The Harmony of Heaven and Earth

“If you only do one thing, collect rainwater...”
Bill Mollison
First day of the weekend conference exploring ‘the theory and practice of attempts to create Harmony between sky and planet Earth’. I wasn’t feeling that harmonious after waking at 5 a.m., but at least had a cooked breakfast to kick off the day.
Soaking up the sun in the quad after getting my photo for the day I had my first interesting encounter, meeting an Argentine Astrologer, before heading in for the opening session. I must have been energised by the presentations because during the first coffee break I managed to spill half of my coffee down my, yes, pristine white tee shirt. Quick exit to change quickly before the next session. Fortunately word hadn’t spread about my coffee throwing and I did meet several other interesting people over the course of the day at lunch and afternoon break. A few were locals from the MA course, someone from the  Alister Hardy archive which had first introduced me to Lampeter several years ago, an animator and a Romanian with another perspective on Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Presentation topics covered for the day included permaculture, concepts of time, Astrology, standing stones in Kenya, Cosmology and grave orientation in China amongst others, so plenty of options for discussion at the Indian Restaurant later.
Shades of being a student again, although I must confess I was a fussy eater back then and couldn’t be persuaded to eat an Indian (in Birmingham of all places!). Fortunately some things have changed.