2. Outcome analysis
Personal reviews
This diploma has been such a life enhancing and personal skill developing journey. As several of my projects so far have been life based, they have encouraged me to look at my personal life, emotions, hopes and goals, and look at ways for changing them for the better. The tasks of looking at my life in a clear and structured manner, observing myself and my patterns, habits and hidden fears has helped me along the path to clearing unnecessary burdens.
The very act of studying, of doing something for myself to progress in the direction that I want to head in has been like medicine for me. I have felt my courage in myself grow along with the belief in my skills and potential. By visiting other permaculture sites as part of this diploma I have gained a greater understanding of how it is possible to carve out a life for myself within permaculture design.
Here are the other reviews I have made as each project has ended, stating how I have developed personally over the course of the project:
Project 2
I have been made more aware of negative patterns and cycles that I live into and now am more able to change.. hopefully!
Project 3
This project has been the toughest one so far for me to get my head around. It began very well, I remember being full of inspiration and ideas of how it may progress, feeling optimistic and hopeful of the journey it would take to it's completion. But I took on too much, and have learnt a valuable lesson that I find it difficult to focus my mind on more than one project at once. The process of this diploma work for me is that every project is a full and complete journey, each time the things that I am learning and discovering having an impact on the route of the project. When more than one project is running at the same time it becomes hard to distinguish for me where to put my energy and ideas, I feel I am spreading myself too thinly, getting very mixed up. And with my energy flowing more naturally into one place at a time, a project can get left behind, just as I feel this one has. This project has spanned 6 months now, and writing up the final parts of this has been increasingly difficult as I become more and more detached and disconnected from the writing from earlier times, when my head and heart were in a different place. In the future I want to only work on one project at a time, so I can keep my energy focused and at it's most productive.
Project 4
So many things I have learnt throughout this project! I have experimented with living in a wide variety of different living situations, some supportive of my learning journey, some more challenging. This has been great experience to enable me to see how best to nurture my study, and my relationship to study too. Not only being in the right environment, for physically finding time and space to work, but making sure my head has that constant focus too.
The research involved with this project has radically affected the way that I interact with fabric and clothing. I now think much more deeply about where the fabric and dyes may have come from and what impact they have had throughout their journey to the place where i hold them in my hands. I have pretty much stopped shopping all together,, only visiting second hand clothing stores, making clothing from found or recycled fabrics or looking for naturally dyed organic clothing, which isn't very often found. Ohli's travelling clothes are being made from recycled fabrics and hand sewn as we go along.
Belief! Such a great reminder here in how the world shifts around you to offer support when you know what you want to acheive and go for it with belief in your heart.
Project 5
I really enjoyed working with a place not connected to permaculture or the farm I am living on, it felt like a breath of fresh air. And to see how positive the response was to our being there and our work was so energising. Working for a good cause like Freedom House has been such an pleasure, it felt like a real honour for Lisa to allow us free reign over her space and to put her trust in us.
I feel that I learned such a great deal from the experience of working within a group of designers, and also within a larger group of the community that helped us to implement the design. That was all a really important lesson in the importance of group dynamics and of the proper energy and attention that needs to function happily and healthily.
Project reviews
I feel that with each project I have started with a deeper understanding of how to go through the design process and of the tools that are out there to help. And I am trying to make the projects balance out into a wide range of topics, to increase the scope of my learning. This is something I hope to do more in the coming projects, as I feel very keen to do more land based-fingers in the mud projects, these are something that with moving around so much has been a challenge to accomplish.
Here are the other reviews I have made as each project has ended, stating how things have developed over the course of the project:
Project 2
Project 3
This project, above all, has shown me clearly what conditions are best for me to work productively and effectively. Beginning with having ample focused working time with fast internet access and childcare, my mind fully involved by spending consecutive days and weeks fully immersed in my work, I was very productive and sailed into my ideas progressing beautifully. When circumstances changed I was unable to successfully find a way to adapt to my new environment and so my work hit a great standstill. As this has been over such a long period of time, with times where I did not visit it for long enough for it to become unfamiliar to me again, I still feel like this project is very disjointed and doesn't flow as well as I would like it to. Nor does it contain the depth of work and research that I would like it to. But I am needing to cut off from this one now, for time restraints, energy restraints, and for the sake of my own sanity. It's been dragging on for far too long....
