HUMPTY DUMPTY SYNDROME by Peter Cowman

The world has a certain Humpty Dumpty quality to it at the moment.  As all the king’s horses and all the king’s men strive to put the poor fellow together again we stand and watch as if there might be some possibility of success.

As children we resigned ourselves to the fact that this cosmic egg inspired figure was shattered for good and all time.  However, in the grown up world we seek to rewrite history by believing that the king’s resources are sufficient to mend the fallen icon’s fatal fractures.

So the printing presses run forging money with which to paper over the cracks that have shattered our world.  Such illusions are not worth the paper they are printed on.

However, where most people in the developed world have been prevailed upon to buy into this illusion they have a vested interest in success of the salvage operations.

This directly relates to the markey value of the paper they hold – usually the Title Deeds to their homes  – and to the level of repayments which they are obliged to meet in order to retain a modicum of control over their properties and their lives.

This is the reality with which many people are faced and it is the reason why many people are hoping that the king’s men will be successful.

Well we all know the eventual outcome of this situation.  Tears will have to be shed and we will have to resign ourselves to the fact that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.

Complaining about deficient politicians, greedy bankers, rogue traders or dishonest developers is all a waste of time.  We have to get in tune with what is happening and craft our way forward from there.

More than anything it is the emotions within to this story which demand our attention.  We first need to express our fears, to express our anguish, to hit bottom before we can craft a new reality.

The emotions which fuel our quest for life are the self same ones which are manipulated by the economic system to turn us into witless bystanders.  We allow this to happen by surrendering control over the essentials of life – the acquisition of food and shelter.

The commercial provision of food and shelter is the foundation of the market economy.

Where food has mercifully survived the imposition of rigid legislative control concerning its production, people can still connect with the natural cycles of sowing and reaping in their quest for true reality.

On the other hand, the provision of shelter has been the subject to strict legislative control designed to render the inherent emotional value of ‘home’ in purely monetary terms.  This allows our net worth to be expressed in terms of current market valuation or degree of indebtedness to the system.

It is here, where warm emotions are turned to cold calculations, that we fall prey to illusion.

When we surrender control of our space we surrender control of our lives.  This process begins by surrendering our time.

The modern economy is built on the credo that Time Is Money.  So, when we work we happily exchange our time for money which we then use to provide for our need of food and shelter.  So it is the merry-go-round of the modern world is fuelled.

But, where Time is eternal it is assumed, because of the belief that Time Is Money, that money is also eternal.  It is this illusion which stimulates the demand for endless growth which drains the world of vitality.  Our selves and our homes are also drained of vitality as we labour under this illusion.

In the ancient architectural traditions of Vastu and Feng Shui the incorporation into a building a flow of life energy, or ‘chi’, was considered to be essential for the wellbeing of its occupants.

It is the absence of chi a building will feel dead – an all to familiar experience in the modern world.

To revitalise our buildings we must first revitalise our selves.  This process begins by reclaiming our space and our time, relinquishing trust in the king’s men thereby constructing a new reality.

This is the brink on which many people now find themselves poised, contemplating the question of where to start.

One starts by acknowledging the fact that the flow of life energy, or chi, is invisible and cannot be seen.  Chi is perceived through our emotions and is experienced as a feeling of wellbeing.

The presence of chi in our homes can bring immense benefit to our lives.  To avail of this our lives must be harmonious with the natural world from which chi flows.  This invisible realm speaks to our emotional selves, quite different from the realm of rational and logic which speaks to our minds.

To attract chi to our homes, whether they be existing or new buildings, we first have to acknowledge the invisible realms from which it flows.  This is largely a matter of persuading one’s mind to share power with one’s intuition.  This rebalancing creates a new view of the world and inspires a re-evaluation of the direction, values and commitments of our individual lives.

By bringing our lives and homes into closer harmony we can recapture our space and consequently our time.  This is vital if we are to live our lives fully.  Such a change also offers us the opportunity of acknowledging that the kings men will never be able to put poor old Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Such liberation has it consequences – feeling the dead weight of negative equity or feeling locked into a life that is not really true to ones deeper self.  All such emotions are characteristic of the major change which the world is experiencing right now.

Resisting this change allies us to the illusion that the king’s men are succeeding and so mires us in the disentgrating modern world.  To escape this fate we must step outside the familiar into the unknown, embrace our fears, shed our tears and trust that the benificience of the universe will lead us to fulfillment.

The Gift of Rainwater by Alanna Moore

Alanna will be giving a talk on water at 11am on Sunday June 7th 2009 at the Eco Living Festival.

Water, water everywhere in Ireland! Wow – what a wonderful resource! But not much use seems to be made of it. There is a tradition of using underground water supplies and springs, but many of these suffer from contamination from sewerage and agricultural chemicals, such as nitrates, and are now undrinkable.

Nowadays we put up with all sorts of nasty chemicals put into the water supply in the name of ‘purity’. Fluoride is just one little horror in mains water – toxic medication for the masses at unknown doses! Not surprisingly, most people are uneasy about drinking water from the tap, but they are fairly unaware of the best natural sources for drinking, resorting to buying endless bottles of commercially produced water. All very unsustainable.

