved once we had looked at each others weekly commitments outside of the course, bringing it down to the level of detail after looking at the bigger picture. 8. Integrate Rather Than Segregate – We plan to share contacts and connections to widen the network of people making things happen, our home group is useful place for this to begin. 9. Use Small and Slow Solutions – Value doing what we can if meeting up is not possible, use of email, text and phone. 10. Use and Value Diversity – Range of methods via which we can communicate, email, text, phone, through schoology. Sharing the variety of cultural backgrounds and experiences that we have to learn more. 11. Use Edges and Value the Marginal - Consideration of how we continue our relationships beyond the end of the course and support outside projects. 12. Creatively Use and Respond to Change – A readiness to keep observing and be ready to evolve how we are working in response to changing needs.
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IMPLEMENT When might we be able to meet? Thursday and Friday evenings were identified as possible evenings that could work for all 4 of us but not every week. The reality of this was that it didn’t happen at all! Where can we meet? Looking at all of our locations, it was decided that my house was the most central for everyone and we could meet in the summer house and share food together. How are we going to stay in touch with each other? Via text and email, we exchanged details and decided to ensure that our email communication included separate subject titles to avoid long threads of emails where info can easily be lost How can we best support each other during the course? We came up with a plan of how to support a group member who was going to miss one session. We agreed to meet at the start of that day to work out who would take notes, handouts and plan to update the missing member before the next session
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MAINTAIN
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HOW WILL WE KNOW WHETHER THE GROUP HAS BEEN EFFECTIVE? maintaining relationships beyond the course is so far working out well with regular contact between members of the group and open communication about potential for meeting up or supporting each others projects. It would be useful and interesting to ask all members whether they have felt supported through the course by each other and what could have been done differently to enhance the experience of working together. Using the 4 questions would be a good tool for assessing this. Journal…
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My experience of working with the home group has been entirely positive, except for not having enough time to hang out with each other more often!! I am hopeful supportive relationships will be maintained into the future, as a whole group we have plans to meet up every couple of months around each others birthdays. Thinking about the 4 questions
What’s going well? Relationships formed feel authentic and supportive What’s not going well? we are all busy with work and families and find it hard to find space for each other Vision? Bi-monthly meet ups and involvement in each others community projects, even if just a space to share ideas if not physically available Next Steps? Get a set of dates out there for people to agree, maintain email contact regarding projects, events that provide opportunity for meeting up.
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DAY 5 People - Community
Journal‌ The focus on community was one of my key areas of interest in doing the course and it was great to spend some time researching all the possible different ways of living in community. Through considerations about how to live over the years I have often swung between wanting to run away to somewhere beautiful and sunny and live in a teepee with like hearted individuals and then (with the knowledge that there is no way that this would be as perfect as it is in my head) acknowledging that I’m actually really happy living in an urban environment currently and life is enhanced further through community connections and activities occurring locally. Recently I was part of a connected living weekend in the Forest of Dean, where we lived and worked in community for the weekend and had a workshop about what was meant by connected living, sharing peoples experiences of what has worked and what has not and why there was such a strong desire to live in closer connection to each other and to nature. Out of these discussions one community that was frequently mentioned and now has some links in Sussex was the community of Tamera in Portugal. One of the appealing things about this community, from what friends who have visited have told me and the research I did, is that it is looking at itself as a model for what is possible across the world rather than being an utopia hiding place for like minded people! It is also very action focused and appears to encompass all aspects of humanity in harmony with nature. The Terra Nova Sundays that are coming up in Sussex this year are exploring themes set by Tamera and really creating beneficial connections and true community. Somehow this seems to balance my ideal and my reality therefore it is the project I identified as ideal.
Ten Years From Now‌ Using OBREDIM as a design process (Observe, Boundaries, Resources, Evaluate, Design, Implement, Maintain) I will be 45 years old!!!!!!! I will be living in a transition town/village - hope we all will, this will be normal!
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Observations within the community - that there are still differences of opinion and conflicts need to be resolved, there is safety and trust between people, many material objects are shared amongst people, childcare is a shared responsibility, local currency supports local economy, time banks and skill swaps are normal ways of trading. The resources that are available within the community are people skills, rain water, homegrown food, seed swapping, shared tools and vehicles, sustainably managed woodland.
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The strengths of the available resources are that through sharing there is less need for a money based economy, the community meets the permaculture ethics of people care, earth care and fair shares by using resources in this way. The weaknesses are that there may be certain vital skills lacking within any community, requiring outside expert help, some tools and vehicles may still be dependent on oil ultimately reducing resilience.
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Working on the combined vision of our ideal community‌
Ethics
How are they met in the fictional community?
Earth care
Rainwater filtration, organic food growing, reed bed waste water treatment, meeting own energy needs through wind and solar, make do and mend to reduce wastage
People Care
Seasonal community celebrations, co parenting, urban community connections, education, community decision making, valuing diversity of experience and background
Fair Shares
Food share events, tool and vehicle shares, time banking, skill swaps, running courses on low impact living
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How are the permaculture principles met in designing the community?
