Wildwood Wisdom

summer camps

2011-08-10T06:15:00.000-07:00

Tink and I have been running summer camps for local kids here on Islay for the past 7 years. This year it was the first time that we were able to run a 'senior' camp for the older kids. We have been encouraging 'Young Leaders' within the Wildwooder group. It was hugely successful. We had 40 children, in three different camps doing everything from campcraft, wildfood cooking, nature awareness and wilderness living as well as playing and storytelling and singing. A real celebration of the wild places that surround us here on Islay.

Wise Words

2011-05-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

Simon Fairlie is a great thinker and equally good writer - read this....

http://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/

Thanks George, but No Thanks

TLIO's Founder is Wrong about Nuclear Power

"More People Died at Chappaquiddick than at Three Mile Island" was a bumper sticker favoured by supporters of nuclear power in the early 1980s. Chappaquiddick, you may recall, was the site of a car accident in which one person, Mary Jo Kopechne, died, while Teddy Kennedy emerged unscathed. Since then the facile Chappaquiddick argument has become more sophisticated and successful. James Lovelock was the first well known environmentalist to argue that the dangers of nuclear power had been exaggerated, and that it offered a relatively safe alternative to fossil fuels. More recently Stewart Brand (formerly one of the Whole Earth Catalogue crew) and Mark Lynas (author of Rising Tide) have defected with considerable fanfare to the nuclear camp.

For some time observers of the green movement have been wondering when George Monbiot would join them, as he has been sitting on the fence for several years. His 2006 book on global warming, Heat, did not (as some of us feared) plump for nuclear, but he wasn't exactly forthright in his rejection of it either. In March 2011, he finally held his nose and jumped into the nuclear pit, nudged in that direction by the disaster at Fukushima, which he described in these terms:

"A crappy old plant with inadequate safety features was hit by a monster earthquake and a vast tsunami . . . yet, as far as we know, no one has yet received a lethal dose of radiation."

In this and in a second article in the Guardian two weeks later, George endorsed Lovelock and company's view that the dangers of nuclear radioactivity have been grossly exaggerated by the green movement, and that nuclear energy is a lot safer than fossil fuels. Antinuclear campaigners cite a New York Academy of Sciences publication which (from an overview of several thousand scientific papers) estimates that 985,000 deaths have resulted from the Chernobyl disaster. George finds more convincing the peer-reviewed United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, which, (from an overview of several thousand scientific papers), concludes that casualties amounted to no more than 134 cases of acute radiation, and 6,848 cases of thyroid cancer.

This wide discrepancy will come as no surprise to anyone whose business it is to analyse the statistical outpourings of various camps in the environmental debate. As George remarks in Heat, after noting the wide range of figures supplied by dif- ferent bodies for the cost of a kilowatt hour of nuclear energy, "I conclude that the price of nuclear power is a function of your political position." So, apparently, is its safety. The fact that George and several other respected commentators ques- tion the 985,000 statistic casts doubt over its accuracy. But the sceptical reader will be aware that the lower figure, however rigorously peer-reviewed, will nonetheless be the outcome of value-laden computer models and data selection criteria.

Even if the lower figure is the more correct it still represents a considerable risk if the global community opts to build the 12,000 nuclear plants that the OECD considers will be necessary to make a significant contribution towards preventing climate change. Fukushima may have been "crappy, old and un- safe" but it was also built and maintained by one of the richest and most technologically sophisticated countries in the world in the full knowledge that the area was susceptible to earthquakes and tsunamis — and it is being rescued, only just, by a fully functioning state-of-the-art technocracy. What's going to happen in 40 years' time, if every failing state from Ireland to Indochina has been encouraged by so-called environmentalists to plant a string of nuclear power stations on its seaboard? What happens if the capitalist empire collapses and we enter into a new barbarian ascendancy? A load of mangled and rusting wind generators will do no harm, but a necklace of 12,000 derelict nuclear reactors around the globe doesn't bear thinking about. Nuclear power is only safe as long as it remains in the hands of a clique of paramilitary technocrats — and as such it is inherently undemocratic.

