Lammas Part Two - A Gang Comes Together In The EcoVillage Hub

So, just to get a few things straight from the last post.
Much of the stuff about the hub kitchen, cooking and washing up for yourself etc, was due to an imminent inspection from a health official. While there was absolutely nothing wrong with the kitchen, you can imagine that a shared kitchen in an eco-village and a health inspector might not be a good mix.

Our host, Cassandra, quickly became Cassie. She was a warm, strong, knowledgeable and committed person, whose environmental principles were second to none. Cassie and her family shared their smallholding with us for five days.

The most notable element of this smallholding was the many low-impact buildings. Most were based on round timbers harvested from a patch of old spruce woodland. The roundhouses  (technical term: Reciprocal Roof Roundhouses) were amazing, either for human occupation, for animal shelter or for outdoor human shelters.

This delightful roundhouse is the family home until the proper ne is constructed. 

Something tells me that Cassie and Nigel are pretty happy in here though.

Reciprocal Roof Roundhouse constructed as an animal shelter.

You can see the slate foundation wall and the cordwood and cob walls.

Likewise the cob greenhouses, one of which was to be our main project for the week.

Before I talk about cob, a step back to our arrival at Lammas on the Monday. We weren't starting till 3pm, with a tour around and an explanation of hub kitchen rules (due to imminent health inspection as I found out).
I had been all ready to get going at 9 in the morning, but the pace of life here was slower. Instead Sue and I went into Aberteifi (Cardigan) for provisions before visiting a local waterfall.

By quarter to three there were only a few of us hanging around in the hub building, despite the rest needing to arrive and set up tents before we started. 

Gradually our fellow course participants and comrades for the week turned up. Three had plush camper vans, one other like us was using Air BnB. The last to arrive came at 3.30pm and proclaimed that they knew it would be ok to be late as 'these places are always disorganised'!!!! The fact that we were sat waiting for them seemed to go unnoticed.

The wonderful Hub, built to be the centre of the community

Everybody was very friendly though and from all walks of life. After the tour, Sue and I headed back to our studio cottage, not envying those who would be spending a week cob building (basically playing with mud) and trying to stay clean in a bucket shower with the hot water being heated on a gas ring.
Overall though, facilities were good.
Fresh spring water was in short supply and this in turn meant that there was no electricity. The recent drought, which has been exceptional but may well become a more regular pattern, had meant that the community's main source of electricity, a hydro scheme, was struggling.
I was surprised that there were not more back-up systems in place.

All in all though, I was warming to the place. Things may be a little disorganised, but maybe it is my fault for not being able to deal with that?