Betty Farnum : So my friend is finally back in London. I hope to meet up with her before she leaves again. I'm still not in a position to leave the country yet. Wwoofing around the UK should set me up though. Watch this space.

Betty Farnum : I have been in Spain for a little over 4 months now and things did not go according to plan as my friend would like to do things differently on the land and permaculture is not currently part of that vision although she is still open to the possibility. So now I found a plot of land yesterday on a hippy site called Beneficio (yes some alarm bells) and I will check it out more this morning. As always keep watching this space.

The time that I have been here has certainly not been wasted as I have been connecting with the permaculture friendly/seedbank community here and done some food growing for the first time. Being rooted to the land has been a shock. Annuals need a lot of attention. I am looking forward to gaining experience with perennials. Figs and pomegranates grow like weeds here btw.

Also I have learnt that your environment i.e. your personal growth/mind and your neighbours are just as important in terms of fertility as the physical land. If there is anything I would impress on someone new to permaculture this is a point that is little talked about. And this is certainly the next step for the permaculture, activist and spiritual communities. Without attention and continued discipline to strenghtening the fertility of these key areas further growth/evolution will be stunted. This is my observation.

To further my personal growth and bonds with everything in my environment (people, animals and plants) I have taken up yoga as a spiritual and physical strengthening process.