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Feeling like Spring (On Fridays I write)

Windowsill garden and baby pigeons

Feeling like Spring (On Fridays I write)

Lou, founder of Boodaville has a rant about Brexit then writes about real issues like effective microorganisms, Jadam, windowsill gardening and urban permaculture.

I was wondering what to write today, and had BBC 6Music on while I took some photos of our little gardens here in the flat in Barcelona. 

And now I have to start with a rant after hearing the pro-Brexit narrative “Britain is way ahead of Europe with vaccines” so some of you might get to go to Cyprus on 17th May. I am so sick of the bias news everywhere.. we know Brexit isn’t that great, we know the EU messed up sourcing vaccines, stop this constant media influence to try and make things fit the story the government want you to believe in.

The reality in Spain, for which I am truly grateful, is that we have been living a fairly normal life. We’re restricted to our own districts except for work; but with schools, most shops, circuses, museums open since June (except for a few weeks in November where they closed everything except schools). It is true that we may not be allowed to travel for Easter, and like everyone, we desperately miss easy to access concerts (here you can go with limited capacity and advance booking) and festivals, and mountains. 

But the UK have totally messed up and it is desperately difficult for people to be locked down so severely for so long. The craziest thing to have happened since the war probably, and massively worthy of sensible analysis and news reports. 

Anyway that’s all politics. People are amazing, resilient and resourceful, we will find our way and keep looking after each other.

I’ll end on a joke: On the way home from our weekend of planting and grafting at Boodaville I commented that one great thing about the restrictions is that there hasn’t been any traffic at all for 6 months, and Fraser said “There you are then, more positives from Coronavirus than there are from Brexit”

Now I’ve  spent nearly 300 words on COVID and Brexit, I should, by my own guidelines, spend 600 talking about Ecosocial Design and addressing issues related to climate breakdown and ecological collapse which,  although more long-term, are undisputedly more important.

Jadam

I am finally getting very very close to the end of the Regenerative Agriculture course from Planeses. The official end date was 6th January!!

While I have never been that excited about compost (I love the ideas from the Wheaton/ Klassen-Koop book that say “bury food” which is what we do at Boodaville!!), I am excited about what feeding your food forest can do. Natural fertilizers and effective microorganisms are an amazing input to boost the ecosystems you are regenerating. You do need a lot of barrels, and we still haven’t found out where to get “molasses” or “suero de leche” near Boodaville, but I think for the future of productive agriculture in the Vall Rovira, and based on the experience form Marc at Planeses, this could be a great project for 2021. In this short video I make some fairly unfounded conclusions about our observations in the food forest!

The system I was learning about is Jadam, I love the idea that you should mix into the fertilizer organic matter from the same plant that you are trying to grow. It makes sense thinking about natural systems! Preparing mixes of effective micro-organisms will be an amazing practical project for Sanilles on our “Regenerative Cultures” training in June!! A deadline to get the materials together, a budget, and a chance to actually learn this — by DOING!

Gardening in barcelona

I have finally made a pigeon proof garden with herbs and lettuces. The second windowsill is cherry tomatoes and strawberries, plus baby pigeons – can you see them in the picture? And we have rebranded the “shitty patio” and are now calling it the “shady garden”. Here I plant anything that will, or might, grow without any direct sunlight. (Basically anything that grows in the UK jaja) but very little food. The straw bale mushroom farm project didn’t get realised… this year.

The top flat on the new building next door has a HUGE terrace. I was thinking about lemons, and thought maybe we could offer the neighbours a lemon tree for the terrace in return for sharing the harvest.

This motivation to produce anything we can right here, comes very much from watching Kiss the Ground, and wanting to take any steps possible towards a diet that REGENERATES, imagine if we can improve ecosystems by eating!!

Has anyone got a lemon tree that needs a new home?

this weeks crazy ideas and new stuff

The best part about this feature is that I look back at previous posts and build and reflect on them. I changed my weekly organisation so Mondays is house and personal (mobile off!); Tuesdays is project management and accounting (Now until 8:30 pm thanks to our new babysitter and my Tuesday re-location to a coworking space!!!!); Wednesdays is Boodaville site and Rovira Regenerativa; Thursdays is Website and Poble Sec projects; Fridays I write and learn, and work on education projects. Perfect. Not too much is it?