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Observe and Interact – thorough research into communities and connected living, observing what is working and what is not working for other people Catch and Store Energy – solar energy, rainwater harvesting, composting Obtain a yield – health, happiness, food, energy, interconnection with other beings Apply Self Regulation and Accept Feedback – regular community meetings, democratic decision making, no hierarchy Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services - make do and mend cafe, skill sharing, trading, reed bed system Produce No Waste – upcycling and reusing materials, composting, Design From Patterns to Details – look at seasonal patterns to inform food growing, seasonal celebrations, create webs of interconnections, community meetings and communications Integrate Rather Than Segregate – education, courses, festivals Use Small and Slow Solutions – preserving food, making compost, water filtration system Use and Value Diversity – skills, wildlife habitats and biodiversity Use Edges and Value the Marginal - connections to local urban communities and farms bordering land Creatively Use and Respond to Change – community people management, decision making, working with the seasons and natural cycles
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Personal Design Project
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My ideas at day 5 were still very much ideas, and I wanted to pursue all of them, and I was finding it really hard to prioritise as in different moments they all seemed as important as each other. So doing this exercise was really useful to clarify and explore things from different angles. It reminded me of the six thinking hats exercise as a way of making decisions.
! How much I want to do the designs… ! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
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Life/home organisation or NFC tool kit Plans for St Luke's community garden Forest garden Community garden extension Dyke Road Park Organisational structure for Synergy
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It was interesting to go through this process and pick apart the want from the feeling of I should, or this would be the best thing because it needs to happen to keep other people happy. It helped me to really define that want was about something that made me excited, something that encapsulated some of my most important values and something that impacted my life everyday. At least this process helped me to get two joint things at the top!! These also came out of a recent decision that zone 00 really needed some attention.
! How important it is to do the design‌ ! 1 Life home organisation 2 NFC tool kit 3 Forest garden 4 St Luke's community garden 5 Community garden extension 6 Organisational structure of Synergy
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Using the zone 00 needs as a starting point, it clearly left points 1 and 2 as highest priority. Getting suitable systems in place to run home and business more effectively and to improve how I manage my time. At this point the life home organisation began to look more like a whole project than 1 small design and it really needed the input the whole household. This again moved the NFC tool kit to the top of the list.
! How much it addresses your ecological footprint? ! 1 Life/home organisation 2 Forest garden 3 St Luke's community garden 4 Community garden extension Dyke Road Park 5 NFC toolkit 6 Organisational structure of Synergy
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Addressing the running of my day to day life and how things work in my home environment would have some impact on my ecological footprint. Immediate guilt suggests this isn't where my current passion lies so much though!! So again an interesting exercise to help me prioritise. Any of the garden designs helped with building local community connections and food resilience through growing my own and growing in the local neighbourhood. Although there was no immediate link to the ecological footprint with the NFC toolkit design, there is an element of empowering other people to think about their health and take responsibility for their food choices
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and all the potential impacts they might have. This seems slightly less relevant given that my main area for improvement on the calculator was around the house.
! How many people need to be involved in the design? !
1 NFC -mainly me 2 Life/home - myself and rich 3 Forest garden - myself and rich and maybe more courses and expertise! 4 St Luke's garden - Prestonville community plus other volunteers 5 Dyke Road Park Community Garden - Prestonville community plus other volunteers 6 Organisational structure of Synergy - 6 members of management committee, 3 lead facilitators
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Concluded that the most straightforward plan given the time restraints would be to focus on the design that could be worked on mostly by me.
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Looking at the patterns that emerged from this exercise, it was decided that my design project would be to design a range of tools for one to one consultations.
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Where next?
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SURVEY find out from clients what is working for them, research theories of behavioural change ANALYSE learn from info what works well and what doesn't , identify patterns and areas to work on DESIGN different range of things to use with clients, prior to consultation, during consultation and between sessions IMPLEMENT decide a staged approach with which to introduce new ideas, a timescale with all areas of development broken down MAINTAIN create ways to evaluate progress and to receive feedback from clients.
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DAY 6 Time And Money Survey
How do you spend your time? Most of my time is spent working or sleeping, or thinking about work. A recent audit of number of hours worked in a week showed it to be 57. This is not just a perception thing then! Time is also spent transitioning between 1 work and another work. Something that happens with poly income streams I think. How do you earn your money? One to one consultations Yoga teaching Facilitating food project with Synergy How do you spend your money? Most of my earnings go on the mortgage, then secondly food, courses, workshops, petrol, yoga and exercise and therapies, and sometime holidays and clothes.
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Summary of my presentation In my presentation I focused in what we actually mean by the idea of work, this came up during keeping the audit of my time and money. Is work happening when I'm under pressure and obligation to do something for money, is work anything that is not sleeping? Is work always paid. I often feel that the boundaries are very blurred because I will happily spend leisure time reading work related things for example. Through this reflection I realised that I held some quite distorted beliefs about work - that it had to equal suffering in some way, and that if I was enjoying myself or relaxed it meant that I wasn't working hard enough!!!! Helped me to see that it is these types of beliefs that underpin my tendency to overwork and always think I haven't done enough.
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I also looked at how I used my time in relation to my nervous system, which branch is dominant - sympathetic or parasympathetic? So I split my activities depending on which branch they fell under. It is thought that for optimum health and to help manage stress we need to have a split of 50:50. According to the weekly audit that was used my sympathetic nervous system was dominant 63% of the time and parasympathetic was dominant 37% of the time. So there is a need for some more down time!
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Through how I use my money and time I am meeting most of basic needs, with eating well and getting enough sleep being very high priority however other aspects of self care seem to be lacking such as having fun or doing nothing!
