De - trap your house

Yesterday I got mauled. It was 'poor me' all day long.  But I saved the day with a happy ending. Here is the story.

Bedside flowers. Beautiful, and soon to be useful.

I awoke to the crashing of the recycling truck, and realized I'd forgotten to put my trash out. Too late, I stood on the street forlornly,  as a the truck drove away, and the disk of a beautiful Easter Moon disappeared down the top of the street.

Not my street, my moon, but close. Photo by Dan Heller

In my hurry to catch the recycling guys, I had not been careful when jumping out of bed. Its a terrible design, with shark-like corners jutting out. So now I was limping, as well as having to live with my own rubbish for another two weeks.

It was my first day of a writing project, so I bravely to work. But at  7 am, the construction guys next door started up.
The whine of metal cutting metal is a dentist drill to the soul. Especially when your body chemistry is already primed to be in 'attack the attacker' mode.
For hours I pretended to ignore it, as my focus scattered at every blow, and body hardened up like an aardvark.

Does the noise bother my peaceful, salad-bowl goldfish?

Why didn't I pack my bags and leave? Balmain has a nice library, lovely harbor side parks I could have sat at with laptop and picnic rugs. But like a battered wife I got all helpless, chose to stay home. There is a word for staying on the path you are already on, no matter how unhealthy. Its from the Latin 'con' (with) + 'via' (road) = Convenient.*

Plate as displayed in the living room. Interesting angle.

By afternoon I was dehydrated, had no work done,  and utterly miserable. The dehydration is just collateral damage - you can't selectively silence one cry from help from your body, and stay sensitive to other requests.

I took a nap. Then I woke up at 3.30, construction guys gone home, the air sweet with silence. The designer in me re-emerged, went into creative micro-action, and I de-angrified my house.
No matter what, tomorrow I would not be victim of anything.

1. I forced myself to drink lots of water, like it or not.
Mm, much better.

Vicious corner outed, padded, and embarrassed

2. I muzzled the bed. Tying on bandage-like cloths made vicious corners glaringly visible, and less harmful if hit. My final revenge, they are humiliated with a girly bow.

A few hours later, vengance had subsided, and I realized that visibility and distance was all I needed. The extra pillows underneath are create elegant contrast,  and are perfectly effective in protecting me from myself and my 'corner cutting' . My design was a first draft, improved to a final draft, just like my illustrations. Inventions can always do with improvements.  Its humiliating to me to live with a humiliated foe. After winning a battle, do what it takes to make sure everyone continues on with dignity. Nice thought.

3. More ribbon, to alert me that the head-banging light is near.  Making the bed always ends in tears. Till now.

Scary Light

4. I remembered something else that annoyed me - disobedient towels. They kept falling out, I kept shoving them back in.
I decided on a bit of graceful 'in-conveniance'.
I sat myself down, and asked the towels 'Whats going on?'
They told me they hadn't been folded properly, there wasn't room for the little towels to sit down flat and balanced, and they were unhappy too.
My usual way of folding in quarters does not work for this space.  I had to learn folding into thirds. A Perfect fit.
Now they can do their job well, for months. We won't fight anymore.

I prepared rugs,  warm clothes, and listed an 'out of office' work schedule for tomorrow. At the first sound of drilling I will happily choose the 'off the path' option and fly out of the house.

 I had heard a guest swear as he stubbed his toe here. Flowers now draw our eye to this danger.

What an interesting day.
For the first half I chose they misery of impotent anger and victimhood. For the second half I chose the freedom of 'inconvenience' and being a designer, not a whiner.
The second half was so much more fun.

*I made up that 'Convenient' etymology. But its a liberating way to look at things.

Highlights of NSAA National Speaker's Convention 2011, Melbourne

I left Sydney to spend the weekend at Melbourne's Crown Casino.  It was very much more profitable than it sounds.  

National Speaker's Association were having their annual conference. 200 people who's job it is to inspire Australia with their words, all in one room - I wasn't going to miss out. 