Moving on from last week: We have potential volunteers (but you can still apply until tomorrow!), we haven’t moved forward with social media strategy, although have a new collaborator who wants to make documentary style videos for us! He may crush my budding youtuber career. (How sad for everyone)

I got all excited about offering a workshop on water at my kid’s school, Abel continues to be very excited by Biochar and we have a free workshop in Poble Sec on 21st March. I’m developing the office in Poble Sec idea, we could go all in and find premises that would be accommodation for 2 Barcelona based CES volunteers and a classroom and an office! Dream BIG!!

Then I realised that the process of identifying the needs for Boodaville, and Rovira Regenerativa gives very clear roles that need to be filled, so these dream volunteers would have plenty of work in return for getting their BCN living expenses paid. Let’s bring this down to concrete requests – do you know any premises for reasonable rent in Poble Sec? Do you know any hostal owners that are looking to diversify income streams? Also, we need an accountant (again).

Maybe the volunteers can run the podcast! 

See you next week!

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COVID, confusion, death and complexity (On Friday’s I write)

Boris Johnson corruption

COVID, confusion, death and complexity (On Friday’s I write)

This week Lou, founder of Boodaville shares some thoughts on COVID, confusion and complexity : polarised views on censorship and conspiracies, bad management, and a return to the common theme of regenerative cultures - we should be living the questions, not exclaiming answers.

On Friday’s I write. The plan really is to do this every week, but sadly last Friday my computer broke. So here are some thoughts about the last two weeks in our world…

COVID Restrictions

For the first time I feel that there should be a more severe lockdown here in Barcelona. We have seen a spike in cases (up to 40 000 in a day) and this inevitably with absolute certainty will lead to a spike in deaths in a week. It is inevitable that health services will be pressured and the UK is a diabolical example of how to do it badly. So actually, yes, please close everything for two weeks to cut that off. 

CENSORING

Trump being banned from twitter brought all sorts of reactions, my favourite was Jonathan Pie, who usually loves to tout free speech.

It’s an interesting debate, but ultimately if there is someone in the room who is spouting shit, the grand majority of people will shut them down – if everyone has a voice. To what point is shutting people down, effectively giving other people a voice? Pie doesn’t dive straight in with “he shouldn’t have been banned”, and that is telling. 

Censorship around racism, violence, vaccines, all the way down to medicinal products in general – there is always the backdrop of capitalism. You have to balance the idea of shutting down hate speech and conspiracies, with the reality that there are always very powerful companies behind the scenes desperately seeking profit above all else. Are profits being put above health and environment with this censorship? (eg maybe La Dulce Revolución natural medicine site shut down in Spain?) or is this a situation where the censorship is shutting down outright lies, hate and gaslighting?

CONFUSION

Obviously all this leads to confusion, as demonstrated in an incredible example by a permaculture colleague two weeks ago.

I received a forwarded whatsapp from them which was a message from the mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau. It was an unedited copy of the message posted on her public facebook page in which she talked about her personal experience and difficulty with a media that spreads misinformation, and social media platforms that spread lies and sexist insults. She gave a brief analysis on this widespread problem and ended with a call to people to check their information and take personal responsibility not to spread false information.

The very next message from this person was a shared video on whatsapp, not available on youtube, of an Irish doctor claiming COVID doesn’t exist.

How does anyone reach a point where they hold both these beliefs? it is a very confusing world. 

I know that our friend’s father died of COVID yesterday. I see the devastating numbers in the UK. I cannot fathom that Boris Johnson would even consider saying that the pandemic has been managed well there. But I am still asking questions, and that is where we all need to be.. asking questions that take us in the direction of a better world. There are way more than two sides to every story.

What can you do to promote love and compassion? How can you avoid creating division and hate?

Inspiration

When people wonder how to react with the impending crises of climate breakdown and ecological collapse, they often think about what they can do. I have been reading more and more that focuses on the “why?”. The real question is why do you want to avoid further collapse? and the answers are incredibly beautiful. 

Here is a quote from Daniel Wahl’s book, and I follow this with a quote and a recommendation for an amazing book, Braiding Sweetgrass, described as “A hymn of love to the world” which I highly recommend.