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ANALYSIS One of the patterns that I frequently notice around how I organise my time is that it often starts out with considerations around having space and downtime and then gradually I let it fill up and then wonder how it got so busy. This pattern happens repeatedly. In thinking about how this occurs I think things come up that I think I don’t want to miss, or I don’t want to let people down by saying no or sometimes when I think I have client appointments all arranged around my needs they will change at the last minute and I will sacrifice my needs in order to avoid losing money. The thoughts behind this are clearly ones of scarcity, that earning money is the most important thing, which means I frequently place it as a higher priority than taking care of myself. Patterns that I have noticed around how I spend my money are that I always make sure the most important things are covered and I will minimise what I spend for long periods followed by something extravagant - usually a course or workshop or sometimes a treatment or maybe raw chocolate!!
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ETHICS IN MY LIVELIHOOD Earth care - responsible advice given regarding where to source food, educate about environmental impact of different food choices Begun to work from home to minimise petrol use for travel to work Encouraging investment in self care and self responsibility to save on resources later in life People care - listening to peoples stories and experiences, developing a heart to heart connection to enable healing to occur
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Fair Shares -by offering a range of services from Synergy and voluntary projects to one to one private consultations there is fair access for different people
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Areas to develop - one to one consultations could be made available on a sliding scale enabling even greater access to one to one advice for people, further meeting the fair share ethic
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Other changes I could make to further meet the ethics include giving up my clinic that is a 30 minute drive away, there is potential to get the train to this job which would further meet the earth care ethic
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Developing a range of tools to monitor health and impacts of behavioural change as I intend to do with my design project will meet the needs of a wider range of people further meeting the people care ethic.
REDESIGN OF MY LIVELIHOOD
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Observe and Interact – more interaction with other local self employed people Catch and Store Energy – Obtain a yield – an accurate assessment of what is enough to live on. Self employment support to have a space for feedback and reflection and to acknowledge achievements Apply Self Regulation and Accept Feedback – checking in with myself and my own needs Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services Produce No Waste – Create more efficient systems for managing finances, business developing and marketing to save repeating the same tasks from the start every time Design From Patterns to Details – Create networks between clients, places to share ideas and recipes online, through Facebook Integrate Rather Than Segregate – Time saving techniques with notes and recommendations always completed in the consultation. Promote yoga teaching through nutrition practice Use Small and Slow Solutions – Use and Value Diversity – Use Edges and Value the Marginal - step out of my comfort zone. Try challenging things in safe environments, teaching yoga at Synergy, small group interactive workshops with people who are already clients Creatively Use and Respond to Change - listen to when clients make suggestions of something they might find useful, a yoga class, a cooking workshop. See the potentials and possibilities rather than just continuing doing what you’ve always done. It was useful to look at my livelihood as a whole in relation to the permaculture principles and it helped to support my decision making around what I want to do for my personal design. The two most significant factors that need some attention in terms of the whole
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picture is how I manage my time and self care needs and also how I continue to develop tools and techniques for greater resilience into the future so that my livelihood doesn’t have the responsive urgency about it that it does now, which is quite stressful. Thinking in terms of designing from patterns to details, apply self regulation and accept feedback, obtain a yield and creatively use and respond to change felt like the most useful principles with these specific aims in mind.
! Meeting my needs more creatively‌ ! Skip diving
Streetbank Freegle Clothes Swaps /Skill swaps
Volunteering Scrumping Foraging Gleaning Learn how to fix and mend
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MY DESIGN PROJECT‌
SURVEY Planning how to begin to survey for my project I started by designing a questionnaire to give to both existing and past clients, as well as researching different theories of behavioural change. This is the questionnaire that was sent out. Thinking of myself as the client I considered what my aims were in choosing this design - I want to increase the resilience of my business, ensure I am offering ethical advice specifically tailored to individual needs.
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Improving the ecological sustainability of my business my design will include how to reduce the use of paper and increase the online aspects of communication, recipe sharing and Skype consultations. The intention of this is to conserve time, money and energy both for myself and my clients.
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DAY 7 Shelter - Self Build
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Ben Laws House A beautiful and inspiring opportunity to understand how life is supported by the woodland. Journal‌ An amazing day - even beyond the fantasy of living in the woods it has stimulate conversations about spending time doing the things that are actually important, learning the skills needed to really live. I left with heightened courage that it is possible to really follow your heart and to make a living.