Apart from pure sources of spring water, the next best thing for drinking is rainwater and there definitely is no shortage of that! Rainwater can be delicious to drink and, being so soft, is wonderful to wash your hair with.

As well, the plants in your garden will sigh with relief when you stop watering them with tap water. Chlorine in the mains water supply is a killer for soil bacteria and plants always do better on rainwater.

Collecting and storing rainwater
Collecting rainwater isn’t difficult, but you need to be careful. Air pollution can be a problem if it falls on your roof, but fortunately there is not a lot of industry in Ireland to worry about. Aerial crop spraying can make rainwater undrinkable. Tar based roof coatings can bind organic chemicals, such as pesticides, to the roof surface and are not recommended for the collection of rainwater.

Heavy metals from household plumbing, old peeling lead paint, and metal roofs and tanks can be a problem in water too. If there is more than one sort of metal on your roof, gutters and spouting, then the interacting metals will more rapidly leach into your water.

Creosote, as fallout from your wood fire/heater chimney/flue is another one to think about – a known carcinogen. Government guidelines suggest not collecting rainwater from parts of roofs where chimney flues are. But this is kept quiet by wood heater makers and retailers. How do you separate the flue part of the roof from your collection system easily, without prior planning? What is the level of risk? It’s hard to find out…

When it comes to storage in rain tanks, new concrete tanks can leach lime and give elevated pH levels to water, if they don’t have plastic liners.
New zinc tanks give an unpleasant metallic taste to the water.

Plastic containers are notorious for leaching plasticizers into water and this hazard can act as an endocrine disruptor. On a small scale, try to find glass containers, or keep your water kept in hard plastic 20litre water containers kept in a cool, dark place, to reduce leaching.

Over time and without filtering and care, sludgey debris will start to accumulate in the bottom of your water tank. After a couple of years this can start to get on the nose. I

Welcome to the third issue of Living Lightly, in May 2009 it’s coming at a time for high action in the garden. As you make busy sourcing all those wonderful, organic heritage seeds and plants to grow, don’t forget to mark your calendars for June 6 – 7th, when our biggest event unfolds- the Eco-Living Festival, being held at Drumsna, Co. Leitrim.

At the festival we’ll be screening a wonderful film from the Seed Savers of Australia, about the amazing diversity of food gardens in Papua New Guinea, Asia and Pacific regions: ‘Seeds Bilongum Yumi’ (seeds belong to you and me). You are sure to be totally inspired to see people with some of the oldest and most sustainable gardening systems in the world (going back around 9000 years).

After the Festival we can all relax and enjoy the long summer days and lush garden growth. Here at our green meadow base of Sheeoge, in south Leitrim we’ll be building an Econospace cabin and developing the permaculture gardens. You can have a chance to see them at the Eco-Fest and also during some of the workshops we’ll be presenting in sustainable food and shelter over summer / autumn. For workshop listings, check out the events pages at this website.

Happy gardening!

Alanna Moore, editor.

The Ubiquitious Phormium and its Uses

Phormiums are strappy leaved plants, common in Irish gardens, that are originally known as Harakeke in the Maori language, or New Zealand Flax, in their far-off country of origin. Coming in a variety of colours, from variegated yellow and green to chocolate and purple, they are often seen in modern landscaping design, where they make a bold statement of form.

But who knows Phormium’s origins and it’s uses? That they were once fundamental to clothing, basketry for food gathering and cooking, as well as for mats, drinks and walls for shelter for Maori people?
Phormium tenax (also P. cookianum) has been the commonest source of traditional weaving material for Maori for many centuries. It comes in some 200 varieties, all of which were named and recognised for their special values for particular types of weaving.

Mythic connections
In Maori mythos Harakeke was the child of Wainui, the Mother of Waters, and loved to play beside her. She is still happy to live around the fringes of Wainui’s swamps and streams. But it’s a tough plant too, also good for drier, colder and hotter situations.

Harakeke is also associated with the goddess Hine-te-iwaiwa who rules weaving, plaiting and other arts, and also childbirth; she was personified by the moon. Hina, as she was often called, once had all newborn female children dedicated to her, but entry to the House of Weaving was dependent on a girl’s ability and patience to develop weaving mastery. Weaving was a sacred/tapu activity involving many rituals. Women adept at weaving were considered with great esteem. An old saying went that one should – “marry the woman who goes continually to the flax clump.”

Such was the respect paid to Harakeke that any unused fibres left over from weaving were always buried beside the plant and never burnt.

Migration of weaving skills
Some three thousand years ago the ancestors of the Maori travelled in wooden canoes over great distances from their homeland in Taiwan to populate the Pacific region. The indigenous peoples of Taiwan are known for their great weaving prowess, which they still practise today. As they migrated south across the vast Pacific Ocean they adapted their weaving skills to suit the locally available vegetation.

When the ancestors arrived in New Zealand from the Cook Islands to the north, around one thousand years ago, they brought with them the paper mulberry plant, which required its bark to be pounded to create cloth suitable for clothing. But most of New Zealand was too cold for this plant to survive, so they turned their attention to the Harakeke plants, so commonplace there. Weaving skills must have still lurked in their very DNA! Later, when Europeans invaded the country, the whiteman also recognised the value of this plant and developed an export industry of its fibres.

