Author: tingrith

I am retired from The University of Western Australia where I taught in Philosophy of Education 1976-2005. I now live in a magnificent 118 acre farm (50 acres of which are natural bush, with jarrah and marri stands) 21kms from Margaret River, and I raise poultry, grow stone fruit trees, figs, citrus trees and make my own olive oil. I have built a meeting house for different people to meet together on the edge of a 30metre diametre lavender maze

Events and bookings

pythagoras-small2017 Tingrith thinkfests

The reality and rationality of numbers

Albert Einstein said “As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.” This series of informal seminars explores the question of whether we invented or discovered mathematics and the relation of numerical patterns to the natural world.  Topics will include the power of symmetry, the harmony of the spheres, Pythagorean theorems in stone, the Golden Ratio in art and architecture, the Fibonacci series in nature and how magic is a tetractys? No mathematical or philosophical knowledge is necessary. We will all learn from each other.

15th Jan   Pythagoras

19th Feb   Tetractys and symmetry

20 March The Harmony of the Spheres: music and frequencies Om singing bowls

16 April The Golden Ratio

21 May The Fibonacci series and

18th June Numerology and the Power of Limits

Tingrith thinkfests 2016:
The discussion on September 18th as to whether animals can lie was very lively, discussing whether honesty or deception was innate, and whether language depended on a complex language system. Because there is another organic gardening celebration on October 18th, it was agreed to defer the topic of language and labels until the final session of the year on November 20th, as below
 
November 20th Language, truth and the value of labels “Language is prior to any technology requiring the accumulation of knowledge and the coordination of human activity …. Language is the unique foundation of the human realm and from the very beginning it has borne a destructive as well as a creative power.” Charles Eisenstein The Ascent of Humanity p.48 . What is the value of stereotypes and generalisations? Ban all Moslems? “Marriage is between a man and a woman” Can poetry/metaphors be true or false? “The foot of a bed” “the mouth of a river” “mobile phones” “Bullets are earnest lullabies”.

Accommodation costs

 

Self-catering accommodation:

A flat rate of $310 for the first 4 people and $30 per additional person (25 people max.) per night ($15 for children if they are sleeping in the meeting house, and $10 if in the studio). There is a surcharge of $100 per night in peak time (school holidays and long weekends)

 

Workshops, seminars and conferences for which registration is charged.

Available 4pm Friday through to midday Sunday   $2000. There is no  additional accommodation fee which can be included in your registration fees to cover the cost of hiring the venue.

 

Booking Terms

A one night deposit is required at time of booking.  Balances are payable one month prior to stay.
Cancellation Policy:

Deposits refunded for bookings cancelled more than one month prior to arrival.
Payments refunded for bookings cancelled less than one month prior to arrival if period is re-booked.
An 5% administration fee applies to all cancellations.

Tingrith thinkfests

The Tingrith thinkfests start again, at the meetinghouse, 24 Hobson Road, Osmington on the third Sunday of each month 2-5 pm.
$10 donation per session covers afternoon tea.
For this series the theme is an women be philosophers??
Contact Felicity 97574014 tingrith63@gmail.com

January 18th     Hypatia (370-415). The risk of superiority.

February 15th   Virginia Woolf.   Do women need a room of their own?

March 15th     Simone de Beauvoir. One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.

April 19th       Dame Mary Warnock. The truths of the imagination.

May 17th          Iris Murdoch. The journey to the Sovereign Good.

June 21st       Germaine Greer.   Not to be trifled with.

July 19th         bell hooks. Passionate politics.

 

Happy campers

Space in TAFE was the first thing I suggested to Andrew!! They’ve had declining numbers foir years, and there is some actual land space there as well. They are going to use TAFE grounds for the necessary bus turnaround and/cr parking which will be shared with TAFE, but generally they are already using art studios and farm land and the kitchens for Home economics.   Andrew’s argument is that the Education Dept cannot AFFORD to build three storeys, but that’s just his excuse. Glad you reminded me of Perth Mod. Same problem. Growing numbers on insufficient land.
It was the first time I’d seen the new classrooms built for the year 7s They are GORGEOUS! White, spacious, open decorated with handmade ceramic tiles, and funky little lunch areas. I think little ex[ense spared there!  The new classrooms are still mainly demountables. School size is currently only 900 but it has doubled in five years, and expected to rise to 1200 in two years’ time. When I said that 700 used to be considered the desirable size with the upper limit 1200, he told me that there was no longer an upper limit. Just as well. the predicted number for MRSHS is 1900 by 2025. and that’s probably an underestimate.  WE have to get to 3000 before we’re allowed to think of a second high school in the area!!  Anyway Marg River Organic garden is getting all excited and signing petitions. Andrew Host DOES see me as a difficult person to deal with!!

