Surrounded by gentle Welsh Hills, close to the Pembrokeshire National Park lies the little ecovillage “Tir Y Gafel”. Only since March 2010 all inhabitants live on its land, which is divided into nine eco-smallholdings, each of them operating rather independently from each other. All came for the natural lifestyle, but each has a different plan on how to live from the land. According to Welsh legislation 75% of one’s needs, need to come from the land. All will use hydro (and solar power) for electricity. Once the whole energy system is setup, an expected 20 000 Pound worth of power will be fed back to the electricity system. They will live in low-impact houses, which are currently being constructed from locally found building materials, such as old bricks and wood from their own forest or by reusing of existing materials such as wood planks from IBM acquired via eBay. After years of livestock on its fields, the soil is claimed as too poor for crops. Mono culture crops this is, for each single inhabitant has proven that vegetables grow here. The bio-diversity has already increased and more bird varieties have been spotted circling the land. They will supplement their income by making willow sculptures, furniture, farming fish and pigs and producing own cheeses.
In July I had the opportunity to spend a week volunteering there and experience community life up close. Hoppi, the main contact for volunteers did a great job in organising and so I was able to help out on several pots, learning different things from stripping trees, cleaning bricks, liming a round house, repairing a water way and chopping firewood. Others helped the beekeeper to find the queen or put the reciprocal roof onto a roundhouse. We were six volunteers in total and a nice bunch of people – everybody coming from a different angle. I learned alot in terms of alternative constructions, saw an example of a community and had lots of interesting conversations.
The inhabitants are people like all of us, they came because it was their childhood dream or because of a very environmental consciousness or the urge for a change in their life. They might have a little bit of experience as hobby gardeners or hobby furniture makers, but all have lots to learn still and I admire their courage. One thing that stood out for me was a very strong sense of the motto Learning by doing: “If the roundhouse gets a crack, well then we have to fix it. Next time we will know what to do different.”
The ecovillage is part of the Lammas Project, which aims to show that there are sustainable solutions to the challenges of climate change, peak oil and rural regeneration. There will be also a community hub building that allows others to learn about this kind of lifestyle and benefit from lessons learned at Tir Y Gafel.
All the best to all plot holders and thanks for a great week,
Sylvia
PS: For all who would like to visit themselves. There are guided tours offered and another volunteer week is coming up in September, just subscribe to the Lammas mailing list to be kept up-to-date.
A few months ago I was talking with an American friend who proudly told me about the Mozarella cheese, he had just made – in about half an hour, he said. I was impressed. Living in Mainland Europe, it should be even more tasty due to access to fresh milk, he claimed. I really wanted to try myself! But where to buy rennet (needed to split the curds from the whey)? The only place where I found it was in a pharmacy for 20Euro and this did not feel quite right!
So I partly gave up and focussed on other things, such as vegetarian paté, tzatziki, houmous, bread, gnocchi or vindaloo curry from the base incredients. All alot easier to make then I would have expected (except maybe for the curry paste) and really yummy, not to talk about the excitement and joy of exploration.
Then I found rennet by chance in a Welsh store whilst on vacation. So I re-embarked on my cheesy goal, I still needed to get a cheese cloth and a thermometer and some fresh milk. All of which I found at or close to the Marché des Abattoirs in Anderlecht (Belgium). Onto the internet it was for some instructions, in the end I settled on a goat cheese (which does not even need rennet, but just some vinegar!) and now I am a happy owner of my first (yummy) cheese.
There was a meadow and then people from all over came and the meadow turned into a bustling village. A month later the tents were gone and if he would not have seen it with his own eyes, he would never have known they were there..
photo by Flickr user: fireflies604
A few days ago on my way back home from vacation I sat next to another home-coming guy, who had just left 30 degree warm Finland, where he had spent close to a month at a Rainbow Gathering. What’s that?
