An update

June 29, 2010

Hello

Permaculture immersive in ‘The Village’

October 31, 2009

The Permaculture course in ’the village’ 21st to 30th August 09, surpassed my expectations in many ways. It was certainly more demanding than previous trainings as its duration was 10 full continuous days with so many interesting topics to cover. Graham Strouts, Klaudia Van Gool and Albert Bates facilitated the Permaculture and Davie Philip,the event organiser, ran the sustainability training during the evenings, Skilling up for Powerdown, which itself is a 10 module course, so you can imagine how demanding it all was.

Being within a residential community of learners can be a life changing experience in itself , and an Ecovillage is an ideal venue for this type of an immersive experience. This is a way of learning about community engagement I strongly recommend.

I had always assumed that I knew what permaculture was all about, the natural way of doing things, and when it originated in the early seventies I wondered what all the fuss was about. Well I discovered that there was a little more to it, and the the skills that have evolved within the discipline of permaculture are comprehensive and far reaching in their philosophy’s and effects.

The principle of observation of a site, region or community is the starting place of any good design, observing for one year, to see the seasonal rhythms, is essential to permaculture. Designing new habitats, to fit in with natures activities, taking advantage of what is already in existence, following the line of least resistance, all allow for a low maintenance, high yielding, resilient community of beings, that can flourish with the minimum interference from humanity.

I now understand why this training is highly recommended to those folk interested in the Transition Movement and I do agree that it really does make a difference. Follow the permaculture links to find out more about this system which has the potential to help heal and restore our entire planet and instigate an age of previously unknown abundance.

: Our Classroom

: Tour of the village

: A self builder

: Michael from Monaghan

: Tree identification

: Graham making charcoal

: Smoke & tar

: No dig beds

: Clay & hands

: Dancing a mix

: Clay, straw & hands

: Cob, cord and bottle

: Wattle & daub

: World Cafe

: Alex facilitating World Cafe

: Sow & piglets

: CSA farmer

: Albert’s surveying tool

: Designing

: Cuban Ambassador

: Cuban Ambassador, Albert and Graham

: Presenting designs to the clients

: The allotment design team

: Colm receives his ‘cert’

: Class of 09

Some very useful downloads for you

Essence of Permaculture eBook

Permaculture flower poster

Permaculture principles poster

Art of Sustainability

August 15, 2009

Hi Everybody, I’m co-facilitating this course with my friend Anita this autumn.

This a fantastic program, packed full of exciting ideas, so please do take the time to explore the links

in the title below and see what it can offer you !

Bon Voyage !

POWERDOWN COURSE

TINAHELY

COURTHOUSE ART CENTRE

Wednesday evenings, 20:00 to 22:00. Starting 23rd September until 25th November

European Global Ecovillage Network G.A. in Keuruu Ecovillage, Finland.

August 14, 2009

Global Ecovillage Network European General Assembly

Keuruu Ecovillage, Keuruu, Tampere.

Finland

This was my first GEN-Europe GA and a very memorable and transformative experience it turned out to be. With the brilliant innovation of Ulrike Schimmel, secretary to the council, in making Grundtvig grants available to those involved in adult education, it not only paid for me to attend this GA & training, but managed to raise considerable funding for the network, well done Ulrike!

I was attending as the Transition Ireland and Northern-Ireland national education officer, and as Transition Training and Consultancy, from the Transition Network, had nobody present I was asked to represent them too. Phew!! I was definitely to be on my best behaviour.

I went to Finland with a question in my mind, “What have the Global Ecovillage Network and the Emerging Global Transition Network got to offer one another in relation to inspiring worldwide transformation to a sustainable way of life?” and I discussed this at length with many folk attending the GA.

The answers are still unfolding and it is now the title of an article I’m currently writing, with the collaboration of some interested parties both in GEN and TN, which will, hopefully, make it all more productive.

As I arrived with a bad head and throat cold, I was delighted to see John Croft, Dragon Dreaming, had taken the lead on the first evening to deliver a brilliant presentation on the recent Transition Conference and was advocating the Transition Movement as a very relevant vehicle which would enable GEN to get its message to the mainstream of our society.

