Our society rarely asks us 'What are your values & do you embody them?' Maybe it should.

We live busy lives that often don't give us time to connect to who we really are. If we aren't properly aware of the core elements that make us complete then are we really being true to ourselves? Are we able to create the life, deep down we want to live? Maybe if we all took some time to consider our values then the world we live in could be a better reflection of what we all truly desire. We would probably find many of our values remarkably similar: for example, honesty, happiness, friendship, love, caring, empathy, passion etc..

I recently had the opportunity to reflect on my values. I applied to attend a residential workshop to focus on the vision of a project I was intending to implement. In preparation I was asked what my top 10 values were and then asked to  write them down. Some were easy to identify, others seemed hidden and only emerged after a few hours of thought (I have included them below). It felt good to document them, to acknowledge and value them. I believe I live these and I have for a long time, and some more than others. The process was useful. I could see that I'm connected to them and there is no feeling that I contravene them (and if so only temporarily). I took this list to the workshop in the countryside 40 miles from Berlin where I joined 12 other social entrepreneurs all involved in the same event.

There we explored our values (and future visions) in a range of ways, using the safe environment and a supportive group of facilitators and participants. The organisers the Akademie fur Visionautiks designed the 10 day session in a way that enabled us to explore our inner selves. Using coaching, dialogue, presencing (Theory U), art, presenting, dance, performance, mirroring, and testing inner strength though fire walking, arrow breaking and steel bar bending (the last two were done by placing the ends at the base of your neck then breaking..) we found ourselves opening up, talking deaply, expressing ourselves and proudly living the values we have.

One of the key 'takeaways' from the time there was that there is more to ourselves than we think. I thought I understood my values and lived them. Mostly I did, though from my time in Germany I found I connected to them much more and now feel that they provide me with more direction than they did before.  Using more 'alternative' ways to explore who we are and what the values mean on a deeper level certainly was a powerful and effective approach. I am now more confident and connected to those things that make me 'tick.' I know that this should ensure my happiness and contentment with how I deal with life. It should also align my energy to do the things that I should be doing, rather than waste my energies on the things that my values are not aligned with.

This raises the question: Should we as individuals in society more actively reconnect to our values? This is a subject that would take another blog to write, though it is worth briefly reminding ourselves of; how such a simple process could begin to create a happier soceity where people are aware of not only seeking to live their values but also enable others to live theirs?

How about spending a few minutes writing down what your values are. It may have a profound effect on you too.

In no particular order the values I consider most my most important: Empathy, compassion, honesty, equality, openness, humility, connectedness, friendship, passion and enlightenment.

The image above is me talking at the Vernisage about my Vision and how my values created it.

 

Sitting at a table, on a frozen lake
Empty teacups reflect a rheumy sky
The teapot sits cold, no steam rising from its spout
A candle beside, its flame long flickered out

The cold wind skits along the mirror cold pane
Pools of meltwater reflect trees, leafless brown wood
Beneath my feet strange X-ray dentist cracks
Temporary celluloid, ice teeth and gaps.

Nature’s sub zero laboratory displays neuron dendrites
Experiments creating synapses of grey-black on white
Forked lines of ice holes, stepping stones of hidden beings
A subsurface surveyor had set them here.

No waiter ever served at this one day cafe
On the tablecloth a bill no one ever paid
This odd place, unknown to all
but those who sat at the mirage on that February day.

 

Simon Goldsmith, written at Lake Klostersee, Lehnin, Nr Berlin. Germany, 17th February 2012

In August 2007 I set off to Sweden to embark on an adventure that has, and will I believe, remain as one of the most important years of my life.

I arrived in the beautiful town of Karlskrona on the South East coast of Sweden and found the following year would be one of profound learning in so many ways: about sustainability, the strengths and weaknesses of society, our creativity and our ability to produce solutions to pressing local and global problems.

I went to study a groundbreaking masters programme in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability. This course uses a sustainability framework founded by renowned sustainability leader and course lecturer Karl-Henrik Robert. In the previous 13 years of working in the environmental sector I had become increasingly frustrated that although politicians, the media, educationalists, NGO's and even 'sustainability consultants' often talked about sustainability, none had a convincing method to actually achieve it. Luckily earlier that year whilst in London I rwas introduced to this masters programme in Sweden that used The Natural Step Framework as a basis for exploring sustainability and creating solutions in all areas of life. I hadn't heard of this and the more I read the more I thought perhaps this was the methodology that could enable me to usefully define sustainability in a way that solutions could be applied to create complete solutions.

