I have recently come across this inspiring artist, Oles iz Luboistoka. As you’ve probably gathered, he is not an English performer. He is a Russian singer and song writer, who lives in an eco village called Luboistok. The village is comprised of family domains, who strive to be in harmony with nature, improve the space they live in and be happy (please see the Ringing Cedars series for details on family domains).
I am so moved by his music that I’ve decided I must share it with the English-speaking world. I’ve picked one of the songs called “Swamp and River” and tackled its translation in the most accurate manner. You can listen to the song below (as well as download it). It’s completely legal, Oles offers ALL of his music for download on his website!
Болото и Река (Swamp and River) Click to continue…
Guest post by Yvonne Lee of www.bargainhunter.com.au
I first came across the concept of Aquaponics a few years ago. I think it was from reading some discussion forums on Aussies Living Simply, but it could have been from a number of places. I even bought the Murray Hallam DVD and made my husband and a couple of friends watch it with me. At the time we had a pond with a few koi and so we rigged up a simple system to cycle some water into a laundry bucket which had some holes punched into it and some blue metal. I managed to grow a few vegies in there quite well and the water did become a lot clearer. I can’t find a picture of the very first laundry bucket system but here is a picture of the pond we had:
Click to continue…
Guest post by Sharon Lee of FlavourCrusader
Urban honey has grown in popularity worldwide, particularly in Europe. I note that Melbourne city has picked up the trend, but what of Sydney?
“Sydney also has many city beekeepers who’ve been producing rooftop and backyard honey for many years,” said Lyndon Fenlon of Melbourne’s Urban Honey Co.
Meet Richard Foote. His bees reside in suburban Sydney. His method of production is to simply cut the caps then divide the honeycomb into sellable portions. He sells his honey online, and also through Flemington and Penrith markets. Click to continue…
The latest issue of Sprout Magazine, titled “A BREADUCATION”, just hit the shelves a couple of weeks ago, and with this arrived my complementary copy. Magazine’s publisher and editor Diane Jardine is incredibly warm and wonderful, and she always forwards me a copy, when there is an article I’ve written. This time it was a “Winter Planting Guide” (if you would like to see the pages of the article, please click the images below).
Click to continue…
The current issue of Sydney’s local Sprout Magazine (Autumn 2011) included two articles written by PermaCultured author Tatyana Temirbulatova. This is very exciting, thanks to everyone at Sprout for supporting “the permaculture way”. 
Fun fact! The cover image of the Pest Control article (the one with the chives) was taken on a beautiful sunny morning at Milkwood Permaculture farm. It was a spontaneous photo, without any big plans for fame and glory, but here it is…on a full-colour page in a magazine. Yay! Click to continue…
