Environmental
350: “The Devastating Number”
<!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–>
The title isn’t mine. It’s from an article on the significance of the number 350 to the 6.793 billion humans inhabiting planet Earth on 24 October 2009. I won’t make it easy by posting a link that you will, in […]
Coming up for air
It’s been almost a month since Paulo (straw and earth building maestro / permaculture teacher) and Ruth (desert environmental school and permaculture student) arrived to help get our field camp up and running. This is supposed to be an area to accommodate a few people. A proper outdoor kitchen, somewhere to keep things clean. A […]
Our house and land project in Troporiz
This starts a series of posts I will do about our house and land project in Troporiz, Alto Minho, way up North Portugal. I will separate them out by sector, so they are not too long, but the title should show what they cover. I will endeavour to put a time frame beside each theme, […]
The revolution will not be electrified
Perched high above the rolling hills of Vigo lies an expansive university complex. It’s a stunning location, an inspired choice by people who must have realised what a special setting they have: a bay that forms a natural port, protected from the ravages of Atlantic winters, surrounded by hills on all sides, a city built […]
Battling triffids
By Magnus
Our land was left to nature for 25 years or so. Lots of things grew, but the bramble was King, invading anywhere that wasn’t already thornified by something else. We cut it back between summer and autumn and since then have enjoyed a full view of the land in all its potential.
[…]
How do you prune an olive tree – and why?
By Magnus
I asked folks from a local tree nursery to come and have a look at our trees. We’d heard it was time to prune everything (before the sap starts running again when it gets warm).
So he came on Thursday despite the rain. It’s rained here most of the last month, but mostly downwards – […]
Six Degrees of Dread
By Monica
A BBC headline this morning declared that “Global Warming is ‘Irreversible’â€. Another added that “Emperor Penguins Face Extinctionâ€. A lot was written about our many woes (oil and money, food prices, storms, refugees, wars)… It was surreal to see this unfold, lifted straight out of the very pages I’ve been reading – Mark Lynas’ […]
Email to European Small Hydro Association
By Magnus
Sick of writing so much in emails, then having to rewrite it all again into bloggage, so what the hell - I’m pasting it as it is. This more or less summarises what I’m doing right now.
I am undertaking a research on the potential for old water mills to be transformed into micro hydro […]
The lady in the fish shop
It’s been raining for days on end. But in a kind of divine, falling from above, gently way. And it’s warm(ish) outside. “what fine weather”, I declare in bastardised Portuguese to the lady in the fish shop.
“Ha” she scowls, “it hasn’t stopped for weeks. Much worse than usual. Nothing dries properly”. OK, she’s not wrong […]
The earth below your feet
Cal Earth Shelters look like the business. All you need is some earth. Sandy wasteland earth will do. And some sacks. You pile them up in a concentric circle, leaving spaces for doors and windows as you go, and boom - you have a home. Well, a shelter.
Originally they were designed by architect and author, […]
“even if the cockcrow heralds the dawn, sleep on”
By Magnus Wolfe Murray
It was my day to go to the regional capital, Viana do Castelo, quite a nice Port town nestled between the sea and the mouth of the river Lima. I wanted to dig through an old register of watermills in Monção county, where we live. For some reason it’s held there, […]
What could I possibly write about?
By Alina Wolfe Murray in Bucharest. 6th January 2009
I look at the empty page, empty-minded. What could I possibly write about? I didn’t see anything spectacular today. It’s cold but the diesel didn’t freeze in my car, like it did three years ago. So it cannot be that cold. It didn’t snow, so there are […]