Hi everyone, from Liz, Admin at Holmgren Design Services

Discussion in 'Introduce Yourself Here' started by Holmgren Design Services, Aug 17, 2010.

  1. Holmgren Design Services

    Holmgren Design Services Junior Member

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    Hi everyone

    It's hard to know where to begin with this introduction so it's taken me a while... So here goes anyway...

    I'm Liz Wade and I work with David Holmgren and Su Dennett, for their business, Holmgren Design Services (HDS) which supports David's writing, teaching, speaking and consulting.

    Holmgren Design Services is based at David and Su's property Melliodora, in the town of Hepburn, which is in Central Victoria, down south and towards the east of Australia (for the benefit of the non-Australians).

    I've set up this profile on this forum so that all of us working for Holmgren Design Services can share info about things along the way. I'll likely be the usual person posting stuff for the moment, but you might also hear from Su, or Maureen Corbett who also works in the office with us on a regular basis, or perhaps other people who work with us from time to time.

    I'd say many people on this forum here would know who David Holmgren is, as he is the co-originator of the permaculture concept, along with Bill Mollison, and a well known and respected teacher, speaker, author and consultant, but if you'd like to find out more about David and his work you can check out the HDS website at www.holmgren.com.au.

    On the HDS site you can find lots of different things. More of an introduction to David, Su and their son Oliver, some info about their property Melliodora, tours of Melliodora, info about upcoming courses that David is teaching, speaking engagements and other events that David is involved in. Some of David's writings are available for download free from the website, including the Essence of Permaculture that I have seen a few references to on this forum already in my short time looking around. David has written extensively on a range of topics, including of course permaculture generally, permaculture ethics and principles, peak oil and climate change, future scenarios (see in particular www.futurescenarios.org), relocalisation, retrofitting the suburbs, weeds, bushfire preparation, firewood/forest management, and the list goes on… There are also presentations and audio files available for download and linked videos for viewing as well. David's publications can be purchased through the site as well - his books, eBooks, DVDs and the newly released Teaching Kit, along with some publications of other authors as well. There is also information about the nearby Spring Creek Community Forest, Fryers Forest Ecovillage, photo galleries and links… (We are currently working on reviewing and updating the website so if you have any suggestions as to how to make it more helpful or usable for you, feel free to let us know.)

    David himself is understandably generally fairly busy, what with looking after Melliodora, consulting, teaching, speaking, etc..., so he will probably not necessarily find time to post personally on the forum here, but in the little look around I've had so far on this forum I've seen some posts already referring people to his work to answer their questions and perhaps we can also try to point out appropriate places to find information on various topics if we can along the way if it is helpful.

    So, a little more of an introduction to me personally, now that I've introduced HDS a bit generally...

    I first met Su, David and Maureen a couple of years ago after I moved to the Hepburn Shire, through events put on by the Hepburn Relocalisation Network (HRN), which was started by Su and Maureen. The HRN blog is at www.relocalisehepburn.blogspot.com if you'd like to find out more about HRN. The aim of HRN is to support our community to build resilience through relocalising, in the face of the big challenges facing us. We run events and workshops to raise awareness and educate ourselves and the community, and also work on projects (eg. local food survey). I attended a number of HRN events and then decided I'd like to help the good work continue and began to do volunteer work for HRN.

    While attending events and helping out with various HRN things, I got to know Su, David and Maureen better, as well as Su and David's lovely son Oliver who I fell in love with along the way and who is now my partner.

    More recently I have started to also do administrative work in the office for Holmgren Design Services, including helping to do some of the background work to organise David's speaking and teaching engagements and publications, alongside Su and Maureen.

    Through HRN, getting to know David, Su, Maureen and Oliver, spending time at Melliodora, and lately, working for Holmgren Design Services, I have been learning as I go about Permaculture. I haven't had any formal training in permaculture at this stage, but there are always things to be absorbed hanging around here and reading things that I come across working here and generally in life.

    I live not so far away from Hepburn, in a township called Eganstown, about 10 kilometres up the hill and down the hill and up the hill again from Hepburn. I'm well aware of the hills as my usual mode of transport is an electric push bike, and I have also made the journey a number of times on a non-electric push bike (a fair bit harder - respect to all the push pushie riders out there!)… This also keeps me well aware of the weather and all the pockets of different micro-climates around here, even just on the way through from Eganstown down and up and down to Hepburn (and anywhere else I pass through on my travels)... Sure makes for a variety of interesting combinations through the seasons along with the heating effects of uphill riding and cooling effects of downhill speedy coasting! :)

    At my place (which I am renting) I am lucky to have a number of established fruit trees and I have been expanding my vegie growing since I moved there at the beginning of last year. Even though I get to see the bounty of Melliodora regularly, which does make my little patch seem rather humble, I still enjoy knowing that I am growing more of my own food as I go along in life... And I get to learn by being around the place at Melliodora and seeing what is happening when, and David and Su are also very giving if there are extra seedlings sprouting and so on too! (As well as feeding me when I am there working, and giving me food to take home as well - yum!)

    We are lucky to live here in this wonderful area where we have a strong community full of people that help each other out and share with each other their amazing range of skills and knowledge, along with the bounty of their gardens and kitchens. :) I love sharing food with friends who visit from near and far and being able to offer a mix of things from nearby and from friends and neighbours. Depending on the time of year, perhaps some salad or some potatoes from my garden, some Melliodora pumpkin soup, some delicious carrots and a nice variety of other seasonal veggies grown by a local organic farmer and distributed to locals through the veggie box scheme Su helped to start up a number of years ago. Or perhaps a piece of bread, perhaps some given to me by Su or my friend Karen, or more recently some baked by me (with variable results) after learning about sour dough baking from Su, spread with a choice of my friend Belinda's peach conserve from peaches foraged in the streets of Ballarat, my friend Mel's apple jelly or some feijoa jam made by Su. :)

    Recently I was also lucky to have the opportunity to help look after David and Su's property Melliodora for a few weeks while they were away on a teaching and speaking tour further north in Australia, along with Oliver, who was able to answer my questions when I got a bit stuck... So that was an amazing challenge and my awe of David and Su and all they do to run Melliodora and support our community and share their knowledge and experience with others through teaching and events (and... and... and...) is now more firmly grounded in my personal experience than ever before. :) They have certainly made an art of achieving a lot with their lives!

    So I guess that's now a fairly lengthy introductory introduction (since it still feels like it only just scrapes the surface) to me and to HDS... :)

    Smiles
    Liz
     
  2. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Welcome Liz, we look forward to your input. I'm re-reading David's Pathways and Principles at present. I like his academic approach to permaculture - I think it is a nice balance to the "just do it this way" approach - both of which are valuable ways to learn. I think my next purchase will be his collected writings.
     
  3. Holmgren Design Services

    Holmgren Design Services Junior Member

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    Thanks for the welcome. Good to hear you appreciate David's good work. :)
     
  4. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    Hi Liz and welcome!

    That's a great introduction and well worth the wait!

    Bill
     
  5. Holmgren Design Services

    Holmgren Design Services Junior Member

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