It's the unofficial start to summer! Here in Portland Oregon it's finally starting to get hot out. We had a pretty cold and rainy spring - more cold and rainy than our previous two springs here. (well, 1.5 springs) In the Garden: We planted about 20 tomatoes too early, and it wasn't warm enough overnight so a lot of them died. Luckily we had more seeds, and the second batch we planted looks good now. We also sprinkled wildflower, clover, and onion seeds all around the tomatoes we planted. They are all looking really good now. Flowers are attracting hummingbirds! I was out watering baby plants the other day, and a tiny hummer got within a foot of my hand to drink from the hose. It was amazing! What else: We traded in BOTH of our old cars and bought a new electric car. My old Altima was with me for 13 (THIRTEEN!) years. I bought it brand new in 2004, and it still seemed like a new car most of the time - just not when it had something break. It was getting to the point where every other month something big would happen to it. Brakes. Calipers. Tires. Ignition coils. It got fairly good gas mileage for a 13 year old full-sized sedan with power seats and everything. But it was starting to weigh on me that I was driving a fossil fuel powered vehicle. Chris's electric hybrid Insight was much newer, but he never drove it. Well, he very rarely drove it. The most use it has had since he started working from home was when we had a roommate who he trusted enough to lend the car to frequently. She took good care of it. But she's moved on, and the Insight was just sitting there costing money. Why pay a loan for something you NEVER use? Our dream was always, for several years at least, to become a one car family. And we really wanted it to be electric. The fewer dinosaur-burning engines and appliances we have, the better! We even tried to make-do with a small electric lawn mower here, but with over an acre to mow that was not realistic. So we bit the bullet and got a nice lawn tractor that can also tow a small trailer filled with compost or logs or whatever. And then we bit the bullet and got our electric car. This is a big change! Hopefully soon we can get rid of the natural gas heater and water heater! In our first house we had installed an electric mini-split heat pump air conditioner in the kitchen, and a heat pump water heater in the basement. We plan to make the same changes again as soon as we can afford it. That won't be for a while, though. Alas. and The Family: We are trying to potty train our kid. She's not happy with it. But no matter how green your diapers are, they are still filling up the landfill. Yeah, they're supposed to be "compostable," but still! She used to wear cloth diapers, but they are not big enough for her anymore. And they're bulky as heck. Maybe if we went back to cloth diapers she'd get embarrassed enough to finally start using the toilet. UGH!
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A Brief History: I wanted to be an architect. I went to college and graduate school. I worked as an architect. Then the recession hit architects. I returned to internships. I began practicing Qi Gong and Tai Chi Chuan. I learned how to use a sword. And I wanted to be a garden designer. I raised chickens and planted food. I tried to "find myself." I worked odd design jobs. I sold invisible sound systems. We moved. Then I became a mom. We moved again. I earned my Permaculture Design Certificate. I think I found myself. Everything that was Old is New Again. When we moved to Oregon to be closer to some family and farther from droughts and hurricanes, I signed us up for a CSA share with the closest farm I could find: Old Soul Farm. I loved the name. I brought my kid along on a trip to meet the farmers, and we all fell into a close friendship with them. My kid and I spent a lot of time out looking for friends. We landed in the Roseway Play Cafe. There we met another mom and kid combination who seemed to mirror us in so many ways. The mom later introduced us to her partner, an architect, and finally I felt somehow connected to my original goal of being an architect again - even though I couldn't see myself practicing as an architect. I could talk to someone who knows about what it takes to design this built environment which most of us inhabit. My mind always busy, I have played with the idea of creating a new business. Having lost my passion for just garden design, and my old faithful Green Rascal Design, I have filled sketchbook pages with possible names for new business ideas. I kept returning to the divergent ideas of something involving my name and something like Old Soul Farm. Names derived from old Doctor Who planets were interesting and catchy, but they did not seem right at all. Finally, last night, it hit me. What about a play on words? The name Holcombe begins with Whole. Thinking about my architect friend, Mr Heart shall we say, and how architects so often just use their names, I admit to pondering a collaboration between Holcombe and Heart. Well, not wanting to suggest anything too forward, I just decided to let that be. But the idea of designing with my heart would not go away. Something clicked and I realized my heart and soul are dedicated to permaculture. And thus heart became Soul. Holcombe Soul. Whole Soul. This is the first day of Whole Soul Design. Whole Soul Design involves every part of me. I cannot deny my architectural background. I will find a way to include it. But Permaculture is very important to me. It takes into account all the same factors that initial design of architectural projects include - like how much rain falls at the site, what's the land form like, what are the prevailing winds, is there crime in the area, what do you want to build anyway, how big does it need to be, how many people does it need to provide for... But the guiding principles behind permaculture are very clearly in favor of the earth and regular people. They don't say anything about working for rich people who don't want to spend any money on design services. There aren't enough of them, anyway. Clearly the Earth needs all of us regular people to do everything we can to reduce our impacts. And let's not forget to take care of ourselves and the energy we put out into the world. Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese art of placemaking, is one of my interests. It's all about the energy flowing through our buildings and gardens. Qi Gong and Tai Chi deal with the energy flows through ourselves. Permaculture talks a lot about the cycle of energy through the landscape. Buildings use a lot of energy as well. They're not all the same, but they are similar enough. We are all connected through these various forms of energy. In this way, all of my previous practices - even the ones I never thought would connect to my professional life - have informed my new outlook on my work. It's amazing. I love it. I hereby declare to follow my whole soul wherever it wants to take me, I will design anything as long as it feels right to me. And my practice will always pay attention to the whole soul of my clients. That is what Whole Soul Design is about.
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Hollie Holcombe is a trained architect, LEED accredited professional, and certified permaculture designer trying to find her way in the world, well, PDX at least. Archives
January 2018
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