Sunday, October 12, 2014

In the shadows

The Old Norse name Skaði, along with Sca(n)dinavia and Skáney, may be related to Gothic skadus, Old English sceadu, Old Saxon scado, and Old High German scato (meaning "shadow")

We have a name for the cottage; Trennenior. It's black as silver, you see. ;)
I hope you all understand why I'm working at the cottage, to prepare for living off the grid if we need to in the future. Since we didn't have much money we bought a real fixer upper and it is eating up all the collective's spare time. We all have to work jobs, too, to make ends meet with all the new material costs for the building and repairs.

Fixing all the roofs was first priority. We are learning how to build and repair! Right now we're building a sauna. I'm tending to the garden, it's trees, flowers, herbs, and planning for growing food aswell as medicine there. It's so beautiful! There is a great Birch tree, several hundered years old here, aswell as old big Firs and Rowans and some smaller trees too, like water witching hazel. I have introduced several different kind of roses.

Don't go thinking I have stopped caring. I'm not just creating a Candide's garden away from the world where we can enjoy 'throw pillows and perfectly crunchy salad'. I'm aware of what is happening out there and when I once again see light on the path before us I will take the steps required but until then, I will take the daoist course of action and wait in the shadow (yin), but prepared and ready; always.


Photo taken this summer. The backyard: the woodshop, garden shed & raised vegetable beds.

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