Isabell

Alternating strips focus on different seed mixtures for food and habitat. Interestingly the grassy verge of cocksfoot and timothy boast huge populations of invertebrates.

Species selected for maximum summer and winter forage for the birds based on food rather than copying native habitat. Flax, crimson clover, red clover, chamomile/mayweed, cornflower.

Very large forage vetch pods, some flax and a mystery seed cluster I have yet to identify.

Adjacent to the fields thick native hedging provides smaller birds with a safe retreat from raptors (I observed birds of prey briefly scouting the fields on both visits).

Met a truly remarkable landowner 3 wks ago. Farm tour of hedges surrounding his fields dedicated to wild bird cover crops.

He was kind enough to let me return, collect seed and observe it more closely.

Surrounded by conventional farming many traditional farm birds flock to feed in the winter 1/2

Roots of Solidarity, Eco-Arts Festival at Weekend in the Hills! | CELT Eco Arts, Sustainable Living & Festival of Traditional Crafts ‘Weekend in the Hills’ & Palestinian Solidarity Event on Sept 27 & 28th

Roots of Solidarity | Eco-Arts Festival
Loughrea, Co. Galway, 27/28 September 2025

Featuring dance, crafts, film, music, art, poetry, storytelling, walks, talks, nature trail activities and more.

Keynote address: Dr. Peter Doran, 'The Rights of Nature are the Rights of Ireland...'

#speirgorm

Roots of Solidarity, Eco-Arts Festival at Weekend in the Hills at Slieve Aughty Centre - This is Galway Celt are delighted to welcome you to a new family-friendly Sustainable Living & Eco Arts Festival event in the Slieve Aughty Centre

Sustainable Living & Eco Arts Festival
Kylebrack, Loughrea, Co. Galway
27 Sept 2025 & 28 Sept 2025, 10:30 - 16:30

Just a couple of days left to speak up for nature

The European Commission wants to roll back vital environmental protections – and they’re asking for your opinion.

Let them understand nature needs more help than ever #HandsOffNature

Please send your message:
swanireland.ie/take-action/...

Publishing this September . . .

@newislandbooks.bsky.social @janeclarke.bsky.social

Changing the conversation on Ireland’s Natura 2000 sites ‘If you live in a very special place, that should be a good thing and not a bad thing’

Two years on from the finding in the European Court against Ireland for not implementing the Habitats Directive, what has changed for Ireland's network of protected areas for nature?

www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

"If you love a place, don't go there. There's more than one way to love."

~ Stephen Jenkinson

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgWp...

It's the 1 year anniversary of the Nature Restoration Law entering into force🎉💚
Citizens from across Europe demanded action to #RestoreNature & now it's up to our national governments to consult, draft, fund & implement ambitious Nature Restoration Plans 🫂✍️💰🌱 #RestoreNature

Flyer for Talk & discussion with Starhawk on permaculture & social change Slieve Aughty Centre, Kylebrack, near Loughrea, Co. Galway 20 August 2025, 8pm - 9:30pm Booking: info@celtnet.org

Talk & discussion with Starhawk on permaculture & social change

Slieve Aughty Centre, Kylebrack, near Loughrea, Co. Galway

20 August 2025, 8pm - 9:30pm

National Parks in Glass Cases: Zed Nelson photographs the illusions at the heart of the Anthropocene - 1854 Photography Shot over six years across four continents, ‘The Anthropocene Illusion’ is a disturbing insight into a world in which the natural world is replaced by spectacle

“Just as we divorce ourselves from the natural world and destroy it, we do something extraordinary – we create staged-managed versions of the very thing that we’re losing. It offers us reassurance, a collective self-delusion, a mask to what we’re really doing”

Environmental Pillar endorses Talamh Beo statement on destruction of UAWC seed storage facilities at Hebron environmentalpillar.ie/environmenta...

10 of the best independent bookshops in Ireland With the rise of virtual stores, mobile-friendly subscriptions and Kindles, these stalwarts maintain that the proof is in the pages.

10 of the best independent bookshops in Ireland www.rte.ie/culture/2025...

Alfred Decker, together with Starhawk and Davie Philip, will be back teaching in Ireland (near Loughrea, Co. Galway) in August 2025.

#permaculture #socialpermaculture

Alfred Decker - The Social Microclimate Permaculture is a holistic design system that works on social as well as the ecological structures. It is like a pair of glasses that allow you to see previously unseen possibilities: that rubble-fill...

PermaTalks Vol 5 sessions now free to watch. Alfred Decker's lecture about the social microclimate has been published - watch it at permapuheet.fi/alfred-decke...