Project 4
Throughout this project I have investigated ethical companies,different,methods of clothing production natural dying techniques, business techniques, all beneficial for my future involving this design. I have delved into a professional world of business and company policies that I have never visited before. Looking into financial planning and budgeting techniques is also very helpful for my professional future.
Project 5
This project has been super fast from start to finish, over a much shorter time frame than any other project so far. And in many ways this was perfect timing for me, as I had fallen behind with some diploma work, after finding it a real struggle keeping up whilst living and working at the farm without internet access and much free time. So the opportunity to take part in a fast and pretty straightforward design was just what I needed.
I feel that the project in general went really smoothly, though there were some problems with group dynamics and communication, which I have mentioned in more detail in the section below 'of working within a group...'. This for me was the only real setback. I would also like to have had more time to invest into more thorough design work, really getting to grips with practicing some of the design skills that I read so much about. But I guess that's what upcoming projects are for...
Professional reviews
The skills I am learning by trying out new programs on the computer are really very useful for me in my professional development. Already I am seeing this in action, as I progress with my self-employed company and have been able to design my own website after experience creating this one. I am still far from being a computer whizz, but with each project I complete I gain more confidence and understanding in what can be done.
I also feel thankful for the other students that I am on this journey with, as we have each other to inspire and stay in touch with, the resource of each other's work is wonderful, and again is a great support for this professional development.
Here are the other reviews I have made as each project has ended, stating how things have developed over the course of the project:
Project 2
I have gained a lot more experience with the workings of operating systems of computers and how to upload and install them. I've experimented with other web hosting sites and become familiar with several of them.
Project 3Wanting to widen my skills in web design and branch out to using a different web hosting site, I spent some time (quite a lot of time) investigating 'Wordpress.com', a free blogging web hosting site. I had a good explore, but as my time on the internet is so limited at the moment I felt it necessary to stick with Weebly for now to save time, as I am now so familiar with the way it works. I couldn't really see any advantage to going to a new site except for the new look of the themes available. I decided to try and be more creative with Weebly.
Project 4
Throughout this project I have investigated ethical companies,different ,methods of clothing production natural dying techniques, business techniques, all beneficial for my future involving this design. I have delved into a professional world of business and company policies that I have never visited before. Looking into financial planning and budgeting techniques is also very helpful for my professional future.
How does this fit in with my ALP?
When setting out on the vision for this project - as with all current projects - I have been designing them to further my knowledge and skills in areas that I mapped out right at the start of this diploma in my Action Learning Plan. (You can see this Action Learning Plan here.) The skills linked with this project include - developing skills in natural crafts,, developing a sustaining spiritual practice, developing self confidence and self belief, gaining skills in natural building, and organic gardening practice. The project is also working towards my post-diploma goals of running workshops and teaching within a collective.
How have my quadrants been involved and expanded upon through this work?
Through this project I know I am working towards increasing areas of growth involving all quadrants. Great!
Project 5
Finally getting myself into a land based design feels that I am making progress with my hopeful future as a permaculture designer. When questions opened up in my mind along the design pathway I felt I had a much greater understanding of where to look for the answers compared to when working through a life based design. Life designs are so much more personal and there seems to be a lot less information out there (that I have seen anyhow) that helps you through the design process in a clear way. And after so much reading of the 'conventional' permaculture books (David Holmgren, Bill Mollison etc) when it comes to a land based design I have a much better idea of what tools to use or where to go. I think this tells me that I could benefit greatly from some life based permaculture reading.
I also get a huuuge feeling that this is just the beginning of my journey. I know that I could have gone much deeper and into more detail with each stage of the design process here. Perhaps this project wasn't the one for that, it was very straightforward and also had a short time limit. In this way it feels like exactly the right project for me to be undertaking at this stage of my learning journey - it has opened many doorways into methods of analysis, observation etc that I hadn't had the chance to practice just yet. I hope that I can now find a next project that will give me the oppurtunity to develop all these skills much further.
