I'm getting myself all in a jumble here.
There are so many things I want to write about (my garden, my chicken keeping course, how I'm slowly clearing things from our house), and yet I keep being stuck behind things I feel I should write about (my action learning pathway, individual designs, what's in my learning agreement).
Somehow, the logical part of my brain is telling me I need to write the functional, informative, background posts first.
But they're not so easy to write, and so nothing is getting written at all.
So instead, let me sit down and tell you a little more about me, and then I'll just start writing higgledy piggledy posts about what I'm doing now, and the background stuff can come later (maybe).
My introduction to permaculture
I first came across the concept of permaculture at university. My boyfriend at the time was writing his dissertation about permaculture, and was using a little book called 'The Permaculture Plot' to find people who practiced it. I travelled with him to visit some of the people in the book, and discovered a world of beautiful, productive back gardens and creativity.
After university I did a two week permaculture design course at Ragman's Lane Farm, with Patrick Whitefield. I don't think I quite realised at the time just how well known and respected Patrick was, and therefore just how lucky I was.
Ragman's Lane is a special place, and as well as what we learned on the course I remember a beautiful pink ceramic stove that burned willow, plums growing around the wall of the house, and a home made hot tub in the back garden.
I tried to put what I'd learned into practice at an allotment project I volunteered for, but with no experience of growing food, and no other people who knew about permaculture, it wasn't to be.
Years of distractions
My interest in permaculture never left me, although life took me in different directions for a while. I spent some time working in youth hostels, and a bit of time living on a boat. I started a PhD, and thus began a journey which would take eight years of sitting in front of a computer tearing my hair out.
Despite these distractions, I did spend a little time volunteering in the office of the Permaculture Association in Leeds, and if I'd lived there would have spent a lot more time doing that, as it was a lovely, friendly, supportive place to work. I'd highly recommend it if you're close by.
In 2005 I got two overgrown abandoned allotments, but they were too much for one person who was heavily weighed down by a PhD, and in 2008 I gave them back to the council. By then I'd moved into my current home, an end terrace house on a little street with a tiny, oddly shaped garden.
This tiny garden
This tiny garden is where I grow, and for inspiration I have a community garden around the corner, and a community allotment up the road. That's plenty for me.
I'm slowly immersing myself back in the permaculture world and I don't think I'm going to regret it, wherever it takes me.