Categories
Uncategorized

Joy and opportunities (OFIW)

Dr David Dixon Leadership for sustainability

Joy and opportunities (OFIW)

Joy as an act of resistance, and a summary of the activites this year and opportunites that might be for you!

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. 

I awoke and saw that life was service. 

I acted and behold, service was joy. 

– Rabindranath Tagore

I would say it depends on what you are in service to! I find it to be true when you’re in service to life, in all it’s forms; whether it be microbiology that creates the soil food web that has sustained food production for humans for thousands of years; or whether it’s the living world, promoting a rich biodiverse, interconnected, thriving, ecosystem; or whether it’s humans, and you are in service to create communities where people can thrive.

Thanks to Schumacher college for tweeting that quote yesterday, and Idles for having such a brilliant album title!

Leadership for Sustainability – changing the world one school at at time

This week’s image is a slide from a presentation I saw by Dr David Dixon, ex-head teacher. I have said on several platforms, most recently replying to a tweet by George Monbiot on education, that the ONE thing schools can bring in everywhere to improve education is creating a Sustainable (regenerative even!?) School. Even if they don’t implement, the thinking and learning involved in designing and trying to move in the right direction is what education in our world should be.I love the practical ideas he shares that can really give a vision of what can be done in schools. I emailed him – maybe we’ll collaborate as I move forward with Donut Economics projects in schools this year! “Getting your school in the Donut” is a more fun way of expressing “ecological design”! The beauty of the Donut model is that it is so holistic, it includes everything!*  

*It probably doesn’t quite – I guess people are working away to improve it as I write. 

boodaville caseres and balsas

We nearly did some earthworks this week, but Oscar couldn’t find a clear path to get to the almond terraces with his machine. We’ll try again in February. He was in the Vall Rovira working for Kate our neighbour and I believe that she paid him to properly fix the track where it crosses the bottom of the valley. We are very grateful!

Alex and Sara have been exploring local culture at the fiestas in Bot, working with Jordi at his farm, and organising and exploring the contents of the Boodaville cupboards. 

boodaville barcelona

Things are getting moving, see the blog and our instagram channel. We will be setting up the “Ecosocial Info Point” on Fridays from 17h – 19h at the library Blai 34, Poble Sec, Barcelona every Friday from now on – see our instagram story “Ecosocial” for ideas and inspiration!

opportunities and activites coming up this year

FEB

18- 19  Feb : At Boodaville Finca we are going to plant 100 trees! 

MARCH

12-13 March:

21 – 28 March : Youth Worker Training – “Leadership in Regenerative Education” We are looking for 4 youth workers, adults of any age, to go to Lagos, Portugal for this fully funded activity. 

APRIL

6 April: Arrival of Klif, Boodaville Caseres volunteer

6 April: Opportunity for new site manager to start at Boodaville Caseres. Apply here

MAY

1 May : We are looking for an ESC volunteer from Europe (not Spain) to start an 8 month contract 1st May. (Under 30 yrs old) Apply here

5 – 12 May: Youth Exchange “Regeneration Camp” We are looking for 5 young people (under 30) from Spain to participate in this fully funded exchange in Lagos, Portugal.

16 – 22 May : Youth Exchange “Active Permaculture” at Mas Les Vinyes We are looking for 1 youth leader (any age from Spain) who is interested in being a key part of the organising team in this collaboration between Boodaville and Mas Les Vinyes. We are looking for 5 young people (under 30) from Spain who would like to participate in this fully funded activity in Catalunya.

JUNE

Early June – Activity week with Klif and friends

26 June – 3 July: Youth Exchange “Inspired by Nature” at Sanilles, Pyrenees, Catalunya with Aline from La Casa Integral and Anna Louise from Boodaville. Save the date! We are applying for this exchange now, and will offer funded places to 1 Youth Leader (any age) and 6 participants (under 30)

SEPT

 1 Sept : We are looking for an ESC volunteer from Europe (not Spain) to start an 4 month contract 1st Sept. (Under 30 yrs old) Apply here

Let’s Connect and Regenerate!

SIGN UP FOR OUR LATEST NEWS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Copyright 2024 © All rights Reserved. Boodaville
Categories
homepage Uncategorized

ESC volunteering in 2022

Cycling to Boodaville

ESC volunteering in 2022

We are looking for 1 volunteer for Boodaville Caseres - 3.5 months in our rural site from 1st Sept - Xmas. This is a funded placement for youth with the European Solidarity Corps.
Boodaville Caseres – ESC project 
WHEN?

The activities take place for 3.5 months in 2022. Starting the 1st Sept

We are looking for 1 more International volunteer from Europe.

WHO?

This is a placement for participants with a maximum age of 30 as it is funded by the European Solidarity Corps. We are looking for people who are highly motivated to learn and apply Permaculture, who are responsible and have an interest in nature and outdoor activities. Applicants should have good communication skills and be ready to live in a small community. They should be prepared for quiet village life and able to travel between the village and the Boodaville site by bike or walking.

We also invite participants with fewer opportunities.

WHERE?