Wikipedia describes it as follows:
“Rainbow Gatherings are temporary intentional communities, typically held in outdoor settings, and espousing and practicing ideals of peace, love, harmony, freedom and community, as a consciously expressed alternative to mainstream popular culture, consumerism, capitalism and mass media.”
Jean-Louis, the man from the bus, goes there every year. It’s back to a simple way of life for him and the place is full with good musicians. He told me that everybody finds a place in the community, be it entertaining or cooking or chilling or helping with other chores. Imagine a bunch of people preparing yummy food, being surounded by musicians and then when the meal is served a hat is passed around and you put in there what you like. Some will put 10Euros each meal others not a penny in four weeks. And it’s all good.
Organicvision – a world tour dedicated to sustainable lifestyle (by Johanna from Organicvision)
Curious about alternatives to mainstream urban lifestyle?
Wondering how our society can change to become ecologically viable?
This is precisely what we want to find out on our journey around the world visiting 30 exciting projects covering permaculture, eco-construction, herbology, self-sufficiency, homesteading, transition towns, eco villages etc.
We, that is Joanna and Franck- a German/Polish-French couple in their thirties, living in Brussels.
Some years ago, if somebody had asked us about the future, never we would have predicted that we would quit our jobs one day and do a project dedicated to sustainability…
We decided to rethink our future. After having visited several organic farms in Belgium and Spain in 2009, we were captivated by the generosity and enthusiasm of the people we met there. Compared to the authentic values these people were living, our office jobs, our hectic everyday life seemed fake and meaningless.
Many discussions and sleepless nights later, our decision was clear: We wanted to change our life.
Even more: We wanted other people to discover that it is worth to live closer to nature. But how do you do that? Our solution: Travel various countries and meet positive role models, work with them and share their inspiring ideas with others via interviews, video clips and pictures on a blog!
To this end, in October 2009 we also set up an association – Organicvision – as we wanted to show our sincere long-term investment in promoting sustainable lifestyle and setting up a network of activists in this field as our project develops.
Then we started to seriously prepare our world tour, which will start very soon with a survival training in Belgium followed by a permaculture design course in Southern France.
I went to visit the Royal Botanical Garden the other day. The garden is only open to public for a short time every year. I am generally quite reserved when it comes to tourist attractions, but this garden is just amazing and you simply forget about hundreds of people that are amazed by the flower paradise around you.
If you get the chance go and visit the place. Not just a nice thing to light up your weekend – we cannot take enough opportunities to admire the beauty and variety of life nature has created around us. Let me know if you know of similar places that you can recommend .
Cloud-computing and ICT technology as such has changed our society. A development of our Web2.0 culture is just one small part of the impact. The way we communicate, the way we interact, the tools we use.
Even if we often are not aware of the environmental impacts of our actions – it is evident, that our changed behavior with the availability of computing tools and new ways to interact has an impact on the environment.
Nothing to be afraid of – there are positive and negative impacts: Did you know that a modern laptop consumes less energy than an old light bulb?
As Jorge Zapico who is currently researching the intersections of ICT and Sustainability at the Centre for Sustainable Communications in Stockholm points out correctly, that there are many ways in which we can enhance the positive impacts. For example an open source approach to sharing information, using the net to mobilize the environmental movement and taking advantage of technologies that make our life more (energy) efficient.
Which does not mean we should neglect the negative ones like the hidden hardware in many data centers that is running our beloved Internet cloud (slide 13). Enjoy Jorge’s presentation on this topic:
Whilst the volcano Eyjafjallajökull in Island has impacted the lives of millions of travellers over the last days and cost airlines over 200 billion Euros per day. Non-volcanologists do not spend much time on considering environmental impacts of this event.
This might sound a bit philosophical: Since Vulcanos were there before us – shouldn’t they consider us as a threat rather than the other way around?
More seriously: As David Mc Candless points out in his blog Information is Beautiful, the amount of CO2 emissions that were prevented by the volcano eruption is significantly higher than the CO2 that the Volcano emitted.