This is working already with a number of Ecovillages declaring themselves Transition Initiatives and focalising the creation of Transition Initiatives in their local communities. I also see that the intentional communities that are the project groups which are forming in the more advanced Transition Initiatives will create Ecovillages within their communities, maybe not as we know them today, but then all is evolving.

Training 4 Transition Ennistymon

June 28, 2009

Training 4 Transition

Transition Ireland & Northern-Ireland

Network.

Ennistymon Co. Clare,

Ireland

This training originated with the simultaneous enquiry to host a Training 4 Transition by Aisling Wheeler of the Ennistymon Transition Initiative, and myself on behalf of Transition Ireland and Northern-Ireland network to Transition Network, who suggested we come together to organise it which we did to our mutual advantage.

Aisling, who acted as the ground force, organised the venue, kindly donated by the Ennistymon Vocational School, and also visiting participant hosting donated by willing local participants and supporters of the Transition Movement, and the purchasing of supplies and cooking of the beautiful food. While I organised the trainers, Mandy Dean and Ann Lamot from the Welsh hub, through the Network, and the bookings and financial side of things. We proved to be a very successful team and there were unique aspects to this training that I would like to mention here.

The co-operative manner in which it was all managed is worth a detailed description as a model others may seek to experiment with. We set up our projected budget and our projected participant requirements. In this case, €2,200 budget and 22 folk at €100 per head. The basis of booking was to pay the €100 upfront, with the knowledge that if we got less folk we would all pay some more, or if we got more folk we would get a refund. As it turned out we got our 22 participants, so all was well. Both myself, Aisling and her crew were volunteers, the majority of the budget was to cover the trainers fees, expenses and contributions to the respective networks.

Everybody who desired to be hosted was, the food we prepared for ourselves was excellent, lunches both days and a Saturday evening dinner. This was so good a community building exercise it is worth repeating, it also kept the budgets down for our participants, who came from all over Ireland.

I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Aisling, her family, and her fellow Ennistymon Transition enthusiasts who’s generosity and hard work made this one of the best events I have ever attended.

In retrospect my lasting impressions are of Ennistymon’s openness and honesty, regarding their groups dynamics and the genuineness willingness of the participants to find out how to promote Transition values throughout Ireland. These events create the glue that hold our Islands local networks together of which I’m very grateful to be a part.

Please add your comments here and share your views.

: Room with a view

: Aisling’s nest

: Food

: Food

: Food glorious food

: Mandy & Ann

: Cliffs of Moher

: Open space

Transition Training of Trainers – Totnes

June 28, 2009

Training of Trainers 4 Transition

Transition Network

Transition Training & Consultancy

Devon, Totnes.

Sophy Banks and Naresh Giangrande, training originators, and trainers of the trainers along with Nick Osborne & Jenny Mackewn, trainee trainers of trainers, gave us four days of the best of their wisdom to empower and enable us to deliver Training For Transition to folk interested in progressing the establishment of the Transition Movement. Organised and administrated by the wonderful Stephanie Bradley, resident of Bowden House Community, our hosts, who were excellent in every respect, and I certainly felt very much at home during my entire stay.

The participants were a truly international mix from; Ireland, Scotland, England, Italy, The Netherlands, Hong Kong and the USA.

The training itself was intense, illuminating and difficult at times considering the scope of what is included for delivery in the two day session. Because of our rich cultural mix there were many interesting insights offered by individuals to the group and this in itself formed a very import aspect of this training.

The Transition process itself is creative, anarchistic and unique to each culture and initiative; while at the same time following some broad patterns that are similar to each other. The flexibility built in to this training allows for each culture to develop this T4T process in partnership with TT&C, on an ongoing basis to facilitate its participants to the best of their abilities.

A group of us stayed in ‘Wildwoods’ Sophy & Naresh’s new home, which was very much appreciated and as you can see in the pictures below, this is a very beautiful place. On the third evening we had a great dinner in Wildwoods, with all the participants and some guests, harmonious song burst forth from a group of revellers which added a very special ambience to the evening.

The lasting impressions I carry from this event are the deep connections forged between the participants, which are at this time forming the essence of the global Transition movement, embodied in the Transition Network.

More information is available by following the links on the left hand side of this page.

Please add your comments here and share your views.