For 30 hours a week volunteers will be at Boodaville, a developing rural permaculture centre in the Matarranya region of Spain. Visitors learn about effective & sustainable design techniques in a place with challenging climate conditions.

Boodaville started in 2008 with the purchase of 1.5 hectares of olive terraces and pine forests in a stunning, tranquil location. Over the years, many people in an ever-growing international community have become involved and we’ve learned about, and applied, permaculture design during the development of the site.

The long term goal is to create a working example of permaculture principles in action and create an eco-education centre with plenty of space for workshops and courses.

Volunteers will live in rented accommodation in the small village of Caseres,

Caseres is a rural village about 3 km from the demonstration site of Boodaville. It is a small village of about 300 people located next to the Algars River where you can bathe. 

See more about Caseres here : http://www.caseres.altanet.org/

WHAT?

Looking after the Boodaville permaculture site, helping with events in Boodaville and beyond, learning about rural living and networking with likeminded people.

WHY?

This European Solidarity Corps program is an opportunity to make something for you and for the world. All basic living expenses are covered as well as the expenses to travel to Caseres, and you receive monthly pocket money. 

You will be living and learning ethical design, as well as experiencing life in a rural Spanish village. There are all sorts of possible day to day activities, please read the infopack for more information  and if you are eligible you can start the application process by filling in this form.

APPLY HERE BEFORE 23 JUNE!

Interviews for shortlisted applicants will be held via zoom between 24th and 26th June.

Boodaville Barcelona – ESC project Treasure!
WHEN?

A 12 month contract starting in January 2022.

(Application deadline 10th December 2021)

WHO?

This is a placement for participants with a maximum age of 30 as it is funded by the European Solidarity Corps. We are looking for people who are highly motivated to learn and apply Urban Permaculture, who are responsible and have an interest in ecosocial transition. Applicants should have good communication skills in Spanish as there will be networking and social media tasks. They should be prepared to come to the Poble Sec neighbourhood to work at least three days a week.

WHERE?

Volunteers will live in, or close to, Barcelona and will work in the Poble Sec neighbourhood to create regenerative projects. They will work in a variety of locations including co-working spaces, the offices of collaborating organisations, urban gardens and outdoor public spaces. 

WHAT?

January will be a month of observation, planning and training, after which volunteers can implement projects they choose ranging from: organising events and workshops promoting ecosocial transition, implementing permaculture design in the Poble Sec neighbourhood, communication tasks for Boodaville, collaborating with existing organisations on publicly funded projects, creating the project “Permaculture Poble Sec”, helping the Boodaville Association grow by engaging young people and sharing opportunities. 

There are many opportunities for independent work, as well as roles collaborating with exisiting groups. There are also opportunities to be involved with permaculure networks across the city and at a regional, national and international level.

Volunteers will work closely with Anna Louise Gurney the coordinator and mentor for this project

WHY?

This European Solidarity Corps project is an opportunity to engage in promoting ecosocial design with long-term effects in a city neighbourhood. All basic living expenses are covered as well as the expenses to travel to Barcelona, and you receive monthly pocket money. 

You will be living and learning ethical design, as well as experiencing life in an urban neighbourhood. There are all sorts of possible day to day activities, please read the infopack for more information  and if you are eligible you can start the application process by filling in th

Let’s Connect and Regenerate!

SIGN UP FOR OUR LATEST NEWS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Copyright 2024 © All rights Reserved. Boodaville
Categories
homepage Rovira Regenerativa

Swale digging, tree planting and grafting pistachios

Planting a fruit tree below the swale

Swale digging, tree planting and grafting pistachios

Last weekend we worked on the abandoned terrace project, digging a swale, planting trees and grafting pistachio branches onto "pistachia lentiscus".

I love the work we did last weekend.. implementing permaculture design with wonderful knowledgeable people and finishing all the tasks we planned.

Olive branches

The first job was sawing off the broken branches of the olive trees – many trees were damaged by a 60cm snowfall back in January. These branches were then used to make a fence along the far edge of the terrace we are working on. A barrier to keep the wild boar in the forest and not snuffling around our newly planted trees. 

swale

We dug a swale along the lower half of the terrace which will fill with water run-off from the road. In the past we’ve had problems with these swales getting immediately full of mud and silt coming down with the water, so we dug a silt basin at the entrance to the swale. This silt basin will need to be emptied (dug out) fairly often – after almost every storm! But it means that water will get all the way to the end of the swale, and hopefully the swale itself won’t need to be dug out for a while.

The design for the whole terrace is two long swales reaching all the way across this terrace, with about 25-30 fruit trees in total.

This weekend we dug the first 5 metres of the swale and planted four fruit trees – 2 apple and 2 apricot. 

fig trees

We will take “suckers” from the fig trees and plant them on this terrace as another useful, and under appreciated fruit tree that grows abundantly in this area. We were going to dig them up and stick them in the ground, but on the advice of Nat from Flores de Vida, we have left them in water, with some of the bark stripped away, to grow some roots for a while. Some of the suckers we took were cut, and some were dug out with a small amount of root still attached. We will leave them, making sure they don’t get dry, for a month or so, then replant them near the apple and apricot trees.

