Reflections of Eden

The beautiful view over the Eden Project site

As I am involved in a community garden project local to me, the Welsh House Farm Green Grafters, I was fortunate to be able to attend the Eden Project’s Community Camp last weekend.

It is a full-on Friday to Monday experience with a group of around 60 other community minded folk packed full of workshops, talks, and networking sessions, all in the gorgeous setting of the Eden Project in Cornwall.

As a gardener this was doubly exciting as I had not visited before and it was wonderful to explore the site and all the wonderful plants and history in the 3 biomes - rain-forest, Mediterranean and cool temperate.

The camp is aimed at those involved in community projects at any stage, from initial ideas through to long standing projects, of any type, and in any area of the UK. This lead to a wonderful range of people, projects and ideas and a real sense of moral support and shared excitement about community.

In the run up to my trip I was actually struggling somewhat with my volunteer commitments, there is only so much time in a week and unlike when I got involved with the group I now have two part time jobs as well as developing my garden design portfolio on the side! So I wasn’t sure this was the best time to visit a ‘community camp’ when I was feeling a bit burned out and a bit unsure about my own (volunteer) community commitments…..

However, once I was there and had settled into my cosy ‘Snoozebox’ having spoken with a number of others in similar situations, I realised that actually this is probably the best time to attend - when there are stand out issues and questions I can focus on through the weekend!

I haven’t yet answered all of these, some will take a while to work through and figure out, but I have come away feeling clearer headed and more positive in making the changes needed to ensure I am looking after myself and my goals within the limited time I currently have at my disposal.

In a similar way some of the sessions from the weekend felt quite abstract, and even irrelevant to me at times, but as the information overload continues to settle I am sure there will be nuggets there that will surface to help me out in future situations.

And of course there were immediate connections as well to areas that I am currently working on and I have some phone calls to make and emails to write to follow up on these!

As you can see it was easy to be distracted with all the wonderful surroundings, so enjoy some pictures from my weekend, and I thoroughly recommend the Eden Project Community Camp to anyone involved in community projects!