“The why defines the how in an action-oriented way. In a nutshell, why offers a purpose, cause, or belief; how expresses the values that guide our actions.” (Designing Regenerative Cultures)

“I don’t have the power to dismantle Monsanto. But what I do have is the capacity to change how I live on a daily basis and how I think about the world. I just have to have faith that when we change how we think, we suddenly change how we act and how those around us act, and that’s how the world changes. It’s by changing hearts and changing minds. And it’s contagious. I became an environmental scientist and a writer because of what I witnessed growing up within a world of gratitude and gifts.” Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of “Braiding Sweetgrass

This weeks crazy ideas and new stuff

I am going to keep this section because the universe is amazing, and after expressing the idea to start a podcast last time, an old friend contacted me directly to offer practical help in making that happen. You have to throw these things out there! and I’ll keep you up to date on any podcast progress. One crazy idea this week is to completely drop off whatsapp and facebook – if that’s even possible. Plus me and Vianna started a Boodaville communications folder. Our to do list looks like this :

Social Media Strategy

– Make one.

So fairly soon we may be calling out to consult with someone who knows, and really actually knows, how to be effective on social media.

We also had a long Rovira Regenerativa meeting and realised that there are a few key project management roles that need to be filled. For now you can find out more about that project on instagram (@roviraregenerativa) and soon we’ll publish a webpage. 

See more blog posts “On Fridays I write” here:

In Barcelona

Waves of crises

and please feel free to leave a comment!

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Young Esperanza – ESC Solidarity Project in Barcelona

Young Esperanza group

Young Esperanza – ESC Solidarity Project in Barcelona

When we created Young Esperanza, we intended to create a community of young people who shared our concern for the homeless in Barcelona. We wanted young people to be active in providing food and other items for those people.

We had intended to create workshops where young people could come and learn about food preparation as well as equipping them with skills that are invaluable to themselves and the community around them. Unfortunately, due to COVID19, much of our original plans were unable to take place, we sadly had to decide what was most important to us without sacrificing our values we created. We decided that we wanted to use young people to provide and distribute food, all the while creating a close knit community around this outcome. We believe we have done very well in this tough year, and believe that we have made a positive influence on some peoples lives. As always, we believe that we can do better, and we fully intend to do so. We invite you to join Young Esperanca and Esperanca in helping to provide and distribute food to the homeless over this Christmas period and beyond into the New Year. If you would like to join us, please follow this link.

 

Will – This year has been tough for us all, the pandemic has forced us to be introspective with our thoughts and actions, all the while maintaining our outward efforts to leave a positive impact on those around us. I am looking forward to everything that 2021 holds for our futures.

 

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In Barcelona (On Friday’s I write)

Big sky in Spain

In Barcelona (On Friday’s I write)

A difficult, cold, week in Barcelona with a story about my weird, yet ultimately successful experience finally getting my post-Brexit residency card.

This week was a return to the rhythm of getting a 7 year old dressed, full of breakfast and at the school gate at 9am. Add to that the temperatures of around 4º and the fact that we only heat a couple of rooms in our house. This was a difficult week. We will know things are getting easier and warmer when the olive oil in the kitchen becomes fully liquid again. Walks in the park and yoga, are helping me find my way back to organised and productive days. It turns out that running an association is just a constant never ending cycle of administrative tasks, and increasingly I am now managing other people – which like any work with people is complex, sometimes flowing beautifully and other times incredibly draining. I must find some balance – teaching, or having fun, or actually producing somthing. The new website is the only thing I’m producing right now and it’s going rather slowly.

Every day police violence

I did some important Brexit related admin this week in Barcelona, and finally went to pick up my Spanish ID card. The process, one which I will never have to repeat, was an incredible experience of the reality of immigration issues and my privilege as a UK passport holder. To get this legal identity card from other places in the world the queue is three hours, standing in various different queues while doubting if you are in the right one. The UK people go into a separate office with few people and wait on chairs. I know this because I went in the wrong queue back in October. 

