We’ve been living in our shed for three and a half years. House under construction for two and a half…
And on Friday the windows arrived for the guest bedroom in our house-under-construction project. It has walls, doors, a roof, a floor and almost windows.
Tomorrow morning at 9 am Ken is coming to help Karl install [...]
While we have not been as badly hit as many flooded communities in Queensland and New South Wales in recent weeks, things have been messy here. Roof iron blew off the shed roof, the python got in, as well as rats and mice. And many things were damaged. Paper did particularly poorly.
Up a ladder and [...]
I was visiting a city friend recently.
We have no oven in our shed in the bush, so the sight of someone preparing to bake was deeply satisfying.
“What are you baking?” I asked Bill, as he patted the lumpy, brown blobs. Knowing he was a vegetarian, I was prepared for lentil burgers.
“Chocolate chip cookies,” he replied, [...]
A few months ago, I was lucky enough to have to write a short piece on evaluation for a consulting report. I reviewed what I had in my library, did a quick Internet search and decided it was time to bone up on the latest. So I took myself off for two blissful days in [...]
When I lived in Vancouver in 2007, teaching and managing a housing research project at the University of British Columbia, I had several interesting accommodation experiences. The first one was terrible: a chronically ill middle-aged couple with a dog who was dying of cancer. They slept with the dog and spent all day in their [...]
This story was prepared in response to the Durham University Colloquium/Workshop, FAITH & SPIRITUALITY IN THE CITY: Towards a Post-Secular Urbanism?, in March, 2007. The event was convened by Philip Sheldrake. As far as I know, no report has been made of that event.
It forms chapter 14 of my forthcoming book (with Dianna Hurford and Christine Wenman), Creative [...]
Today the Gypsy and I were sorting hardware. Nails and screws. It’s been a rough week in community engagement and I had to do something else than listen to bureaucrats and aggrieved residents.
I had to get my hands dirty. Get grounded.
Living on a building site generates a massive amount of mess. It’s hard to manage [...]
“Sustainability Fatigue”
I’m getting the feeling that our communities are being engulfed in a wave of “sustainability fatigue”.
“Don’t talk to me any more about climate change,” a friend says over coffee in the Village. She cradles her coffee and mumbles, “I’ve had a gutful of all that pessimistic talk!”
Two small Aboriginal children are playing in the [...]
The other day I went to a local community workshop in my small rural village. The topic is not important for my purposes and it’s not my intention to embarrass anyone.
Rather I want to make a point: there’s more to community workshops than a conversation at tables, participants scribbling down a few ideas and facilitators writing down [...]
This week, I’ve been reflecting on the responses I’ve received to my recent blog post about Mary Ann Hiserman, my friend in Berkeley who was a wheelchair user and activist for people with disability. I’ve been thinking about the actual experience of being “locked out” of an environment. And comparing it to being “locked out” [...]
