renza

Recently built a website for my brother's polished plastering/ micro-cement business. Not quite finished but pretty pleased with it so far.

www.renza.co.uk

Touch Wood

mini-utopia website

Here is a website I built a while back when I was made redundant. It kept me busy and I enjoyed building it a lot. The website is home to some of my old (very old) writing and art. Most if it is over fifteen years old, which probably explains a lot.

The Alternative Lifestyle

The other day I was helping a customer over the telephone with a technical enquiry. His mobile broadband was running slow. He lived in a remote area of Devon and was quite a distance from the nearest mast which was causing the somewhat slow connection speeds. As we chatted it came to light that he had given up the conventional lifestyle of mortgage and 40 hour working week. He said that he was tired of being a slave to his mortgage. I told him he was living my dream and he told me it was the best thing he had ever done. Previously he worked all the hours just to pay for a house that he was too tired to enjoy and so he sold it and bought a static caravan with the profits. He had also managed to secure some part time work at the site where he lived and all his utility bills and land rent were covered by his employer. I guess a pessimist could argue that he is still a slave of sorts to his new employer as he needs a spot for his trailer and money to get by but how can anyone feel imprisoned when they have copious amounts of free time and are able to walk along the beach every sunrise and sunset?

I seem to stumble across more and more people with similar stories to tell. This is quite common with work as folk who live somewhat off the grid need to rely on mobile broadband for their internet connections. A lot of people who live away from the towns and cities live a simple life and it is often the case that due to their locations their connections can be quite slow, but then when you are living a life that has more free time, where is the hurry?

Every day I dream of living a life without a mortgage and a life with more free time and away from consumerism. It is not because I am lazy (that is a matter of perception) but because I sometimes am sure I can feel the speed of the earth as it turns beneath my feet. I long to sit still and enjoy the ride as we circumvent the sun before it is all over. I long to see the sun rise, so I can join the birds in their celebratory dawn chorus, and then watch with awe as it sets opening up the heavens to my eyes. I want to experience the seasons in each of their glory and their effect upon the local landscape like the fluctuating moods of a lover. I want to feel the sun on my face and taste the rain on my tongue and catch a snowflake on my nose.



My dream is still a little far off as I am caught in the negative equity trap along with a huge pay cut in my current employment after redundancy from the last. Distance makes the heart grow fonder and so I court the alternative lifestyle in every small way that I can so that I am fully prepared. "Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find resources of strength that will endure as long as life" - Rachel Carson

A favourite place of mine to visit is Diana Lorence's website Innermost House. It is a magical life that she lives with her husband in the woods.'...a truly simple life that stands on its own centre, equal to every other life in its essential dignity'.

The Icebook - a miniature theatre experience

The Ice Book (HD) from Davy and Kristin McGuire on Vimeo.

A Life On Fire

"Betrayals during war are childlike compared with our betrayals during peace. New lovers are nervous and tender, but smash everything. For the heart is an organ of fire". Michael Ondaatje - The English Patient.

Diana Lorence has lived for many years in tiny abodes, and has been married to her husband, Michael Anthony Lorence for many years. The stories that she shares from her Innermost House are incredible gifts. They are the accumulation of all the years and also of a transcendence from darkness into light.

The world is perhaps full of as much fear and darkness as ever it was. There are stories of war and betrayal filling our news. And yet the world is also full of love and light and much kindness.

Those that live a simple life without many material possessions tend to be very peaceful people. They do not covet outer wealth and power and yet tend to be the most spiritually wealthy and seem to hold a very deep inner power.

Many followers of the 'Tiny House Movement' are single people. There are many reasons why one might live a solitary life, whether it be through circumstance or choice. Something very special about the Lorence's story is that they have successfully managed to develop a relationship while always living in tiny homes. I do not doubt for a single moment that they have not encountered difficulties and hardship. Indeed, the fact that they are so magnanimous would suggest that they have suffered as much as any.

There are many practical guides of how to build a tiny house but by reading Diana's words, one learns how to live in a tiny house. How to let go of what you think you want and to learn instead what you truly need and love.

The heart of the house is the fire and Diana's article is full of metaphor. A fire must be respected. If we are to live a peaceful life, a life of deepest contentment, then we must all learn to build and tend to a fire that gives warmth without scalding and brings light without blinding.

It is from such sparks of hope that our entire lives might one day burst into flame with a fire that like the Holy Fire or the Burning Bush, burns without consuming.

(To visit the website of Innermost House please click here).