I found myself in a class of 64 students from 24 nations, of which only 7 were European. From the first moments there was a feeling of familiarity and friendship. It felt that everyone had known each other for only minutes connected as if they were lifelong friends. We adapted quickly to living in this amazing country and leader in sustainability. We found houses to live in, we leaned the language (though fortunately the course was taught in English). Rather than living in a large city where students scatter after class, we found the smallish town of 30,000 ideal. It was small enough so that all the students lived within a 10 minute bike ride, yet large enough to have the things you need to keep you going - cinema's, cafe's, restaurants, bars.. and also some of the most beautiful coastal scenery made up of the scores of islands creating the Karlskrona archipelago.

Unlike the previous Masters I studied in the UK almost all of the course work was undertaken in groups, including the thesis. This was sometimes a challenge, though closely reflects working in the real world with the added challenge and bonus of working with people from different countries, outlooks and cultures. This ensured that work was properly considered and analysed so avoiding the traps of generalisation especially when it comes to reviewing international sustainability issues.

We learned quickly in the innovative learning processes and that led us to innovate and understand what leadership really means. We learned how people behave, what they respond to, how to engage them and how to help them become leaders. The process of learning created an outcome of giving, collaborating and co-creating outcomes that could never occur by working in traditional isolated learning systems. Added to this students were taught to use other learning processes such as reflection, dialogue, U Theory. We applied many different facilitation processes some familiar, like World Cafe and Open Space, others such as Pattern Lab etc that enabled us to consider issues quite differently.

We learned from the staff, guest lecturers and the students. We felt incredibly fortunate to be invited to study this programme and explored sustainability and ourselves and relationships in ways that I doubt could be achieved anywhere else. The place, its environment and our collective and personal experiences were certainly unique.

It was with sadness that our class had to say goodbye following graduation. Lifelong friendships formed and even now our alumni is as strong as that of the studentship we shared. Globally we connect and share, support and build on our strengths. The year there filled me with hope that we can create a sustainable world, we just need to open up and welcome its richness.

Applications for this amazing masters programme opens 1st December and close 16th January. It seeks talented mid career professionals who from my experience I know will travel on an amazing learning journey. The Swedish state also pays tuition fees for EU and EEA citizens. Check out this website for further details and feel free to share this information to those you think would love to learn to become a future sustainability leader.

"The question of reaching sustainability is not about if we will have enough energy, enough food, or other tangible resources - those we have. The question is: will there be enough leaders in time?" Dr. Göran Broman and Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt, programme founders

Big Hairy Audacious Project:

 

50 Days, £1m..

In today's challenging world it's natural to not want to be confronted by anything else that can deflate us. We switch off from news of the East African famine tragedy, a reaction that is counterproductive for us personally, for how we relate to our communities and to the world we share.

The human capacity to help and assist others is one of the fundamental things that makes us human and a principle way that can make us feel better. By actively contributing and doing good we strengthen our own well-being by improving our happiness through the way we feel about ourselves  An excellent and recent example bloomed before our eyes in London when communities, rather than reacting negatively to the damage inflicted on their communities from rioting and looting, came out and actively cleaned up and sought to listen to the hidden problems their communities face.

These people wanted to get involved, they felt proud and good that they did something. They created something out of nothing. They cared, they acted, they became part of their community and they illustrated how powerful our fundamental human needs can be and amazed by what they can achieve.

We don't have to feel bad when we watch the news of the worsening famine. If we act, either by donating money to help or alternatively participating in ways to actively involve ourselves in raising awareness and running fundraising projects, then we can do far more and connect in positive ways to help people survive the famine.

I've spent much of the last weekend collaborating with a group of people that took up a pretty big challenge to create the platform to raise £1m in 50 days, a goal that you can join us in achieving.

The team at the pretty damn amazing Good for Nothing noticed that the famine story should be massive, at a scale that can help tackle the unfolding crisis. It should be something everyone empathises with, talked about and got involved with in donating money or doing things to raise money.

