Melvin Bragg has stepped down from BBC R4 In Our Time 😢 My autumn Thursday mornings will never be the same.

Turning my garden earth into clay plaster that serves as a perfect vapor retarder for high performance building. I am always amazed at how far removed this is from many people, who at the same time complain about how expensive building is.

A bumper crop of hazel nuts this year.

It will never not be wild to me that this country agonizes over the behaviour problems of kids, the state of the 'white working class', the standardization of exams, the inspection of schools and yet....this is true and always will be if we don't change it. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

mixed use cohousing in tamagawa-denenchofu tokyo single stair! note those sweet, sweet shutters. www.chousing.info/ch-eng/Archi...

An anthropologist, Critchlow has taught courses about cohousing at York University in Toronto, and considers a village-like arrangement the ideal way to “do everything from growing up to raising children to growing old”. www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...

sites.libsyn.com/525283/laksh...

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Jeremy Noel-Tod on the importance of ‘unfunded’ or ‘hobbyist’ research in academica. open.substack.com/pub/someflow...

Are you sure they are ready to be turned up to 11!

I want to see Samuel L Jackson do ads for motherfuckin Low Traffic Neighbourhoods Truly affordable housing Cargo bikes and ebikes Heat pumps Passivhaus Biobased construction materials

Water stress is rising in the UK, but water-saving still lacks the support energy retrofits receive. Our latest blog argues it’s time to treat water as essential to whole-home sustainability. tinyurl.com/3t96wx9f #ClimateAdaptation #BuiltEnvironment #Retrofit #Passivhaus

Did you know? Oldest brick. The oldest known bricks, dating over 9,000 years, were discovered in Jericho. These handmade, sun-dried mud bricks predate the use of fired bricks and have significantly contributed to the development of human civilization, highlighting their importance in the…

Sharing and helping others makes life more fun.

Really enjoying BBC Radio 4s series The Trip exploring the history of psychedelics. 🍄 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Harvest time. That's easily enough straw for a decent climate resilient affordable efficient and healthy home, if we would start to care about these things.

Looking for communal living in the Uk? Diggers and Dreamers produce an online directory as well as publishing books and a monthly podcast with guests from Cohousing, 2960s and 70s communes and other communal projects. #IntentionalCommunities diggersanddreamers.org.uk

two things i wish everyone knew about are ecovillages and permaculture ecovillages are a type of intentional community built around sustainability. there are all sorts of intentional communities in the us, from urban cohousing to real-life communes, but most just involve choosing your neighbors.

CU Boulder has received a momentous 476-acre land gift, the Spruce Gulch Wildlife and Research Reserve, alongside endowment funds to support ecological and academic work at the site, managed by @instaar.bsky.social. Thank you to Linda Holubar Sanabria (A&S’67)!

I have a chapter In this book ( Escaping capitalism? time, quality of life and hybrid economies) The whole book Is well worth a read - lots of great insights and examples of the power of community. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/ecocommun...

Diggers and Dreamers recorded their most recent podcast with Bridport Cohousing: diggersanddreamers.org.uk/podcasts

Cohousing: www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...

My new best friends. 😂

Day five natural clay plaster: Bedding in electric wires using hazel staples bent into a U shape, sharpened at both ends to be pushed into the straw bale wall. #NaturalBuilding #StrawBale.

Day four Natural clay plaster course: Body coat (clay, sand, fibre) added to walls. Initially with hands and the smoothed with floats. #NaturalBuilding #StrawBale

Day three of natural clay plaster course: Building up the window reveals using clay coated straw and then a 10mm ‘body’ coat of clay, sand and chopped hemp. #StrawBale. #NaturalBuilding

Straw bale window reveals: Adding in straw coated with clay slip to shape the internal window reveals. The hessian is used to create an even and consistent surface for the ‘body coat’ of clay plaster that comes next. #StrawBale. #NaturalBuilding

Day two of natural clay plastering: Out comes the roller pan mixer - buckets of clay, sand, hemp. Go in and fabulous plaster come out #NaturalBuilding.

Day one of natural clay plastering with the School of Natural Building: Mixing slip (the reveal coat) Applying by hand - rubber gloves on! #NaturalBuilding

This is the way. #pocketneighborhoods #cottagecourts #intentionalcommunity

Why knowing your neighbors can be an important climate solution www.npr.org/2025/06/10/n... #ClimateChange #ClimateSolution #Ecovillage #Earthaven #Community #ClimateHazards

Every time I ask about environmental initiatives in Croatia in rural areas, the first place and people I hear about is #ZMAG — Green Network of Activist Groups. medium.com/@sergeydmitr... #permaculture #intentionalcommunity #ecovillage #seedbank #GoodEconomy #croatia

I am So excited. Heading ‘up’ to Todmorden this weekend ready for this Clay plastering course with the School of Natural Building. www.tickettailor.com/events/schoo...

Food insecurity sucks. Help us fight it at the link in my bio.

This would have been my dream a few years ago. www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/1...

We put a small pond in our garden a number of years ago now The result has been amazing, birds and bugs drinking, plants arriving from ‘nowhere’ the joy of tadpoles and just today a set of dragonflies emerging.

In 2021 we bought a large mud brick house in Bulgaria. At the time it was a ‘let’s see how it goes’ project, but the more I learn about mud brick (adobe) the more I love it ❤️

Wonderfully chaotic evening watching the @thepantaloons.bsky.social very special rendition of Sense and Sensibility. Bravo!