Jess gives her first tour of Sydney’s Sustainable House

Two tour people + moi + glasses of rainwater Lamp, history wall – twice is not enough         Last Saturday 7 July Jess Miller gave her first tour of Sydney’s Sustainable House.  We had a lot of fun, shared some useful stories and, as usual, the energy and laughter were high on the agenda. Larger copies of the photos are on the website of the... Read More

In conversation with Mayor Pettit, Fremantle 16 July 2012

Event – New Edition Bookshop – Invite If you’re in Perth or Fremantle on Monday 16 July come to a conversation I’ll be having with Brad Pettit, Mayor of Fremantle at 6 for 630 pm, New Edition bookshop. We’ll be discussing growing and buying local food, cooling cities by cooling their streets and, perhaps (for me, at least) one of the real goals of... Read More

We built and walked our labyrinth this morning

  Emily Simpson in the labyrinth In early June Emily Simpson, someone I’d never met, said, ”Can I come and talk to you about putting a labyrinth in Chippendale?”. We met the next day. After five minutes of Emily showing me photos of the labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral and different cultures around Earth I was persuaded.  I rang Jane Hooper at the nearby... Read More

I’m outa here; looking for someone to sit in the saddle here

Dear Fellow Travellers   I’m leaving Oz for a while. Two energy-full folk, Jess and Skye, full of verve and wit, will soon be able to give the tours of the house in my place. I’m sorting out who will live here. Would you like to savour the rain water, the daily gifts of the sun to run the place and all that’s here . . . there’s Bob, Pesky, Ginger and... Read More

Carriageworks Kitchen Garden stall at Eveleigh a buzz

Alice, Vera, Stef and Bob Holy stalls Batman.  That was fun. Yesterday Alice, Vera, Stef and I met so many terrific supportive and energy-full folk yesterday at our community kitchen garden stall at Everleigh Markets. Truly, Earth can give a bloke a good day every now and then and the black dog can be locked up in its kennel. Forty-eight signatures for the Sustainable Communities... Read More

Come gardening with us tomorrow

Chippo Nasturtiums on desk Gardeners There’s a couple of dozen buckets of good soil for us to put onto our gardens tomorrow. We need lots of us; even if you just have half an hour to help that would be terrific. We’d love to see anyone who’s never gardened, or think they can’t garden – after an hour with us you’ll be on your way and... Read More

Nicholson Museum’s ’50 objects’ exhibition a must

Perhaps my favourite Sydney museum with terrific curating, the Nicholson – just ten minutes walk. Lively, interesting curatorial notes for its exhibitions, eclectic tastes.  And a beautiful space.  Just walking in is like breathing out well. Do see the current exhibition, ‘50 objects 50 stories‘. In particular, the small glass tile portrait is one of the most... Read More

Fun vid: some Chippo gardeners make a pallet into a vertical garden in an hour for Toby’s cafe

Lovely fun vid of some of our gardeners here: enjoy: vimeo.com… Sustainable Communities Plan vimeo.com… Michael Mobbs has a plan to create sustainable suburbs, and he is coming together with Chippendale residents and City of Sydney to make this ha  Read More

If Earth had a newspaper column . . .

In today’s Herald:  Clive James’ wonderful article about rubbish written about him.  I journalist pretending to have interviewed him in fact writing the article from the transcript of a radio interview . . . I wish Earth had a column she could write or tweet about the rubbish written about her.  Wonder what her first column might be:  ”Oh, no!”, do you think?... Read More

Wonderful writing, great start to the day

  Sometimes, we start the day, and read something that’s out of the ordinary. In today’s Sydney Morning Herald Jessica Irvine has written something which touches both our Chippendale and every community in every city; worth a read and I’ve blogged, facebooked and emailed it: www.smh.com… If you do read it, read James C Scott’s, Seeing... Read More