So, a bunch of people got together and an idea took root. This was to find innovative ways of engaging the amazing skillsets of people and organisations out there to create and run donation projects. These could be as simple as a sponsored walk to building platforms web or app systems that could help spread the word and also precipitate donations. Made By Many's clever coders created a website for people to submit their ideas that others can take forward. Some ideas are off the shelf, ready to run projects, others need particular technical expertise to make them live and ready for others to run with to bring in donations.

Over the weekend we found out the brief; to create a website with the core messages, design, video and other resources to promote the viral donation platform plus engage the organisations and people we need to make this work.  The goal is for the donations and the ideas that flow from the great fundraiser ideas to raise £1m in 50 days. The money will go directly to the Disasters Emergency Committee to be distributed to the areas of most need.

Thanks to Fallon who provided some great advice and the space for a bunch of 30 odd people to get cracking and co-create. So far we have got most of the resources available ready for launch which I believe will be in a week or so - watch this space. From then the countdown to the Million. If this is achieved it would be great, if it makes more that would be amazing if we make a load more that would be awesome. That won't happen unless people like you spread the word and get involved.  Connect in the following ways so we can, by doing something positive, feel good and become connected to the world community.

Check out the fundraising ideas

Join the Good For Nothing Community

Join Good for Nothing's Facebook page

Follow twitter: @g00dfornothing, @madebymany

Twitter hashtag: #FamineAid,

 

I'm involved with a local community garden. We've taken control of some land the municipality neglected and have turned it into a riot of colour and delicious food productivity. We have big plans for the site. A few professional landscape architects are developing their ideas for the site. I thought I would give it a go too. Though I landscaped my garden at home this was quite simple but increadibly fulfilling. The site for the community garden needs a bit more planning - especially if others need designs to build from. By the way I'm not a designer, architect or engineer!

I found that Google have a free peice of design software called Sketchup - for the first 5 minutes I scratched my head puzzled about how to use this free design system that works by creating designs in a 3D environment. Luckily I got the hang of this without instruction and the images above are shots of what I have designed. Sorry if the trees look like lamp shades and the carrots look odd.. some things I didn't quite get right!

Let me know what you think.

I attended the International Institute for Environment and Developments' board of trustees dinner last night. I met many intelligent, passionate and articulate people involved in finding ways to create a world where the economic system can fairly contribute to support society and both can function without damage to the life support systems and biodiversity that the natural world provides.

From my discussions it's clear that we have solutions. There are many approaches to create a fairer, green economy, that alleviate poverty, strengthen health systems, improve democracy and are environmentally benign. Sadly many of these solutions being put forward, although workable, are not getting traction or not at the scale needed to avert the linked economic, social and environmental disasters we face.   Rationally we should now be embracing these generative models having used the last 19 years since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to prepare the ground; gaining agreement, educating, motivating and supporting the businesses and systems that would provide the basis for transition to a sustainable model. Sadly those with the sustainable solutions were not able to be heard above the clamour 'for profit at any cost'. The Earth Summit heralded the importance of conserving and protecting natural systems, bringing together world leaders and achieving agreement. Commitments were made, yet conservatism and the tranditional economic growth model kept control of helm leading us not to a land that meets all needs, instead our route is consumption driven with our ship steaming to the edge of the Earth.

Yes, in places progress has been made, but always outweighed by the damage caused to people and the environment. Without apparent distress we allow our economic system to even cause massive damage to itself. As we failed to learn from the crash of 2008 and our businesses and governments push for lighter regulation we have a clear illustration of our inability to act rationally. Governments blindly follow the markets, economists are deaf to the issues of growth on a finite planet, businesses concentrate profitability and a relatively few individuals concentrate the wealth.

Faced with these challenges it is easy to give up. There is hope that some progress will be made at Rio 2012, though it is unlikely that beyond the summit governments will prioritise the environment, especially when many countries are still coping with deficits and downturns. The IIEDw with other key partners astutely understand that governments are interested in profit over the planet so have developed an informed and robust Green Economy programme that provides the blueprints for businesses to thrive, delivering value to shareholders and also creating jobs and equity to society in ways that protect the planet. Yes this makes sense, yet it goes against many incumbents and traditional business orthodoxies that create relatively small short term profits at the expense of significant long term and on-going profitability.