In any case George's conversion to nuclear does not really hinge on the Chappaquiddick argument, but on his underlying dismissal of the central tenet of green philosophy — that we need to reduce consumption.This is not a stance that George considers in either of his pro-nuclear articles. Instead of providing (as he should if he wants to convince his green readership) an evidence-based assessment of the risks of nuclear energy compared to the risks of reducing energy consumption, he launches into a tendentious analysis of the inability of off-grid renewable energy to meet current demand:

"How do we drive our textile mills, brick kilns, blast furnaces and electric railways — not to mention advanced industrial processes? Rooftop solar panels? The moment you consider the demands of the whole economy is the moment that you fall out of love with local energy production."

Speak for yourself, George. The moment a genuine green thinker, or indeed anyone with an ounce of spiritual insight, considers the demands of the whole economy is the moment that they start to wonder why we are producing all this crap. Why do we spend our lives driving to and fro on a daily basis, buying new clothes that we don't need, shunting food around the planet when it grows next door, eating disproportionate amounts of meat, wasting staggering amounts of food, discarding an endless stream of packaging, heating up entire houses to tee-shirt temperature when a warm room would do, warming up the firmament with patio heaters, and purchasing roomfuls of gewgaws and gizmos — the pursuit of Mammon, as it used to be called — when there is no evidence that this makes us any more fulfilled than we would be if we contented ourselves with a sufficiency of food, shelter, medicine and the cultural technology that was available in the days of Bach, Shakespeare and Leonardo da Vinci. The green ethic rejects economic growth in the industrialized countries because it imposes excessive demand on the world's resources, and it rejects nuclear power because that would only encourage economic growth.

Finally, what's this about needing textile mills? Has George not read his Blake and Cobbett? Has he forgotten that that was where the ghastly dehumanizing programme of fossil-fuel powered industrialisation began, and is still, to a large extent, where it is maintained? Perhaps he views textile mills as a necessity and handlooms as an anachronism? If so where would he himself rather work: in a third world sweat shop producing crappy plastic garments for export to people who don't need them, or in a hand-powered co-op producing tweed that lasts 30 years?

These are matters of more importance than the issue of whether one unpleasant technology harms more people than another. George may (or may not) be right in maintaining that the anti-nuclear lobby is scaremongering, but either way he is wasting his talents. There are already plenty of people, including the Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem parties, the Confederation of British Industry, representatives of Imperial College and Cambridge University and so on putting the case for nuclear power; we do not need anyone else to convince us. What we need is people eloquent enough to secure a niche in the main- stream press who will argue the case for reducing consumption, rejecting economic growth and living lightly on the land. It is a great shame that George Monbiot appears to have stepped down from that role.

Scything

2011-02-20T13:22:00.000-08:00

There used to be a scythe in every croft. There used to be many many folks who knew how to use one - not just the mowing of the hay and other cereals but also how to keep an edge and look after the whole tool. Alex Fenton in his book 'County Life in Scotland' Berlinn 2008, has a whole chapter on the 'Sickle and the Scythe' and there is a great photo of a couple of Lewis crofters in 1979 still using a Y shaped snathed scythes. The joy of scything is a good one and highly satisfying too! You can watch, listen to and be with nature. It is not invasive or polluting - whatsover. It is quick and accurate. It only cuts where you want it to!
Some of us still work in this way, and so these skills are not quite lost. A few folks still have the know how. These folks are now associated and are hoping to work together to promote scything and it's associated skills.
I was taught a long time ago - and am still learning but can go pretty well. I do not do meadows often ( wish I did) and more likely can be found mowing rides and tree plantations - it is just as satisfying to see a hectare of rush lying on its cut, and am keen on sharing these ancient but still effective skills.

and so to.....

