I have to admit; since my Permaculture epiphany in Cloughjordan, Ireland in August I haven´t been a exemplary permy. I´ve been concentrating on growing though- but selfishly enough the project has been my own body. It has been changing drastically for 8 months now and having one to go I´m preparing for a new permaculturist to come into the world. Shure enough that's a good way of sustainable reproduction – right?

Iceland is cold and extremely dark at this time of the year and very, very difficult to keep plants alive unless you have some kind of greenhouse facilities. Due to lack of sun I have been watching my tomatoes and pepper plants die, making pesto out of the last remaining pale basilica leaves standing. It makes me a bit sad.

However, over Christmas, my boyfriend found a way to revive the permaculture heart of mine. We had a useless closet in our living room and he literally put the sun - in form of florescent lamp and reflection foil - inside of it and installed a little green house in it. What a fantastic idea and approach! And the best Christmas gift ever!!

Now my last-standing tomato plant is in full growth and we´ve added few months to the spring. We have started to wake up seeds as an experiment. And the life is definitely there. Trees of all kinds that we collected this autumn are starting to come up, more tomatoes and peppers, avocadoes, peas, broccoli and spices, onions and carrots. Even white barley that I got from Ireland has started to grow in there.

During the darkest days of Icelandic winter, it is so relieving and calming to take care of the seeds and watch them grow. The little greenhouse attracts our friends and family. I was trying to explain this to my little 4-year-old niece while showing it to her. She thought this was so fairytail like, and she now believes that I actually keep the sun inside of my closet while she sleeps.

I´m a huge and happy permy now - waiting for all my babies to blossom.