I had been watching a short video made by the Unist’ot’en people in Canada.
(I have posted a link to this below.)
I wept as I listened to the dignified language of truth, simple and eloquent.
I wept as I listened to the words of the Chevron representative, disconnected from the beauty, abundance and joy of Mother Earth.
I gasped in disbelief as the Chevron men offered plastic bottles of water to the dignified Unist’ot’en people.
Chevron attempted to enter unceded Unist’ot’en territory with a gift of bottled water and tobacco, seeking to conduct work for their Pacific Trail Pipelines hydraulically fractured gas line.
We are now living through the greatest race to destroy Mother Earth that the human race has ever witnessed…by the few, for the few and all for money that cannot ever return her to health!
It is a rare day that witnesses my tears.
I cannot believe the Ecocide taking place in the name of economic growth.
We need to listen to the voice of Mother Earth, for she speaks through those closest to her.
Please share this video far and wide.
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The economic crisis, that became evident to all in October 2008, has never really been discussed in the mainstream media. Much of what could, and should, have been put in place by national governments, to ameliorate the dreadful effects of this crisis, have been blatantly air-brushed from the media and political debate!
We continue to be sold the illusion of full employment for all.
As direct fallout from the media hype around this lie, many people are feeling inadequate and hopeless, believing it to be their fault that they are job-less.
The media has demonized the unemployed and disabled, citing examples of welfare abuse, whilst ignoring the very real struggles many good people face in their everyday lives!
Governments have introduced all kinds of hoops and hurdles, that intimidate those seeking employment, into a state of hopelessness and despair.
Leadership, has and continues to, fail us!
Governments are aware that carbon reductions in relation to Climate Change cannot facilitate Economic Growth in the present paradigm, but resist any debate or discussion on this!
Government GDP figures do not take into consideration any guide to National Well-being, including health, food, clean air, clean water etc.
Fracking is part of GDP for example, as that produces a commodity to be sold, but look at the utter shambles it leaves in its’ wake, for local people to have to deal with!
Poisoned water, devastated land, sick children…the list goes on!
We are on-board a rudder-less ship with a drunk Captain and crew…time to lower the life-boats and row towards resilience, community and sustainable living!
When this ship goes down it will take everyone on board with it!
It seems as though governments all over the western world are colluding with big corporations and the energy companies to deliberately destroy our environments, and, in the face of much opposition from those who elected them into power…the people.
I have yet to meet the person who supports
war, fracking, privatisation of utilities, or GMOs.
Yet, politicians have, and are, engaged in the pursuit of all of these.
As we approach a global food crisis- and all the warning signs are there, such as rising food prices, oil and the effects of extreme weather- we are in desperate need of leadership.
Leadership is absent.
Rhetoric is everywhere.
We are being force-fed a diet of ‘GMOs are all that can save us,’ publicity, when patently this is not true!
The less choice in seed diversity, the more prone we are to potential famine.
I know that as a grower, working 3 acres of poor land…that it is diversity that builds fertility and food security!
What are we to do?
Act as defiantly in the face of bullish nonsense and stupid politicians as one can.
How?
Plant!
Living near the western seaboard of the Atlantic Ocean, I live on the edge of empire.
I refuse to allow the insanity of empire to bellow it’s anarchic way into my home…I have no television.
I plant.
I grow.
I live frugally.
If I lived in the middle of a city I would keep the same philosophy.
Be defiant: buy less; plant more; save seeds and share! It’s your future…don’t let the politicians mess it up!
This is a video I watched earlier and a fantastic template for those without gardens or allotments…or even with!
The Green Backyard
This is the story of a once neglected urban wasteland in Peterborough, recently transformed into a much-loved community resource by a crew of eager volunteer…
If you would like to support the work of the Bealtaine Cottage Permaculture website, Youtube (ad-free) videos and Compassion for Mother Earth Gardens project, please feel free to…
Our potential to change the environment we inhabit is boundless.
If we started today and worked hard for all the changes we want to see, the possible transformation is beyond our wildest dreams.
Whether we have land or not, what we are capable of implementing, in terms of creating Eden, is only limited by two things…our imagination and our ability to use our energy. “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
― Arundhati Roy
This is my favourite slice of text written by Arundhati.
I have mentioned it before, but, personally, never tire of contemplating her wise words…
“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.
The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.
Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
― Arundhati Roy, War Talk
We create Heaven, or allow others to create Hell, whether that be through destruction of our environment, as they are doing with fracking, for example, or allowing governments to collude with corporate monsters without challenge…they are, after all, our elected trustees.
We expect them to hold in trust our land, our welfare, and even our children!
We must demand accountability at every level!
Our time on Planet Earth is too short to not care…don’t you think?
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There appear to be about five stages in the collapse of any society…the first one being human impacts on the environment.
This, simply put, are humans destroying the resource base upon which they depend.
In the case of Ireland, this happens to be the soil.
In the case of almost every society on the Earth, it happens to be the soil.
The fertility of the soil is diminishing…so much so, that even here in Ireland, farmers rely on chemical fertilizers to grow sufficient grass to feed livestock.
The same happens to be the case worldwide.
Our present course is a non-sustainable course, which by definition means it cannot be maintained.
Think about that…”cannot be maintained!”
However, we should realize that none of this is beyond our control, even though our political and economic systems seem frozen in time!
Each one of us is part of the problem, so therefore can be part of the solution.
The main problem is denial and “Ostrich Syndrome!”
Let’s keep talking the economy up!
This is the only message we get from the mainstream media, politicians and economists.
However, which ever way one looks at it, our present course is headed for the precipice.
We had a massive party.
It lasted for several decades.
We told our children lies.
We told them that they could have whatever they wanted…big houses, big cars, foreign holidays in increasingly exotic places and all the consumer goods they desired.
Just go to college, we said…just get a good education, we said…then a career that will earn you lots of money.
And all the while we knew that the world had finite resources.
Well, the party’s over.
This is the morning after the night before.
We have to begin the clean-up and face into the days ahead. As we, individually and collectively, attempt to make sense of what is happening, just keep this in mind…
Not one politician has stated the simple fact, that: unlimited growth cannot happen on a finite planet…
Apparently, not one of their over-paid advisers has yet told them this simple statement of economic fact!
We, as communities, will have to fight our governments, to try to protect what it is, they want to destroy!
The first stage of collapse is underway…but…it is during these times of extremity that the best within us can rise to the surface…hold onto that!
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Bealtaine Cottage is free and has over 850 blogs, as well as over 3,500 photographs.
Bealtaine Cottage Good Life is a mere 12 euros per year and allows me a small income, to keep doing what I love doing most…writing about Mother Earth and photographing her.
To subscribe, a small donation of 12 euros per year, will add your name to the subscriber list.
I was listening to a radio show host, Roy of Hollywood on PRNfm radio from New York, tell a caller that change begins with government policy and one person on their own can do little to make a difference…paraphrased, but the essence is true to form.
This philosophy is way off mark, for the reality is very, very different.
Every action we take, everything we buy, consume or share, is part of the reality WE make, every minute, every hour, every day…
I oppose fracking and therefore refuse to use gas…
I also refuse to call it ‘natural!’
There is nothing natural about fracking!
I support organic growing methods, so use what little money I have to buy organic, and, for the rest, I ensure that I grow organic.
I could make of list of the actions I take, as one person, to ensure the outcome that I consider to be best for the environment in which I live and the planet we all inhabit, but the real point I want to make is that real power rests with each one of us!
This is the single, most important truth, we are denied access to, by media, government, corporations and those who we allow to tell us what to do and how to live!
What is happening in our societies is not about austerity.
It is not about the economy either.
It is about the blatant, criminal misuse and misappropriation of our taxes.
Was any government you ever voted for, mandated to give our tax money to banks?
Was that the platform that the trustees we elected, in trust, to hold in trust, our state, voted into office?
The media keeps talking about our “Economy”, as though it were our lack of work or effort that caused any of these problems.
We are told continually that the past is the past, what’s done is done and to move on!
We are told that we need to get the economy moving by spending!
I do not want to buy stuff.
I want an equitable society where all are cared for.
Recently, here in Ireland, our government at the behest of the EU, inflicted a “carbon tax” upon us in the form of 75 cents rise on a bag of coal.
But here’s the catch…it is the poorest people who are reduced to buying coal to keep warm…and usually the oldest and most vulnerable in our society.
Where is this tax going?
Well, Ireland has the lowest tree cover in Europe and it is not being re-invested into the planting of deciduous trees.
Most of this money will be traded for Carbon Tax credits…total madness!
We need trees here in Ireland!
I am currently sitting in a G8 Exclusion Zone.
They will be converging just up the road from me, in the next few days, to start the carve-up of what is left in societies.