This conference had something of the quality of a diamond mine - with some people you have to look hard, get at the right angle to see their treasures, but the general effect is dazzling.  

Here I have chosen three people and ideas that set little fires alight in me:

Ngahi the Maori,  Stephen who wrote Bestseller Fish!, and Peter the forensic Investigator who builds Orphanages for Tsunami Victims.

Ngahihi o te ra Bidois

Sharing Ancestral Power 

Nahi was one of the most soft-spoken of all the speakers, with the usual 'Be All You Can Be' topic, with the expected wit and warmth and touching stories. But he brought some special guests along with him - his ancestors.
This was a big shock to me, because you know what they did - they wandered right up to me, said ' Hi,' and proceeded to hang out with My Ancestors. My Irish poet-warrior, potato farming, jumpy, famished, drunk,  vainglorious, circumnavigating Ancestors.
Who I pretend aren't there.
Millenia, Mountains worth of Ancestors, looming behind me. There they are,  vying to control me, protect me, and hoping to live out their various contrary missions in my little body.

He began his presentation by teaching us to greet each other with a Hongi. I liked this very much. If you and I meet and do something useful together one day, I hope we can have a Hongi greeting.

Along with a handshake, you touch noses, intermingling breath, twice. Once for the both of you meeting, once for the meeting and mingling of your ancestors. I later found that this means that we are no longer in a visitor/host relationships. We are intermingled, and I will now take up the duties alongside you, growing sweet potatoes, going to war. 

Nahi' did for us a traditional Maori War Haka, the 'posture -dance' the New Zealand Rugby team perform to intimidate their opponents.

The rage and power in the Haka is not something you can just DO. Conjure up yourself. Its kind of obvious that whats going on there is that you invite your warrior ancestors, the people who delivered you though the terrors of centuries, safe and sound, to take you over for a few minutes.  

Its a new and powerful idea to me, that if we 'hung out' with our ancestors more often, had a better relationship with them, problems of road rage and family violence would become transformed.  When tempted with a tantrum, we could just say to our mates, the ancestors 'Thanks for the advice and weapons grandpa, but I've got this one under control. You're old, you go take a nap now.'  Then do something USEFUL.

 Gala Dinner was a costume party this year - Cecilia and Taruni

Fish! Energy

Stephen Lunden, Author of Fish!

Stephen wrote 'Fish', which sold millions of copies. His book turns normal people into beautiful people, gives them permission to be playful and enthusiastic, and to be choosing their life, each minute.

Well done Stephen!

He didn't invent the Fish! Philosophy. 

He just observed it in action at  The world famous Pike Place Fish Market

Then he wrote it up in usable form - his book, a video, corporate education, on and on.

I was impressed that he recited a poem. Something about stars reflected in a well, blue lights on a runway.  I can't catch a poem unless its told twice, so it floated by me in patches. But he was enchanted enough by these words that he put in the effort to learn them.  

That's who he is. Someone who gets enchanted into effort.

And that impresses me.

He wanted us to experience that enchantment,  in an unfamiliar language, that of a poem. He 'played', took a risk. He lost me with he poem, but won me with the trying. 

A life full of  love is a life full of effort - willing, enthusiastic effort. That is on my mind these days.

This old bloke, with his titanium knee from too many marathons, has been running after (and a bit of running from) all kinds of adventures. 

I might too.

Detective Peter Baines - The Reverse Tsunami

If I was writing a thriller,  Bains would be a suitable name for the detective.  Curt, decisive, with an overbite jaw like Mutley. He would be seen in crumpled coats with the regulation 'scalding coffee in plastic cups'.  Give him a history of sad and horrifying things, and let him live out his fate of accomplishing something of beauty or of love.
Well, this Peter is not like that.
No, he drinks Chamomile tea.

'

Peter Bains from Hands Across the Water

Peter Baines is a forensic expert, who flies into tsunami and earthquake disasters, to leads teams in identifying bodies to be given back to relatives.
He also now builds colorful lively homes for orphaned children, simply because he decided that's something he wants to do, so he does it. 
He shares his message of 'Results, not Excuses' to corporate audiences around the world. 
When he speaks he doesn't try to be charming or inspirational.
He just is.