We surely need to keep in mind that the root of climate change is not CO2 emissions but our demands (in this case for means of transport). This event hopefully makes some of us realize this connection > Let’s not forget that it is not a greener aviation industry and well treated passengers that will solve the climate change issue.
BBC News has developed a guide showing some of the world’s key volcanoes:
Neither the inspiration for the header nor the picture came from me, but I just really liked it, so I hope WWF won’t mind me using it. And what else is there to say? The poster says it all – Are you going to turn the lights of with me and (at time of writing) 5647320 supporters worldwidetomorrow?
Noone really seems to have grasped what sustainability really stands for. One of those concepts that is so broad that anything could fit in and so complex that noone really knows how to transform it into something practical.
Especially corporates seem to be struggling in making sense of it and putting the topic in a context that speaks to the individual, to management and serves the company purpose. Let’s be honest here – it’s a real challenge. There’s no off-the-shelf solution on how to turn a successful corpoate business into a successful sustainable one. And it’s surely not about the process but much more about the indivudual that drives change in the organization.
Boston University has built their concept around ‘Corporate Citizenship’. They recently released a report on Leadership Competencies for Community Involvement that shows what it takes to be a change agent in driving a big organization towards taking an active role in corporate citizenship. Have a look it’s an interesting read.
The other day on my way to work I walked passed a house on which’s doorstep three book-filled yellow bags were waiting for the trash man. It hurt seeing books being thrown away just like that! There are several second hand books shops, independent ones, as well as Oxfam or Les Petit Riens, there are libraries, there are second hand markets, there are friends and there are bookswaps.
Eight years ago a British man had a great idea, he liked to read and did not like to throw books away, but he only had so much space in his appartment. This was when he started a book swap.
The principle is quite simple you bring your old and read books and you pick up some interesting other ones. Over time quite an amount of books was brought in by the readers of Brussels – mainly in English, but also French, German and other language books kept on popping up. The bookswaps mailing list grew to over 200.
Once a month, either on the first Monday or Tuesday, he and his friends would fill the pub’s tables with all those books. At the beginning the book-filled boxes had to be carried there each time, then they found a pub that allowed them to store the books, making the whole organisation of it much easier.
Now the pub has changed owners and David cannot store the books there anymore; and he thinks its time to move on. If you want the bookswap to continue and know of a location and/or would like to organize them, I can put you in touch with David. If no new organiser is found, the books will go to charity.
The last bookswap is happening on Tuesday March 9, no new books will be accepted. I am not putting the address here as I it would feel strange if 30 new people would show up to the last one, but if you are wondering about continuing it and meet David, that would be a date to keep in mind, but drop me a line and you should have all the necessary info ; – )
All came for the natural lifestyle, but each has a different plan on how to live from the land. According to Welsh legislation 75% of one’s needs, need to come from the land. All will use hydro (and solar power) for electricity. Once the whole energy system is setup, an expected 20 000 Pound worth of power will be fed back to the electricity system. They will live in low-impact houses, which are currently being constructed from locally found building materials, such as old bricks and wood from their own forest or by reusing of existing materials such as wood planks from IBM acquired via eBay. After years of livestock on its fields, the soil is claimed as too poor for crops. Mono culture crops this is, for each single inhabitant has proven that vegetables grow here. The bio-diversity has already increased and more bird varieties have been spotted circling the land. They will supplement their income by making willow sculptures, furniture, farming fish and pigs and producing own cheeses.
Hoppi, the main contact for volunteers did a great job in organising and so I was able to help out on several pots, learning different things from stripping trees, cleaning bricks, liming a round house, repairing a water way and chopping firewood. Others helped the beekeeper to find the queen or put the reciprocal roof onto a roundhouse. We were six volunteers in total and a nice bunch of people – everybody coming from a different angle. I learned alot in terms of alternative constructions, saw an example of a community and had lots of interesting conversations.
.
Loading ...