Moving to the farm I knew radical change of thinking would be required. I already had an inkling back then that permaculture held the key to handling the challenges life was about to throw at me. Over time I abandoned all conventional expectations and learned to see and think about the potential in front of me differently. Permaculture helped me do that, providing practical, logical and philosophical solutions to every problem I have faced. To deepen my understanding of permaculture design I took Geoff Lawton’s online course:
https://www.discoverpermaculture.com/thepermaculturecircle
first in 2017 and then again four years later leading me through all the elements of Bill Mollison’s Permaculture Handbook, achieving certification with my design submission.
To survive and thrive here, I had to adapt my vision and my ambitions to my capabilities and my ressources. I had to learn to pay close attention, to think through and plan my interventions thoroughly rather than working myself into the ground against the odds. Over time I started to take note of what worked and what required disproportionate amounts of energy. I had to keep an open mind and adapt to given realities. That’s what permaculture design is about: observing closely, thinking carefully about all the connections, planning realistically, implementing sustainably, observing and adapting again…and again.
A little taster exercise from my all time favourite module of the course for the magnificent insights it brought:
Patterns and Duality
In “Module 4: Pattern Understanding,” we delve deeply into the different patterns we find in nature, everything from shapes and edges to time and flow. We have begun to see how nature harnesses energy and efficiency in the form of patterns, and we are beginning to understand how to translate these lessons of evolution into designs with productive advantages. Time and its application within pattern can be one of the most difficult, and beneficial to understand concepts from this section of the course.
This exercise might be best completed with a journal, notebook, or sketch pad to record your thoughts.
Return to your observational journaling site. Notice what seems the same. Notice what has changed. Reflect on how much time you have spent literally at the site, and also in the larger sense now of visits over the course of several weeks.
Record your thoughts.
Spring is advancing. More plants are emerging, greening up. The Plum trees are now developing leaves. A prolonged dry period is leaving the ground in need of water. My recent plantings now need watered regularly. Occasional night frosts and cold northerly winds accompany bright sunny and already very warm days, so warm I can sit out on the double bench in a T-shirt.
Consider your previous journal entry – what “origin points” in the patterns of the site can you think of? What stands out as a good example of a short-term change over a brief cycle? What about a longer-term cycle?
Record your thoughts.
Origin points and cycles: change of property ownership, seasons, lifecycle of the tea bush, lifecycle and influence of pets and people, the presence and absence of visitors, personally marking events (like deaths in the family, big fall outs with French administration and neighbourhood disputes), tree felling and falling events, firewood cycles, periodic appearance of wildlife (coypu, otter, wild boar, hares, kingfisher), and most prominently the coming and going, tidelike, of the lake and its surrounding area.
Q: What is short, medium or long term? Do we measure it by a human lifetime and if so, is that short or long term? Paul‘s death marks THE point of origin for a new cycle and also the end of the old cycle, but it is not truly a cycle (returning to the same point of origin) because of that confounding but undeniable sense of progression.
Medium term cycle: our family’s activities around the house and gardens over the last 20 years from dilapidation to restoration, use and observable wear and tear, purchase, breaking and repair of tools.
Short term cycle: the annual appearance of fruit and nuts on trees (elderberry, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry), growing cycles (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, courgette), vegetation green/vegetation bare, short days/long days, wet/dry weather periods, heating vs no heating periods.
Long term cycle: the historic use and occupation of the house under previous ownership and occupancy, when it was first built and each time it has been rebuilt. The lifespan of long living trees, e.g the old apple tree in the little field opposite breaking in half in the big storm (2023) and then young shoots restarting from the trunk.
As your time experience with this site deepens more and more of the details you see will gain relevance and importance they did not have at the moment of observation. It is the context of your experience across time that will turn details seen but not quite understood into epiphanies, and connect dots between observational details that at first seemed unrelated. Looking back over your previous journaling, can you observe this progression taking place? How has your sense of this place changed and evolved?
Record your thoughts.
My observations of this site have stretched over more than twenty five years but only with permaculture have my observations become conscious and meaningful. I now feel connected to the point of feeling a pulse behind these (recurring) events. Early on I had to remind myself consciously to observe. Nowadays I am aware of the presence and activities or development of birds, plants, daylight, temperature fluctuations, dryness or wetness of the ground, availability of forage (grass), struggles (sensitive plants caught by a late frost, apples attacked by canker etc). This awareness is a huge personal advancement for me.
Other observable patterns:
– pattern of separating and unifying forces (dynamic)
– In life: the need to be alone and also with someone/others;
– Nature: herding and infighting
– Universal forces: contraction, explosion
– Religion: missionising, splintering, good/evil vs one God
– Geopolitics: nationalism, internationalism
– Metaphysics: one single or dual components making up the meta universe?
– Variation, adaptation, jazz, call and response/improvisation, inspiration, interpretation, borrowing from others, “fitting around something pre-existing versus looking for origin/cause. ( human nature is forever adapting from the pre existing „rule“ and and developing the theme, rather than inventing from scratch. Does the truly original actually exist other than as an absolute in our imagination?)
– creation and destruction
– Bible story of the original sin, from nakedness to layers behind which we hide
– Pattern of getting yourself in trouble and then accepting bailouts from people you would not otherwise have associated with. Ongoing Blindness to the compromising consequences of our actions. Never learning!
– ying and yang
– dynamic vs static
– self and ego dominating vs working for the common good of everyone: systems of capitalism, socialism, democracy, autocracy all represent both elements… e.g. authority being imposed for the common good, the elected majority lording it over minority interests… what then in essence is this idea of the common good and how is it best realised and protected against abuse? How to value and transmit the lesson of “looking out for each other”? It’s always been there, sometimes in the foreground, sometimes in the background. It pulses and cycles. When all out selfishness has run another course and we are thoroughly tired of all its empty gains, we become ready for another round of unity, rebuilding together what was destroyed by the last greedy gorging orgy. We are enriched by the experience of togetherness until it turns stale with the constraints and effort of unison. Then we head off one by one once again trying to get further ahead by ourselves, forgetting where it eventually leads.
Dynamic and static quality is the essential pattern (thank you for “Lila”, Robert Pirsig). With a personality like Trump at the helm, a bundle of unconstrained and instinctive energy and ego centred charisma, the only conceivable purpose for the existence of such traits is dynamic quality needed after static quality has ground everything to a halt.