Simon Fairlie - (if you do not know the name - you should - if not...google him) - has sintered folks into:

The Scythe

Association

Two thousand years after the arrival of the scythe on the shores of the British Isles, an association has been formed to promote its use. On 15 January a dozen scythesmen and women met in Oxford and founded SABI, the Scythe Association of Britain and Ireland

The Scythe Association has the following objec- tives:

• To promote the use of the scythe throughout Britain;.

• To improve mowing skills through training and the broadcast of information;

• To promote the advantages of the scythe to gov- ernment, local authorities and national organizations;

• To enhance communication amongst mowers and between mowers and landowners and other sectors;

• To promote the study of the history of the scythe and allied technologies;

• To maintain standards of manufacture and sup- ply of scythes and ancillary equipment.

Over the course of this year we will be publishing this newsletter, setting up a website, and organizing a gathering next winter, whose purpose will be to share information and identify projects for the coming year.

The next issue of the newsletter will appear in late April or early May. We welcome contributions, news items, photos and advertisments of any kind related to scythes and haymaking. Please send material to the editor at chapter7@tlio.org.uk 01297 561359; Monkton Wyld Court, Charmouth, Brid- port, DT6 6DQ. If you require a paper copy please get in touch.

Simon also runs http://www.thescytheshop.co.uk/

golden eagle or whimbrel?

2010-12-19T08:51:00.000-08:00

It is the time of year for reflection and as I headed out this afternoon I saw four Snipe and a male Hen harrier. My thoughts ran back to our good friend, birder and tracker Geoffrey McMunn. He runs a tracking school and works with disadvantage people and with folks who need encouragement to help them on their journey away from their troubled life. He is a good man. Some years back we spent a delightful week together in the wild places.

He runs

http://www.trackingcourses.com

These are his words:

Golden Eagle or Whimbrel

Some years ago now I spent a week with my friend Jeremy Hasting who runs Islay Birding/Bushcraft onIslay. We lived in a cave along the coast were we shared story’s and experiences as well as exchanging ideas like Nature Awareness.

On the day of our return it soon became clear how relaxed we had become as a result of living out in the wilderness of Islay. We were birding on our return when I said to Jeremy I feel a Golden Eagle coming on and we both agreed that would round the week off very nicely. We were not disappointed a short while later we spotted a Golden Eagle.

Adopting the prone position we both spent some considerable time watching this magnificent bird when I heard what I first thought was a Curlew but turned out to be a Whimbrel. I decided to call out to it and almost immediately I got a response so I whislted to it again, once again it returned the call as it was moving from our front along to the right of our location.

Once more I called out with another whistled and sure enough the Whimbrel responded again this time I was aware that it had changed its course and was heading back towards us. The calling continued between the Whimbrel and my self and we could hear the Whimbrel getting closer the whole time my eyes were firmly fixed to my binoculars so as not to miss out on the rare opportunity of seeing a Golden Eagle.

As the Whimbrel got even closer I decided to look up from my binoculars just in time to see the Whimbrel gliding in just 3-4” directly over Jeremy’s head and then landing just out of arms reach from me.

In all my years of bird watching never have I been so close to a Whimbrel as this, it was interesting that not even the bright coloured plastic bags that contained our sleeping bags even bothered it, it was clear to me that we were so relaxed and in a different state of being that the Whimbrel did not recognise us as humans.

I motioned to Jeremy to get the camera out to which he rightly replied this is not a camera moment. We spent some twenty minutes or more with the Whimbrel walking in and around us with just two brief moments were it very briefly alarmed and at one point lifted of the ground only to land again immediately, this I believe was because we had moved energetically from a heart space to a head space. Eventually we had to move on and I found it difficult to end such a truly magical moment.

Some months later I was running a course with Hannah from Natural Pathways during the introductions one of our clients said she had a question for me and I invited her to ask it. Her question to me was “Golden Eagle or Whimbrel” I immediately smiled a big smile and replied in a soft voice “without doubt Whimbrel”.