If you want to see an example of how to be a kind of 'Reverse Tsunami', quietly constructive, massively effective, see the website of his charity 'Hands Across the Water'.   

This project is an example of Perfect Permaculture - its completely positive, elicits action and effectiveness, and its beautiful.

To raise money, about 30 go-getters, mostly Aussies, join his 8-day bike rides. To qualify for the ride, they must raise $10,000 each. 

Hands Across the Water shows them how to do this. 

How to be utterly amazing for a few months of your life. 

As Peter goes speaking to groups around the country, the 'Eco-system' of  support that nourish his orphanages grows stronger. The pool of competent, skilled volunteers (who pay their own way), grows richer.  He didn't just build a house, he build rubber and palm plantations nearby, so the houses can sustain themselves with income of their own.

Now he is in Japan, away from his own wife and children yet again. 

I gave him my card, in case he needs translation help. I hope he doesn't call on me, because I'm in danger of doing whatever this extra-ordinary, ordinary man requests of me.

Peter Baines showing the beautiful home for beautiful orphaned children

Low-tech tricks for drawing your edible garden ideas into reality

The only reason people let me make gardens on their land is that I show them a picture of how it will look. They get captivated, they find the resources, and it all becomes real. 

I drew this self-watering useful swamp for a Tokyo Rail platform garden.  I imagined irises, purple asparagus, lotus, thyme, taro and some lovely bullrushes, for thatch.

Someone then got inspired to actually have a go at making it. Its not at a train station, and not the plants I chose, but its a really good start.

Learning to draw better is not hard.
Its just like a language nobody has taught you.  Its more fun than meditating, and you have something to show for it afterwards.
You will freak out at how you have never looked at ANYTHING until you have tried drawing it. Even the face of your most loved person - you will see it for the first time.

If you can draw on paper a garden you imagined, you have done most of the work.  The garden already exists, in your mind and you desire. Maybe it starts existing in the desire of the viewer as well.
This newly-conceived garden of yours is just waiting for a day in the diary, a shopping trip, a planting party, and these events are jumping up and down to happen.
Its a bit like those first kisses that are so good, making children is semi-inevitable.

I used to run workshops on drawing up balcony gardens, and I will again. My students improved so quickly, we all got a surprise. There are all these tricks, someone just has to show them to you.

Easy way to draw a garden


1. Take a photo of a place you wish to make lovely.

Asaba Art Square garden, before.

2. Get it up on your computer screen. Or if its a hard-copy picture, tape it under a glass table, and put a lamp underneath.

3. Put paper over the top, turn out the lights, trace over the structural things - trees, walls. Use your brain so you don't hurt your computer screen, or make anything catch fire. If you can't work out how to do this safely, its not a good idea for you to become a designer.

In my fantasy, I opened up the drains as rivers of stepping stones.  I had wall-mounted tanks and sun-catching wall-garden. The heavy bridge, I ignored. Compass on the right shows where sun will shine.

4. Erase what you don't want.

5. Now, do a Google image search of plants you think would suit. Trace them, separately.

6. Practice drawing them freehand, by looking at the simplicity of your  tracings, and the subtlety of the original photo. Do this three times, and watch yourself improve as you 'get intimate' with how this plant is shaped. (added bonus: You will have a deeper love for this plant for the rest of your life. Seeing it will give you a pang of friendship)

7. Freehand draw or trace your plants in. If tracing, copy and shrink them first in a program that gives you control over size, like Word or i-web.

Asaba Permaculture Garden color version with dachshund digging area

8. Your pencil sketch is finished!


Tips to make your tracing and 'pasting' look good

Now make it look good, in pencil or in color.
Pencil is usually enough to get a garden started, if you finish it nicely.
To add color, I put my pencil drawing back on the light box, fresh blank paper on top. I trace its outlines in Copic fine liner pen, then color in with marker pens, blending colors as I go.

