August 2026
What I'm Doing Now
(This is a now page, and if you have your own site, you should make one, too.)
The lead-up to winter was joyful but intense for me, so like an exhale, August is devoted to wintering: maintenance, tending relationships, evening riverside runs, and caring for our ‘Home Love’ project participants (more on that below).
It’s about time!
Going my own way with Permaculture made my life exotic, but somewhat mysterious.
Last year when I started explaining my home ecosystem design work in terms of nervous system regulation, and calling it ‘Togetherness Design’ the world suddenly went ‘Ah, now I see’, and my life became easier and busier.
I work with my sister Katie, a somatic therapist, and over the last few months we started getting invitations to train staff on whole-person wellbeing, from innovation-friendly organisations such as Flinders University. We felt right at home, and so did they.
I’ve also been bringing Togetherness Design to Psychology Conferences, showing how this ecosystem approach has been making daily life better for neurodiverse families and people with ADHD. Factions abound in such places, so I feel warmly embraced as an outside person who they felt make the path ahead look more interesting.
It was over a month ago we created The Home That Loves You Back: 9 month Home Harmonising Project, which sold out. We have fallen in love with our brave participants, and the transformations they surprise us with each month. It might be the best thing Ive ever done.
Permaculture Paradise share-house consulting
I started a two-year consulting project with the wonderful Kim Hill, and the big house she just bought in Moruya.
We spent happy weeks together, setting up systems for it to become a beautiful, convivial shared home, with an ecosystem of food forests, WWOOF volunteers, and diverse people whose faces light up when a housemate enters the room.
She knows its possible, because she has visited not one, but three such homes I created, over the past 17 years.
There were farmers’ markets, curated second-hand shopping, curvy swale digging and a 70’s theme housewarming party.
Yes I was in my groove.
Sisterly Illustration retreat in Byron Bay
My sister Katie and I are staying in Possum Creek in early September. She’ll be on a yoga retreat, while I stay in our cabin, drawing illustrations for a story-rich book we have been crafting together: How to Create a Sacred Space Anywhere in your Home.
The plan is to spend time with cool people, have at least one dinner party, and be the home harmonising fairy yet again. Here are pictures of the 3-week declutter and connect party that happened last visit to this extraordinary cultural enclave.
Memoirs with Mum
My mum and I are writing her memoirs: Convent life, growing up without a mother in 1940’s post-war Australia, low-tech daily life, and the quirky people and culture now lost, though the streets and houses can still be seen.
What a waste it would have been to missed out on these stories. She lights up in a way I hadn’t seen before.
Reality Testing for Pioneers
To make it easier to do cool projects and answer interesting questions, Katie and I are creating The Somatic Institute for Living.
It’s in the spirit Permaculture: Do what works. Find out why. Share the methods.
If you are succeeding in grass-roots whole-person wellness work where experts are lost, we would love to hear about your project and be an encouragement.
Home and Travel
My forever home still eludes me. The longing goes into making the homes of others wonderful.
I’m staying with family in Melbourne, till my travels and consulting resume in the spring.
Earlier this year I visited creative, rebellious Taiwan, and Singapore the quiet achiever. In October I’ll be visiting Vietnam for the first time, and China again.
Amazing China.
I’d love to hear places and people you recommend I connect with.