The forces that be have recently been out on the roads around the G8 Summit Hotel, removing anti-fracking signs…leaders must not be subjected to any kind of opposition to their distorted world views!
I can tell you what they WILL NOT be talking about…
Planting trees!
How we expand education for all!
Ways of supporting the Carers in society!
Creating a more just and equitable society.
Putting programmes in place to encourage people to grow organic food.
Nationalising water and all major utilities to ensure front-line democracy for all citizens!
Social unrest is being driven by corporate greed and the resulting societal chaos compounded by unemployment, mental trauma, & poverty!
Will the G8 address any of these real issues?
I’m not holding my breath!
There’s some real work to be done here at Bealtaine Cottage…trees to plant, food to grow and Nature to engage with…with the occasional cup of tea brewed up on the rocket stove!
Bealtaine Cottage is also on YouTube…with over 100 videos about Permaculture, planting, growing and living.
Home used to be a place where everything that was needed to live well was grown or made on site by family and neighbours.
Michael Kennedy Mug and Westport Potteries bowl on locally made chopping board
A place in which food was prepared several times each day and shared by all present.
Many basic necessities were stitched or nailed together by those who used them.
Perlagoniums and cats on the window sill
Home used to be a vibrant, thriving project in self-sufficiency, with what was needed to be bought in, purchased on a rare trip to town, or ordered several times each year, to be delivered and stored.
Missy relaxing on a hot water bottle to ease her tumour…it works well!
Home included a pantry or larder, a cold-store and a well used and scrubbed kitchen table where food was prepared and eaten.
Valerian growing in the gravel around the cottage
Today, as part of the massive disconnect from our lovely Earth, we have fitted kitchens which are made from chemicals and constantly cleaned with chemicals.
Orange waste infusing the air with beautiful aroma on top of the stove
The emphasis is on keeping a show-house type of environment, where these expensive kitchens are not used to their full potential.
A great cure-all…hot water bottle for Missy Cat
Our lives are chemically infused…with clothes, bedding and bodies immersed in chemical solutions on a daily basis.
Washed in soap, rinsed in rain water and blowing in the wind
Washing machines pound the clothes we buy with chemicals that are washed out into our rivers and oceans, killing life on the way.
The Bealtaine Cottage angel ponders it all…
We wonder how cancer, autism, asthma, allergies and depression are so rife within our communities?
We seek doctors and drugs to help us live and be well, without paying too much attention to our living state and what the corporations are doing to our environments.
Recycled floor
Pharmaceutical companies are the most powerful corporate bodies on our planet. In the US alone in 2011, the pharmaceutical industry spent nearly $29 billion on drug promotion with most of that money targeted at doctors!
Herbs drying naturally
We are taught not to question, but to accept the status quo of a controlled demolition of society…
A government sponsored controlled demolition of our society!
We are viewed by corporation and government alike, as mere consumers. Passive receivers and worker drones.
Awakening and refusing to comply!
The realization of this state of affairs is the beginning of our personal journey to freedom and a good life.
Wonderful July 2017 Update!
Our Irish Government has passed the bill to ban Fracking in Ireland!
This was signed into law by President Higgins in July 2017!
If you would like to support the work of Bealtaine Cottage, completely dependent on people who value what I do, here’s how…
The new sign at Bealtaine Cottage, alongside a more important one…”No Fracking!”
Time to advertise what it is we stand for!
The power of advertising is immense.
Corporations and governments allocate massive amounts of money each year to get their messages of suppression and control across to the public.
However, we have the access to advertising ourselves, if we decide to use our windows, cars, front doors, entrances to propagate our messages…what a load of free advertising space!
On Saturday 25th May, there is a worldwide March Against Monsanto, taking place in all major cities.
If Monsanto is allowed to pimp it’s wares, as it does so successfully to central governments, then pictures such as this, the bee on Lunaria in the permaculture gardens of Bealtaine Cottage, will be rare indeed!
Here in Ireland, marches are taking place in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Clare…with more being added.
WE NEED EVERYONES HELP
WE ARE ASKING ALL ANTI GMO, ANTI MONSANTO, PRO NATURE, PRO HEALTH, PRO ENVIRONMENT, ANTI CHEMICAL POLLUTION, PRO ORGANIC, FACEBOOK PAGES WEBSITES, BLOGS, NEWS CHANNELS, AND NEWSPAPERS TO GET BEHIND THIS MOVEMENT. WE HAVE JUST A FEW WEEKS LEFT. LETS ALL WORK TOGETHER TO MAKE THIS A HISTORY MAKING EVENT. THIS IS OUR MARCH, ALL OF US, THE WORLD UNITED AGAINST SELFISH GREED THAT WOULD DESTROY OUR HEALTH AND THE PLANET IN ITS PATH.
