a short post about a personal hero.

2 years ago i read david holmgren’s excellent ‘permaculture: principles and pathways beyond sustainability’. you can read my review here.

at the end of june i was lucky enough to be on a 3 day advanced permaculture course at the hollies taught by david.

it was great to meet him in person and to download a portion of his brain! i will look forward to using some of his original, powerful and profound insights whilst developing the land at coolcaha ballydehob.

just in case you don’t use it, read this review in the guardian and then visit: wikipedia. this is what the best of the internet is all about.

in march i linked to info. about european software patents.

in july i celebrated that the proposed eu patent law was rejected by a near unanimous vote.

however richard stallman has written an excellent piece in the guardian. well worth reading and if you use Free software, support the ongoing campaign.

immediately after the permaculture course i went to a conference in kinsale called fuelling the future.

this was the brainchild and baby of rob. and what a brilliant idea and effort it was - hats off to rob who even missed the permaculture convergence in croatia to do all the organising. the best bet for those who aren’t aware of this whole peak oil thing yet, is to have a look at the ftf website and buy yourself a copy of the end of suburbia.

what made fuelling the future so refreshing was the positive, creative solutions angle that rob bought to the challenge of peak oil.

there is a double dvd of the conference for sale. it has videos of all the main speakers. let me know if you want to buy a copy.