Permaculture at the Derbyshire Ecocentre Summer Fair

By Permaculture Ambassador and member Mike Hutchinson

 

Mike Hutchinson and Matt Rawlson sharing permaculture with attendees at Derbyshire Eco Centre Summer Fair!

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." So said John Ruskin. Although I've always suspected that Ruskin made this observation from the comfort of a warm, dry drawing room, the idea does square nicely with permaculture ideas. And on the day of the Derbyshire Ecocentre’s Summer Fair, the weather was, well ... different.

We had been allocated a plot, between a stall letting people experience dry stone walling and a young man who was a tree surgeon but who also made some really lovely products from green wood.

Once our gazebo was up and leaflets secured inside A4 plastic sleeves, we were all set up. The rain crept in around the edges but we soon forgot about it. My colleague for the day, Matt Rawlston, had made the short journey from Mansfield with a selection of tools he’d made, using old and discarded items. These included his magnificent ‘cargo’ bike; a long-wheelbase version with a flat wooden platform at the rear and a range of 'safety' axes.

Use and value renewable resources and services: new tools from old

Matt's collection of items, many finished in a bright yellow, drew people to the stand. The safety axes in particular, intrigued people and following quick demonstrations all agreed that they were a very good idea. (The axes are made by reducing the length of old bolsters, then sharpening the blade. The handle fits into a ready-made hole in a log. Chopping is essentially reversed, with wood placed onto the blade then tapped down with a hammer, thus keeping fingers nicely out of the way.)

Matt talks to attendees about his safety axes.

Describing how these once discarded tools had been given a new lease of life then led easily into a discussion of permaculture in a broader sense. Some visitors had heard of permaculture; others hadn't. Whatever the level of knowledge, we had some interesting conversations ranging from the ethical principles via no-till gardening, composting and soil structure to forest gardens.

Display with cargo bike, safety axes, three sisters pot and broadfork.

Although still in their early stages of growth, the trio of plants I'd taken along in a pot - corn, beans and squash - let us illustrate how applying permaculture design means we can get so much more out of the individual elements. Perhaps the 'three sisters' combination doesn't always work out as well in Britain as in the Americas, but it makes an interesting talking point. People really do get the idea of how permaculture design gives you increased resilience.

Example of the very fuel efficient jet stove.

The other aspect of my 'three sisters' was that they were in a 'wicking' pot. Okay, this wasn’t the best of days to show a pot that has a built in reservoir but the idea was easy to get across - and given the rainfall, I could demonstrate the drainage holes easily.

Matt had also brought two jet stoves with him that he'd made from recycled steel fence posts. Given the weather it would have been great to have had one lit, but for safety reasons this obviously wasn't possible. People were genuinely interested in the stoves and we were able to discuss their benefits, including how the spread of efficient rocket stoves in the Global South can improve people's health.

After the samba band stopped and the last visitors had left we took the gazebo down and packed everything away. Overall, it had been a good day, which seemed to pass quite quickly - always a good sign, I think. And despite the rain, which was now falling harder again, and despite its obvious effect on visitor numbers, we agreed that it had been successful.

A decent number of people had stopped to look at the stand and we'd been able to talk about permaculture. And had John Ruskin visited the Ecocentre on Saturday, I think he would have definitely stopped at the permaculture stand - whatever the weather.

Share the benefits of permaculture

If you, like Matt and Mike, would like to share the benefits of permaculture with your local community, find out how you can get involved here.

There are many ways of helping to spread the word about permaculture, whether it be by giving a gift membership to a friend, signing up to hear about opportunities via 'Ambassador Alerts', starting a local permaculture group, or writing a blog post about how you apply permaculture to your everyday life. We'd love to hear from you, so get in touch!

Is your smart phone a problem or a solution? 7 ways to get the most out of it without it sucking the life out of you.

by Irene Soler and Hedvig Murray

In this day and age, we need to be always connected. We need to answer our emails immediately. If you run your own business, you always need to be updating Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to increase likes, followers, tweets etc. At least this is how it can feel. What's more, you can quickly get sucked into a world of cat videos and photos of people’s food, leaving little time for getting out into nature, or having time to see your friends.

We don’t like it, but we know this cycle all too well. Both of us are self employed so we rely on the internet and our phones to run our businesses. Irene works in Brighton as a web designer and she starts her days by listening to a podcast on her phone while eating breakfast, then sitting down to a day at the computer, and then some evening entertainment on Pinterest and Instagram. But as a result she was getting back pain and RSI in her wrist.

Hedvig is a permaculture teacher who has set up online platforms for her students, does diploma tutorials via Skype and writes a blog to share her findings. At some point earlier this year, she was waking up and checking her phone first thing in the morning, last thing at night and most of the time in between.

Why? Because it can be a great way to connect with the people we are friends with who live in different countries, people from our PDCs and other people who inspire us. We can connect with people we have never met, and help them to use permaculture in their lives.

When we started working together on HIP Permaculture, we wanted to re-design a new culture of how we could use our phones to do what needs to be done, and free up time to do other things.

So we set about doing a permaculture design on how we use tech in our lives.

From this, one of the design aims was to limit our access / reduce temptation and we found some things worked really well. Here are our tips:

Irene’s tips

1. Schedule computer free days.
I started with Computer Free Fridays. I would still do work by doing things like brainstorming on paper, making physical models, mapping out work plans or meeting up with others.

2. Take regular breaks.
When I have a full day at the computer, I set a timer to ring every 25 minutes (The Pomodoro Technique). This is a reminder to get up, move around and stretch.

3. No Facebook / No email.
I don’t have a Facebook app on my phone and I don’t check emails either when I’m away from my computer (unless I’m not near a computer for days!)

I am more productive when I am online these days and I have less issues with my back. I’ve developed new offline ways to work with clients that are both fun and unusual for a web designer. I’ve had great feedback from clients who have found this less daunting than online stuff.

Hedvig’s tips

1. Switch off your wifi when not using it.
I started doing this when I was living by myself. This is particular helpful as it helped me
kick the habit of checking my phone all the time.

2. Switch off notifications on your phone.
If you can’t switch off your wifi, you can switch off the distractions. I was constantly distracted by peeps and bings, which interrupted my thinking. Change the settings on Facebook and emails, for example.

3. Check your emails and social media at set times during the day.
I try and check twice a day. I check when I have time to actually answer the emails, rather than just keeping up with the emails. If you need to, add a note to the bottom of your emails saying ‘I only check my emails x times a day and if there is something urgent call me’.

4. Manage social media posts.
For my business social media accounts, I use an app to collect interesting links and then sit down once a week to schedule when I want them to be shared.
The results have been that I am now more efficient and I feel less guilty that I am not answering my emails. I have freed up headspace for other things. I feel like I have gained more time to do things that are really important for my well-being, like going out for regular walks, having time to read in front of the fire and also to meet up with friends.

Hedvig Murray and Irene Soler are the founders of HIP Permaculture. They aim to create useful and beautiful products to inspire people to use permaculture.