Marker pen is not erasable, so I work slowly, deciding easy colors (green) first, commit to important colors last, kind of holding my breath till the end.
Just like my life.

Add contrast
Light things on dark, dark things on light, or else they all blend into shapelessness.

Make it friendly:
Can you see elements that look like they might be family, or at least friends? The orb of the passion fruit echos the sphere of the pink snail. The possum winds up the spring of his curly tail to fit in with the the passionfruit tendril. Emphasize these similarities. This brings connection and love to your picture, and keeps you entertained.

 Cull
Use minimum image to achieve maximum communication. Don't draw ten leaves when three will do the job.

Get Appreciative
Adjust things so that negative space looks good too, so that there is no rejected, leftover, useless thing in your picture. Value the marginal. Its better to use up 'unemployed' space by exaggerating the size of plants and objects, so they can express themselves to the viewer.  You make background space smaller, like a halo. Other space can be made bigger - not unemployed, but a place for the eye to rest.
Again, get decisive.

Design for my business card. Not very business-like, is it? Me neither.

Check Perspective
You don't have to use perspective, you can draw things flat, like a medieval tapestry, or a kindergarten painting.
But be decisive, don't half-use perspective, it makes the viewer uneasy. In Perspecive, all horizontal lines, like the edges of these square tins eventually converge to a point in the distance. Find that point. Check that ALL the lines converge. Check that as distance increases, objects get smaller in the right proportions.

Vanilla, Rose, and  Blueberry Tea window box garden

I didn't trace this one, so had to work the perspective out myself. Its not too bad, but not good. 

The hand-drawn lines allow me to be forgiven - everything is wonky.

Except the idea. Nothing wrong with that.

Growing your own Vanilla, Rose and Blueberry tea window-box garden: its completely possible.

Somebody please have a go and bring this picture to life for me.  

Cecilia and Kohei working, July 2010

Permaculture workshop July, with concrete wall making

Asabas garden November 2010

Asaba's garden after declutter but before construction June 2010

.

With a vision, the energy to create just appears.

4th Century Baptismal rite - healing powers of Salt, religious mystery

The other weekend I attended a baptism, which was quite a trip down memory lane. Centuries of ancestral memory, in fact, as it included a 4th Century rite.

Before they let the New Baby into the church, they had to, um, exorcise her.

So this freshly-made bundle of milky-sweet gorgeousness was rid of the devil. After that were a series of other curious acts. The priest wets his finger with his saliva, places it in her ear, and in her mouth. He then places some salt in her mouth, after performing a special rite over the salt - that gets an excorsim too.

Now as my Catholic brother pointed out, this was probably the medieval attempt at inoculation, as the priest would have been the healthiest person in the village. A little bit of pro-biotic help probably went a long way back in those plague-ridden days.

And as for the salt, I'm not sure. It might have been for oral re-hydration. It could have had a sanitizing function, as salt tends to kill life-unfriendly bacteria, sparing life-friendly bacteria. Maybe its value is simply providing an essential mineral. Salt it was worth more than gold only a few centuries ago - our bodies can function without gold, but not without salt, which could have made life tough for landbound people.

Here is the Salt excorsim:

O salt, creature of God, I exorcise you by the living got, the god who brought you into being to safeguard the human race, and commanded you to be consecrated by His servants for the benefit of those who are coming into the faith, so that by the power of the Holy trinity you might become a health-giving sacrament to put the enemy to flight. Therefore we bid the, O Lord, to sanctify this salt which thou hast created and to bless it with thy blessing, so that it may become a perfect medicine for all who receive it and may remain always in every fiber of their being.

Another curious thing, the Holy Water font. People dip in and bless themselves with this water on entering and exiting the church.  Is this a way to share the common cold, or to strengthen the immune system of all the people in the village?
For it to be so lasting a tradition, there must have been some strong reason behind it.

Now free of the devil, and ready to do great things in this world. 

****************************************************

Now that I'm in Sydney,  hanging out with my brother who mysteriously turned out to be a practicing Catholic, I've been enjoying, from a safe distance, the many rites that have been passed down.

