Wendy is mining the Jarlanbah archive and discovering much about the guiding principles that has been lost. There is much to learn here!
Wendy introduces a new blog that will eventually become a dedicated website: about her eco-community, the Jarlanbah Permaculture Hamlet, a brilliant dream of social and ecological harmony that is still to be fully realised. She outlines some of the current problems, some of the founding principles and suggests that there is still much to do to realise the original dream. Confronting bullying is one important step.
Wendy asks how it can be that some of her neighbours in a low-density eco-village want to ban dual occupancy (or accessory dwelling units ADUs) because they think it’ll wear out the infrastructure and turn the place into a slum and a ghetto.
Wendy extols the virtues of a composting toilet after four years living in the bush without one. She discovers that the model approved by her local council was designed in Berkeley by the highly influential but no longer operating Farallones Institute in 1976.
Wendy bemoans the endless delays (often caused by inesperienc in owner building) in finishing the guest room so that she and Karl and welcome guests to stay in their bush abode.
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!). [...]