Since then this moment has become something that Jeremy and I pass between each other when we know someone is going to visit either one of us. Jeremy many thanks for being a part of that never to be reported once in Life time special moment.

oak leaves

2010-12-09T13:30:00.000-08:00

what does one see? oak leaves on snow - i walked 6 miles for this - not to get the image - i just stumbled across it. oak trees - fabulous. about 600 species exist on earth. and they support hundreds of different creatures and give us much too. next year i will be planting thousands of these. more of that later. now as their bare branches and twigs scratch the sky we have time to notice what was high above is now below our feet.

ride of a lifetime

2010-11-19T04:27:00.000-08:00

sometimes you just need to go with the flow....

http://www.postcarbon.org/video/175694-the-ultimate-roller-coaster-ride-a

Carole Richmond and her Islay Cycling Skirt

2010-10-26T02:04:00.000-07:00

Who you meet seems sometimes random but if you set out on a particular journey then those you meet along the way just have to be there. Carole is one such person who came to chat to us at the show and as a result we have started work on the first Islay Single Malt cycling skirt

The Song of The Skirt by Carole Richmond

(Inspired by The Song of the Shirt, by Thomas Hood in 1843)

“Do you have a skirt that we could make a pattern from” he said. And, I replied yes. A denim skirt with a low waist, two patch pockets and sixteen kick pleats. I bought it eight years ago; I think it was the last thing I bought there. I didn’t buy it to wear on a bike because I didn’t own one then

The skirt started out smart and has since become useful. Here the shadow of a saddle, there the smudge of oil. The pleats let me kick my leg over the bike. The low waist settles snugly on my hips. The fitted shape keeps the skirt close as I fight coastal winds on my way to the office. The skirt protects my modesty when that’s the last thing on my mind.

I package the skirt up ready for its sacrifice to the gods who make grass into multi-hued cloth and I ponder its fate. It will see Islay before I do. I toast the skirt with Bruichladdich, and wish it well on its last journey.

I’ve learnt a lot in the eight years since I bought my denim skirt. I’ve learnt to ride a bike. I’ve found freedom. And I’ve started to question stuff and the nonsense that goes into the making of it. I found out about denim.

I discovered that cotton is a sickly plant greedy for water, greedy for pesticides, greedy for fertilizers. At last it becomes strong enough to dye. So indigo is added to the cloth and the surrounding rivers become so blue that they can no longer reflect the sky.

I discovered that pumice is hacked from the earth and transported to the place where denim demands to be weathered without going outdoors. The pounding of the cloth creates dust which is happy to venture outside and pollute rivers and streams. And that same water is used to wash those jeans, time and time again, to give them a patina of age, a hint of authenticity.

I still love my skirt but I won’t be buying denim again. I’m reluctant to buy anything blind any more. I want to know the story of what of what I buy. I want to know if I’m on my way to a happy ending or a tragic one.

A single malt whisky always warms the heart. I am sure that a single malt skirt will do the same.

The Song of the Shirt is a poem written by Thomas Hood in 1843.

It was written in honour of a Mrs. Biddell, a Lambeth widow and seamstress living in wretched conditions. In what was, at that time, common practice, Mrs. Biddell sewed trousers and shirts in her home using materials given to her by her employer for which she was forced to give a £2 deposit. In a desperate attempt to feed her starving infants, Mrs. Biddell pawned the clothing she had made, thus accruing a debt she could not pay. Mrs. Biddell, whose first name has not been recorded, was sent to a workhouse, and her ultimate fate is unknown; however, her story became a catalyst for those who actively opposed the wretched conditions of England’s working poor, who often spent seven days a week labouring under inhuman conditions, barely managing to survive and with no prospect for relief.

The poem was published anonymously in the Christmas edition of Punch in 1843 and quickly became a phenomenon, centering people’s attention not only on Mrs. Biddell's case, but on the conditions of workers in general. Though Hood was not politically radical, his work, like that of Charles Dickens, contributed to the general awareness of the condition of the working class which fed the popularity of trade unionism and the push for stricter labour laws.

Following is the first stanza of the poem; see the external link below.

