As part of our online Permaculture Design Course, we encourage participants to spend time in nature to observe. Here are some reflections from Naomi, course participant in 2022/23 on observing flow, also published on her own blog livinglearninggettingolder.com.

I’m in my early 30s and have spent much of the last decade ‘being a comedian’ which has mostly meant doing stand up, until the last few years during which I’ve been lucky enough to spend most of my time writing and acting in sitcoms for the BBC. I feel lucky and I enjoy it, but nevertheless I increasingly felt like something was missing from my life and more specifically I felt disconnected from nature and like I didn’t spend enough time outdoors, which I suppose is what ‘led me to permaculture’.

In a time that often seems dominated by conflict, economic deprivation and environmental destruction, Permaculture points into a different direction and offers opportunity.

First time novelist, Sarah Kisielowski, joined the Introduction to Permaculture weekend to find out how its principles might apply to creativity and writing.

Permaculture is an intuitive framework for change that reconnects us to each other, the natural world, and ourselves.

This was the opening definition...

This is the first of a series of short blog posts exploring the core permaculture principles and relating them to our work at Social Landscapes. 

Lately, in my work as well as on Permaculture courses, I have been exploring the topic of livelihood. Livelihood is often described as “that which sustains us” and for us in the west, more often, “that which brings in an income”.