Dear friends and supporters
four months ago, we arrived on the project site in Andalusia. Since then many friends have visited and experienced first hand the peace, power and beauty which are so present in nature here. It is always a great pleasure for us to be able to show the project on all its different levels.
Over the last four months we have been very busy with simply arriving here and organizing the basic necessities of life. Looking back, we have also managed quite a lot on the project side of things too!
We have renovated an already existing wooden hut and can now invite you to come and stay with us. You can stay in your own four walls with a kitchen and a bathroom! It is very romantic although very basic (no electricity and a compost toilet).
A short walk up the hill from the hut, we have built a big Geodesic dome with amazing views in almost all directions. Several friends have already used it for sleeping, meditation and yoga practice. We have also started planting the first trees for our food forest and are experimenting with different permaculture methods.
Now we are getting ready for winter: sealing the house, connecting hot water, installing a stove for heating and many little things like diverting the rain water so it does not flow toward and into the house but rather away from it 🙂
An exciting big step
We had a first meeting with the Triodos bank in Malaga (an ethical bank). They loved the project and said they would like to finance us if the numbers add up. So the next stage is to return with a viable business plan, marketing concept, etc. That was a really big thing for us and one of the most important steps towards actually turning our plans into reality. The wonderful thing is that with the Triodos bank we can be ourselves. We can talk about the idealistic aspects of the project and still be taken seriously.
In between all that, we have managed to do a couple of little excursions exploring the area and have found the most amazing hiking routes! Through pine forests, along a wide river, up mountainsides to 1300m height with amazing views over canyons, on eye level with massive eagles gliding past us.
Autumn in this area is the perfect time for outdoors activities. From hiking to visiting cities, from climbing to paragliding. If you don’t need too much comfort you are absolutely welcome to stay with us and take a break from the northern cold.
The next big activity here will be the olive harvest! We have 400 olive trees with an ecological certificate. The harvest will start around the first week of November and will take a couple of weeks’ hard work. If you would like to help, please write us an e-mail to hello@welcometothegarden.com.
And finally a couple of impressions:
|