"If we sow too many seeds then we will find ourselves with more than we can properly care for"
(Looby Macnamara, People and Permaculture, p85)
None of them are real seeds, of course (I haven't sown a single real seed this year) - instead they are ideas, projects, and tasks, which take up my time and pray on my mind. Sometimes they grow into beautiful things, but more often than not they wither and die from lack of nourishment (much like when I sow real seeds...).
I'm going to try to make a bit of sense of things in this post.
If it does all go ahead as planned there will be more challenges, as our new house comes with land. Several acres of it. For which we currently have no plan. Our friends have helpfully come up with many suggestions from festivals (no) to a pet cemetery (interesting), to digging a large moat (tempting, but I'm not sure what the national park authority would have to say). At least there will be plenty of scope for permaculture design.
Right now I'm most looking forward to sitting in the middle of it and not having to speak to anyone...
I love my job, which is good, because I'm going to have to continue doing it for many years while we pay off our new mortgage (which we've not yet been offered - a source of ongoing frustration). However, this is definitely an area where I have sown too many seeds.
I wrote in this post how I was starting to think of my job in terms of it being a right livelihood, and was planning some design work around it, which is ongoing.
I have an academic job in a university, and have found it helpful to think in terms of a seasonal pattern of energy use over the year, with energy outputs peaking at the start of term (now) and settling a little as classes get underway, before peaking as assessments are due before Christmas. There's a break over Christmas, then we have another peak (not as high as the first) as the start of the second term coincides with the end of the marking period, then again we flatten out throughout the term, before a smaller peak for second assessment and marking period at Easter. Summer is a time of rest, rejuvenation and projects - and also a time when I make too many plans and take on far more commitments than I have time for.
I'm finding it really interesting to think about work in this way so I'll write more about that soon.
I've agreed to use my mum's garden as one of my diploma designs. She often finds her garden overwhelming, so anything I can do to help with that is good. It also means I have another land-based design for my portfolio (a stepping stone between our current tiny garden and the several acres we're trying to buy).
- Write a draft of my 'work' design for this website
- Do some design work on Mum's garden
- Make some progress towards moving (I have very little control over this but surely we must have made *some* progress by the end of October, right?)