Green in Tooth

I haven’t written a Village Tale in a long time, but still every morning, as before, I take the same walk with the same black dog, down our lane to the pasture at the foot of Vedder Mountain.  (My previous Tales are near the bottom of the blog on our website)

It used to be, not long ago, that I could go over the stream’s bridge and down the truck tracks to the back corner and the apple trees.  But now the grass is high, dense and wet and no-one but a deer has been there for ages.   I push my way a few paces in, until I’m surrounded by a windy, noisy audience of canary grass, rubbing its grass fronds together in applause.  I soak in some gratitude and when it’s all too much, I retreat.

Beauty Shack

Here are some pictures of the Beauty Shack when we first started. I will be taking some more today and then of course at the end when we are all done!

My corporate website is www.beautifullyholisticcreations.com and my two main brands are www.outsideincosmetics.com and www.dingabear.com

Hope you are having a great day!

Yarrow Community Spirit

Where is the Yarrow Ecovillage located? Right smack in downtown Yarrow, a village with the kind of community spirit that wins awards like this.

The ecovillage itself is a treasure, and its setting is spectacular. I feel so grateful to be a part of both.

Talking about us in Boulder, Colorado

Take a look here to see a session at the 2010 National Cohousing Conference which focuses on, well, us.

CSA 2011

Joel's been around a few times in the last week: he fixed the tractor and fields seem to be getting ploughed.

Look at Tam and Joel's website: Osprey Farm. They're still in Cawston for the 2010 growing season, but they are headed this way this fall.

A dozen of us were delighted to purchase CSA boxes on Joel's last trip out: how glorious to think that this time next year, we'll be eating Osprey Farm vegetables grown right under our very noses!

Soban and Dana have been farming here for a few years now; this year, they have expanded into Michael and Suzanne's former fields. Here are some pictures from last year:

A Name of Its Own

As Yarrow Ecovillage grows and thrives, the seperate entities that form the whole will need their own names. Osprey Organic Farm will be one of our farms; the commercial/mixed use out front will be called Yarrow Central.

What will the first intergenerational cohousing be called? I'll post the brainstorm to date: please feel welcome to add your own comments and ideas. Ann is lobbying hard for Wood Duck Commons. At some point we will gather the community together to work through the list and name ourselves.

Volunteer Bees

A swarm of volunteer bees appeared last week, so Alan Carpenter phoned his wife, Tricia, whose friend Echota was on a "swarm wait list." (Who knew such things existed?) These photos show their process of collecting the bees to take them home to her hive.

We’re-Not-Seniors Seniors’ Cohousing

We’re-Not-Seniors Seniors’ Cohousing

Are you, like me, and tucking a few more years under your belt? ... feeling mature, and still capable, but knowing that if you’re to age gracefully you need to plan a home and community that still keeps your quality of life high in your latter years? Or ... do you know someone else like this?

Then you, (or they), will be interested in
Yarrow Ecovillage’s 50+ Cohousing First Organising Gathering

For meeting like-minded folks ready to share their energy and get this going.

Saturday June 19th 2pm to 4pm
Yarrow Ecovillage
3 upper -42312 Yarrow Central Road

RSVP or questions ...Ann ... 604-823-0232
Refreshments will be served

Yarrow Days Pictures (Link)

There are loads of pictures to be seen here.

Community Everything Bulletin #8

Community Everything Bulletin #8 ---- June 8, 2010
( Ann’s highly biased, incomplete and personal view of our village)

Chuck Workshop/ Yarrow Days/Welcome New Folks Weekend was hectic fun, inspiringly connective, exhilarating hard work. I’m dying to tell you all about the grand progress we’re making, but first I have to share a special joy with you.
The folks of the Farm Team are mowing the field on this side of the creek in preparation for plowing and cover cropping. Next year there will be rows of vegetables there.

T-shirt = Destiny

Yarrow Days gave us one perfect day of summer weather, mid-monsoon. This picture shows Shayne in the 1975(ish) Yarrow Days t-shirt and Matthew in the 2010 edition.

Both Chilliwack papers covered the public presentation to be given by Chuck Durrett on Friday

Both Chilliwack papers covered the public presentation to be given by Chuck Durrett on Friday:

Cohousing for boomers tackled at talk Friday by Jennifer Fineberg, Chilliwack Progress

Speaks on cohousing by Paul Henderson, Chilliwack Times

Its at 7:00 p.m. at Evergreen Hall (Slesse Room), 9291 Corbould St., in Chilliwack.

Ecovillage, like the food it produces is organic

Brian Lewis of the province wrote an article about us here:

http://www.theprovince.com/business/Ecovillage+like+food+produces+organic/3089177/story.html