With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread –
Stitch! Stitch! Stitch!
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch
She sang ‘The Song of the Shirt!’

My skirt was made in Turkey, close enough to Europe to be benefiting from those improved labour laws. If it had been made in India I wouldn’t be so confident.

connections

2010-10-15T04:35:00.000-07:00

Good friends and photographers and avid adventurers Esther and Warren

http://estherwarren.wordpress.com/

always have interesting things to say and the other day they pointed me in the direction of

http://www.adventurecycling.org/

which led me to

http://pathlesspedaled.com/

and eventually I found gold at the end of the rainbow journey in this site with these people

http://swiftindustries.wordpress.com/

so......I wrote to them and they were equally surprised and returned with this

http://cycleswift.wordpress.com/

These connections are important for remote communities and journeymen and women one and all!

Autumn

2010-10-13T04:31:00.000-07:00

Time moves swiftly and we have been all over. Baz Ewins took his Single Malt Jacket all the way from Lands End to John O Groats. We have been testing the new women's jacket and the gillet. Esther in Edinburgh and me on the West Highland Way. We went to the bike show in London where we had lots and lots of interest. The jackets and musettes were on the Mosquito Bikes stand. It was a good time and we enjoyed meeting loads of old friends and making new ones too. The bike I am holding is on test from Mondiale. More of that later! Photos thanks to Warren.....

long summer

2010-09-15T12:18:00.000-07:00

biking and bushcrafting and birding...great!

It has been a long summer with plenty of happenings and fun.

summer camp

2010-07-25T13:13:00.000-07:00

summertime is camp time and we have been really busy with lots of kids and wilderness camping and understanding the need to protect these wild places

good people and good things

2010-06-16T08:31:00.001-07:00

There are times when one meets a really good person who really is good to be around.

Carolyn Reynier is one such person and when she came to see what we do she wrote a cracking piece for the newspapers: Thank You Carolyn.

Taking it easty on Islay, by Carolyn Renier

Carolyn Renier

7 Jun 2010

‘I have observed over many years working outdoors, with all sorts of people, that whatever you try to do, you cannot conquer nature.

Nature always has its own way. So I’m interested in how we can find comfortableness with that nature and tap into the wild within us – because I know that everyone has a wild part of them.”

Borders-born wilderness guide Jeremy Hastings moved to the Inner Hebridean island of Islay in 2001 with his wife Tink and their children Megan, now 14, Morwenna, 12, and Michael, 10. The family had been living in Carcassonne in south-west France, where Hastings worked for the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux, the French equivalent of the RSPB. They bought a tiny bothy in Port Charlotte, which lies on the shores of Loch Indaal on the west of the island in an area known as the Rhinns, a geological gem of ancient metamorphic gneiss. The bothy, one of the oldest houses in the village, had only four walls and a roof.

Hastings pops a couple of pieces of peat into the stove. We are sitting in their “hobbit house” at the round wooden table which takes up most of their living space. This is where Tink home educates the children. Hastings is cooking me supper and talking about his work.

“I’m interested in this whole idea of the journey,” he says. “Whether it’s going out for an afternoon to collect wild food on the beach, or making a journey to the caves where we see evidence that humans have slept on the same floor, midden piles, sleeping platforms, growing areas, and more recent 18th-century cave-wall graffiti, each journey is wrapped into its own time zone. So if you rush somewhere, you’re not making a journey properly. Nowadays, everything is too quick, too immediate. I’m not saying I’m a Luddite but I think we miss this opportunity of having to wait, of having to make something with purpose.”

Hastings is moving more and more towards custom-made trips, from a morning’s birding to a considerably more arduous trek up to the high lochans at the top end of Islay Estate – he works closely with the island’s five estates – following the route people have taken for centuries driving their cattle up to the high grazing grounds. Here, he teaches visitors how to fly fish in hill lochans. They camp out (Hastings can provide lightweight tents); he brings local bacon which he pan-fries to go with the fish guests have (hopefully) caught. “Freshly filleted brown trout and bacon – it’s just exquisite,” he says. Hastings teaches them how to make their own bread, “then we chat around the fire, and go to bed”.