Grafting

Nick from Cova Fullola found 3 male and 3 female branches from Pistachio trees and we have taken around 20 female buds and 20 male buds and tied them to shady spots on branches of “pistachia lentiscus” trees that grow naturally and abundantly here. 

On the larger tree we pruned around the branches we grafted, but left most of the tree intact to provide shade. On the smaller tree, which had shade from a nearby olive, we took almost all the branches except the two that we were grafting. In each tree one branch is grafted with male buds, and one with female buds. 

Let’s Connect and Regenerate!

SIGN UP FOR OUR LATEST NEWS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Copyright 2024 © All rights Reserved. Boodaville
Categories
Uncategorized

Waves of crises.. (on fridays I write)

Cartoon, waves showing recession, climate change and biodiversity collapse

Waves of crises.. (on fridays I write)

Lou, founder of Boodaville, starts the year with a few huge topics, as well as personal reflections on life in Barcelona in 2021 and links to help us with the question "how can we solve the current crises?"

Happy New Year! Reality means this post starts with some sad news, but the links and ideas are to shed light on where we are and what we can do. The world continues to be amazing in millions of ways.

Waves of Crises

So here we are in 2021, and according to Owen Jones, things in Wuhan are much better than 2020 – which is what we were all hoping for. Sadly in most of the world, and definitely USA and UK, Covid is still out of control, and that is just one of our current crises. 

This cartoon of the waves of crisis was published over 6 months ago, and I’ve seen it in various presentations, and shared it myself before. I wonder if we would need to make the COVID one a bit bigger now…. We could also add a tiny little ripple at the front to represent “politics” and the Capitol Hill incident. On the grand scale of things I wouldn’t class someone who continues to act in the same way they did before as news. It’s attention seeking, again. And hopefully this won’t distract us from the real headline telling us that yesterday, in one day, over 4000 people died of COVID in the US.

Here’s a quote and a link about the climate change wave from this morning : 

“Covid lockdowns around the world may have caused a slight dip in emissions, but the CO2 accumulating in the atmosphere is still going up fast. Unless the global economic recovery from the nightmares of 2020 is a green one, the future of many millions of people around the world looks black indeed.”

Climate crisis: 2020 was joint hottest year ever recorded

I’m a big fan of Degrowth, and alternative economics, so the “recession” wave I like to see as an opportunity. The perfect time to introduce a universal basic income for example. Kate Raworth is a great read to go further into that crisis.

The biodiversity collapse wave is part of what I often refer to as “ecological collapse”. I’ve been trying to influence groups in which I work to always say “Climate change and Ecological Collpase” rather than just “Climate change” to help make this one clear. A wonderful book, to grasp that idea deeply is “Climate, A New Story” by Charles Eisenstein.

I wish my view of the world wasn’t considered so “weird”. I look at products on sale, some of which i buy 🙁, and think “Why aren’t you using ethical design in what you do?”
 
Everyone in every sector should be considering these things.
 
Mercadona have reduced the size of their disposable plastic biscuit package, and increased the net weight of the product inside from 300 to 360g. It will sound great when they say “we have reduced our plastic by 30%”. But if that 30% was entirely unnecessary in the first place, is this enough?
 

For a lighter look at all these ideas. I highly recommend the podcast “Jon Richardson and the Futurenauts” It is absolutely brilliant: easy, funny and useful. 

Life in Barcelona

Here in Barcelona we are still finishing the “fiestas”. The Kings came with their gifts for everyone two days ago. (Kira commented, “It’s good to ask the Kings for a much as possible because then we don’t spend our money and get poorer”. The values of the normal world are creeping in to her life even though Mummy always says that if we spend money on good things we get richer and create abundance! I speak truth to my child right? There’s enough content for an essay in here.. what lies do we let our children believe?)

The return to school, officially today, has been delayed until Monday. Unlike the absolute shambles in the UK (again), I think everyone will be going back, and staying there. I hold on to the thought that COVID numbers were going down for a while during last term.

We are currently confined to the district where we live – a sensible move as we wait to see where cases increase after our relative freedom over Christmas (we were allowed up to 10 people together, almost anywhere in Catalunya). We are still on a 10pm curfew, shops and restaurants have limited opening times. But I have to say that I fully understand the rules and apart from not travelling away from home our lives are.. well.. pretty normal. Some real positives to end this post:

  • Kira has learnt to ride her bike and loves it – so being confined in the city involves lots of enjoying Barcelona by bike which is GREAT!
  • I am reading Braiding Sweetgrass. A truly beautiful book to remind us to be present and in love with the amazing nature we have.
  • A friend from the UK messaged yesterday and said she was keeping her fingers crossed that we will all be able to attend a small festival together in August. and thinking about it… why not? Outdoor space, camping, and not that many people. Sounds like the perfect COVID friendly activity.. totally possible!
Cartoon, waves showing recession, climate change and biodiversity collapse

Let’s Connect and Regenerate!

SIGN UP FOR OUR LATEST NEWS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Copyright 2024 © All rights Reserved. Boodaville