This diploma has been such a life enhancing and personal skill developing journey. As several of my projects so far have been life based, they have encouraged me to look at my personal life, emotions, hopes and goals, and look at ways for changing them for the better. The tasks of looking at my life in a clear and structured manner, observing myself and my patterns, habits and hidden fears has helped me along the path to clearing unnecessary burdens.
The very act of studying, of doing something for myself to progress in the direction that I want to head in has been like medicine for me. I have felt my courage in myself grow along with the belief in my skills and potential. By visiting other permaculture sites as part of this diploma I have gained a greater understanding of how it is possible to carve out a life for myself within permaculture design.
Here are the other reviews I have made as each project has ended, stating how I have developed personally over the course of the project:
Project 2
I have been made more aware of negative patterns and cycles that I live into and now am more able to change.. hopefully!
Project 3
This project has been the toughest one so far for me to get my head around. It began very well, I remember being full of inspiration and ideas of how it may progress, feeling optimistic and hopeful of the journey it would take to it's completion. But I took on too much, and have learnt a valuable lesson that I find it difficult to focus my mind on more than one project at once. The process of this diploma work for me is that every project is a full and complete journey, each time the things that I am learning and discovering having an impact on the route of the project. When more than one project is running at the same time it becomes hard to distinguish for me where to put my energy and ideas, I feel I am spreading myself too thinly, getting very mixed up. And with my energy flowing more naturally into one place at a time, a project can get left behind, just as I feel this one has. This project has spanned 6 months now, and writing up the final parts of this has been increasingly difficult as I become more and more detached and disconnected from the writing from earlier times, when my head and heart were in a different place. In the future I want to only work on one project at a time, so I can keep my energy focused and at it's most productive.
Project 4
So many things I have learnt throughout this project! I have experimented with living in a wide variety of different living situations, some supportive of my learning journey, some more challenging. This has been great experience to enable me to see how best to nurture my study, and my relationship to study too. Not only being in the right environment, for physically finding time and space to work, but making sure my head has that constant focus too.
The research involved with this project has radically affected the way that I interact with fabric and clothing. I now think much more deeply about where the fabric and dyes may have come from and what impact they have had throughout their journey to the place where i hold them in my hands. I have pretty much stopped shopping all together,, only visiting second hand clothing stores, making clothing from found or recycled fabrics or looking for naturally dyed organic clothing, which isn't very often found. Ohli's travelling clothes are being made from recycled fabrics and hand sewn as we go along.
Belief! Such a great reminder here in how the world shifts around you to offer support when you know what you want to acheive and go for it with belief in your heart.
Project 5
I really enjoyed working with a place not connected to permaculture or the farm I am living on, it felt like a breath of fresh air. And to see how positive the response was to our being there and our work was so energising. Working for a good cause like Freedom House has been such an pleasure, it felt like a real honour for Lisa to allow us free reign over her space and to put her trust in us.
I feel that I learned such a great deal from the experience of working within a group of designers, and also within a larger group of the community that helped us to implement the design. That was all a really important lesson in the importance of group dynamics and of the proper energy and attention that needs to function happily and healthily.
Project reviews
I feel that with each project I have started with a deeper understanding of how to go through the design process and of the tools that are out there to help. And I am trying to make the projects balance out into a wide range of topics, to increase the scope of my learning. This is something I hope to do more in the coming projects, as I feel very keen to do more land based-fingers in the mud projects, these are something that with moving around so much has been a challenge to accomplish.
Here are the other reviews I have made as each project has ended, stating how things have developed over the course of the project:
Project 2
- I have become more conscious of my everyday activities and needs and hopes for the future
- I have begun living further into my dreams
Project 3
This project, above all, has shown me clearly what conditions are best for me to work productively and effectively. Beginning with having ample focused working time with fast internet access and childcare, my mind fully involved by spending consecutive days and weeks fully immersed in my work, I was very productive and sailed into my ideas progressing beautifully. When circumstances changed I was unable to successfully find a way to adapt to my new environment and so my work hit a great standstill. As this has been over such a long period of time, with times where I did not visit it for long enough for it to become unfamiliar to me again, I still feel like this project is very disjointed and doesn't flow as well as I would like it to. Nor does it contain the depth of work and research that I would like it to. But I am needing to cut off from this one now, for time restraints, energy restraints, and for the sake of my own sanity. It's been dragging on for far too long....