Yesterday I witnessed even more of the frustrations and weirdness surrounding this process. To pick up the card once it has been made you have to go WITH AN APPOINTMENT to the Barcelona “Policia Nacional” office. The website said “no appointments available” every single time I logged in. The rules said that I must pick up my card within 40 days, but I was also in a situation where I could’t get an appointment. 

So I went to the office. An aggressive young officer outside told me that yes I had to queue up in order to ask him a question. When another officer barked at us to stand closer to the wall in the queue I decided my strategy was to obey immediately showing them that they had total power over me and barking was a brilliant idea. 

15 mins later when I got to the front of the queue I had smartened myself up a bit (took off my silly pink hat and fingerless gloves i’ve had since I was a teenager), I had prepared what I was going to say, and was ready to be absolutely 100% calm and polite, and not expect anything. This actually worked. After asking what to do to get the card I somehow found myself moved to the side of the queue with one other woman. Here I was, standing in front of 20 posters saying “You must have an appointment” about to get in without an appointment. Magic. 

From this spot I watched the officers say no to everyone else without an appointment, except one other woman. We were the lucky three. 

Anyone who expressed their frustration at the insanity of the system (these people have spent hours and hours logging in to the system at different times of day hoping it says something other than “no appointments available”) received an incredibly aggressive response from the police. I saw a man with his child yelled at in the face “get out of here”, then taken by the arm and told to “go”. I then saw two males, one after the other,  yelled at and pushed hard in the back. These people were asking for the same information I was, just letting their stress and frustration show. 

As witness to this, and one of the lucky ones, I felt incredibly weird and uncomfortable. Here they were yelling “noone gets in without an appointment” and here we were three people for who that wasn’t true. Was this the moment to try and take some sort of stand and call out the violence and hypocrisy? No. For me it was the moment to breathe, maintain a silent calm and wait patiently, committing the story to memory to be able to share it as a learning experience for others; the absolute truth in the benefits of inner calm, and the uselessness of stress. As well as the horror of the way society works for people who are frustrated and desperate.

We were given no indication of how long our chosen group of three (all female) would wait for our non-appointment, but we all knew that standing here in the sun, with the end of this process in our grasp today was a whole lot better than more frustration and doubt trying the website, or phone calls that are never answered. The woman before me had been waiting 90 minutes. I was there a mere 20!

When we got inside one of the officers was there, kind of joking with us saying “I don’t get paid enough for this” and “Every single day we have to do this”. She then listened to one man who actually got in the door and asked reasonably polite question before telling him “noone gets in without a previous appointment”, then shouted “outside” to another woman who tried the same move to get inside. 

After a few more minutes I got in to the office. There were two people working, and more than two empty desks. Really?

I was out in two more minutes with my permanent ID card, complete with fingerprint data, photo and a little window with a picture of me. I hadn’t really expected to get all the way to this point today, and as she put my scraggy green paper on a pile of documents to be disposed of I looked at there with an emotional moment of nostalgia. That folded, torn, sellotaped piece of paper had been with me for 14 years since 2006 when I moved to Barcelona. I lost it for over a year in 2010 before finding it folded in the special lift pass pocket of my old ski jacket. I had a sudden urge to take a selfie with it! but it was too late, and I can’t imagine how the police would react to photos in the office, there was absolutely nothing going on with me except nervous best behaviour. Just the way they wanted everyone.

This weeks crazy ideas and new stuff

That was a long story about just two hours of this week. So I’ll share a few more things that are going on. Firstly I have a dream to start a podcast. I have a vague idea of format, but not sure about the technical side. Secondly I’m considering offering a regular zoom session, I have three ideas for this: One hour to just be available for questions, one hour to do connection activities, based on Joanna Macy the work that reconnects and Jon Young Exploring Natural Mystery. And one hour which is content based, sharing ideas and principles and examples of ecosocial and regenerative design. That’s 3 hours. Should I do that, or should I go and spend time online networking? Or maybe I could try and get a job teaching ecosoical design, that way someone else could do all the coordinating?

Also this week I was extremely happy to take up a position as a Director for “Greenhearted” the new NGO being created by the wonderful Kate Curtis in South Africa. 

And this morning I loved this little piece of direct action by the neighbours who are sick of dog poo everywhere. 