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It was great to see permaculture in action, the way that Ben lives is really with a deep appreciation of the connections between everything, one thing that stood out for me was when he talked about his solar power and when he chooses to do the washing, depending on the season and the height of the sun in the sky. No energy consumption is taken for granted. It also left me thinking about materials, where they come from and where they go, and how beautiful wood and cob is. Why would you ever want anything made of shiny plastic! We saw many permaculture principles in action on this visit, a couple that spring to mind immediately are catching and storing energy with the solar power, the compost, wind turbine, pump that moves surplus heat from rayburn around as central heating, power is stored in batteries and transported to 12v for the house or converted for power tools in the workshop. The other is obtain a yield there were so many yields for life in the woods, poly income streams from selling wood, making furniture, running tours, house building, caravan building, making charcoal, fruit and veg from the garden but I think mostly the yield of happiness and satisfaction for living a peaceful life connected to the land
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DAY 8 Shelter -
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Urban and Retrofitting
If I could live anywhere in the world‌. This changes all the time, at this end of the winter I’m thinking somewhere with lots of sunshine! North Pacific coast California has it’s pulls, spectacular beaches, forests and mountains with some forward thinking towns and cities up and down the coast. There is still the possibility of experiencing the seasons, which is something I love about living in England. The natural areas still feel relatively wild and are huge. Currently I live in Brighton because Brighton meets many of my needs very comfortably. I like to be so near to the sea, I like that you can cycle from one side to the other in less that half an hour. I like the culture and opportunities to be involved in exciting projects. There is a market for Nutritional Therapy and yoga in Brighton which enables me to make a living. I feel quite a strong ancestral link to Brighton as my family goes back three or four generations. Reflecting on how we can meet our human needs in the city helped me to feel really positive about living in an urban environment and close proximity to other people, whilst also highlighting that there are ways that humans could be connecting and sharing more than they are. It was also interesting to consider how we can maintain our connection to the land when we live in urban environments. The importance of community gardens, allotments and food growing was the first thing that struck me. Brighton offers us the ability to get out into nature quite easily, even providing buses to take us there whilst also having an abundance of parks and green spaces fulfilling some of the needs for
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natural (if not wild!) environments. We have access to a full range of foods, from a variety of cultural backgrounds, diversity of people to enrich our culture‌
! The minimal functions that a shelter needs to meet are that it is warm and dry, with light and ventilation and ideally allows for some personal space.
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Technical drawing!!! That’s me really doing it!! PLAN VIEW - looks at something on a horizontal plane, cut through the building. It gives us the view from above PROS - Provides a base map CONS - not three dimensional ELEVATION - View of a building from one side PROS - get to see all the different parts of a building from all directions CONS - No idea of depths in flat drawing AXONOMETRIC - great to represent a three dimensional object to scale, takes into account all axis PROS - shows us the space within a room, the depth of a room CONS - difficult to draw!
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I found doing the drawings of the design of the shed really challenging, my brain does not compute that type of information very easily, I felt immensely proud of having completed it though. It helped to have the plan of the shed on the carpet. The drawings could be improved if I had taken the time to be slightly more exact. Attention to detail is something I struggle with and I may end up with quite a wonky house!! I plan to practice this to help design my garden space.
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Alternative solutions to some of the needs of a shelter‌ Alternatives such as the biosand filter, solar heating and rocket stoves try to solve the problems of reducing the amount of waste that is sent to landfill, they are trying to reduce our dependency on oil and technology to solve problems. These simple solutions are cheap and can be made on small or more broad scale. SOLUTION
MOST APPROPRIATE
LEAST APPROPRIATE
Solar heating
For small spaces In places where there is a reasonable amount of sunshine
For heating large spaces for use in warm climates
Bio sand filters
Anywhere drinking water is required. When someone is available to ensure the water is constantly flowing through
In emergency response situations - due to building equipment and developing full efficacy
Plastic bottle lamp
In dark, natural buildings such as mud and straw houses
In modern brick buildings
In terms of the shed design the small solar heating could provide some heat in the small space and based on the idea of the plastic bottles our plan included using a recycled washing machine window to increase the amount of light in the space. A small rocket stove may be a possibility but it doesn’t seem to be a great use of the space and in this design there is no specific need to use bio sand filters.
LOCAL WASTE / LOCAL RESOURCES - STREET TREASURE IN ABUNDANCE! Our small treasure hunt was a great adventure - there were so many potential materials, mostly within about 500 meters of where we were. It was truly eye opening - I had to tame my tendency to assume everything would be useful, and also remember it was only an exercise! We assessed all the potential materials that we found using plus , minus and interesting. Some of the considerations around whether something was worth using or not involved assessing the qualities of the material - asking questions about how durable it would be,
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! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! how long it would last, is it waterproof. These were relevant as we were looking for the best materials to insulate the shed with. We also thought about how much of certain things were available, whether they were toxic and what were the consequences of them not being used - would they be going into landfill. We carried out a PMI on our materials as pictured below We were responsible for the insulation of the shed and the materials we intended to use for this were all available from other peoples rubbish, skips, free cycle or charity shops.
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Wall insulation = clothing (old wool jumpers), newspaper, bubble wrap, polystyrene pieces, egg boxes, tri wall cardboard boxes (eg from bikes) Window/platform = use of whiteboard, hinges, wooden frame, clear plastic bubble wrap for removable insulation Door = washing machine window, large heavy curtain Roof = tetra packs, plastic sheeting, plastic veg grates, extension area - clear corrugated plastic Floor = old underlay and carpet Journal‌ Reflecting on the materials that we decided to use to insulate the shed I still feel that they were appropriate given the minimal budget and the potential of useful things that we saw when we were out on our treasure hunt. The only issue with them would be getting enough of each material to complete a thorough job. As a group we felt that we did meet the design brief. I feel that the design would have been effective in real life as we thought carefully about the properties of the materials to ensure that they would truly do the job. We were particularly cautious about leaving enough space inside the building to live, hence adding some level of insulation onto the roof and using some soft furnishings - the curtain on the door, to insulate.
! PERMACULTURE DESIGN
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Rather than sticking strictly to the SADIM design process for this design, if felt so exciting and with so much potential that we were quick to jump to the design and implement stage and had to keep reigning ourselves in. On reflection though it is clear that SAD of SADIM was used!
