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 [...]
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 [...]
Smoke on the horizon of her Nimbin property in northern New South Wales reminds Wendy of her first bushfire in Humpty Doo in the Northern Territory 1991 and gets her thinking about trees, fear and fear of fire. The full story of her first bushfire is available as a download.
This week, when the storms came and the rats and python got into the shed, I had to do some quick work to rescue my scrapbooks. I was unprepared for the emotional impact.
But the urgent task became a meditation and yielded a great blessing.
My father’s American Green Card (such a valuable treasure for a Canadian!). [...]
My friend, Peter, the local real estate agent, came over the other day to see how the building was coming along. He’s been cheering us on, especially during the storms and floods. I found a plan and we walked around the building site.
“Great that it’s all on one level,” Peter smiled, pointing to the ramp on the drawing.
“Retirement [...]
When there’s morning fog in our valley – as there is today – I go inside. I can no longer see the sacred mountains my activist neighbours saved from logging with fierce campaigns in the seventies and eighties.
My daily glimpse of a politicised landscape to remind me what’s important.
What we’re fighting to save.
My forest.
Even my tiny [...]
Living in the bush has its limitations, to be certain. We have most things in my village of 350, largely due to our hectic tourist trade: a pharmacy, a hospital, doctors, a post office, a hardware store, a garage, great organic food, fine coffee and an excellent hairdresser.
I’m always comforted to hear from my hairdresser that [...]
Jarlanbah Eco-village, Nimbin, NSW
The Introduction to Kitchen Table Sustainability starts the book off on a bucolic, if pessimistic, note. Three of the authors are sitting around the tables on the porch of our shed here in Nimbin and speculating about the future and the future of all generations – of all beings.
So far, so good.
All [...]
