Why the long break?

Well in summer I wanted to write, and found some lovely bits and pieces to share – but was enjoying being with friends and family and the quiet moments never arose. In September I just didn’t even know what day it was while Joanna was adapting to nursery. So here is a rather random attempt to bring you up to date – things will be left out for sure!

My main observation for this week is that people using hammers and drills in the adjoining flat less than 5 metres from your pillow, between the hours of 8am and 5pm on weekedays for 8 MONTHS (!!) grinds you down and down until you find yourself with a snotty sick baby standing on the street at 9am one Monday banging on the door yelling at them to stop. I had a pleasant morning at home on the 17th September, and realised it was because it was Saturday and there were no building works in my head. That day was also Joanna’s first birthday. 

Bregman and the Chipko women

In the UK I dipped into Bregman’s book “Utopia for Realists” and enjoyed his style of writing and agreed with what he said – the question in the text below is a great demonstration of how crap politics is “Why is it that so many good ideas don’t get taken seriously?”. His suggestions, in 2014, are brilliant – Let’s create a movement that shares good ideas, rather than always being on the defensive to neoliberalism. Sadly that didn’t work out. Looking back from 2022 we saw Momentum, and Podemos rise and rise, with exactly these good ideas that people supported – then come crashing down, destroyed by the mainstream media. So it’s back to the bullshit jobs and a narrative of “growth, growth, growth”. 

I also discovered the origin of the phrase tree huggers, learning from a beautiful children’s book about the Chipko movement. Tree hugging did not start as a spiritual instagram exercise to sell places on your retreat, it started as some radical hard-core activism where women put their bodies around the trees to stop huge companies chopping them down and ruining the watershed for entire valleys in India. 

Phil Ball and Vandana Shiva

Also in the UK I heard about an old connection.. back when I used to have a social life with the Young Farmers of Bicester; we’re talking 16 -20 years old… I spent a few discos in the presence of Phil Ball. Recently he caught up with the lovely Jo Soddy in a local pub. He told an interesting anecdote about being in a lift with Boris Johnson and overhearing some truths about the mess behind Brexit, as he is currently a lobbyist /activist of some sort, which is interesting enough for a young farmer from Bicester. But then the full story came out – he was with Greenpeace for many years; he was on the boats stopping drilling for oil. He went to the arctic. He got arrested by the russians and spent six months starving in a russian jail wondering what the hell was going to happen to him. One of the Arctic 30 is our friend Phil Ball. The book about it, which I haven’t bought yet, is “Don’t trust, Don’t fear, Don’t beg” by Ben Stewart. After hearing this I reconnected with him (ok, I will say thank you facebook) which I love, and we are talking about organising a gathering of some sort at CAT in Wales in 2023. The working title is “Re-connect / Real Connect” – inviting old friends who are on a good path, and permaculture people I only know online. No Agenda, just living beautiful rich connections. Probably quite a lot of hugs. Maybe a presentation to promote Permaculture / Boodaville. It would be in August, for a few days. Let me know if you want to come!

I also found some time to at least start watching “The seeds of Vandana Shiva” which I found incredible: Beautiful storytelling of an incredible woman in her power. During September I was writing a project to run another course with Aline at Sanillés (video from our last course is here) and we are focusing on storytelling and narratives because they are so important to the paradigm shift we need, and to teach effectively. You feel a good lesson in your belly. This link probably doesn’t work any more – but here’s the movie. 

Boodaville EU funded activities 2023

A funding deadline for Erasmus+ and ESC just passed and we managed, thanks to the incredible support of our new collaborator Elena (I will be in touch again Elena – thank you so much!) to apply for three AMAZING projects : 

• Youth Worker training at Sanilles with Anna, Aline, Sam. We’ll do it in summer so Bernat and the family will join, as well as participants from all over Europe, AND participants from the BiorNE permaculture  association here in Catalunya. 
• A Youth Exchange at… my  favourite permaculture project in all of Spain, and probably the world 😉 .. Mas Les Vinyes! We are collaborating with them to offer a week of Active Permaculture in May 2023
• 6 volunteers – 2 at Boodaville Barcelona, and 4 at Boodaville Caseres. The calls are open! You can see more info and apply at our Beacons page. 

the grape harvest 

The most wonderful thing that happened in September was the grape harvest, which came about as part of the Rovira Regenerativa project. We have been given access to land in Vall Rovira: Manuel / Roger said yes. The 8 hectare plot right under Boodaville – the vineyard next to the red brick house, plus olive trees and an almond grove up the next valley are now ours to work. We started work right away by harvesting 240kg of grapes, and our wonderful friend Mike from Artesano Vintners  is making us towards organic, regenerative, tempranillo blend natural red wine. AND I saw him this week and he said it’s drinkable. It’s currently in the new Boodaville tank in his celler nr Montblanc. So much thanks to Terri (in the photo!) who had energy for the harvest at just the right moment to make it happen, and to Marc, the ever wonderful Sam Miller, our volunteers Elisa and Aurore and the lovely baby Joanna for enjoying the day and being a very good baby. Also thanks to Yuri and massive thanks to Mike who is making it all happen. We need to design labels for the 160 bottles of wine we are going to produce, and will need help bottling in about May 2023 – let me know if you’re interested!

more site news and ideas

Our new 8 hectare plot (please note, we will need to buy this land in two years!!)

– I’m thinking get the volunteers to harvest almonds if there are any after the April frost, and seed some alfalfa or whatever cover crop we have, up there. The vineyards are overgrown with cane and wild fennel so we could learn the best things to do with that and get on with it.  

– Design the vineyards and get a digger in in autumn as planned but with a design to fit the actual land we have (meeting planned for 31st October)

– In December we have boodaville olives and another hmm 40 trees on the new land. soooooo much work! 

site manager 2023 and permissions

We have some great applications from people who want to manage Boodaville site and the volunteers next year! We are talking to them during October and November, but the application period is still open so if you are interested please see Beacons for the info and application form. Beacons page. 

We now need a “técnico” for the next step in the permissions process which is “memoria de actividades” to apply for permission for specific activities. The process is unbearably slow, but just yesterday I found a contact who is ready to do this work! Thanks to our Vall Rovira neighbour Ana.

The Boodaville site and the flat in Caseres will be empty from the 20th December until the 2023 project starts so there are possible opportunities for winter get togethers!!

boodaville barcelona

Oh, and don’t forget our Barcelona project! Tomorrow we are running a stand at the “

IV Fira d’Economia Social, Solidària i Sostenible” in Poble Sec 

Come and see us in Plaza Sortidor!