SURVEY client brief detailing environment and needs of the student who was going to use it as a living space. Considered all other elements of the local environment, noise, aspect, pollution, water, drainage, other people Thorough survey of the materials available in the street ( this was where we were quick to jump to what we would use it for rather than just observing what was there - useful to notice this process ) Drawing the plans of the building - thinking about size and structural integrity of the building ANALYSE PMI of the materials found in the street Consideration of which materials would be the most appropriate for which job, learning about the qualities of different materials
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DESIGN As detailed previously IMPLEMENT/MAINTAIN We could have given more thought to the implementation and maintenance of the design but it did feel entirely possible having already sourced some of the materials from nearby
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Earth care - our design met the earth care ethic by making use of materials that were otherwise going into landfill, the use of waste also lessens the need for new materials to be made decreasing our dependency on fossil fuels People care - care was taken to maximise the space inside the shed, we thought about how to meet the human needs of air and light and through insulation taking care of warmth. Fair share - making use of recycled materials, to lessen waste and expense. not taking materials we won’t use just because they’re there
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Whilst we were designing we weren’t explicitly thinking about the principles but on reflection it seemed that many of them came through. We were designing with multiple functions in mind as it seemed that this would be the most important thing in such a small space. The principles that seemed to have been guiding us more implicitly were‌
! Produce no waste - up cycling materials Catch and store energy - maximum insulation by storing energy throughout the building Use and value renewable resources and services - using material that were found Obtain a yield - warmth, comfortable home space, food growing on the green roof Design from patterns to details - thought about which materials in nature provide best weather proofing such as sheep wool Use edges and value the marginal - extending the living space for good weather by having a fold down table and window and an awning.
Designing a Space Heater When presented with the materials for the heater, we were a little baffled at first, as to which way to join the pots together and how to use the little bits of wood, but once we figured it out I thought it was a pretty cool design and it was possible to feel the heat coming from it. We had some discussion about using jars rather than flower pots to enable the candle to also be used as a light source rather than just a heat source. I do think it was an effective design though and I like the idea of using it in my summer house. I haven’t done this yet but am still planning on it.
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Journal… Today presented me with loads of potential ideas, particularly around how to complete the design on my summer house, thinking about how to insulate, make better use of rainwater, and low impact ways of heating the space. I intend to look through more skips and ask people about leftover insulation. My preference would be the sheep’s wool but I also appreciate that taking celotex that would otherwise go into landfill is a good option. Another next step would be how to actually make use of materials myself rather than just having lots of ideas - getting more practice with hammer and nails and a saw! In thinking about insulation for the summerhouse I have also thought about insulation for the flat (especially considering the results of the carbon calculator) and have had some conversations with Mukti Mitchell from CosyHome Company regarding our sash windows and their unique secondary glazing system.
WASTE MANAGEMENT IN AN URBAN AREA DYKE ROAD PARK an example of waste management in this area is the regular rubbish bins throughout Dyke Road Park. The park is used daily by school children for lunch and snacks. There have been issues with litter in the park with people commonly leaving food waste and packets on the grass and within the community garden. There was a notable increase in the amount of litter left since seating in the community garden was increased. One possible solution is to provide recycling facilities within the park because even when rubbish is put into the bins, large amounts of it are made from recyclable materials. More bins however doesn’t change behaviour! A plan that may more positively engage people with taking care of the park environment is to get schools and local groups involved with the community garden, learn more about real food, learn about waste through the compost scheme, nurture the sense of the park being a shared space for everyone and there being value in taking care
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of it. Making some connections between caring for ourselves through eating real food and taking care of the environment. Fostering an understand of those connections could prove beneficial. One project idea is to launch a competition for school pupils to design some artwork for the sides of the compost bins, another is to use plastic waste to create a small bottle greenhouse for the garden, highlighting and educating on waste. 
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DAY 9 Water and Air
Keeping a record of my usage of energy and water this week was really interesting raised my awareness in such a valuable way, every time I turned the tap on, every time I turned a light on I considered the impact of what I was doing. I was even inspired to plan a weekend of imposed power cut to really understand my relationship with energy and
to not take it for granted. There is ongoing discussion about doing this at home!! An analysis of what it revealed to me was greater awareness of the appliances that are on all the time such as the fridge and the freezer. I also wasn’t aware
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that how much energy the cooker uses, I will definitely be considering this when thinking how to cook things or whether if i am putting the oven on, can I use it for more than 1 thing at the same time. Also a good reminder to turn things like the printer off when it is not in use - since getting a wireless printer I have been lazier about leaving it on so that I can print from anywhere. This is unnecessary. it felt like an empowering exercise to see very tangible things that I could do that would make a difference. It also initiated some discussions about whether there were any electrical devices that we could do without. It felt good to not have television or to hoover very often!! Looking at water consumption I know the main issue is liking baths. I have reduced baths to maximum 3 times a week and generally they will be shared. Something else that we have done differently is to stop flushing when we have a wee. As part of the design for my summerhouse office I am looking at how to harvest more rainwater. Recently I salvaged some guttering and a down pipe and attached to the building a new water butt. Another design is below and fits perfectly int he gap between the sheds. Journal‌ Unfortunately our dishwasher broke a few months ago so in terms of washing up water usage we have definitely increased. It has been very difficult to find someone willing to fix it and we would rather pay for that than see it go to landfill. The search continues‌ Presenting these results to my home group felt good actually as it was a way of facing the reality of what changes needed to be made, I acknowledged that there could have been some shame around baths or leaving lights on but we are all human and everyone in the group had similar experiences and action points.
