The talk is over (or just revving up). This just got real for us. Found some land. A nice little 3 acre block with outline planning – half forest with a river. It’s on the edge of a Welsh village near the mid coast – not the cutesy Beddgelert with the coffee shops and steam railway kind of village. We’re talking no frills and a nationalist Welsh flag-flying neighbour next door. But that’s OK. We GOT THIS!

When I say this, I don’t mean that we know in any way how this is going to play out. We have some ideals and core values: sustainability, as off-grid as possible and to create a hub for learning and healing. But the journey is another matter. We have much to learn and discover. And not much money to play with. Happily though, this means we can chronicle every step right here, share our faltering progress and shorten others’ learning curves.

The story so far is…found a plot after numerous journeys to all parts of Wales (looked at houses, farms, restoration projects and plots). It has no services connected but it does have Outline Planning Consent for a 10 x 12 x 7 metre dwelling. 7 metres high? That’s neither single or two story….needs further investigation! Asking price was £130K. Offered £100 and got it. Yikes…game-on. Next step? Massive research into cheap, eco-sound self builds.

Off we go…stay tuned…

RECOVERING EDEN means different things to different people but for us, the primary goal was to strive for sustainability, simplicity and independence from corporate manipulation. We have no illusions about the fact that it can be a challenging path to follow but it has always been a dream of ours. We’ve left it late in our lives to try this but individually, our lives had some other lessons for us to learn first. Also, we now have a chance to prove that age doesn’t have to be a barrier to sustainable living.

I’m Terry, a 66 year cartoonist and photographer from Australia. Mel is 60, an artist and teacher from Wiltshire. We both knew we wanted something different from the life of desperate conformity and relentless capital growth that has brought our existence on this planet to such a precipice. But we ploughed very different furrows until, finally, we were presented with the signs that can no longer be ignored… divorce, disenchantment, burn-out, health issues… a healthy dose of life-sabotage to promote a hand-brake turn onto a new path. Happily, our respective paths converged and our respective slices of idealism found new resonance. We actually believed we COULD FIND A NEW WAY together.

Pretty quickly, some practical hurdles became apparent. We weren’t too flush for cash; we weren’t that young or able bodied (plenty of middle-age aches as well as a hip and knee replacement to be getting on with); we had pets that would almost certainly never co-exist in harmony (a young Saluki hound with formidable credentials as a ‘sight-dog’ and a grumpy, late-middle aged cat who has little regard for anyone or anything). Then there was the question of finding a plot of land and financing an eco self-build.
We want to create a healthy, sustainable and low-impact lifestyle for ourselves but also to inspire, involve and educate others. This blog is intended as the first step in that direction. In early 2020, we embarked on the purchase of a 3 acre plot with outline planning consent in Ceredigion, Wales. Then came COVID-19 and a period of limbo from which we are now hopefully emerging.

Check out our next post for details on our land and the initial challenges we face. Meanwhile, here’s a bit more about our ethos.

THE BIG THINGS STAY THE SAME UNLESS WE MAKE LITTLE CHANGES. That is our call to action and our mission is to provide resources and opportunities to interact and learn pleasurable and rewarding alternatives that can help us live more sustainably. Individually, we may not change the world but if we become the change we want to see, then collectively we can be an instrument for global change. Your idea of ‘little’ may differ from ours but we accept the different starting points and mental preparedness we each bring to this challenge. Lao Tsu said it best with, the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

Our intention is to create a sustainable and largely self-sufficient living space with on-site resources to offer teachings in a range of subjects including:
– Mindfulness, meditation and walking meditation
– Art in Nature
– Photography
– Beekeeping
– Vegan/Vegetarian Lifestyle Options
– Herbs and Health
– Foraging
– Sustainable Living

Our initiatives are ambitious and exceed our financial reach at this time. But we will continue to engage via this website with information, ideas and resources. We have a range of original nature photography featuring beautiful but vulnerable and fragile spaces. Some of these are disappearing already and soon, photographs like these will be all that remains of these precious landscapes. These images are on sale for download as limited editions (usually runs of 50) in a variety of formats. This will help fund this site and our training initiatives.

If you wish to be become a subscriber, you will receive unlimited access to technical notes and videos including a series on Beekeeping and Bee behaviour. You can view the latest video and images from our night-vision nature-cam. You can follow the life and times of our native Welsh black bees. We will also include a digital version of our photo of the month and a first look at our weekly cartoon series, Flooded Wellies.

Over time, we will include more sustainability and off-grid, eco-building tips and detailed guidance based on our experiences and research.

A portion of any subscription or purchase funds will be used to support appropriate tree planting.

Thank you for visiting RECOVER EDEN. Let’s make a difference together.