Project 4
Throughout this project I have investigated ethical companies,different,methods of clothing production natural dying techniques, business techniques, all beneficial for my future involving this design. I have delved into a professional world of business and company policies that I have never visited before. Looking into financial planning and budgeting techniques is also very helpful for my professional future.
Project 5
This project has been super fast from start to finish, over a much shorter time frame than any other project so far. And in many ways this was perfect timing for me, as I had fallen behind with some diploma work, after finding it a real struggle keeping up whilst living and working at the farm without internet access and much free time. So the opportunity to take part in a fast and pretty straightforward design was just what I needed.
I feel that the project in general went really smoothly, though there were some problems with group dynamics and communication, which I have mentioned in more detail in the section below 'of working within a group...'. This for me was the only real setback. I would also like to have had more time to invest into more thorough design work, really getting to grips with practicing some of the design skills that I read so much about. But I guess that's what upcoming projects are for...
Professional reviews
The skills I am learning by trying out new programs on the computer are really very useful for me in my professional development. Already I am seeing this in action, as I progress with my self-employed company and have been able to design my own website after experience creating this one. I am still far from being a computer whizz, but with each project I complete I gain more confidence and understanding in what can be done.
I also feel thankful for the other students that I am on this journey with, as we have each other to inspire and stay in touch with, the resource of each other's work is wonderful, and again is a great support for this professional development.
Here are the other reviews I have made as each project has ended, stating how things have developed over the course of the project:
Project 2
I have gained a lot more experience with the workings of operating systems of computers and how to upload and install them. I've experimented with other web hosting sites and become familiar with several of them.
Project 3Wanting to widen my skills in web design and branch out to using a different web hosting site, I spent some time (quite a lot of time) investigating 'Wordpress.com', a free blogging web hosting site. I had a good explore, but as my time on the internet is so limited at the moment I felt it necessary to stick with Weebly for now to save time, as I am now so familiar with the way it works. I couldn't really see any advantage to going to a new site except for the new look of the themes available. I decided to try and be more creative with Weebly.
Project 4
Throughout this project I have investigated ethical companies,different ,methods of clothing production natural dying techniques, business techniques, all beneficial for my future involving this design. I have delved into a professional world of business and company policies that I have never visited before. Looking into financial planning and budgeting techniques is also very helpful for my professional future.
How does this fit in with my ALP?
When setting out on the vision for this project - as with all current projects - I have been designing them to further my knowledge and skills in areas that I mapped out right at the start of this diploma in my Action Learning Plan. (You can see this Action Learning Plan here.) The skills linked with this project include - developing skills in natural crafts,, developing a sustaining spiritual practice, developing self confidence and self belief, gaining skills in natural building, and organic gardening practice. The project is also working towards my post-diploma goals of running workshops and teaching within a collective.
How have my quadrants been involved and expanded upon through this work?
Through this project I know I am working towards increasing areas of growth involving all quadrants. Great!
Project 5
Finally getting myself into a land based design feels that I am making progress with my hopeful future as a permaculture designer. When questions opened up in my mind along the design pathway I felt I had a much greater understanding of where to look for the answers compared to when working through a life based design. Life designs are so much more personal and there seems to be a lot less information out there (that I have seen anyhow) that helps you through the design process in a clear way. And after so much reading of the 'conventional' permaculture books (David Holmgren, Bill Mollison etc) when it comes to a land based design I have a much better idea of what tools to use or where to go. I think this tells me that I could benefit greatly from some life based permaculture reading.
I also get a huuuge feeling that this is just the beginning of my journey. I know that I could have gone much deeper and into more detail with each stage of the design process here. Perhaps this project wasn't the one for that, it was very straightforward and also had a short time limit. In this way it feels like exactly the right project for me to be undertaking at this stage of my learning journey - it has opened many doorways into methods of analysis, observation etc that I hadn't had the chance to practice just yet. I hope that I can now find a next project that will give me the oppurtunity to develop all these skills much further.