The farm is really lovely. Lavender labyrinth was gret. I’ve just ordered about $3000 worth of ceramic tiles to mosaic the small labyrinth with. The cooler start to summer and a late rpuning has made the orchard a little erratic – no quinces and the pears are small, but the seven geese are doing a fantastic job keeping the foxes away  andPB has been comin g once a fortnight to cure the olive groves, prune them, get the lacewing beetles that are needed to control the bugs. And I haven’t got a single itinerant worker here – well the two Frenchies who are building the opuig sty, and will be leaving on Saturday, but they’ve been really GOOD workers, and I’ll be sorry to see them go. I gave Pete Godden his marching orders, and he was very angry. I suspect he had planned to build himself a cob house and squat here for the rest of his life, and I saw through it. He has removed all his furniture, and today I bought the stone infrastructure from him at a third of its value. Phew! relief! He wanted the limestones, and I thought I’d have to rebuild the tipi site.  Much cheaper this way!! A great dfeeling of relief not to have workers coming in. They’d break tools, do sloppy work, steal things – It was SO timeconsuming to MANAGE them. I know I can’t get as much done, but it’s leisurely and I do it at my own pace. I’ll get professionals (like PB) in for jobs that really need doing and focus on the meetinghouse workshops for income. Also I can rent out the two caravans and bus for lowcost housing and not advertised, just on known people in trouble,  All sweet harmony.

You sounds as though your stamps are keeping you busy..And that you’re enjoying the Olympian view! Pete wants me to become council President in October, but I’m really enjoying the farm too much…We’ll see. I’m pretty confident of being reelected even though we’ve gone over to the no-Ward system.  Practising the doorknocking now, for the Greens 🙂
I’ve just reviewed that article on global education for the Journal of Teacher Education this evening, but I have another one g waiting for EPAT.  on Irigary’s interpretation of Plato’s allegory of the Cave . I like that intellectual challenge, There’s a conference on metaphor in Amsterdam later this year, but I don’t think I really want to get away. I’m doing thinkfests each month, and a weekly series for U3A on Are numbers real or invented, and  really finding infinity a challenging concept… But I have learnt the difference between real, rational and natural numbers, so progress is being made….

 

!6-19th November 2012 Tingrith hosted a camping gathering of about twenty campervans from as far away as Taree of people interested in CB Radio. This was a gathering with a difference however. They watched a movie from Eckhardt Tolle, and another called “What about me?” which dealt with identity and community. They learnt about bush survival skills with Steve Tribbeck, joined in a thinkfest on Imagination with Felicity Haynes and had a creative woodfired pizza evening in the courtyard. They were keen to return for a photographic workshop in the coming year.

Tingrith sees the sunlight!

On August 16th Tingrith Farmhouse installed a new solar system, with batteries, which enabled it to go off grid. While there is a switch to connect it to the grid of for some reasons the batteries don’t charge, it is independent of the grid. The grid may be used for the olive oil press or the  airconditioner, but we may not be using these very often at all! And Dave has also put a solar pump into the aquifer that the oil company found for us on our property, so we have another source of fresh drinking water….. Steps to self-sufficiency!!

Beyond that, we have put in beautiful smooth gravel roads through the bypass in the bush to the meeting house, and the track leading up past the Food Forest, which has been tidied up considerable…..

record of meeting 31st July

Talking about Transition Margaret River

at Tingrith Meeting House, Osmington Rd., MR 31st JULY 2012

Who was there Felicity Haynes (Chair), Peter Wilson, Peter St Clair, Julie St Clair Baker, Jodie Lane, Jillie Taylor, Simona Roberti, Cynda Miles, Margaret Auld, Dorothee Perez, Sari Bennett, Kylie Deltono, Shel Cullen, James Cranfield, Steve Tribbeck, Pamela Forward, Carroll Knudson, Jimmy Ponsford, Lyn Serventy, Karen Majer, Marg Taylor, Sally Wylie, Ken Wylie, Lyn Hellier.

Who wanted to be there and could not make it Skye River

From the last meeting Record of last meeting The group greed that this was correct Website Felicity reported that Jenny Gryffen will work with her on developing a website. Transition 2 film night Felicity thanked all those who made this night a success. It was an effective introduction to Transition. The District Club would be happy for the group to return at any time as they were happy with the increased revenue from bar sales!

