This is a bit nervewracking for me - I'm a researcher by trade but somehow this feels different, a little unfamiliar, without the infrastructure of a university around me. Still, it's out there now - please do fill it in if you've done a permaculture design course, whether you're doing the diploma or not - it'll be open for a good few weeks and there's a prize draw to win a year's free membership to the Permaculture Association for you or a friend.
Diploma survey
As part of the background to the research we did analysis of publicly available websites of permaculture diploma apprentices. This has been one of my favourite activities so far. I love peeking into other people's lives, looking at their photographs, reading about their projects, seeing how their minds work.
When I was considering the diploma last year, I read a lot of blogs, and they were what finally convinced me to sign up. I'd put off doing the diploma for thirteen years, partly because I wasn't entirely sure what it involved, even after reading the handbook. But reading people's accounts of their own diploma, and seeing their designs, made it all more real to me, and made me believe it was something I wanted to do too.
For the research, I was looking for information about the length of time between people's permaculture design course and the start of their diploma, their tutor for each, and any reasons they gave about wanting to do the diploma in the first place. This gave us an idea of the kinds of questions we should ask in the survey, and things to pick up in our interviews later in the summer. I found myself sucked in though, unable to stop reading after I'd found that basic information, and spent many happy evenings trawling through websites long after I should have been in bed (not good time management, I know!). Incidentally, I had to laugh as my own website came up in the search and I hadn't written the information I wanted on it anywhere!
I started this blog myself because I wanted to contribute to the wealth of information out there for people considering the diploma. I wanted my own projects to be out there in the world - not only as a finished product but also the work in progress, the bits where I couldn't decide what to do, or where it all went wrong. I haven't really fulfilled that so far, but it's one of my aims for the next few months, so expect to see me here more often as I pull together my first few projects and make decisions about the later ones. I don't want to become one of the many people who seem to have abandoned their websites after a few months.
In the meantime, if you fancy a read, here are just a few of the diploma websites I particularly enjoyed reading.
Niamhue Robins
Hedvig Murray
Aranya
Rachael
Nicole Vosper
They contain a real variety of projects, and so many different ways of writing them up. Enjoy!