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Angus

Page history last edited by Angus Soutar 13 years, 5 months ago

Angus Soutar

In Scotland again

 

 

 

 

 

 

rsl(at)letsgo.u-net(dot)com

Tel : (+44) 01254 771555

http://westpenninepermaculture.org.uk/angus

 

Darwen, North West England

Active in Northern England and Scotland

 

Practising permaculture design and teaching permaculture since 1992 in diverse situations.

 

Supporting diploma apprentices in North Britain, responsible for 25 students and three other tutors.

Working in association with both the British and the Isle of Man permaculture associations and various Transition Town initiatives..

Active with Burnley Food Links (local food) and CommEnt (urban regeneration).

Main focus this year (2010) is local food and local currencies.

Key goals for this year are to develop a presence on the web and link projects together more effectively.

 

 

Brief biography

 

I made my first contact with permaculture through the design course at Redfield in 1990 (Andy Langford and Simon Pratt). This followed a career as an engineer and project manager in the energy industry and happened just after I completed the MBA at Cranfield University (where I had sworn that I would never go on any more courses, ever). I married together the broad sweep of permaculture and my experience and insight into how humans work (and don't work) together, and I have never looked back.

 

In between bouts of work, there would be opportunities to study more, and even to teach. In 1992, I co-taught the design course with Daphne Watson in a flat in central London. (Lacking opportunities to see nature at work, we went for a trip to a nearby cemetery and visited the “abandoned” part). The experience came in handy at the Bradford University summer school design course, where, working with Bryn Thomas, we were able to take a short walk to study the woodland regeneration potential of brick floors in derelict buildings.

 

Meanwhile I had been lucky enough to study with Bill when he came to visit Stroud and Ragman's Lane in 1992, identifying strongly with his experiences of village life - “nobody had a job”. Also his view of what we have in common - “a strong sense of shared work”. I was on Kirkpatrick Sale's course in Devon 1993, where us participants mapped the Dart Valley bioregion. I was also involved in helping Mary-Jane Preece and John Van der Post organise a series of “designers' weekends” in East Anglia, where lucky farmers and smallholders received full reports on the potential of their properties.

 

Back to the city (this time Manchester) in 1994 to work with Michael Linton and others on trading systems and “local money”. I developed some good contacts in Merseyside and delivered one of the first design courses to be delivered under full-blown EU “regeneration” conditions. (“Hi, my name's Tommy, and I've been trained to death”, and “kids round here don't want a job – they want a life”.)  A design course in Manchester followed, alongside Rob Squires and Jenny O' Reilly (who was doing most of her work in South America).

 

More recently, I have been working out ways to deliver the design course at relatively low cost in domestic settings. I have lots of friends among my previous students, nearly all of them are highly competent and doing good work. I really enjoy working outside any government-supported education.

 

In the late 1990's I helped  Andy Langford and Chris Dixon with the development of the diploma, working with Andy Goldring and the Permaculture Association (Britain). I accepted the task of building a support network for diploma students in the north of England and Scotland, and that is still going on.

 

I have made a commitment to work on the diploma at a European scale.

 

Projects

 

local food growing and processing (in Burnley)

community enterprise development (in Bolton)

diploma support (see above and elsewhere)

enriching human cultures (with Fraser How and other friends)

implementation work on community money (with the LETSystem Trust)

 

Offers

Share experience

Requests

Help on the ground (see “projects”)

 


 

 

References & Appreciations

 

Angus is a gem in our permaculture family: wise and patient, with a wonderful, light (and very British) sense of humor ... he's inspired me from ages back, and one of his pearls of wisdom that, in a very direct way, inspired all of this chaordic PC thing was him telling me "organizing permaculturists is like trying to herd cats"  .. don´t know if it´s 'his' saying, but it will forever be related to him in my mind ... as he's also told me various other short but impact-ful gems that I treasure.  Thanks for being here Angus.  much love, Stella

 

(amendment from Angus:  " The saying about herding cats was used long before I arrived on the scene, it was a comment made by a USA politician on the workings of their Senate. We could probably trace it back to Mark Twain, who is always a safe bet, because he used to collect verbal gems. (You know, like, "buy land - they're not making it any more!")

 

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