MAY 25th EVERYWHERE
THIS IS EVENT IS FOR ALL OF US
THIS IS OUR EVENT
OUR VOICES HEARD
EDUCATE ALL
Butterflies are making a welcome appearance here in the permaculture gardens, with this lovely little Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) making an appearance this morning.
It settled for a little sunbathing on the Ribes hedge near the Fairy Wood.
The apple trees continue to make a big show of blossom as it all opens to attract the busy bees.
It’s sunny and bright this morning, but appears to be clouding over as the day progresses.
I will be marching against Monsanto in Sligo on Saturday 25th May.
The march begins with a rally at the corner of O’Connell and Grattan Streets at 1pm.
Bealtaine Cottage is also on YouTube…with over 110 videos about Permaculture, planting, growing and living.
Over 550 blogs from Bealtaine Cottage in the archives here.
Over the past few thousand years, humankind has regarded Nature as property.
This concept is rooted in biblical text and has spawned generations who have regarded themselves as having dominion over the Earth.
The feudal system was based on dominion and continues today as a land-grab mentality, based on the principles of ownership and extraction.
Where we are at this point in time is the evolution of that concept, that biblical teaching, where we are now forced to try to manage degradation of the environment rather than prevent it.
We blow the tops off mountains to extract minerals.
Hundreds of chemicals are injected into the Earth to extract gas.
The filth of Tar Sands is hailed as our energy saviour!
Seed is wrenched from us to be “owned” by corporations like Monsanto.
Presidents enact laws to protect these creatures of destruction from the very courts that are there to protect you!
Nine days ago I drew my line in the sand, deciding to refuse to comply with laws that violate Mother Earth and the abundance she so generously bestows upon us.
My own line in the sand has been confirmed this morning as the decision to refuse to comply with all laws that violate Mother Earth has been made.
The days of fence sitting are over.
The gloves are off
The Bealtaine Cottage Bookstore supports my work. You can find the link at the top of this page.
The weekend lies ahead and there lies the potential for something happening and all sorts of possibilities.
Many people look forward to going out and many go shopping, as a form of retail therapy!
However, change is happening…and it is good!
This is a time of change.
The Equinox is upon us and the day itself is changing as we enter the descent towards Midwinter.
An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth’s equator.
The day and night are equal…
Consumerism is slowing down.
People are buying less and are turning more and more towards growing and foraging food.
The social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts has failed us all.
This may appear to be a bad thing to some people, but the Earth has been given a break…the first real break in a very long time.
The flowers at the front gate are beginning to replace the concrete walls, iron gates that are closed and an intercom service that you have to speak into in order just to drive or walk up to the house!
The idea of neighbours and helping one another is slowly catching on…
Today has seen several visitors to Bealtaine Cottage, including a neighbour concerned about ‘Fracking’ and wanting more information.
The times we live in are all about change…
Change is happening and happening fast.
We either embrace the change in our living circumstances, taking time to evaluate our lives, or we continue on as mere consumers, or in the present scenario, unhappy people without the money to keep consuming.
The choice is ours.
Today is the actual Autumn Equinox…the descent towards Midwinter begins…a time to nurture, bake, cook, sew and…rest a bit!
A passion for Ireland. Mother Ireland and the desire to protect her land and water and air and trees and green fields and all that turns a lump in the throat when we think of her.
A passion that sees young families, like this one, spending hours of love and care and sharing, designing and painting a banner that evokes a sense of love and a desire to nurture and protect.
I need not go through the depressing facts of Fracking. Indeed I cannot…my blood boils with anger and indignation at how my government, here in this Republic of Ireland, could have granted exploration licences to companies wanted to exploit Ireland’s wealth…her people!
Yes, indeed, for it is people like this young family who will bear the curse of poisoned water, ill health and, ultimately, early death, as a result of this environmental end game played out by Men of Greed all over the world.
Look at the picture. Look at the REAL people who will suffer for the 30 pieces of silver being discussed last night in the Council Offices in Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim…
And one of those companies, Tamboran, had CEO, Richard Moorman giving a Powerpoint Presentation to the Councillors at that meeting.
