Traditionally this month the whole of France closes down and everyone goes on holiday, which does not make a lot of sense and bit by bit is changing. It's a transition period ,with all the early harvest finished and the later plants beginning to produce abundance and ripen. I'm waking up this morning, two days before the end of July, and the temperature has fallen from 32 degrees Celsius to 16 and the sky's are covered by dark clouds, I don't think I've seen a cloud in three months. Unfortunately no rain is forecast, we need it because there's just been a small wild fire in the next village and everything is ready to burn. Our regional status has just changed from extreme drought, to catastrophic drought , with all the later crops like maize, (animal feed)failing. For me the effects are mixed and it's more the disruption to routine and not knowing how long it will last, that's been the most inconvenient. We will bounce back and repair the damage, although it's a had knock on the moral and reduces motivation to a crawl. Is this a test ? Are we part of some enormous simulation? Have there been manipulations of nature and weather systems that caused this? We will never know. Do we continue to create our own safe haven? Yes, of course, it's all that we can do . The photo is of tree rows planted in late September last year, with lots of compost, mulch and a good watering, now most things are dead .

Four relationships help us decide whether a planting fits its place. Light “Sunny” may mean morning sun, hot afternoon sun, filtered light, or only a few direct hours. Light and shade also change as the seasons and nearby plants change. Water Rain may soak in, run off, collect, evaporate, or be taken up by nearby roots. Soil, slope, mulch, drainage, wind, and neighboring plants all influence where it goes. Roots Open ground may already be occupied below the surface. Roots often reach farther than expected, and today’s open space may become crowded as plants mature. Access A plant may suit the light and soil but still be poorly placed if it is difficult to water, harvest, prune, or reach without stepping on growing soil. We do not need a complete property map to begin. Observe the same place through the seasons. Around the equinox (March and September), most places receive roughly equal daylight and darkness. Around the solstices (June and December), the midday Sun follows its highest or lowest seasonal path, depending on the hemisphere. These changes reveal where shade, heat, and moisture may shift through the year. My strawberry bed, for example, receives full sun while nearby trees are bare but gains welcome late-day shade when their summer leaves return by design. I also watch how heavy rain moves across the land. Where possible, I follow or gently shape natural contours, so water slows, spreads, and has time to soak in. Choose one bed, container, balcony, windowsill, or corner of the yard. Spend fifteen minutes noticing: - How does light move across the space? - Where does water enter, settle, or leave? - What roots may already be present? - Can you still reach the planting as it grows? Summer growth may reveal shade, crowding, dry pockets, and access problems. Winter conditions may reveal low sunlight, wet ground, and drainage concerns. The goal is not to find a perfect place. It is to understand what the place already offers and what caring for a plant there will require.

Practical living is often presented as a growing collection of supplies. More food in storage. More jars. More tools. More equipment. More projects. More backup plans. Some additions are useful, but household capacity is not the same as household inventory. Real capacity is the ability to find, use, maintain, and replace what we depend on without overwhelming the family. Capacity includes - Time to use and maintain what we own - Space to store it safely - Skill to use it well - Energy to repeat the work - Money tied up in supplies - Attention needed for records and rotation - Family members who understand the plan - A dependable place for each item within normal household life An addition can solve one problem while quietly creating another. A new appliance may save labor but require storage and cleaning. Bulk food may cost less per serving but become waste if the household does not normally eat it. A garden harvest may be valuable but arrive during an already crowded week. A backup item may expire, lose its charge, become difficult to reach, or simply be forgotten. This week choose one shelf, drawer, tool area, pantry section, freezer, charging station, or household routine. Look for - Duplicates - Expired or forgotten items - Missing labels - Supplies that are difficult to reach - Unfinished projects - Items no longer used - Things the household owns but cannot find when needed Resilience is not built only by adding more. Sometimes it grows by making what we already have easier to find, use, share, and maintain. What opportunities are you seeing? Where could your household recover the most capacity right now

The truth is scattered vegetable seeds in prairie between fruit trees is something once suggested as synergy or chaos gardening (the original theory actually uses seed bombs.) is not likely to be effective, although if you have the space available planting a mixture of vegetable starts , randomly into a cover crop that's terminated and then letting them self seed for several years has the possibility of producing locally adapted seed and plants. The seed bank built-up in the soil will generate it's own unique growing pattern, certain plants prefering , differing years weather. The whole scenario is likely to involve many wild plants and herbs, so selective weeding of the very invasive would be needed. Will it be productive? Or even produce a usable harvest? Probably not. But an interesting experiment nevertheless. Wilderness and chaos has a role in ecosystems, even though, the function is not obvious to us, it's there.

Compost is sometimes taught as a recipe. Add browns, greens and turn the pile. Wait. Those instructions can be useful, but they do not explain what is actually happening. Composting is managed decomposition. Bacteria, fungi, and other decomposers use organic materials as food and housing. Their activity is influenced by carbon, nitrogen, moisture, oxygen, particle size, pile structure, temperature, volume, and time. When those relationships are reasonably balanced, materials change. Leaves soften. Stems weaken. Colors darken. Larger pieces become smaller. Heat may build. The original materials become harder to recognize. When one part of the relationship is far out of balance, the process may slow or change. - Very dry material may decompose slowly - Waterlogged material may lose air and develop unpleasant odors - Dense material may restrict oxygen - Too much coarse carbon may slow active breakdown - Too much readily available nitrogen may create odor or excess heat - Small piles may never become hot - Cold weather may slow activity - A pile may still decompose without becoming a hot pile Heat is one useful observation, but it is not the only sign of life. Cold composting, active hot piles, vermicomposting, contained household methods, and slow leaf decomposition can all have useful places. They differ in materials, speed, labor, space, temperature, and intended outcome. Before adding more material, we can first read the process already underway. Look at one compost container, pile, worm bin, leaf pile, or patch of decomposing mulch. Notice its smell, moisture, texture, visible organisms, recognizable materials, and signs of change. Take a handful from below the surface. It should not be dripping wet or dusty dry for most aerobic pile methods. Record what you find before adding water, turning, or adding more material. Identify one regular household compost input and one available dry carbon-rich material. Examples might include vegetable scraps, coffee grounds or pulled weeds paired with dry leaves, shredded plain cardboard, paper towel spindle or pruned woody garden material.