Our governments, businesses and our civil society, including us as individuals have largely wasted the years since the 1992 Earth Summit to set in place the systems that will provide for our needs. In that time we have lost huge swathes of biodiversity, climate change has exacerbated, almost every environmental and social indicator is heading in the wrong direction. We have maybe 5-10 years (a generous estimation) to change the system we live in. It's time to begin to push towards 2012 and to illustrate to vested interests that a sustainable future can only happen when we design our economic system to work within planetary constraints and that can meet fundamental human needs. At the end of the day it's in everyones interests, individuals, states and businesses to be sustainable in the future, otherwise what is the alternative, unsustainability? That's not much of a vision, a goal or a gift to hand to our future generations.

Stockwell, London SW9. An inner city area a couple of miles south of the Houses of Parliament, a place recently known for gang shootings and increasingly portrayed by the media as a 'failing' neighbourhood. It's true that this area has problems, yet it also has an abundance of hope through the richness of its community.

In the next road along from my house the householders organised a street party supporting the Big Lunch project. An idea of Tim Smit, founder of the Eden project, the concept is every year to block off the traffic, put up bunting, get out tables and chairs and invite the locals to eat in the street with their neighbours. Getting people out of their houses is important, sharing food and creating conversation is essential, creating a community as rewarding, interesting and fulfilling as anywhere in the world. Giving people the space and inviting them into conversations with 'strangers' creates trust and conversations amongst new 'friends.' Unfounded preconceptions and fears are wiped away as people are able to see that everyone on the street has more in common than is different to them. It becomes a place where the incredible diversity of the people that inhabit this great city can be seen and have their own voices and stories heard. The colour of your skin or your social class is no longer relevant when you let yourself go and invest your time in listening and welcoming the richness that your community can provide.

Sharing food is a basic and fundamentally important way of breaking down barriers. Being offered foods who's origins come from the four corners of the world is a journey in itself. Tasting the essence of the cultures and asking the story of the food creates a narrative of interest. Be it a 'bun& cheese' (a simply named yet delicious combination of soft gingerbread with cheddar cheese - a true Jamaican treat) or Colombian rice pudding (intoxicated with spices) there were plenty of dishes that people wanted to share, but not just the food, but also their culture. London is one of the most diverse places on the planet and it is a joy to see that everyone there is proud of their own identity (I also have to state being Welsh, I too identify myself as one of the many immigrants to our vibrant melting pot.)

As with any traditional street party not only was their food and drink, there were games and music. Onion and spoon races were run by women in high heals and men with their shoes on the wrong feet. Tug of wars between the 'odd' and 'even' house numbers created great competitive fun across the opposing terraces, a fabulous home made cake competition drew the crowds like bees to a honey pot. Everyone shared and savoured the food and the moment. We also enjoyed the stars of the neighbourhood, children singing or playing instruments, grannies telling jokes and dancing waltzes with their grandchildren. People laughed, smiled, sang along and dabbed the occasional tear from an emotional eye.

At five pm the chairs & tables cleared away and the bunting taken down. The street party may have lasted four hours on a Sunday afternoon, but it connected people for the rest of their lives on the street, making it a happier, safer, more resilient place. It showed that this inner city neighbourhood can’t be labelled failing, instead it showed that it is proud and strong, with an authentic community that embraces and values its diversity.

As with much in life, our lives are improved by simle actions and people wiling to make an effort, releasing hope and creating happiness.

Well done Stockwell, I'm proud of you.

 

Last weekend I had the privilege and opportunity to step into the unknown, for me at least.

A few months ago I spoke to someone about a small group of people that enable great things to happen. This group, The Pipeline Project, illustrate what can be achieved through unleashing the creative potential of others to do great stuff. They created “Good for Nothing.”

They recognised that the good in people can be put to use and effectively so by unleashing their skills and expertise. Good for Nothing, to me is a space to play, a space for things to happen, a place of positive productivity. People come and play a game that’s fun, fulfilling and has a serious set of outcomes… the production of needs fundamental to the success and growth of projects that are important to our society’s progress.

Over the weekend Good for Nothing worked its magic. In a donated space off Old Street, some 60 plus people got together and self organised into groups to deliver on briefs set by three varied organisations: Food Cycle, GnewtCargo and Bletchley Park. The teams dispersed to see what each organisation did in the flesh and then from this understanding of the ethos each began on the journey of creating authentic, informed and expertly crafted outcomes. Some focused on online resources, others on raising profile through better branding, some created videos and animations, all  were very, very professional and exceptionally useful.