So, Mr Moorman needs to present this disgusting practice to the Irish people…
The councillors may have been listening to you, Mr Moorman, but, WE WERE NOT! WE HAVE THE PICTURE…LOOK AT WHERE YOU’VE BEEN ALREADY!
These photographs you are about to see were taken in the area of North West Ireland where prospecting for Gas was carried out in recent years.
The site was purchased by the company who test-drilled.
Local people remember what happened and have spoken to me about it.
In some photographs I am standing right on the site!
Look in wonder at the beauty. Download and save the pics…these may be some of the last taken of this extraordinary, breath-takingly beautiful landscape…
Today marks the beginning of what will be a long struggle…one which will take much energy and forebearance. All I know is that good people all over the globe must speak up and out for what is right. The rest is our future…
I am blogging this letter I wrote today to the local press, as it concerns Bealtaine Cottage Permaculture Smallholding. What is coming down the line will decide the future of the biodiversity, animals, insects, birds and plants here at Bealtaine…
Dear Editor,
I live in a very beautiful part of Ireland…near the village of Keadue and the extraordinarily majestic and beautiful mountains and lakes that make up the breath-taking landscape of the area, known as “The Lough Allen Basin.” But…all that is about to change and change for the worst, I greatly fear!
The North West Carboniferous Basin, or The Lough Allen Basin is about to be opened up by two companies for the exploitation of Gas deposits. Our government has already issued the licences! Our county councils have little say in these matters! We are told that, “Regulators,” are in place to protect us…! Well, Regulators were also in place to protect us from the Economic treason which led to our loss of sovereignty! They are little more than overpaid civil servants who do not serve Ireland!
In all probability, these companies will use a technique known as “Hydraulic Fracturing,” or “Fracking.
Fracking in simple terms, is causing a mini earthquake, by injecting a cocktail of chemicals into a wellbore. This cocktail consists of over 596 chemicals. Billions of gallons of water are used in the process. Contamination of aquifers can only be expected!
Of course this can only increase profits for corporations, for after all, when your water is poisoned by the Corporations, you then BUY water from the …CORPORATIONS!
However, back to gas…
Gas?
120 BILLION DOLLARS worth of it!
And the dreaded technology that is still in its awful infancy…FRACKING!
Banned in France. Recently banned in New York State.
No understood outcomes, as Fracking is still in its awful infancy…so new…since 2002!
So we wait for the accumulation of information and that may be too late for Ireland and its’ pure water supply, so admired and envied throughout the world. Our Agriculture and produce is held in high esteem internationally because of our green and pleasant land!
…What have we unleashed from Pandora’s Box?
I know that I will protest, because I have to defend what is right.
I also know that I will end up in Court, because the Corporation will hold sway.
I am prepared for prison, because I will not bend my knee to decisions I feel and know to be wrong.
I am very angry that my government here in Ireland has granted licences to 2 Gas Companies, to drill for gas in the NW of Ireland. In all probability these companies will use Hydraulic Fracturing as a method for extracting the gas. If this happens, I will not stand idly by. I intend protesting as a means to stop this from going ahead. I will not give up. If that means Court and Prison, then so be it.
We have been told that there is a regulator to protect the environment. Well, so much for the regulator who regulated the banks! I don’t feel protected by my government! I realise that people must do what they can to protect their environments from the catastrophic need of the Men of Greed.
Ireland MUST be protected from the environmental disaster that is ‘Fracking.’ Once poisoned, our water, instead of being the water of life it now is, becomes the water of death for all living creatures on our Sacred Land.
I live in Ireland, but then you know that if you’ve been to Bealtaine before.
I live in a very beautiful part of Ireland…and you are probably aware of that too.
I consider the land sacred.
It is our umbilical cord.
It feeds and nourishes us all.
There is a sacredness in the Earth and many are just awakening to this new consciousness.
I came to Bealtaine nine years ago and my journey here has awakened me.
The greatest work we can do is to protect the sacred Earth…that’s it for me, simple as!
I did not expect what was to happen next…
Big Business coming into my beautiful North West of Ireland to exploit the Gas Reserves that lie beneath this sacred land…and, Bealtaine!
Gas?
94 BILLION DOLLARS worth of it!
And the dreaded technology that is still in its awful infancy…FRACKING!
Banned in France.
No understood outcomes…so new…since 2002, so we wait for the accumulation of information and that may be too late for our sacred Earth…What have we unleashed from Pandora’s Box?
