Today was a good day. When is a day standing in a muddy field in the pouring rain not a good day? Well, today … I got in the zone!

I only found out on Saturday that Lisa had half-term this week and I would be able to get on with the trees [...]]]>

Today was a good day. When is a day standing in a muddy field in the pouring rain not a good day? Well, today … I got in the zone!

I only found out on Saturday that Lisa had half-term this week and I would be able to get on with the trees so its been a bit stressful feeling I “had to” get all the trees in by the end of the week and I “had to” make sure I had enough trees for people to plant. Feeling under pressure from these obligations I was putting on myself and worrying about not having all of the trees detracted from the bigger picture and, to be honest, made it all a bit of a chore. Well I collected the last of the trees last night and I decided I didn’t really have to get all of the trees planted this week, and I even got a chance to check with Lisa that she was actually OK with me rushing off to the land for a week (I kind of missed that bit in my excitement, but luckily she was forgiving). So today all this allowed me to look up from the ground and look out over the whole ten acres of newly created woodland and just think … wow, this is just too cool! This combination of efforts from all sorts of directions has created and will nurture this amazing resource. And once the pressure was off I felt really energised, it stopped being such a chore (I’m probably a bit fitter after a couple of days too) and I could get back to loving being there on a hillside surrounding by sweeping vistas and working on such an exciting project.

Saying that the rain was spectacular today; it alternated between torrential downpours and sunshine. The rain came in from the same direction the slope faces over a ten mile wide bowl of ridges. So I’d be standing in the sun and able to watch these solid walls of rain as they slowly crept over the valley towards me. And it being the first time out in my waterproofs I didn’t realise the rubber had perished over the shoulders so the rain slowly seeped in and dribbled down my arms. I went and bought a new jacket at lunchtime and that allowed me to see it all a bit more poetically in the afternoon.

So roll on Day 4 of the tree-planting adventure. Another 120 oaks went in today, so 450 so far. That’s just 350 oaks, 100 hazels, 100 willows and 50 elder to go.

I was down in the valleys on Saturday building a willow dome for the opening of their community garden.

NVC is an excellent bit of kit to have in your communications toolbox, I highly recommend it. You can out more  here.

See the flyer below for details

NVC Introduction course [...]]]> A close friend of ours Gayano Shaw will be holding an introduction to Nonviolent communication (NVC) course at her home in May.

NVC is an excellent bit of kit to have in your communications toolbox, I highly recommend it. You can out more  here.

See the flyer below for details

NVC Introduction course flyer

Living Willow Wales (me and Lisa) did our first willow stall back on Oct 10th 2009 at the Lampeter Apple Day, and lots of fun it was too! Getting everything together was hard work but it seemed to be appreciated. And we even [...]]]>

Living Willow Wales stall at Lampeter Apple Day Oct 10th 2009

Living Willow Wales (me and Lisa) did our first willow stall back on Oct 10th 2009 at the Lampeter Apple Day, and lots of fun it was too! Getting everything together was hard work but it seemed to be appreciated. And we even had enough space to put up all of the willow letters we had made.  I was a little worried about this as although planned to be smaller our letters ended up each being about a foot high. We put on a little mini workshop for the children by bringing along a couple of Rose’s small table and chairs and providing paper, charcoal pencils (willow of course), willow rods and various willow shapes to copy. Rose did get a little territorial at one point and excluded all other children from the stall by building a barricade of chairs – she’s such a sales women! Several children where running around with willow wands (a simple willow star shape) by the end of the day. We also brought along samples of eachof the different kind of willow that we grow. We’re mainly using and selling the fast-growing structural willow (Viminalis and a viminalis x triandra) at the moment but are building up our stocks of various ornamental and basketery willow. The Salix Ethroflexuosa being the most visually impressive, being corkscrewed and bright red. We had lots of interest in the photos we’ve got of some of the amazing things people have done with willow especially Marcel Kalberer. I wouldn’t say we’ve done anything truly amazing yet, but I’m quite excited about the 40ft space ship we’ve got planned this winter!

As well as us, and apart from the appley things going on (people could bring there apples for pressing), Gary was there with his Maesyffin Mushrooms - loved the pate; a local shoe maker; a miller with flour created using one of the few genuine water mills still in operation; Transistion Lambed; and a couple of other stalls I didn’t get chance to look at.

So with the great weather, all in all a great day out.

There is more information at the Living Willow Wales website.

From their site: “It’s apple and pear time of the year. In our shop we are now selling a wide range of UK produced apples and pears. To celebrate [...]]]> We (Living Willow Wales) will be having our first ever willow based stall at Organics Apple Day  on Saturday Oct 10th at 11am until 3am.

From their site: “It’s apple and pear time of the year. In our shop we are now selling a wide range of UK produced apples and pears. To celebrate this year’s apple harvest, in conjunction with the local Permaculture Group we are organising an APPLE DAY. This year it will be held on 10th October at our shop in Lampeter, from 11am to 3pm. A local apple and tree specialist will be attending and we aim to have a range of local products and producers to help us celebrate. Hope you can join us.”

Very impressive. It was built under the guiding hand of Tony Wrench of ‘that roundhouse‘ fame. I’ve seen another [...]]]> I throught I’d make the most of the glorious weather and go for a stomp/board in Long Wood today. I ended up at Hob’s Garden and took a look at the new roundhouse that’s been built up there.

Very impressive. It was built under the guiding hand of Tony Wrench of ‘that roundhouse‘ fame. I’ve seen another one he did at Denmark Farm and he does a very tidy job. It’s really enhanced an already idylic spot hidden away in the wood. I spent a very pleasant afternoon chasing the sunny patches around the glade to find a warm spot to read in.

P.S. I’ve added the rest of the photos onto Flickr