The room buzzed with the creative energy of experts coming together from a wide range of fields to collaborate without apparent leadership or ego’s. Essentially we had the hours of 9-5 Saturday and Sunday to work, in whatever ways suited us  with a deadline of 5pm Sunday to present each of the sets of deliverables. At no point  was there any feeling of stress. 60-odd (well not so odd) people, the majority of whom didn’t know each other beforehand, just got on and did it. Unlike normal working environments no hierarchies existed, no history or politics, no emails or other pressing deadlines to meet. Instead we were all able to focus, think & make. Without any management speak or business management strategies to follow the job got done. It got done well, very well. Efficiently, effectively and for each project the brief was exceeded. This wasn’t a ‘job’. It was a flow. The droplets of rainfall fell as ideas, gathering into streams of intelligence and rivers of thought, sometimes excitable white water, sometimes deep and calm. Always forward until done and the flow slowed as the brief was completed.

I hope I can contribute to future sessions of Good for Nothing. I learnt much, not just about how social media and marketing works, or the simplicity and fun of making stop motion animations. I also remembered how exhilarating it can be to let go and become part of a flow that you don’t know where you will end or what you will learn getting there. I worked with a great team on the Food Cycle project. I found an exhillerating weekend and I found how amazing people can be when they get together to work on a vision they believe in. If only we can now find ways of bringing in the wider society into such creative and fulfilling spaces. Well done Pipeline Project: Dan, Tom & Tom (& Anouk), you showed me that I’m proud to be Good for Nothing!

Cruach Doir'an Raoigh

 

At the trail-head we pack, we shoulder our loads

Of food and clothes we leave the road

Our path leads into wild isolation

With Its dusty climbs, its times of frustration

And joy, it takes us towards our place away

From the cities we left where we lived in the grey.

 

Onwards we hike, our group of friends

We struggle and swear as we breathlessly ascend

On ridgetop we view Arisaig and the islands beyond

The Highlands, their beauty as if cast from a wand

Below fresh water lochs surrounded by heather

Tinder dry, desiccated almost dead from the weather.

 

The path descends, our backs tiring from strain

We find our strength striding onto a plain

From where we see our simple shelter

We arrive and rest, in the heat we swelter

Our bothy with its beach, loch and ancient hills

An abandoned fishing settlement, now ruined and still.

 

We explore this place of land, sky and sea

Its mountains, streams and wind sculpted trees

Forgetting our lives in our urban jails

For a few days we have the space to exhale

Shedding our wintry selves to grow new shoots

The spring sunshine, refreshing, bearing us fruit.

 

We build new bonds through the time we share

With songs, stories and secrets laid bare

We walk, we swim, we fish and we play

In the tranquillity we forget our other world today

And tomorrow, nothing exists beyond our sight

No electricity, telephones a detached delight.

 

Our only distractions our pals and the place

On white sand beaches footprints trace

Strolls into the calm seas, clear, salty and fresh

 Diving into cold water, goose-pimpling flesh

Swimming and floating near a peaceful shore

No one but us for a mile or more.

 

Our glorious, simple life soon came to a close

By a spark from a campfire we suppose

Lit on a beach so perfect, a dream

Its beauty soon ravaged by wildfire extreme

Spreading inland by marching soldiers of flames

Vegetation burnt, the land black-char claimed.

 

The fire sweeps quickly we make our retreat

Fromthe crackling blaze we feel the heat

Only yards from the path we hurry along

The fire raging behind us ferociously strong

We climb the hill and then look back

The smoke from the fire brown, grey and black.

 

We watch the inferno race up the slope

Nothing can stop it, no prayer of hope

So we push on until we reach the trail-head

We’d escaped from our idyll so urgently fled

Our precious place we now sadly mourn

And vow to return when its beauty’s reborn.

 

Simon Goldsmith, May 2011.

(for photo's see previous blog post)

Last week I headed by train from the my home in central of London and all it gives (and takes). Often the journey is as important as the destination, not this time. The train took me to Edinburgh then I was picked up by friends to drive to the Western Highlands, a long, long drive. We camped the first night in Glen Coe, in the shadow of  the iconic 1000 metre plus Buachaille Etive Mòr. The night was cold, sub zero.  It was a relief and a revelation to wake to see the dark mountain reaching into the perfect blue sky.