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Domestic Renewable Energy We discussed solar energy, wind energy and water energy. It felt that in this country all of these has potential to work. After the visit to Ben Laws and seeing how his solar energy works helped me to understand that we do get enough sunshine in this country, it just doesn’t always feel like it!! It felt like on an island we have the capacity to make use of all these resources to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels but
there needs to be more investment. I was really inspired by the water cycling through the earth ship and it was a great example of beneficial connections and how good design can increase freedom and resilience. it gave me further impetus to get the rainwater harvesting system on the summer house, with the overall goal of not using a hosepipe this summer.
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FRESH AIR Increasing the indoor air quality of my home is something I am very keen to do, we have always had indoor plants but have not always taken the best care of them. Now I feel they deserve a bit more respect as I understand more about how they are taking care of me
! INDOOR AIR QUALITY - POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS‌ Solution
Plus
Minus
Interesting
Hoovering more often
Less dust and cat hair
HIgher energy usage
Would probably make home tidier overall
Increase number of
They look beautiful, and take on toxic compounds. Often available from friends or free cycle
Finding enough space to put them
How to place them so that the cat doesn’t eat them all
There will be less damp and mould on the bedroom wall
Large expense and possible disruption
Wonder whether we would notice any health improvements
fresh air plants
Fixing the area where damp is currently forming
Of all these possible solutions I think the best one is to make use of fresh air plants partly because we already have some, some are easy to propagate from other people. In terms of the ethics making better use of fresh air plants meets all 3 because it improves the health of people providing fresh air for everyone and a nicer indoor environment, with lower levels of toxins from appliances. It is an encouragement to grow plants and get to know them and how to propagate and take care of them.
! Cat damaged Areca palm and Dragon plant at home
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My Design: Implementation
Different stages of implementation?
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Beginning - Month 1 a commitment of time to spend developing the business, minimum 2 hours a week focused on NFC. This is to be on a Monday. Make arrangements to develop use of social media and new website. Middle - Month 2 begin to use some of the tools with new and existing clients in consultations. Consider how to rewrite questionnaire. End/next stage - Month 3 continue to use variety of tools with new and existing clients. Evaluate client progress and satisfaction levels.
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How long will the design take to implement? Initial changes have already been made, but the full implementation will be over 6 months. 1 new client before presentation gave me the chance to try out more fully using the mind map, discussion with the client how they personally could feel best supported between consultations. I also trialled using the inputs and outputs tool with the new client.
! What will a successful implementation look like? !
More clients feeling better, reporting to have had a useful experience in consultations, having learnt some new skills and taken control of their health and healing. a greater number of clients coming to see me due effectiveness having increased
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In terms of the resources needed to implement the plan, what I need most is time!!!! Possibly needing the input from others regarding my new website, skill swap to redesign site and some support with rewriting. Providing information for clients requires paper as a resource. The financial implications of taking time out of seeing paying clients to re design how I do things is something worth consideration. Sometimes it is difficult to focus on the preparation and planning when it is not the stuff that immediately pays.
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The nature of therapeutic relationships has always been something fascinating to me, what is it in the relationship that encourages healing or motivates someone to significantly change their behaviour and improve their wellbeing? I wanted to know that I was being as effective as I possibly could be in the one to one relationships and it had come to my attention that the tools currently being used were not always the most suitable for every client and therefore it would be more suitable to have a range to choose from. In a wider sense I feel that it is vital for people to have an understanding of their own bodies and the interconnected nature of the body, mind and soul in order to take responsibility for the lifestyle choices that they make. The new science of epigenetics promises that every person on the planet has the opportunity to become who they really are, complete with unimaginable power and the ability to operate from, and go for, the highest possibilities, including healing our bodies and our culture and living in peace. Bruce Lipton
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Giving and receiving constructive feedback
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I asked my group to particularly focus on whether it was clear what my design was, and that it sounded interesting but clear enough for people without a background in nutritional therapy. This wasn't too difficult to ask for as it is something that I have discussed with my design group since the beginning. I am pretty good at receiving feedback although in certain moods I can take the room for improvements very personally and lose sight of what has been praised. I also find it easy to make excuses for any positive feedback, rather than gratefully receive it!!
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My experience of giving constructive feedback... What issues did you focus on? I mostly focused on how inspired I felt at the end of the presentations and how much of a full picture I'd got of what people were going to do. I also focused on the use of the principles and ethics and how clearly they had been communicated, as well as pace and speed of spoken delivery.
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What strengths did you highlight?
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The use of beautiful drawings and colourful pictures, the building of physical objects to illustrate the design. Also I saw specialist knowledge of subjects as a strength.
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What were the do differently suggestions that you made? Largely these were to do with speed and clarity when presenting, sometimes the start of presentations was quite rushed due to nerves, similarly to this it was suggesting different pacing because sometimes people didn't make it to the end and I would have liked to hear about the implementation and maintenance in more detail but people ran out of time.
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How was your feedback received? Mostly it was received well, one person struggled with the "no feedback on feedback" idea and clearly wanted to defend what had happened. Most often the do differently things that I had noted had also been mentioned in the persons thoughts about their own presentation, whereas some of the more positive feedback was sometimes a pleasant surprise!