Rites at the wedding of my brother,  St Marys Cathedral Sydney

Ive also been re-reading Bill Mollision's Permaculture Designer's Manual, which colors my days and perception of things.

Bill is known for his fondness for the aboriginal culture. People who have been given this culture can see and know things that the rest of us are oblivious to.
Bill talks with respect about their 'Songline' traditions,  about how they go around 'polishing up their country'  singing songs over the landscape to keep the rivers flowing, the grass growing.

He talks about there is rich, life-giving knowledge coded into tribal art and patterns.
A sacred aboriginal song can also work as a very old GPS system. Its like this: when you've walked to the end of those monotonous verses over a stretch of desert, you should then battle with some anthills as you sing the ant song verses. This will be followed by dramatically plunging and rising verses, that show you should now turn and enter those rocky outcrops, if you want to get to where the song is leading.....

When we loose or discard these aids to understanding, these gifts from our ancestors, life gets even more perplexting, and the lost just get more lost.

John weds Laura, December 2010. Photo by Tien

Those Catholics do strange things. 

Some of what they do seem generated 'tribally', by people in their villages, for their survival and flourishing. Other things they sing, say and do have the fingerprints of the "Princes of the Church' all over them, words to get control of the life-energy of others.  

Its all very delicate. But I'm so glad my brother and his mates are keeping these rites alive. 

One day they might come in handy.

Integrate, don't segregate - Queen tribute Band at the Melbourne Zoo

February 19th 2011

Australia's 'Freddie Mercury' teases Cecilia and Katie. Photo: Emma Hill

"Freddie Mercury in My Zoo?"

The Meerkats are skeptical.

"I can't believe it?"

But its true.

Well, kind of.
Its the Queen Tribute show, at the Melbourne Zoo twilight Series, the perfect place for all that vitality.

Once we all warmed up, Gareth Hill was a thrilling Freddie Mercury,

The greatness of Queen has to be the  'Eros' between Freddie and his audience.

The both of them are having the time of their life.

This Freddie too, got the human families dancing,

the Elephant families dancing,

and the teenage lions joining in from the back row, with their sexy Roar.

Here is the 'Permaculture' I loved about this event:

'Be Actors, not spectators' 

The people who got into some risky singing and dancing had the most fun. Life is like that.

Seeing Families enjoy each other  

I hear that families love each other, but in the western world I very rarely see it, in public. No wonder so many guys (and girls) don't want to 'commit'. "What fun would that be?" they wonder.

Never doubt the power of public enjoyment of your children. Its a gift to humanity.

'Integrate, don't segregate' 

This way we got to see Splendid Zoo and Splendid Show for Modest Money. People who wouldn't have seen the Zoo got a peek, and will come back, their next visits again supporting this not-for-profit conservation society.  They may be re-inspired - sometimes it takes a few goes. Pretty much everything you want to learn about how to create beauty is being demonstrated in the gardens of the Zoo. 

'Time Stacking'  

The Zoo is otherwise closed and unappreciated at night, these events make more of a brilliant resource.

'Increase useful diversity' 

Its great to be chewing on my picnic dinner, enjoying a pat every now and then from my sister, then wander over to watch the lions chew on their dinner, and share a bit of nestling up. Humans aren't the only life forms. Eating, affection, and family are needed by all of us.

'Don't re-invent the wheel'

Freddie did a great job, he is already known. Gareth doesn't have to create his own following, he can borrow our affection for Queen, do a great job, and everyone is happy.  Janet Millington's presentation at APC 10 reminded me 'borrow and extend existing achievments'  is the #1 priority for my Permaculture this year.

Katie my sister is the one who brought me along, a kind of farewell to my stay with her & Jorge in Melbourne. At the end she suggested we invite this Freddie to my sister April's 'Bring a Celebrity' Costume party.
I was too shy.

But I did!

What did I find out later - Gareth is a big Permaculture fan, who is looking forward to making time & allies to re-start his heritage- seed gardens.

Gareth, you are an inspiration! xx