#permatalks #permaculture #education #community #network #sustainbility #socialpermaculture #eupn

Figure out how “...to be of service not knowing if you are a hospice worker or a midwife”

https://workthatreconnects.org/joanna-macy-in-memoriam/

It's time to protect our oceans We cannot continue to ignore the mounting threats to this fragile ecosystem

Our Editor @susanresurgence.bsky.social introduces 'Ocean Glories II' – a deep dive into the world's most imperilled habitat. And whilst we celebrate the many wonderful #ocean creatures, we cannot continue to ignore the threats to this fragile #ecosystem > www.resurgence.org/magazine/art...

#Sea 💙

Excellent graphic by Kimberley Stone of Naturaly Mindful, showing the #rippleeffect of connection with #nature.

The Enduring Fantasy of “Feeding the World” – Spectre Journal Members of the Agroecology Research-Action Collective argue against the productivist logic underlying the "feed-the-world" approaches to feed security.

The Orwellian myth at the heart of industrial agriculture?

That environmental destruction is actually conservation.

This must-read essay traces how productivism – the obsession with yield – fuels ecocide & colonialism, while failing to 'feed the world'.

📖 spectrejournal.com/the-enduring...

"The last two years allow us to draw a painfully simple conclusion: Germany’s Staatsräson has become as detached from moral standards and the politics of remembrance as they can get. They no longer serve the critical realization of historical responsibility. On the contrary, they undermine it."

Hunger That Defeats Language “The hunger I’m experiencing now is not what I imagined. It’s not what you imagine, dear reader. It’s not just an empty feeling in your stomach. It’s a numbness that s…

Since this was published, another month passed.
arablit.org/2025/05/30/h...

Seeds of another world The nexus of radical inequality, social atomization and male victimhood has been exploited before. But why now, on such a scale? To understand the appeal of the far-right today we need to examine the...

To understand the appeal of the far-right today we need to examine the origins of the fascist myth of primordial male kinship.
New essay, out today @eurozine.bsky.social
www.eurozine.com/seeds-of-ano...

Juneberry: A Summer Sweet for People, Pollinators, and Birds - JSTOR Daily For millennia, Indigenous peoples in North America derived sustenance from the juneberry, known also as the misâskwatômin, serviceberry, shadbush, or saskatoon.

“To replenish the possibility of mutual flourishing, for birds and berries and people, we need an economy that shares the gifts of the Earth, following the lead of our oldest teachers, the plants,” Kimmerer concludes.

Fire in the Belly – Tyson Yunkaporta Probing the way we overthink and underfeel our existence, Aboriginal scholar Tyson Yunkaporta urges us to attend to a vital intelligence beyond the cerebral: the fire in our gut.

A Kinship member recommended this essay by Tyson Yunkaporta as we begin our elemental Fire season:

emergencemagazine.org/essay/fire-i...

Wildflowers in the patch between station and busy road

I love when wildflower patches look so glorious. It takes work to look so carelessly beautiful.

Permaculture gathering 2025 | CELT Mark your calendars. We have a date and venue for the 2025 gathering returning to Centre for Environmental Living and Training, CELT at the Slieve Aughty Centre in Co. Galway

All Ireland Permaculture Gathering | 23 - 24 August 2025 | Slieve Aughty Centre, Loughrea, Co. Galway

A weekend of community, creativity, and connection—rooted in Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share.
All are welcome to come share skills, learn together, and help shape the future of permaculture

Sounds quite familiar... surrounded by lawn obsessed weed control zealots. It would be too easy having neighbours just like us. ;) Keep going!

New research: “aimed at reducing oppression during crises… mutually beneficial networks of skills and resources…the possibility of enduring within instability, adapting to conditions that may continue to deteriorate, even to the ultimate outcome of species extinction” @hopeforfuture1.bsky.social
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Environmentalists want increased funding for nature restoration The Environmental Pillar has called for the government to increase funding for nature restoration projects.

Ireland should “invest wisely” in climate action, nature restoration, create a fairer tax system and provide for a just and equal society, rather than “wasting billions in public money” buying carbon credits in the future. www.agriland.ie/farming-news...

On Ireland’s peat bogs: climate action clashes with tradition – in pictures Bord na Móna, which was once a peat extraction company, has now committed to one of the largest peatland restoration projects ever undertaken. But many households still continue to cut turf, relying o...

www.theguardian.com/environment/.... Climate action doesnt have to clash with 'tradition' or culture. The key is involve people, partner with community, explain and share the purpose, the why of action, and look for benefit for people, places and nature. #tócharstories #justtransition