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Are you happy with how you gave feedback? Why/why not? Any do differently for yourself I am pleased with my giving of feedback, I think I could build my confidence more in giving constructive suggestions for what could be done differently and being able to confidently deliver these suggestions to people with compassion. I think that is a great skill and does take practice, but I know that I find it unhelpful to just get “nice� feedback!
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DOMESTIC MICROCLIMATE Some of the factors and conditions around my home include being located at the top of a hill, the garden and living room are south facing and get the sun in the morning, meaning the room can be very warm even during the winter in the morning. The garden is walled to the south, east and west but the walls are low and if the wind is strong it blows quite hard most often towards the south west. Researching the local climate revealed that the annual average days of rain locally was 118.1 days slightly above the UK average of 109.4 days with locally average rainfall being 722.7mm and nationally 557.4ml. Locally in the South East there are on average 25 wet days in the summer and 35 - 40 in the winter. On the South Coast the hours of sunshine can exceed 1750 but between 1550 and 1600 hours is more typical. The wind in Brighton is South West prevailing. The conclusions I can draw from this are that we live in quite a rainy climate compared to some other areas of the UK, which surprised me because I always think of the south
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coast as one of the best places to live for warm and sunny weather. The research did also reveal that there are rarely extremes of weather in the south east. Around my home and garden From my garden I am able to see that one neighbour is also collecting rainwater in a water butt, there is no one using solar power or wind turbines. There is definitely the possibility of collecting more rainwater, and appropriate buildings for collection points to be attached to. There has been a lot of water around this winter, and it feels a shame not to make better use of it. Here is a drawing of the potential system we would like to attach to the summer house
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DAY 10 Health Using SADIM to look at a design for my own health I decided to focus on a small but realistic goal of daily meditation practice for just 10 or 15 minutes (use small and slow solutions). My implementation plan was to begin by signing up to Headspace and follow the take 10 plan for the first 10 days to help me to develop the discipline of finding the time for myself each day and then after that take 10 minutes before reading in bed to just sit and meditate.. BEGINNING - start with the take 10 programme immediately and after 10 days evaluate how it was, use 4 questions, build in 10 minutes before bed to meditate moving forwards MIDDLE - After one month carry out another review, is the evening the best time, how has it been going, how many times did it happen/not happen, have I noticed any improvements in my wellbeing. Change and alter as required END/ONGOING - Strict discipline for bedtime, always plan for the day ahead, sign up to habit forge to really get the habit ingrained through daily check ins Reviewing the start of my implementation… JOURNAL… I began with signing up to headspace for 10 days - I think I forgot twice in that short time, which showed me just how easy it was to forget. I also found that doing it before bed was not necessarily the best time and perhaps I would be more successful if I removed this as a guideline. Often before bed I was too keen to read, and tired. So in practice I was either doing it first thing in the morning or during breaks in my work day. One day when I was struggling with a difficult piece of work and feeling very tired and overwhelmed I chose to take my 10 minutes out. It was great! Really helped me to ground and centre, I’m really glad I experienced it like this because the immediate benefits to my state of mind served as a great motivation to continue with it as a daily practice.
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Natural Patterns in Nature - See yoga and permaculture collage board for further examples of patterns in nature and application of patterns to yoga practice
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I am particularly attracted to the spiral and the fibonacci pattern. Thinking about how spirals can be applied in human design systems I referred to People and Permaculture by Looby Macnamara who presented some interesting ideas about where systems could be applied.
When applying the pattern of spirals to designing my yoga practice for teaching, this pattern was really useful in thinking that there was never really a start or end point but only a continual growth and continuation in a spiral, reminding me to come to the mat each time as if it were the first time whilst also appreciating that each time you explore a pattern in the body you go to a greater depth within it.
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Another area where the spiral in nature has been applied to working with humans is in The Spiral that Reconnects, the work by Joanna Macy
WORKING WITH NATURAL PATTERNS I am very aware of my own patterns of being more productive in the mornings and less so in the evenings, therefore I generally arrange my life so that I can go to sleep early and wake up early, usually waking with the sun from mid spring to mid autumn and before the sun over winter. I definitely withdraw and hibernate during the dark winter months and in the last few years I have more fully embraced this dark time, using it for reflecting and planning, eating warming seasonal stews and resting as required. I have recently been working on running my diary based on the 4 seasons of my menstrual cycle, trying to maximise the the points in the month where my energy is at it’s highest and I am more naturally engaging externally and with other people. In contrast planning quieter times at home for the winter of my cycle. Using the Women’s Quest Menstrual Dreaming Chart has helped me to get to know these patterns in myself more intimately.
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Preovulatory Phase - inner spring (days 5 - 12 approx) Ovulatory Phase - inner summer (days 12 - 19 approx) Premenstrual Phase - inner autumn (days 19 - 26 approx) Menstrual Phase - inner winter (days 26 - 5 approx)
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In terms of a permaculture design, using SADIM in relation to this design for my understanding and listening to my menstrual cycle, it would look like this SURVEY keep a diary and observe my mood, energy and motivations throughout several cycles. Use the Women’s Quest Workbook for guidance on areas of reflection ANALYSIS Notice patterns in energy, sleep, exercise and mood over the month. Reflect on them using PMI. Note the strengths and weaknesses in each season of my cycle DESIGN Go through diary noting each season at the top of the page so that when arrangements are made they are in tune with my natural rhythm. Add in one activity each week that can be linked to that particular season in my cycle IMPLEMENT For this to work I need to maintain flexibility with my work in order to book appropriately, and also be willing to find my own place within activities that might not fit the rhythm perfectly. It will be helpful to discuss this plan as a household to get appropriate support
 MAINTAIN Use the naturally reflective time around bleeding to reflect on the previous month and how the design is working. Use the 4 questions to review
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Cosmetics
I use almond or coconut oil to remove mascara, mascara, deodorant (although given it up recently), bath oil, shower gel, toothpaste, other make up for special occasions, shampoo and conditioner, lip balm Most of these could be made and I have considered this but never taken the time to do it. Over the years I have reduced the number of cosmetics I use in order to buy the best quality organic products without toxins and recently giving up deodorant has further reduced this. Sometimes it has been the prices of raw ingredients that has stopped me form pursuing it further. I found these recipes online which looked good and don’t use anything that I haven;t got in the kitchen! No excuses - slight fear of eggy hair though!!
