Ideaplants

Thanks for sharing on fb, gps

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.

http://www.lammas.org.uk

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.

cheers, Sylvia

For more (detailed) info, here some links:
Finland Rainbow Gathering: http://eurogathering.rainbowinfo.net/
List of gatherings worldwide: http://www.roadjunky.com/article/2299/rainbow-gatherings-2010-in-europe-us-and-the-rest-of-the-world

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…

So how do we ended up there? Seeing films like “An inconvenient truth” or documentaries like “How Cuba survived peak oil”, reading Hervé Kempf´s books and being part of the economic crisis, made us understand that our modern society is on the wrong track.


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.


Want to join the adventure? Meet us at www.organicvision.org

How often did it happen that we have to send a video file to our client that takes hours to upload.
And that while the client is just a 20min drive away. But of course everyone is on the way to a meeting it’s rush hours so even a taxi courier couldn’t solve the issue. And of course it should have been delivered yesterday.


Pedalbxl is a solution to such a situation here in Brussels. And not only quick but also green. The company offers delivery services by bicycle. Not only cost effective but also fast and reliable since the common traffic trap in rush hour times can be avoided. A nice concept really.

After months of hard work on our project, our e-tree team was present at Nuit Blanche Metz and Nuit Blanche Brussels this weekend.


After a long trip we finally arrived in Metz with our installation. The setup went faster than planned and also a big projector was put in place to project our e-tree animation on the wall of a big school. Everything seemed to go fine except for the Internet connection.


The e-tree project however depends on an internet connection since the animation is accessible via a website and connected with a twitter account.


After several hours of trying different connections, chasing the technical team and getting help from many different people, the official starting time of our project had passed and the stress level was rising. Since France Telecom was not willing to come and fix the problem someone had the idea of ringing doorbells at the nearby houses to see if anyone had a wifi connection we could use. After the second try it worked. A very kind neighbour came down to help us out with his connections – he even agreed to have a 100m cable being thrown from his balcony so we could get a direct connection at our both.


One hour later we finally had a good Internet connection and people could enjoy the animation. What a night! Luckily things went much smoother the day after in Brussels and since we were lucky with our location the tree was almost constantly occupied. During the 2 events over 700 messages where written on the e-tree ranging from simple expressions and messages to friends to thoughtful comments on world peace and philosophy. Try it yourself!


Here an interview that was done on our way between Metz & Brussels:



And here a video showing the e-tree in action in Metz:

Dear readers,


I would like to invite you all to a multimedia installation that I’m putting in place with a group of artists.
E-tree is an interactive project that will take place at the Nuit Blanche of Metz and Brussels the 2nd and 3rd of October 2009.


Visitors and people from the web will be able to insert text to our system, which will make a tree grow and messages will be visible on Twitter.


You can join us online the day we make the performance and participate online on the growing of the e-Tree.


Join us and express your own ideas!
Wanna see what other people write? Please follow: http://twitter.com/e_tree on Twitter


Practical info:
Metz: 02 October 2009 20pm – 02 am CET Lycée Louis Vincent (Metz, France)
Brussels: 03 October 2009 20pm – 02 am Mont des Arts/near the music museum (Bruxelles, Belgium)


Let us know you are joining!
Everyone is welcome to sign up here for the event.


For more info on this project, please visit www.e-tree.eu



The project team:
Jesús Azogue
Mira Bangel
Inge Mestdagh
Thomas Popovits
Steven Ramsdonck
David Cammaerts
James Davy
…and many nice people that are supporting us


All the best, Mira

What is co-housing?


The principle of co-housing (or collaborative housing) is simple. You live together with a group of people that are not necessarily your family or relatives and you share certain areas of your home with them. You share certain resources (e.g. space, food, energy, green areas, cars etc.) and certain parts of your life (e.g. free time, weekends, cleaning, celebrations).


There are many Co-Housing initiatives in Europe, America, Australia and many other parts of the world. Key challenge of this approach is to create a Win-Win-Win for all people involved in the project. This way of living is not only interesting for individuals – especially families with children and seniors can support from this type of living environment where a community supports each other in daily life.


In Belgium you can already find some co-housings although larger scale co-housing is still a new concept.

Last weekend I went to visit La Grande Cense with a group of volunteers. This co-housing community near Brussels is now some last renovations before all individuals and families can start moving into their new homes. They are therefore organizing a summer camp where everyone is invited to help.


A group of 30 grown ups and 15 children will be soon living in 20 units in a fully renovated old farm with a big inner courtyard for social gatherings, a big and sunny terrace, shared kitchen & lounging facilities and large garden space.


Although the construction site already looks liveable it was not the actual space that impressed me most this weekend. I was more impressed by the group members.


You can feel that everyone at the Grande Cense group has gone through an intense learning process. Becoming clear about your own core values, defining a shared vision, establishing an effective decision making process and clear ground rules. All this costs a lot of time and effort and it is as essential for a co-housing project as finding a nice space to live and defining technical and ecological parameters.

What is more challenging than sharing your life with a group of people?

It takes a strong core group with shared values, a clear vision and the necessary organizational and people skills, to set up a co-housing project.


Our little volunteer group was using ecological paint to paint some of the walls in the common area. With all information and tips for a future co-housing project we gathered and some nice conversations, it only felt good to be able to contribute 2 days of work to this project.


Thanks for this nice weekend to everyone at La Grande Cense!

Here a summary of the Rice is Life project by Greenpeace China.


A nice example of how to empower people – in this case by simply giving a camera to local farmers and explaning them how to use it… The photos are still being exhibited – even 5 years after the project was carried out. The resulting images (some of them of astonishing quality) naturally show the benefits & purity of traditional farming in Southern China – an area that is more and more becoming industrialized.


I had the chance to meet John Rose and to work with the team of Greenpeace China that did this project. An amazing group of dedicated people that has a lot of work to do in raising awareness for so many environmental (& social) issues in China.