Permaculture
Convergences are events that bring together people involved or interesed
in permaculture design in order to share skills and learn from each
other. This years event was hosted by Plants
For A Future and took place on the 5th to the 7th of May. It was
a stunning weekend with amazing weather. Warm and sunny with cloudless
skys, the PFAF Blagdon site was a great setting for the convergence.
The
visit was particularly interesting for Ben who had lived at the site
over the winter of 1999/2000 with Clare and had been involved in the
tree planting of the 16,000 plus trees three years ago. These trees
now stand over 15ft (4m) tall! The site provides a vivid reminder
of both the degrading effect of modern intensive agriculture and how
such land can quite quickly begin to be restore using permaculture
design principles.
We
had offered to take along loads of ex-army canvas along to provide
a marquee for 'indoor' workshop space. This would also as be used
as a venue for the pedal powered cinema that we had taken with us
to provide some evening entertainment. We also set up a large bell
tent to provide crash space for those without tents and a large ridge
tent to accommodate ourselves.
Within
the marquee we set up the pedal power stuff and information boards
and a table full of leaflets and books were also placed there. After
setting up our gear we helped with the creation of a new compost loo
which would be used both by people on this convergence and for future
users of the camping field at Blagdon.
Among
the activities of the weekend were a number of woodland walks, one
which consisted of a wild food foray. During the walk we came across
a wooden 'xylophone' that had been made by they people who had been
coppicing during the winter. This device turned out to be quite musical
in the skilled hands of a few talented individuals.
Another
part of the woodland walk experience was the opportunity to 'meet
a tree' which involved the group pairing off into twos. One person
in each pair was blindfolded, spun around and led to a tree. The blindfolded
person would then feel the tree for a while before being led away
again, spun around once more and release from the blind fold. The
idea then was for the person to try to identify the tree that they
had met. About 90% of people did succeed.
We
offered a number of workshops during the weekend. One was a knots
workshop which proved to be very useful for us too. Mostly however
the weekend consisted of practical stuff (eg. building an edible rockery)
because the weather was far too nice to be spent sitting in discussion
based workshops.
In
the evenings we sang around a fire, or watched videos on the pedal
powered cinema. We also showed a slideshow about Steward Community
Woodland. Pete sang his some songs he has written and we even got
Devin to sing 'Cows With Guns'.
On
the final day we took everything down, packed up and had a swim before
saying our goodbyes and loading the van for the trip back to the woods.
We had had a great time and learned loads.
We
had offered to take along loads of ex-army canvas along to provide
a marquee for 'indoor' workshop space. This would also as be used
as a venue for the pedal powered cinema that we had taken with us
to provide some evening entertainment. We also set up a large bell
tent to provide crash space for those without tents and a large ridge
tent to accommodate ourselves. 
Within
the marquee we set up the pedal power stuff and information boards
and a table full of leaflets and books were also placed there. After
setting up our gear we helped with the creation of a new compost loo
which would be used both by people on this convergence and for future
users of the camping field at Blagdon. 
Among
the activities of the weekend were a number of woodland walks, one
which consisted of a wild food foray. During the walk we came across
a wooden 'xylophone' that had been made by they people who had been
coppicing during the winter. This device turned out to be quite musical
in the skilled hands of a few talented individuals. 
Another
part of the woodland walk experience was the opportunity to 'meet
a tree' which involved the group pairing off into twos. One person
in each pair was blindfolded, spun around and led to a tree. The blindfolded
person would then feel the tree for a while before being led away
again, spun around once more and release from the blind fold. The
idea then was for the person to try to identify the tree that they
had met. About 90% of people did succeed. 
We
offered a number of workshops during the weekend. One was a knots
workshop which proved to be very useful for us too. Mostly however
the weekend consisted of practical stuff (eg. building an edible rockery)
because the weather was far too nice to be spent sitting in discussion
based workshops.
In
the evenings we sang around a fire, or watched videos on the pedal
powered cinema. We also showed a slideshow about Steward Community
Woodland. Pete sang his some songs he has written and we even got
Devin to sing 'Cows With Guns'. 
On
the final day we took everything down, packed up and had a swim before
saying our goodbyes and loading the van for the trip back to the woods.
We had had a great time and learned loads.