News from the farm

Here it is, a garden bursting with life (an organic one I might add). Today everything is actually bigger than in this pictures I took about a week ago. Tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, hot peppers, sweet peppers, herbs, fennel, lettuce, apricot, carrots and the BIGGEST zucchinis we have ever seen (all of us, really). In the picture you can see a normal size zucchini that you would find in the supermarket and our humongous zucchini next to it.

You can also see one of the chickens, today we got 6 eggs! yeiii

It is so gratifying to be in contact with the earth, to pick and eat the food you have grown, to use your body and your mind to take from the earth but also give something back to her.

It is also great to be able to live, eat and work together as a team, as a family (a Lotan family..). Right now there is 6 of us, Merav, Maya, Yael, Shachar, Sierra and myself. But there is always great people visiting for a day, or a few days, or joining us for a bonfire... It's all honey as Maya would say.

Imogen Heap - Just For Now (live at Studio 11 103.1FM)

Just amazing

F cool things on the internet (for people with spare time)

There are two fantastic things you have to see on the internet (please do)

1. Nikal (courtesy of dialogos bizarros)
2. Virtual Bubble wrap (try the frantic mode)

en cueros

Quien de ustedes se encuero para las fotos de Tunick?

living in a bus

Today, after hearing much about him and after seeing a small clip of what he and his wife have done I met Rael. These master carpenters made a bus into an awesome house. Photos , a small interview and house tour can be found on http://www.bestbus.co.il
the video is in Hebrew, but even if you don't understand I assure you you will enjoy it, the bus is great and he's just funny and welcoming.

He's planning to travel so the bus-house, namely The Imperia, is for sale.

today's quotes

Quotes I got from Mauricio today
Dichos que recibi de Mauricio hoy

If you have the money, you don't have the time; if you have the time, you don't have the money.

Las únicas personas normales son las que uno no conoce bien.

Las oportunidades se dan en el momento más inoportuno.

Don't take life so seriously...It's not permanent.

Pharmacophilia

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes of others only a Green thing that stands in the way. Some See Nature all Ridicule & Deformity, & by these I shall not regulate my proportions: & Some Scarce see Nature at all. But to the Eyes of the Man of Imagination, Nature is Imagination itself. As a man is, So he Sees. As the Eye is formed, such are its Powers".

William Blake

Letter to Dr. Trusler (23 August 1799)

This quote appears in the Book Pharmacophilia or The Natural Paradise. Jonathan Ott, 1997.

Greening the Desert

Swale project near the Dead Sea, amazing what a garden can do

Nahalal

So here I am, finally escaped the big city to continue learning about permacultre and to spend time with dear friends. I am at Merav's place in Nahalal (Jezreel Valley, Northern Israel). Nahalal is the first settlement of its kind and it is also shaped as a pie, so each family got a piece when it was founded in 1921.
Myself, Maya and Tracey (we all met studying the green apprenticeship at kibbutz Lotan www.kibbutzlotan.com) are staying here now and trying to help out with the garden and future projects that include straw bale/mud building.

It's amazing how the garden has changed in a couple of months time, there are soooo may tomatoes, and also onions, zucchini, fennel ,potatoes, cucumbers, coriander, zaatar, mint, beans and the list goes on.

There is also a small recycling center so it not only feels good to prevent all those things going to a landfill but its also so comfortable to have so many materials around to work with.

Great things are happening over here and there is surely more to come.

Trendy with a touch and Maayan's birthday

If I'm going to wear crocs I want them to be special, so I made some decoration work including a little fish, some beads, and a dice (as opossed to buying some of this decoration thingys ).

Yesterday I went to my friend Maayan's birthday party at Park Ha Yarkon in Tel Aviv, at some point you don't feel you are in Tel Aviv. Here's a pic of Maayan, so different from when I met her, she was my very serious roommate at a vipassana meditation course, so for 10 days we watched each other, and when we could finally speak we realized we could have so much fun together. Feliz cumpleanos!

Trendy

Today is my nose piercing's 4th anniversary. I guess I am trendier than I thought, that's what I have been realizing during the past few days. I didn't use to like piercings that much and that one day 4 years a go I woke up and thought I would look good with one so I went and got one.
I now have joined the masses that wear Crocs, and I must say that they are quite comfortable, they are still trendy in Israel (kindda cause they're ugly) so I have become one more.

I have refused to follow trends in the past and have failed. I remember that when I was in junior high all the girls rolled up their trousers and I didn't like it at all, but in the end I did it too.

I am still doing more or less what I want so I guess that makes me less trendy... mmm

The 4 laws of Ecology

1.- Everything is connected to everything else
2.- Everything must go somewhere
3.- Nature knows best
4.- There is no such thing as a free lunch

Barry Commoner, The Closing Circle, 1971