[...] Seed-Saving the Easy Way… (permaculturecottage.wordpress.com) [...]
Thankfully it rained for most of the night! 
The water barrels have filled and the well is finally sending more than a trickle to the cottage! 
If it was possible to bottle the Earth Scents outside in the gardens, then I’d be a millionaire and could buy lots more land to plant trees on! 
There is another Earth Sense though…one we all need to tune into…one that ensures a sense of well-being. 
A sense of belonging to the environment around us. 
Living in a small cottage ensures much time spend outdoors during the day, something that was common place for many people until fairly recent times. 
The advent of TV ensured more and more people lived indoors and not out. 
I recall as a child spending much of the day outdoors, as there just wasn’t room in the house to play! 
Walking outdoors can add to a sense of well-being, even in the rain.
The healing aspects of Nature are being continually distilled into medication by the pharmaceutical corporations, yet remains inherent all around us. 
Nature massages the soul!
Being outside with plants, trees, wildlife, Nature, animals and birdsong, is unbeatably good for ones’ mental health! 
Nature is real and alive, strong but gentle and always there for us despite the abuse we fling at her. 
It is something that cannot be put into a pill and certainly not for sale in a bottle!
I love your cottage. Just wondering how did you get rid of the rushes – i have a very large field of rushes and i would like to get rid of them in an eco friendly manner – do you have any suggestions for me?? thank you.
I strimmed them down, planting trees and bushes as I went along, mulching heavily with cardboard and straw.
I see lots of rushes in the fields, seeding and spreading.
One years seed is seven years weed.
Rushes used to be used as bedding for animals and make good compost too, but must be cut before they seed!
Hedges keep the wind from carrying the seed from neighbouring fields.
Cows are bred to be very large and heavy…this leads to poaching of the land as rain intensifies.
Machinery is used on the land that cannot support the weight and leads to serious compacting of the soil.
Walking the land and considering all these issues and more will provide practical, long-term solutions to be put into place.
All these practical steps need to be addressed, as the problem with rushes is not in isolation.
Everything is connected.
Colx