Embrace the energy of life!

Spring equinox, and the northern hemisphere tips towards the sun. Time for planting, and marveling in the creative energy of spring.  The Várzea is a beautiful haven of normality in a rediculous world.
Here is the view from my yurt this morning...

Some welcome rain has been happening.  Not so much, but enough to gee up the spirits of all the 100 or so excellent little seedling trees planted this winter, as well as the fungi to start the recycling rotting-down of the cut material, so to make an armour for the soil, against the double-edged sword of the summer sun.

Garden planting is in full swing.  The potatoes are coming up nicely, and Aga and Ian are filling the prepared beds with stuff to feed us in the months ahead.

A change of mood, Rob is making a see-saw for the kids' play area - an indispensable piece of equipment to any smallholding, Not finished yet, but here's a sneak preview...





Zanda is helping with the cutting/strimming, while Pavel and Edu have been in the food forest, mulching hard!  

Next projects are re-doing the wild-vine area with a proper strong structure to climb on over the next years.


We've been having fun in the river too, making small V-shaped weirs along the length of our local stretch, to help the water back-up into pools, which contributes to raising the water-table in the important time of the spring, when actively growing tree-roots supply the spring growth to the slowly-developing canopy of the food-forest here, and the lowland trees in general.

The V-shape? Neighbour Dan is an aficionado of Victor Schauberger, maverick Austrian genius who devoted his life to the understanding of the behaviour of water in motion. It is all to do with the dynamics of flow, temperature gradients, density, nutrient-exchange, ecology, the causes of drought, that kind of stuff.  Those interested should check out a good 15-minute documentary  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0IJlBfH3m4 on youtube.

What about the water-tank I talked of in the last blog??  Well, until now I couldn't arrange the excavator to prepare the site, but now here he is... 

...and here is the finished hole....

.....and now this morning, just before some rain, we tidied up the new earth and I planted sorghum grass - a dry-resistant summer grass resembling maize (corn) to cover the ground in the summer.  Meanwhile a good part of the soil from the hole was dumped on top of a mountain of cut branches and large tree prunings, to make "hugelkultur" hill - great for long-lived future fertility.

The current of life is flowing in and through all of us - THAT is what is relevant, and to be opening to - all the creative energy that that life is about.  Not hiding away.

Making everyone scared, stressed, malnuirished couch potatoes probably drinking too much, and generally creating poisonous atmospheres indoors for families by the million.  A great way to promote a healthy immune system.  Teddy has been studying these things, so he knows....

... and says, get out and enjoy the spring!!