We traveled on, further north and west, through Fort William until we reached the trail head heading to the south of the Cruach Doir'an Raoigh peninsular. We parked the cars, shouldered our rucksacks and took the path the 2.5 hour trek to the Peanmeanach bothy. This trek was a pure joy. Climbing the ridge giving the views of the Sound of Arisaig and beyond to Eigg, Muck & Rum. The path was rocky, steep, boggy in places and bristling with tinder dry heather. Our heavy packs slowed us down and our trek only eased when we crossed over the ridge to reveal the fresh water lochs below and in the very far distance the beach and before it the field our bothy stood. Following the hill down we lumbered with our bags until reaching the flat tall grass and reed lands that led us to the small house we would stay for then next three nights.

At the door we dumped our bags and lay on the deer nibbled smooth green grass. We panted on our backs breathing in the salt tinged air from the sky above. Once rested we ventured into the bothy comprising an entrance hall, two small rooms with open fires and upstairs under the roof a floor to sleep on. No electricity, gas, telephone or water on tap. Our supplies now came from the stream, from what we brought with us and what we could catch from the sea or pick from the land.

We rolled our sleeping mats and our sleeping bags, we unpacked and went to explore. We walked down the beach and onto the white sands, and swam in the flat calm, azure sea.

Without electricity and mobile phone reception there were no distractions except the scenery around us and the friends that had ventured there. We talked, walked, climbed, scrambled, explored. We fished for sea trout and foraged for mussels, we drank pure sweet water from the stream. We forgot about the world beyond our world, we marveled at the sights, the landscape, the movement of the sea, enjoying the slow progression of the day and the enveloping of the night.

Like children again we had no responsibilities pressing, we had space to play and people to play with. In the hot sun we slept on picture perfect beaches with sand in our hair. We splashed and swam in the cold, clear water. We felt alive, our shoulders temporarily unburdened from the lives we live, the work we do and the challenges we face. We ate, we drank, we laughed we sang. Our life was simple, isolated. Perfect.

Sometimes we would be visited by other hikers staying in the bothy, sometimes kyakers and canoeists would arrive at the beach and pitch their tents to join us for a chat overlooking the sea in the day light or gazing at the glowing embers of the fire at night. We would look into the night sky, wondering how lost and alone we really were amongst the void of the Universe. We drank drams of whiskey, warming our bellies and opening our hearts.

Some of our group returned to the cities, three of us stayed on. Drama's unfolded, stories were told. A couple of the canoeists that stayed in the bothy nearly died, their boat swamped by a wave whipped up by an evening breeze. Their boat lost they hung on to the stake of a mussel farm for three hours, slowly dying in the cold of the loch before rescued by a search and rescue helicopter that whisked them off to hospital.

We watched the first white wisps of a fire over the hill slowly maturing, growing into a raging fire, a wall of red and orange flames progressing in a ragged lie through the dry grass, the gorse and the heather. The crackle of burning sounding strange, like a waterfall in the distance. The white and brown-black smoke bellowing into the sky, drifting up then spreading and falling down creating a haze on the surface of the sea. As the sun set the sky too burned; purples, pinks, oranges and browns. A vision of Turner animated for us. From our bothy we watched the fire near. The grass graxed green, non-combustible, we hoped. We hoped too as we slept the fire wouldn't progress and the wind not change, so cutting off our only path of retreat back to the road.

We awoke, a group of campers in the night had joined us in the bothy, forced from their pitches by a change in the wind and the fire tearing towards them. Like refugees they slept in the rooms and on the grass in front of the bothy, keeping watch of the progressing fire. We packed quickly, with one eye on the fire, we decided to leave. The fire now only 20 yards from our path amongst the tall flammable dry grass and reeds, we rode our luck, swiftly walked amongst the smoke and the crackling noise of the fire biting at the vegetation beside us.

We climbed through a wooded valley, up past the lochs and rested at the ridge. We watched the smoke moving up the hill, the campers just before it. As it neared, leaping tongues of fire, danced and roared as flames caught gorse bushes and dry trees, exploding into flames.  We pressed ahead, from our vantage point the fire marched from one side of the peninsular to the other. We had to move further away. We walked, urgently on and on. We reached the trail head and the road. We walked along it for an hour until we reached a train station for a village with just three houses. We waited and flagged down the train. We had returned to the land of electricity, running water, telephones and strangers.  Sadly our idyll was now gone, not just in time, it was now a blackened landscape, its beauty burnt away. Now we have only memories, until another year that is.