This is my dream: To live as my forefathers once did - in harmony with the land that sustains us. A project to investigate and innovate the creation of a low impact home with methods of living in a form of permaculture designed to sustain my family and improve biodiversity. To leave the land richer than before and in doing so enable others to do so.
Finding my feet
Posted 02/11/09 by Matt B in the Green Moral category
For all the blogging I do I more often than not need to play about with the format, the tempo and the content before I find the passion that drove me to make the blog to start with.With this topic, for example, I am deeply in love with the dream to found an eco village. I am deeply moved by our need to be more ethical in our dealings with the planet. I am profoundly moved by the blindness we all exhibit.
I think the problem is that being green is a doing thing not a talking thing and I need to find some way to talk about the doing. While I am doing that please forgive me if I do not update all that often.
When I dream this is what I dream
Posted 29/09/09 by Matt B in the Green Moral category
I imagine myself, sometimes, just sitting outside to the edge of a communal area under the shelter. I watching the children playing chase around the open centre as they diver under the high drying poles where recently harvested herbs hang.The centre is a large open circle where the most aspects of village life take place. It is crafted from timber and cuttings harvested from the woods and is an artistic blending of natural beauty an functional elegance. There is a harmony in this arrangement and it is here that our more expert permaculturists will start the teaching of visitors and children alike or sit in the evening and talk or debate with each other.
To my right a smiling pair of women are watching the children and preparing food in the centre's permanent cooking area. Around them are plants selected for their utility to the task at hand. A young man is fussing with the fire safly tucked into the stone oven.
Behind the women is a woven round house that contains all the village stores and resources. It was built with just six of us in only a few days and is still has the original solar panel. Inside I can just see one of the wood carvings that forms the start of the shelfs by the door. I remember fondly the day our artest started work on that. An elderly woman appears in the door way. She smiles to me and I wave back.
The smell of cooking blows on the breeze which mixes it with the scent of lavender which is prominent around the centre. Here in the shaded dinning space I lean on the table that is behind me and breath deep. It is good.
To my left I can see my house built not of cement and mortar so much as wood and clay. My door is open to let in the air and I am not worried. I can not see the flowers I planted to decorate the front of the house because from here my view is obstructed by the ornamental herb garden that serves the centre for cooking and first aid.
Under the archway dripping with still ripening fruit comes one of the other members of the village carrying a guitar. He finds himself a comfortable place to sit and then he begins to play. The children run over and sit near him and he sings to them.
Soon some of the young men will return from the woods on our land. They have been coppicing hard all day and will be tired. It is a good excuse to crack open a casket of ale and this batch promises to be most tasty.
Over the sound of the singing I hear laughter and shouts. I know that one of the school groups have returned from their walk and will be joining us. The centre will start to fill with the folks that have join us living our more simple life.
For a moment a loud engine on the distant road can be heard. It reminds us that modern life continues apace outside but here in our village next to nature it is peaceful and we know contentment.
My Dream
Posted 12/03/09 by Matt B in the Green Moral category
I have a dream. It is a driving desire. A yearning so intrinsic to who I am that sometimes I feel I might expire should I be unable to chase my dream.My dream is a simple one.
A desire to live close to the soil, the trees, the natural world.
It's like the British woodlands are calling to me and they call ever louder with each passing year. Even in my flat surrounded, as it is, by concrete and brick. With the tiny pointless patches of mostly toxic ground growing just a few shaggy areas of weed infested grass I can still hear the call.
The call I can not ignore.
That is why I have created this blog. I can think of no other way to express that, which for lack of a better word, I shall call "My Plan".
This plan, our plan, your plan, the plan is grounded in reality and has been conceived because it will in coming to pass also fulfil my dream. A dream I will build with nothing but my bare hands if I must.
The plan is to create a feasible way of establishing an Permaculture Based Eco Village in Kent. (Kent is in the South East of England).
To fulfil my dream it seems the only answer is to fulfil the dream for many and in doing so enable others to live that same dream.
I can do nothing else it is part now of who I am and will never let go. The woodlands call to me and I must find a way to answer them.
If all that sounds a little melodramatic it is maybe because I am a little odd.
If all that sounds a little too spooky and mystical it is because I like to use poetic language to describe how I feel.
If it scares you imagine how I feel.
If it inspires you then join me.
Join me as I try to outline my plan. Document my success or failures and largely answer the call of woodland.
Portal of all things Green
Posted 28/08/08 by Matt B in the Green Moral category
I am pleased to announce the completion of The Green Moral Portal - this still experimental portal pulls news and blog posts from a number of sources and agrigates them according to topic. Most topics have sub-topics and some sub-topics have sub-sub-topics.While I did initially create the portal for my own use I have found such things too vital a tool for understanding the subject and what is being said to keep it to myself. I'll be exploring it over the next few months for sites to add to the Green Directory.
I hope others find it as usefull as I do. Feel free to make requests if I have missed out any topics of note.
Planning...
Posted 02/06/08 by Matt B in the Green Moral category
I feel this can only be good news for my dream. It is time I feel to become a trend setter - to dream the undreamable and to think the unthinkable and most of all to do the impossible.Britain has tight rules on building new homes — which help account for Britian’s high house prices and pretty patchworks of green fields on the outskirts of big British cities.
But the UK’s population is swelling, putting pressure on housing space. Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he wants 3 million more homes by 2020, and all new build to be zero carbon from 2016 on.
Surely that plays into the hands of off-gridders seeking a life closer to Nature, where lunchbreaks entail a stroll in the woods rather than a frantic dash for an over-priced sandwich.
I have a plan. It is, as plans go, utterly insane, off the wall and completely without president and if it works it could pave the way for lots of people in the UK to live the dream. I will be asking for your support soon but for now all I ask is that you sign up for my feed (by email or by feed reader) so that you miss nothing.
Green living in the UK is about to get interesting.
Please be nice
Posted 03/03/08 by Matt B in the Green Moral category
Before things get underway here I'd like to state my position on personal attacks and strong opinions. It is vital that as people that engage in freedom of speech that we do not abuse this.Attack the opinion but not the person. When you disagree with what someone has said be sure to say "I do not agree and this is why..." rather than "you are clearly an over ripe fart if you think that". This helps us thrash out the issues without thrashing each other.
» Read More: Please be nice
About: Green Moral
Posted 01/03/08 by Matt B in the Green Moral category
Green Moral, while being a new project, is the continuation of a passion. It is written by Matt B who has been known to use the rather less serious online nick-name of "Lord Matt" (it's a long joke and by now not especially funny). The blog, as can be guessed from the title aims to cover issues relating to our living world. It is part of the Good Moral, blog network and accepts and offers guest posting opportunities.This is what Matt has to say about the site:
I have something of a dream and a few years ago set out to solve each problem that stood between myself and that dream. I have not solved all of these issues but in the process of examining them I have learned more about a culture I did not know even existed. A culture in Britain (and in the US) with much the same dream.
I was not alone!
My dream is to live in a woodland area in harmony with my surroundings, requiring little or no outside support while still engaging in business activities more often seen in big offices and high tech situations. I am a programmer and data systems analyst. Along the way I have picked up knowledge and skills relating to "new media marketing" which engages with home-brew media (blogging, podcasts, etc) and the market in a personal and open two way conversation.
» Read More: About: Green Moral
Warning: Copyright is retained by the owner unless otherwise stated © Copyright 2007-2008 Matt Brown (aka "Lord" Matt) All Rights Reserved.
This site design is based on a design by Anzuhan