Some people take a long time to adapt to Hastings’ pace. They may lead hectic lives, so it can come as a shock to their system. “Some people just get wiped out by it,” he says. “They go to bed at 10pm and sleep for 10-12 hours. When they wake, they say, ‘I’ve never done that before.’ Other folk have gone off early and have been watching the golden eagles or catching fish.”

The journey is not a means to an end – it is an end in itself, says Hastings. “The people who find it the most difficult are those who keep saying: ‘What’s the plan? What are we going to do next?’ We’re already doing something, I say. Don’t worry about what we’re going to do. Let’s concentrate on what we’re doing now. When you go home, you want to be able to look at this journey as a series of nows. And there’ll be times when it will be really challenging and uncomfortable for you, but there will be other moments where it will be exquisite.”

When Hastings is out with his clients, he never knows what they are going to see. “Nothing’s guaranteed, but at some point, something will happen – red deer, a pair of divers. One day we came across two adders mating. Fantastic.”

They forage on the shoreline for mussels, oysters, cockles and limpets, which they cook on a small fire. Hastings recalls one visitor who wanted to live off the land completely. “One day, we only found three mussels. He’d eaten two because he was much bigger than me,” says Hastings. “He still phones me up. We chat, and he says, ‘Those two mussels were the best meal I’ve ever had because I knew that was all we were going to have that day.’”

Hastings tells me about some of his upcoming clients. There’s the young family who are returning to Islay with their grandparents. He’ll take them out each day to discover the island’s flora and fauna at a pace that suits them. There’s also a man based in Paris who’s flying to Islay to spend some time with his son, learning to fly fish.

“A wilderness guide helps people see what’s already there – little things like butterflies, healing plants, feeding plants like silverweed which saved the Ileachs [the native islanders] from the potato famine,” explains Hastings. “I interpret the landscape for people. They don’t see it because their eyes and ears have been closed for many reasons, because we’ve lost connectivity with the wild within.”

The same year Hastings started up his not-for-profit business at Port Charlotte, another entrepreneurial venture began down the road as the first spirit ran off the stills at the reborn Bruichladdich Distillery in the eponymous village after a group of private investors bought the mothballed Victorian distillery the previous year. The innovative Bruichladdich team now have half their barley requirements grown by Islay farmers, and a drying shed was built in time for the 2009 harvest.

Around Loch Gruinart, a sea loch on the north-west coast of the Rhinns, Craig Archibald and his wife Petra raise Aberdeen Angus cattle, blackface ewes … and oysters. Archibald is now putting down around one million seed oysters a year in the loch. He sends his produce to the Scottish mainland besides supplying islanders, and local hotels and restaurants.

So private enterprise on the Rhinns of Islay is alive and well. The recipe for success? Take half a dozen tangy Loch Gruinart oysters, one dram of Bruichladdich Waves, add a sprinkling of heath-spotted orchids, the call of the curlew, a measure of sea breeze, and season to taste. It doesn’t get much better.

GETTING THERE

Caledonian MacBrayne operates ferries from Kennacraig on the Kintyre peninsula to Port Askaig and Port Ellen, with passenger return fares from £15.60 and car return fares from £84 (prices valid until October 23). Visit www.calmac.co.uk or call 08705 650100. Scottish Citylink service 926 travels from Edinburgh to Kennacraig via Glasgow twice daily. Visit www.citylink.co.uk or call 0871 266 3333. Flybe has return flights from Glasgow to Islay from £68 return. Visit www.flybe.com.

Where to stay

For B&B, try the five-star rated Loch Gorm House at Bruichladdich – www.lochgormhouse.com – or Bruichladdich Acadamy house at the distillery (email ella@bruichladdich.com). Farmer James Brown has self-catering cottages at Port Charlotte – www.octomorefarm.com – while Carnduncan Cottages at Gruinart are also recommended. Visit www.carnduncancottages.co.uk.