(It was also interesting to discover, on a recent trip to Taiwan, that facial tattoos are common to the indigenous people there, as well as to the Maori. Indigenous Taiwanese languages are the proto-languages for all the Polynesian peoples.)

Weaving with flax
It’s a simple and easy process to learn basic weaving techniques using Harakeke. One selects whole, healthy, mature leaves from the outside edges of the plant, choosing ones that are the least thick and fleshy. The traditionally ideal time of year to harvest was late summer or autumn and they were never cut during rainy weather or at nighttime.

Leaves are cut off as close as possible to the butt and are used in the green state. Don’t pick more than is needed for the short term and keep them damp until the project is finished. Remove the outside edges and midrib of each leaf. Narrow strips (5mm) can then be split for finer articles. Larger strips (20 – 25mm) are used for mats, for which the shiny side of the leaf strips are placed uppermost. Normal weaving techniques are then employed.

Other plants were used to provide dye colours and the beautiful designs and diverse weaving styles developed by Maori people can be seen in the Auckland and other New Zealand museums, including the sturdy woven wall panels of Maori traditional timber buildings.

Prepared flax
For fine garments a method of preparing the flax was used, whereby the outer fleshy layer of both sides of the leaf was scraped off clean by a mussel, oyster shell, thumbnail, or, in modern times, the back of a knife blade. The thus separated fibres are then washed in running water and lightly pounded between a couple of smooth stones. Fibres become white with a gold sheen, but lose some tensile strength in the process.

To make thread for weaving, this fibre is then rolled between the hand and thigh.

Woven walls
While similar are found throughout Polynesia, woven wall panels (tukutuku) achieved their zenith in Maori buildings. The sturdy panels combined wooden laths with reed stalks that were laced together in traditional geometric designs with Harakeke and other plant fibres, using techniques of square knotting. These were often made in-situ between ornately carved side posts and formed both interior and exterior walls. Two weavers were required to work on them, one on each side, and a different pattern on each side could be achieved. Tukutuku panels can also be made into attractive screens and room dividers.

Another use of Harakeke
Flax flowers soaked in water made a favourite drink in the old days. It was taken around by travellers in gourds and was sometimes mixed with the edible pith of the cabbage palm to sweeten it up. (This Cordyline australis is another legendary New Zealand plant frequently found in Irish gardens.)

A saying that referred to anything nice was that something was as – “sweet as the water of the flax flower”.

So for those who just thought that Phormiums were trendy (but anonymous) landscaping plants, you now know that these plants are the stuff of legends, the fibre of fine garments that kept out both rain and cold for Polynesian people in their southernmost (coldest) region, and were even fundamental to their building crafts. In fact they were integral to Maori culture.

Reference:
Riley, Murdoch, ‘Know Your Maori Weaving’, published by Viking Sevenseas NZ Ltd, 2005.

GLOBAL WARMING, err, actually it’s GLOBAL COOLING

News Clipping from
ttp://www.worldnet daily.com/ index.php? fa=PAGE.view& pageId=92557

March 22, 2009

“The modest global warming trend has stopped – maybe even reversed itself. And it’s not just the record low temperatures experienced in much of the world this past winter.

“ ‘For at least the last five years, global temperatures have been falling’, according to tracking performed by Roy Spencer, the climatologist formerly of NASA.

“A new study by Florida State University researcher Ryan Maue shows worldwide cyclone activity – typhoons, as well as hurricanes – has reached at least a 30-year low and since 2005, only one major hurricane has struck North America.

“Two more studies – one by the Leibniz Institute of Marine Science and the Max Planck Institute of Meteorology in Germany and another by the University of Wisconsin – predict a slowing, or even a reversal of warming, for at least the next 10 to 20 years.

“The Arctic sea ice has grown more on a percentage basis this winter than it has since 1979. The number of polar bears has risen 25 percent in the past decade. There are 15,000 of them in the Arctic now, where 10 years ago there were 12,000.

” ’The most recent global warming that began in 1977 is over, and the Earth has entered a new phase of global cooling,” says Don Easterbrook, professor of geology at Western Washington University in Bellingham, confidently. He maintains a switch in Pacific Ocean currents “assures about three decades of global cooling. New solar data showing unusual absence of sun spots and changes in the sun’s magnetic field suggest … the present episode of global cooling may be more severe than the cooling of 1945 to 1977.”

“Climatologist Joe D’Aleo of the International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project, says new data “show that in five of the last seven decades since World War II, including this one, global temperatures have cooled while carbon dioxide has continued to rise.”

Editors comment: All this goes against the Global Warming model normally espoused, which predicts more hurricanes, ice caps melting and hotter temperatures etc. Although there has been a lot of ice melt lately down in Antartica and more extreme drought plus heatwave days in southern Australia…

If the Big Cold (in the northern hemisphere at least) keeps up and Ireland continues to be cooler and wetter, then hot houses are going to be essential for food production. Build them onto the south side of your house as a permanent fixture and enjoy!