Reading John Connell’s “The Running Book” with its evocative portrayal of the Irish landscape prompted me to dig out this catalogue of black & white photographs by Giles Norman. I seem to remember we picked it up at his studio in Kinsale back in the early 1990’s. Beautiful moody landscape and street photography.

We also had the best Seafood Chowder ever at a pub by the beach at Kinsale. Since then all Seafood Chowders have been measure against the Kinsale Scale. Most come up wanting…

When I considered which of my favourite books to write about for this blog, one of the first to come to mind was William Paul Winchester’s wonderful memoir of life on his 20 acres - A Very Small Farm.

This is a book to pick up over the years and read a few pages, just for the enjoyment of immersing yourself in the manifest simplicity of Winchester’s life. Divided into chapters that are essentially diary entries, you are drawn into the joy he experiences from being engaged in the world around him. Many entries begin with details of the weather (particularly clouds) and then precede to illustrate his appreciation of the rhythms of life that flow through his farm.

Winchester built his own house, barn, put in a garden and orchard, acquired a milk cow and took up beekeeping. Yet he describes his simple life with a humility that belies these substantial achievements, the size of which will be apparent to those who have taken on a piece of land and made it into their own sanctuary.

This book fits into a cannon of naturalist writing that is often compared to Thoreau’s Walden, and it is for me at least, a book that I turn to with the same anticipation of reward.

It is not a how to book for the “back to the lander”, however there is much in it that will appeal to those readers.

It was published by Council Oak, however they no longer list it on their site, so it may be out of print. Amazon still have copies available.

Another very good publisher of books relevant to this blog is Chelsea Green, I will be reviewing some of their books in future posts.

I have been interested in Permaculture since 1980 when I stumbled upon a copy of Permaculture 2 in our local bookshop (the same shop also introduced me to The One Straw Revolution and Ecotopia around the same time).

Over the years I have experimented with various permaculture methods and been fortunate enough to meet Bill Mollison on a number of occasions. One of these was at the Tanelorn Music Festival held at Stroud in the Hunter Valley in 1981, not long after I had discovered the book. I clearly remember Bill wearing a skin of some sort as he ambled about the festival. I also remember the inspiring spirit of his Permaculture workshop which had a strong focus on Ethics.

Maddy Harland, the editor of the Permaculture Journal has written a succinct introduction to the subject of Permaculture ethics which you can read here. You can download a free copy of the magazine from the same page.

The Permaculture Research Institute has a dynamic web site with a large range of resources online.