Shampoo Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 egg 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar Instructions: Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until well combined. Use like regular shampoo. Discard any leftovers.
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Conditioner Ingredients: 1 egg yolk 1/2 teaspoon olive oil 3/4 cup lukewarm water Instructions: Beat the egg yolk until it's thick and white. Add the oil and mix well. Then add the water into the egg mixture and mix well. Massage into clean, damp hair. Rinse with plenty of warm water after about 10 minutes. I would make my own, it is again a time issue and in terms of shampoo, I usually wash my hair at the swimming pool so these things wouldn’t travel well. I will definitely try it as an experiment though.
! !Patterns - from nature to yoga practice‌ ! See yoga collage board
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PERSONAL DESIGN PROJECT
See collage board.
The pictures below detail the process I went through to come up with the final design which was then refined for the process of making the collage as a tool for my presentation
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Has permaculture design been effective as a design framework and a set of tools. How do you know? I feel that without permaculture and the specific SADIM structure I would still have never moved this need for development on from the ideas stage. It really helped to focus on each area at a time, looking at what was there and how it could be improved and changed. It felt especially helpful as a tool to support my dyspraxia as I can get easily overwhelmed with information especially when it comes to organising it. PRESENTATION Journal - having been really concerned about words coming out of my mouth and making any kind of sense, actually doing the presentation was ok. I was really pleased to have practiced the timing of it, as the first run through it was over 25 minutes!! Finally I got it down to under 10 minutes but then still fell into old patterns by starting to read stuff from the poster and then not getting to the end. I did feel really disappointed not to have got to the end as I felt my implement and maintain plans were really strong and I’d been looking forward to talking through them!
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Abi, tool to support client achieve health goals
! ! Design Process !
Went well • clear process • good survey: current tools, potential tools (apps), questionnaire (and had it), conditions for health, process of behaviour change, wants • great analysis: ethics, responses, PMI, SWOC, patterns • good to divide design into pre, during and after consultation • implementation: some info about timeline
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Even better if • better time management to get to Implementation and evaluation • especially include time and money costs in the implementation and evaluation
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Ethics Went well Used, interesting use of ethics applied to non-land. People care= being heard.
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Even better if Use ethics again as an evaluation tool
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Principles What went well Used them in the design. Clear how they influenced the design Good to have them on the poster to refer back to.
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Other comments Overall a strong design. Ambitious to apply it to non-land design. Would have been even better to hear your reflections on using permaculture design.
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Feedback from my presentation
! Reflecting on my learning at the end of the course‌ PMI on my success at learning on the PDC PLUS - engaged myself actively with many tasks, stepping forward to try things or volunteering to speak or lead activities MINUS - didn’t take as many notes as I could have and know I would have benefited from as my memory is not brilliant! INTERESTING - the elements that stop me from doing things in a different way, helpful to inform my learning around personal design too
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What are my next steps as a permaculture designer?
Having reached the end of compiling my portfolio I am buzzing with all the ideas of things I want to do differently in my life as a result of doing the course, So I have decided to list my next steps and long term goals in each area AREA
LONG TERM GOAL
NEXT STEPS
Food - small scale food growing
Be growing most of fruit and veg required year round
Raised bed design for 2014 and forest garden area Not using supermarkets
Food - broad scale food growing
Increased active involvement Continue involvement with with changing food policy on a food waste collective bigger scale Increasing ethical recommendations made to clients
People - you and groups
To work with groups facilitating Facilitate difficult decision changes in eating behaviour making at Synergy and food buying
People - community
More active role in transition movement Possibly living in community
Co-ordinate the extension of the community garden Continue exploration of connected living
Time and Money
Happy balance between time working and time off. Balance of money for work, swaps for work, time banking
Begin using time tracking app Arrange spring clothes/stuff swap event
Shelter - self build
Ultimately renovate or build own home
Education - learn hands on about methods of building Insulation for summer house
Shelter - urban and retrofitting Water and Air
Recycling grey water and building a compost toilet
Learn how to propagate fresh air plants
Health
A healthy attitude relaxation and stopping
Checking in moment to moment how I feel and what I need
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NATIVE AMERICAN CREED The Earth is your mother, care for her and Honour all relations Open your heart and soul to the great Spirit All life is Sacred, treat all beings with respect Take what is needed from the Earth and nothing more Do what needs to be done for the good in others Give constant thanks to the Great Spirit for each new day Speak the truth, but only of the good in others Follow the rhythms in nature, rise and retire with the sun Enjoy life’s journey but leave no trace.
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