 One of the key tenets of permaculture is that in order to get some sense of how to meet our needs in the landscape and still care for the land, we need to know what the land needs. Observation really is the foundation upon which everything we do in permaculture is based and that's a continual process. It's not a case of going out and saying we've looked at it and then we understand it because the landscape changes and there's always something new to see. The more I learn and more I apply, the more I realise how important observation is and at every stage, not just at the beginning, we think observation is something you do at the start of a design cycle but actually it's all the way through. To be able to understand the situation you're in and what you need and your constraints and your resources are on one side and then what the land is telling you in terms of the site that you're on if it's a land-based design, I think you can never do too much observing. What I love about observation is that I'm still learning how to do it and I've been doing it for nearly 20 years and everywhere new that I go I learn something about different landscapes and that's for me it's exciting but it means that there's still a lot for me to learn. With Applewood here we've got 20 acres of huge variety of places, lots of microclimates, lots of slope, lots of different habitats and there's so much to observe. It's one thing to read it in a book and say we just do this but actually to go through the process with somebody and see that it's not that scary and if you make a map and it's not that great so what you learn by doing it. One of the key outputs of observation is one of the ways of recording it is on maps and so it seems sensible to have an observation with a mapping course to look at increasing those two skills in particular. Tape measures are useful because they can give us some real accuracy when things matter on smaller spaces but actually when you get out into the larger landscape even simple things like measuring things with paces is incredibly accurate. And then the simple tools like the A-frame that you can literally just go into the woods and cut a few bits of hazel or whatever you have, get a string or a vine if you don't have string and tie a rock on the end. And with a few moments calibration, which is again something that people often don't understand but it's quite simple to teach, you've got yourself a tool that will show you the level in the landscape and that's a really important thing because once you know what's level you can then work out where water flows but it's also useful to know how to use some kind of more high tech tools and I'm particularly, I like some of the apps I have on my phone, in fact I don't really use it much as a phone. It's more as a surveying little computer including things like we're here now in October but we can very quickly dial up what's the sun's path in the middle of December. And that can tell us when we go somewhere for the first time particularly if we're thinking of buying somewhere, what's it going to be like in the middle of winter? It looks great now but how will it be when the sun is lower in the sky and so those are particularly useful tools as well I find. Mapping is also a really useful skill to have and a lot of people have a blockage about making maps. It's interesting there's many levels of making maps, very simple ones that you can use hand tools or just pacing, you can use your own body to make maps and there's then higher tech stuff using apps and using drones. Drones are great in that they only require enough power to take a camera up in the air. It's not like having a helicopter just to carry a camera, literally it is a tiny camera helicopter and then you just put it up and it gives you a whole new perspective and you can see what's going on. And much better detail than for instance your Google or your Bing maps that only have a certain resolution. Now we've been here over a year so we have been through the seasons and now we're looking at observation plus ideas of things that could happen and still finding new places on the land and thinking oh well now I need to start the year from now for this place. The views, the views for you can go down to the pool at the bottom, there's lots of wildlife as you can hear in the background, beautiful trees, lots of great facilities. Yes who's the course for? Well essentially anybody who's interested in making maps whether they have no idea what permaculture is or they're wanting to polish their map making skills, maybe they started a bit on their permaculture design course or people who are doing their diploma and really wanting to get a clearer idea of some of the finer details of things. Essentially it's going to be all of those things and we're working to whatever level that people are at at the moment.