I try to write every Friday – read more here

 

Poble Sec dog poo action

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Friday writing and sustainable living in Barcelona

Gifts from nature - seeds and a story

Friday writing and sustainable living in Barcelona

This week I'm sharing eco-living tips from Barcelona: Fermenting pickled chard / use the amazing Berkey water filter / keep unhealthy marketing out of your home.

Wow. I sat down to do Friday writing an hour ago, and have just actually started typing. We have, as you may have noticed, switched to a new webpage! An amazing feat, which is still ongoing and writing a post isn’t the same as it used to be. I’ll get used to it right?

I haven’t written for three weeks now… and that’s fine. It’s been a weird time here with some trips to Boodaville that seem like a looong time ago, and my daughters birthday. It seems that the time when I could enjoy my child’s birthday are behind me, it is very much about what they want at seven. And very dramatic. I really feel like it’s all easier when there aren’t any presents or games where kids scrabble around and fight over presents from the piñata. Actually I think last year Kira was most happy when she organized the other kids in a neat queue and ave them one chupa-chup each. I’ll bear that in mind next year. 

My world is so busy right now I haven’t been keeping up with the latest craziness from the world. I have signed up to bulletins from “Nature” though in an effort to receive things I want to see. Not like when you hit the search button on Instagram and are blasted with recommended (?) or popular (?) images in a sad burst of seeing how the world really is.

I learnt from Nature that the combined mass of human created stuff, is now bigger than the mass of all living plants, animals, fungi and microbes on the planet. Now there’s a turning point for the anthropocene. It makes the solutions pretty clear though right? Let’s increase the amount of life! and redress the balance. More life, less concrete!

So here are my sustainable steps this month…

Pickled chard

I didn’t think fermenting was for me. Then I tried this, with a ridiculous level of success. I turned the white stalks (my least favouite part) into something delicious. It is remarkably easy – water, some salt and garlic in a jar with chard stalks. You’re supposed to leave it 7 – 10 days, I left it two months.. and it was great! Since we eat a lot of non-processed food, and “rice and vegetables” is a standard dinner, i’m very excited about jazzing it up with jars of tangy deliciousness.

At least say no to the marketing

It upsets me a little that so much food is sold using cartoon animals, bright colours, tricks by huge companies that do incredible amounts of research on how to affect your behaviour and make you buy more of what they want you to buy. So anyway, on the days where we do buy cereal from a normal supermarket, I take the plain white bags out the box, turn the card inside out and add it to the craft drawer. 

Berkey water filter

Yes, this was expensive at 350 euros. I calculated that if we carry on buying mineral water from the mountains 120km away in plastic bottles we would spend over 200 euros in a year. The Berkey is the filter with least plastic and best ethics (for example they don’t sell on Amazon). Most importantly we are extremely happy with it – the flow gets slightly slower as it gets emptier so you notice and don’t forget to fill it up, the tap is really convenient, and best of all we now have filtered water for cooking and hot drinks as well as drinking water. No more faeces particles, or anti-depressants in my tea!

Gifting seeds

I’m full of joy at the prospect of gifting re-used little jars with a few seeds, a Boodaville almond to suck up the humidity while they are in the jar, and a little hand written note about why these plants are useful, a bit about the story of their use over the centuries, and some info on when to plant. In the past I’ve prepared jars like this with soil, an egg carton cup included so you have all the material right there! Thinking about this now, I would love to include longer stories, giving a picture of indigenous cultures. Our modern consumerist culture has so much to learn from other cultures that hold wisdom on sustainable living – these ideas (such simple ideas as gratitude for the natural world) are key to finding our path towards a better future. 

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Maranya Festival 2019

Maranya Festival 2019

Maranya Festival 2019

The first edition of the Maranya Festival took place in May 2019 in Fuentespalda, Matarranya

Maranya Festival 2019!

Originally posted on Jun 13, 2019

After months of preparation and anticipation the Maranya festival finally took place! On may 24, 25 and 26th we experienced the Bioescuela, interesting workshops, rain, music and most of all had an amazing time! So for those who were there here are some photo’s and videos to relive, and for those who weren’t here are some photo’s to show you the fun side of permaculture!

A big thank you to all who made this Maranya Festival possible. Lets do it again next year!!  

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