The last couple months have been a dream and I have realized that I have not blogged since last in New York for part 2 of Visionary Permaculture. I didn’t even do a true review of September.
So, now that things are slowing as we enter the darkness of winter, here is a quick synopsis:
In September I:
- Finished up a Permaculture Design project and implememntation in Riverbend which included a rain garden, mini forest garden and an annual mandala bed.
-Spent a good portion if time working on a deisgn for a local Calgary homebuilder.
-Attended Evolver and Permaculture Guild meetings.
-Continued the volunteer program at the AREA.
- Coordinated the new Inglewood and Ramsay Farmers market
- Helped to plan the awesome Abundance Festival.
Here is a great photo from the Farmers Market
I did all of this before a special trip to New York for the Equinox and the Visionary Permaculture course. September was a whirlwind for sure. I had just returned from doing festivals all summer and was learning how to get in the flow of creating my own schedule since leaving my job. It took a few weeks to get into a good flow. It is very interesting getting into this new way of living and I have been excited to get deeper and deeper into the Permaculture consciousness.
September ended with a bang with the celebration of the Abundance Festival and led into a very interesting October.
In the first 2 weeks of the month we did our final harvests of the AREA garden and put it to bed. We also did a huge compost revamping and started to create the hoop houses out of willow branches and they look so beautiful!
Wintery Willow Hoop houses
I spent a good portion of October preparing curriculum to teach my very first introduction to Permaculture Course, I was so happy with the way it turned out! I had 5 amazing students in my class and learned so much from our guild. I am very excited to teach it again with some small upgrades and modifications.
There were a few endings, the Farmer’s Market came to conclusion, as well as the garden volunteer program (just for the season) and my internship with Verge Permaculture.
The last week of October was spent in Fort McMurray starting my first ever session of Learning Through The Arts teaching. This is a unique program that pairs artists with teachers to teach the traditional school curriculum more creatively. This contract lasted for 3 full weeks and involved me flying to and from Fort McMurray every week. It was nice to be able to come home on the weekends but it made for a lot of travel! So far this is one of the most challenging things I have done, the school system is severely broken and classrooms are so large that it makes it almost impossible to reach the kids. It is so worth being there, even if it reaches one student, I am able to learn about the way the system works in preparation for a full permaculture redesign!
November brought with it a ton of adventure, starting with an epic teacher training on the Sunshine coast in BC with Larry Santoyo and Scott Pittman. Over 5 days we were able to glean some pretty special stuff from them as well as have a great opportunity to teach.
Here I am doing my teaching segment Larry and Scott are on either side of me :)
For my segment I used a brand new template of a game that i am developing that teaches the Permaculture principles. It worked out really great and i got alot of fantastic feedback that will help me improve it and make it super awesome for its release in the new year.
At the teacher training i had a special Diploma meeting with Scott, Larry and Delvin and then made a special promise to Larry that i would teach Permaculture Design Courses. i very rarely make promises so this was very meaningfull. There are very few female teachers out there, so I will hopefully be the next!
Another extremely potent meeting that happened during the adventure was meeting 2 very special members of Gaiacraft, a Permaculture education initiative i was recently invited to join. Gaiacraft is changing the way we share education, keep an eye out for my teaching tools to be on the site in the new year! You can also get some great tools on the site now that Delvin, Lunaya and few others created together. I am so grateful to be apart of this inspiring project and look forward to the many collaborations it will bring. Our website is: www.gaiacraft.com
Here we are gaian visionaries and core Gaiacraft crew: Shane, Kym, Lunaya and Delvin!
After the teacher training i spent a few days in Roberts Creek and helped Delvin in his gardens to create a special guild in a new bed in the heart gardens called Alabaster Terrace.
Me and Del in the garden :)
After the coast I stayed in Vancouver with close family friends for a few days and got to catch up with some special people. I also got to collaborate with a great friend Heather on some new teaching tools she graciously offered to help create!
Then it was off for a short trip to Portland where I stayed with another core Gaiacraft member Keala. What a great host. We made the most of our time checking out city repair sites, meeting Michael Becker (one of my biggest heroes of all time), doing a kundalini chakra dance class, walking up Mount Taber, attending a Thanksgiving ceremony, touring the planet repair institute and pulling an all nighter to do some visioning on the CoSM site. It was such a dense and inspiring time!
Me and Keala at a City Repair site
Planet Repair Institute
Me, Michael Becker and Keala
After leaving Portland I flew to New York where I am now, staying at the beautiful CoSM retreat. I have been here for over a week and there is much to share, but alas that will come in its own special post!
If you are interested in any details regarding any events in this post, I will be creating individual posts about my internship, teacher training, teaching tools, Planet repair , Michael Becker and the Visionary Permaculture course on my Giggling Chi Tree blog.
As a last remark, I would like each of you reading to know that I am grateful for your presence in my life, we are living in such a special time and every interaction we have is so meaningful.
Love and blessing to all beings,
kym chi
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