Loomio
Fri 28 Apr 2017 12:16PM

Welcome everyone!

LHB Loomio Helper Bot Public Seen by 117

Hi Everyone (it's Paul, not a bot!)

Well here we are in this different space! :smiley:

Please take a moment to remind/let the group know a bit about who you are below:

  • What's drawn you here and what would you like people to know about you?
  • What particular aspect of our work do you have energy for, or are you curious about?
  • How will you get the most out of participating in this virtual space?
  • Anything else you'd like to share?

If you can bear it, please post a photo on your profile....and remember you can adjust your email settings in the bar on the left to ensure this system send you the alerts you want.

Finally, please do feel free to start any new discussion, or make a proposal that you feel serves our mission. Give it a clear frame, and as the originator, please periodically make links between yours and other threads so that we can all spark off each other and stay connected.

Let's see how we go with this!

DU

Deleted account Tue 2 May 2017 8:38AM

Hello - I'm sitting here looking over a valley on the river Avon, thick with trees. The only building you might glimpse is a 13C tythe barn and as I write, I remind myself how lucky I am. This is what I left London for 16 years ago this month. I'm a consultant working in change (most often with Transcend, like Michael and Laura my fellow members in the group), an empty nester shortly to downsize with my wife to find a good sized garden to get going with my own polycultures. Since doing my forest garden training with Martin Crawford 2 years ago and then starting this group late last year my commitment to supporting the planting of more forest gardens has only deepened, and as I've met many of you, ( and hope to meet more) my excitement has grown! It's just wonderful to have a positive project like this to fend off the waves of negative news threatening to overwhelm...
By nature I'm inclined towards making connections and looking for patterns, which has grown into a sense of wonder about systems and how they function. I became very interested in complexity theory in the 90s which gave a much more fascinating explanation to me about how life works than my original science degree. A decade later I came across systemic constellations applied in organisations which draws on family systems. There's much to learn I believe from the separate fields of family, organisational, and natural systems - and even to combine all these ways of knowing together in the leadership of change. This is what makes me so interested in forest gardens both as the 'future of food' and as great spaces for transforming ourselves :smiley:

JH

Jo Homan Fri 28 Apr 2017 3:42PM

I have been teaching people forest gardening skills since 2012 and set up Edible Landscapes London in Finsbury Park, London in 2010. In 2013, with the support of Jan Mulreany from the Brighton Permaculture Trust and Gemma Harris from Urban Harvest, I developed the first ever accredited forest garden course, Creating a Forest Garden (CAFG). I've led 53 students through CAFG and would love to make forest gardening accessible to larger numbers of people. My favourite forest garden nibbles: lovage, saltbush and shasta daisy leaves; jostaberry, raspberry and medlar fruits; calendula, Judas tree and Allium flowers; and chestnut and acorn nuts. Interviews here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gypurUsJUcg and here: http://www.ediblelandscapeslondon.org.uk/section/about I'm currently writing an accredited community orcharding course with The Orchard Project http://www.theorchardproject.org.uk/about-us/meet-team-0#Celebration%20of%20Orchards%20team but still have a big involvement with Edible Landscapes London.

DT

Daniel Tyrkiel Fri 28 Apr 2017 2:08PM

Daniel; Polish ex-pat living in the UK. Permaculture designer, Soil Food Web consultant in training, editor of Exploring the New Story - UK permaculture podcast. danieltyrkiel.co.uk

AB

Andrea Berardi Fri 28 Apr 2017 1:38PM

Thanks Paul for setting up this forum :-).

Let me introduce myself....

I'm Andrea Berardi.... My passport says I'm Italian, but actually I grew up in Africa and Asia, my wife is of Indian origins (although her parents were born in Kenya), and my kids are British :-)

superficially, I guess people would call me an 'everywhere' person....but actually, I'm more 'somewhere' than 'everywhere'.

Since my very first memories I've had a passion for the 'local outdoors', and I especially love growing things myself... I have 5 allotments and a 5.5 acre woodland.

During weekdays, I pretend to be an academic (I'm a senior lecturer in environmental information systems at The Open University), but deep down I really want to be an activist getting things done in the real world rather than staring at a computer screen all day....

Having said that, I'm currently exploring the possibility of getting people to stare at screens in Forest Gardens.... I'm putting together a number of projects exploring the potential for augmented reality gaming in drawing out community members that wouldn't usually venture into the outdoors....

I'm passionate about shifting responsibility for the transformation towards sustainability away from a small clique of experts towards something embraced by everyone! :-)

That's me.

Andrea