OTHER INFORMATION

For more on Jeremy Hastings’ wilderness trips visit www.islaywildernessguide.co.uk. The Bruichladdich Distillery website has lots of useful information for visitors to Islay. Visit www.bruichladdich.com.

one less car

2010-05-12T14:06:00.000-07:00

Green is when you really really care and then action those cares.

Two years ago we took the decision to be a car free guiding business . It was an easy decision to make. We try to live a earth friendly lifestyle and consume less and become whole in our view point and practice.

We had an eco policy, we used green and fairtraded products, we uses hand tools in our copicing/tree work, we purchased green renewable energy, we super insulated our premises and used low energy bulbs and we used a landrover!

'What? What? How does that work?' we asked ourselves. We also asked friends who also, like us, found a convenient way of allowing ourselves the necessity of a landrover rather than seeing it as a luxury/ gas guzzling

monster.

We looked around and saw that if we planned and thought ad schemed carefully enough then we may, all being well, find an answer. It took longer than we thought and sometimes longer than we wanted too! It was easy to slip back into landrover-ease!

Then we decided to put a deadline on the whole thing. Last autumn, October 1st 2010 we went for it. We became landy-free. It was winter and we had fewer clients. It was a scary and joyous moment as we said goodbye to what we presumed till then was our mainstay of our business. It was gulp moment and once we had gulped then we carried on. We spent some time reflecting upon our action and wondering if we had done the right thing.::

We looked at the alternatives and how we would redesign the company to true green. There were lots of options and many discussed as possibilities -everything from canoes to horsedrawn carts. It came down to the most simplistic of machines - the humble bicycle. We already had and rode bicycles so to us it was a 'no brainer' and so our real journey began.

We needed a human powered machine to move kit, carry tools, wood, guide from and be noticeable. We tried trailers but they were unwieldly within in groups and difficult to manage off/on road. Great if you are alone or in small friendly similar ability groups but otherwise they are not that advantageous.

We looked at lots of possiblities from the Christiania Trike through to the Mundo. The process got us thinking that maybe there was not an alternative - but I was not prepared to accept defeat so early on. In an issue of Velovision http://www.velovision.co.uk/ we found our ideal machine: The Bullitt!!!! We did our research and approached Bullitt or rather Larry vs Harry directly. http://www.larryvsharry.com Hans and ourselves got on gre

at and after a few conversations/images/ideas we agreed to purchase.

And now, of course it could only be this way.

We use our tandem trike to get both of us around, the Bullitt is own new company vehicle and is great fun, very cool and handy too!

yann dupont

2010-03-30T05:03:00.000-07:00

check out yann's blog....

http://baie-de-somme-a-tire-d-aile.over-blog.com/

when good things happen

2010-03-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy few days. teaching kids, sharing nature with folks and seeing friends too.

The rain started to fall tonight - the first wet rain for some time. Yes indeed, we have had plenty of snow and frost and ice here on the outer edge but rain? Good grief no! As the children left the hall from their Wildwood Wisdom session this evening it was raining and they were happy - lots of hollering and running about in the falling wetness! It was good to see them enjoying a simple pleasure of being aware of the change in the weather and showing delight by stamping in the puddles and running with arms stretched. A flock of Curlew passed over head also calling. The children noticed. It was a moment of goodness that was enjoyed by all.

busy day

2010-03-02T14:20:00.000-08:00

Busy day building and repairing bikes and designing some tweedy bags for test. Hopefully by the start of next the week they will be out and about....!

fair trade

2010-03-01T07:12:00.000-08:00

here at the coop we support fair trade

you can too!

http://thefairtradefoundation.blogspot.com/

have a look....and go for it

Getting Started

2010-03-01T04:30:00.000-08:00

This is the first blog for our wee cooperative based on Islay, Hebrides, Scotland.

Have a look at our website

www.wildwoodwisdomcoop.org.uk

Welcome!