Ann's very personal, highly biased and incomplete guide to the ecovillage ... in a nutshell, and with only a little no hyperbole.
Distracted by Cows
There’s been a lot going on around here recently. It’s spring, after all, and vigourous house construction and accompanying interest from ecovillage-wannabees has kept me on the hop*. I have hardly any time for writing :>(
It’s been intense in a wonderfully productive way. But this morning, with my mind completely focused on all the important doings and what I was going to be doing about the most crucial of them, I marched the black dog smartly down our lane to pastures at the back for some good uninterrupted thinking time. Our neighbours on the other side of the creek are cows – five brown and white adults and one calf, - free and carefree in the long grass, with nothing to do all day. And darned if they didn’t notice me as I was concentrating. And they came closer and kept staring at me. For the longest time, gazing at me as I gazed back. . Thank goodness I’d already written the following news to share with you or this would have been a very short report from the ecovillage indeed!.
* hop –see haiku contest.
Organic Farm News- vegetables growing, grant granted
The farmers are growing vegetables as fast as they can. Ohm sells at the Saturday market in Abbotsford and Osprey at both East Vancouver and Kitsilano markets --- swapping between them on Saturdays and Sundays.
Ohm organic farm’s Nevin and Shauna along with Osprey’s Tamara and Joel , have received a grant of $5000 for an extension to the irrigation system to the back pasture. Yea!
Profits for the Planet (PFP) puts Stony field's guiding principle of corporate social responsibility into action. Each year, 10% of the company's profits are given to efforts that help protect and restore the environment. By directing financial support to those programs that affect positive and meaningful change, PFP embodies the spirit of the company's environmental and educational missions.
Camping Weekend --- July 30 to August 1
Please plan to come on the August long weekend – July 30th to August 1st to camp and hang out with :>) us . Presumably it won’t still be raining by then, but even if it is, we have lots of covered areas to keep you dry and warm. If by weird circumstance of global climate change it’s sunny, then you’ll be cool in our shade and can dip into our creek swim-hole along with the kids who always are stripped down to shorts. What is it with the youngest among us?? Kids in t-shirts - I’m in woolies.
Better yet. Come early - on Friday July 29th and enjoy our Artisan Market as well!
Artisan Market
Hosted by the Yarrow Ecovillage, the Friday Night Artisan Market is an open-air market where you can find
hand-made items of exceptional quality.
The market's juried artisans offer works in a variety of media including glass, textiles and fiber arts, wood,
ceramics, jewelry, painting, drawing, photography, basketry, recycled and mixed media and metalwork. See our website for our entertainment schedule, featured artist and food selection. From 4PM to 9PM, May 27th, June 24th, July 29th and August 26th. info@stopandenjoyyarrow.com
Victoria Day Open House – what a success!
I can’t speak for how our visitors enjoyed coming, except to say I saw lots of excited interest. What I can say, is how the day was for me.
I saw our village reflected in our visitors. As I showed them what we are accomplishing, I reaffirmed for myself why I am here. For beautifully constructed homes that step as lightly as they can on the earth, for all the ways we share, for fresh vegetables growing at my doorstep, for my own special place, and for the neighbours and friends I love.
New Construction
Five new homes are headed down the home stretch. The five units- count ‘em- have windows, doors, insulation, drywall, plumbing… rooms that you can imagine yourself in. We now call the two-bedroom, downstairs garden-units a generic “Cheryl unit” and the upstairs room-for-kids-and-a-view “ a “Linda Unit”. We have more Cheryl and Linda Units in the works. Ask for them by name!
Newcomers
I’m not going to tell you about the wealth of new folks who are headed our way to buy houses and become our neighbours/friends. You’ll have to come and meet them yourselves. That’s my version of tough love.
But I will tell you about our young mums around here. We have quite a few as it happens, who are so hard-working and yet womanly–soft too … I admire how they balance attentive parenting, active work-for-pay and empathic relationships in the village. If I could raise my kids all over again, I’d do it in cohousing.
Second Annual Spring Haiku Contest
Here’s mine- where’s yours?
Cows with naught to do
Distract me from crucial work.
Brown eyes in tall grass.
The prize is a promise of apple pie.
Last year’s winner ( the only entrant) was Vivian , so she’s ineligible and besides, she’s already bought a house here. I haven’t actually made Vivian her pie yet… it’s still in the hopper*, so to speak.
This is one of my special marketing techniques for attracting new villagers… they (she) write a haiku, I promise pie, they quickly buy a house, eventually I bake pie. We eat it together on either her porch or mine.
Yarrow Days-- June 4th and 5th
Every year, as many Yarrowites as possible, squeeze into a parade along our town’s main street on their way to festivities in the park next door.. That leaves hardly any residents on the curb to watch the gymnastics kids twirling, the horses dressaging, the tractors revving, the volunteer firefghters throwing candy at children, and the townsfolk in theme costumes like 1950’s, mardi-gras or Hawaiian.
So that’s where you come in. You’re needed as parade audience and customer of BBQ, trinkets from stalls and consumer of strawberry shortcake with whipped cream. We can’t cope with all that stuff by ourselves!
Poem – again, by popular demand!
Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
Oliver, Mary. 1986. Dream Work. NY:Atlantic Monthly Press.
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