Digging & Dreaming: Starting My Permaculture Diploma Journey

Since I first discovered Permaculture about 8 years it has been something that really appealed to me. Not so much because the thinking and approach was totally new to me but more because the concepts and practice behind it seemed to be a perfect fit for the way that I was trying to live my life. Since this discovery my knowledge and interest in the field has grown until I finally got around to undertaking a Permaculture Design Course which I undertook with Angus Soutar over twelve months in Lancaster and Chorley and completed in February 2012. Once again during my design course my passion for permaculture continued to grow. I felt inspired by the design framework it provided and the way I could use this to develop and improve the projects and ventures that I wanted to engage in. I was also further invigorated to continue seeing how perfectly everything I was learning and doing fitted with the way that I wanted to be doing things and the decisions that I wanted to make in my life.

My passion for Permaculture was reinforced further by a trip I made to Cuba in late 2011, towards the end of my design course, which illustrated the way that Permaculture design and thinking can have profound and positive effect on the quality of communities and individuals lives within contexts where material resources may initially seem scarce. In this ocean of inspiration I felt that, on completeing my design course, that was not where I wanted my Permaculture journey to end. I felt that Permaculture was now a key part of everything that I did in my life, both personally and profesisonally, and that I wanted to continue developing this as part of an active learning process. It seemed that the perfect way to do this was to begin a new journey undertaking a Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design. This is internationally recognised as the next step for people who have done a Permaculture Design Course and is a way of formally recognising and accrediting a person's permaculture practice. It takes the form of an extended period of self-directed, supported learning. This is based around the projects and activities that you are involved in and that you set yourself and which you document and record in order to create a portfolio. At the end of the process this portfolio is assessed by diploma holders and accredited by the Permaculture Association.

So here I am at the beginning of my Diploma journey. The intention is that I will share my learning and progression here on my blog as part of my portfolio and also as a way to seek comment and feedback as part of my continued learning. I hope my journey is interesting to you and that it may inspire you in some way to find out more about Permaculture yourself.