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Ann Owen's blog

The Great Unskilling

The cost of learning: In a society where people tend to be defined by what work they do, the question: “So what do you do?” is one that I find difficult to answer. I’m a classic Jack of all trades, master at none, and naming all the skills that I’ve collected over more than four decades would require some time.

From Austerity Blues to Green Living

When it comes to living with austerity, my family has a distinct advantage: we’re used to making do and are experts at enjoying life on the cheap.

To inspire, inform and enable...

For this week’s topic on economics, I was planning to write a lovely light and positive article on Fresh and Local, our local market co-operative, but as a social reporter, I aim to report on what’s going down in my community and recent events have forced a change of plan. So apologies, but here it is:

What is this Resilience, anyway?

In Transition, when we talk about resilience, we usually think of it on the level of communities.

Going forward looking back

So here we are, at the start of  another year, yet I hesitate to call it a “new” year, for there seems nothing new about it; deckchairs are still being re-arranged while the icebergs are melting out of existence, empty hype about the future of fracking can only emphasize the speed at which the

A patchwork blanket

Long gone are the days when the job you’d grow up to do would more or less be determined by the jobs your parents did. But going now is the concept of the “job for life”; something you’d study for in youth and then spend your life improving your skills at, earning more and more pay until you’d retire with a generous final salary pension.

The lie

Forest Livelihoods

The British love their woodlands; if there was ever any doubt about that, the outraged protests when this tory government suggested selling off publicly owned forests, made this very clear. But how these woods are valued today is very different to how they were valued in the past.

The New Time Lords, aka transition activists?

If you've never been troubled much about time, once you get involved with transiton, time takes on an altogether new value. It swiftly becomes the most precious commodity around and there never seems to be enough of it.

To fly or not to fly isn't the question.

To fly or not to fly is not a question that vexes me very much these days. A while back I did adopt the “I don't fly!” badge, an essential part of the credibility kit for the noble climate change warrior, but lately I've come to realise that especially in my case, it does as much good for the cause as does wearing sandals in winter.

Bringing the harvest in

Where was the sun? It's not been a great year for us gardeners. It never really became summer here in Wales. It felt like we were stuck in spring and a cold one at that.

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