Registering on the Transition website Only a few individuals have registered on the Transition website. It became clear that many people do not know what this involves, how to do it and how the process of registering a Margaret River as a Transition town differs. WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Find out more about Transition – see www.transitionnetwork.org.

• Register as an individual to communicate with other individuals and groups – www.transitionnetwork/user/register.

• Discover what becoming an official Transition Initiative means – www.transitionnetwork/support/becoming official.

• Come to the next meeting ready to discuss whether this group should become a formal initiative.

New items that were discussed

Reports from other groups The meeting agreed with Felicity Haynes suggestion that reports to the meeting from our groups will be ceased. Links to these groups will be put onto the TMR website. ACTION • Felicity will provide links on the website.

Fees Felicity proposed that a gold coin donation from those attending meetings would be take the place of a membership fee. Unanimous agreement with this.

Future SW Transition meeting Jesse Humphries from Balingup, who organized the last SW Transition meeting, has proposed another weekend conference which will be held in Margaret River possibly at Tingrith and Fair Harvest this December or in January next year. ACTION • Felicity and Steve to work with Jessie on this. Any suggestions regarding content or date to these people as soon as possible.

Treasurer Cynda Myles has kept a record of income and expenditure and is happy to continue this formally as treasurer.

Education opportunities Jodie Lane. The Fairharvest Dynamic Groups 6 day course with Robin Clayfield can be shortened to 4 days (30th Aug – 2nd Sept) at a reduced price. See www.fairharvest.com.au for more details. Lyn Hellier. The Transition Network runs courses. ACTION • Lyn will find out details of Transition courses for the next meeting.

Follow up from Open Space Forum LETS group – Shelly Cullen Those interested in a LETS group have met and made some decisions eg start small and simple.Yet to be determined are: which computer software to chose (Cyclops? CES?), what should be the name of the unit of currency and of the group itself. WHAT YOU CAN DO • Suggestions and comments invited by emailing Saul Cresswell at agentsaul@gmail.com.

Engaging young people in sustainability – Sari Bennett A young persons “Gypsy night” event has been organized for 13th September – poster being developed. Skills sharing festival, initiatives to use technology to connect young people, to have school children involved in Cape to Cape Catchment project and finally ways to connect mothers who are at home with children were discussed. Seeds/produce swap – Jodie Lane The recent seeds and produce swap at Fairharvest was very successful – mounds of vegetables, even sour dough starter! Margaret River has now joined up on the Swap, Shuffle and Share website. WHAT YOU CAN DO • For a gold coin donation, everyone is invited to these events every two months at Fairharvest. See www.fairharvest.com.au for details.

Sustainability at the Margaret River show – Jodie Lane. There has been a lot of interest in having a stall in a sizable site at the show on 19th October. Display will be non political and positive. WHAT YOU CAN DO • Send your Ideas or applications regarding stalls to Jodie – jodie@fairharvest.com.au.

Greener Town Planning – Jillie Taylor and Felicity Haynes Jillie is still waiting to discuss “green verge” policy with the council. The Hulbert St Festival in Fremantle is a good demonstration of what can be achieved. It is on 22/23 September this year – see www.thepaintedfish.com.au for more information.

Transport – Lyn Hellier No action on car sharing scheme as yet. Lyn will explore possible interest in forming a bicycle interest group. Recovery/re-use of MR tip waste. Lyn Serventy reported that there will be no change soon regarding the tip. There was some interest in “recycling festival” in the future. WHAT YOU CAN DO • Send your suggestions to Lyn Serventy regarding this subject. She will take these to the AMR Council Sustainabilty Advisory Group.

NEXT CHANCE TO TALK ABOUT TRANSITION Bring a gold coin donation, your ideas, energy and enthusiasm plus food to share on 6pm Tuesday 28th August 2012 at Tingrith Meeting House, Osmington Road

Next thinkfest meeting

On 19th August a very lively group, including new arrivals Rae Smith and Steven Morgan, debated  what is was beyond the eyeball that caused one to see. The discussion of how mind connected with brain and the world was foremost and included discussion of Rupert Sheldrake, Joseph Campbell and Amit Goswami and the place of the soul or nonlocal consciousness in our ability to move beyond a material omtology .

On September 16th we will discuss the topic of  Evidence: is seeing always believing? 9 min 2006 film by “Koyaanisqatsi” director Godfrey Reggio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuI_nCADnW0