.SOMETIMES RAW.

“We are disclosing animals, wired for unburdening. It’s what we do as a species. When I am being told, I listen, mindful of the honor, remembering all the while that the shore would be mistaken to believe that the waves lap up against him because he is so beautiful.” 

Hello and Happy Sunday! 

I re-read David Rakoff’s Half Empty a while ago and I am a huge fan. My glass is usually half full but it is interesting to read about people who prefer their glass half empty and like to be on the negative side of the pond most of the time. I am a huge David Sedaris fan and David Rakoff is right up his alley. Rakoff’s theory is that “…all research is Me-search” and I like to reflect on how annoying and at the same time right-on he can be. 

Great entertainment in ten essays make you find out about the power of negative thinking with a pretty sweet pace of challenging sentences or as Rakoff puts it “my ideas move like cold honey”. Throughout the book, Rakoff refers to being Jewish, Canadian, gay and “freakishly small” and I was pleasantly surprised by the content. With this series of autobiographical essays that are mostly based on disappointment, failure and pessimism, Rakoff’s holds up a mirror to society, all with this amazingly dry humor that I love. Sometimes his writing style is pretty dense and some people might be put off. There are just many tangents he goes off on and I also had to re-read certain passages but I love challenges. 

“There will be peaks of great joy from which to crow and vales of tears out of which to climb. When and why they will happen, no one can say, but they will happen. To all of us. We will all go back and forth from one to the other countless times during a lifetime. This is not some call to bipartisanship between inimical sides. The Happy and the Sad are the same population.”

While Rakoff wrote Half Empty, he was diagnosed with a malignant tumor and began chemotherapy. Unfortunately he passed away in August, 2012. In his essay “Another Shoe” is a little twist of his usual humorous take on negativity. He describes how he felt when his cancer came back and that he is struggling through it with hope and this strong belief that it does not really matter what goes on with your life, you must hang on and keep moving forward. The book is just an amazing mix of laugh-out-loud moments and funny images that he described in such a way that some would stay with me for days. 

“My room is cheerfully located between the sixth-floor elevators. The springs of my bed wheeze. The elevator dings. The ice machine right outside my door rumbles forth its icy bounty, a steady tattoo that beats “Stay up! Stay up!” I am in a canvas that Edward Hopper never felt bummed out enough to paint.”

Sarcastic, funny, thought-provoking, sometimes sad, sometimes very funny, delightful and brilliant. For David Rackoff or David Sedaris fans a must-read! Enjoy! 

Order the book here. Also, watch this interesting video below if you would like. Have a great week. 

Hello and Happy Thursday! 

This is my son’s Curious George face. He will turn three in October. Wow, time flies. Petit Joel asks so many questions, wants explanations and discovers every single day. It is fun to watch how his personality shapes, how he grows up. He is so gentle, loving, connected and usually peaceful. He always wakes up happy. I just cannot wait to get to know the man he will become – but I feel I already know him.  Oh yes – it is great to be Joel Henry for one day. Le husband and I agree on this every single day when I send him pictures of us and our day. How good he has it; eating cake in the park, spending time at the playground, enjoying life. Just living the good life! 

Today, we had a doctor’s appointment in the morning and sat in the waiting room for quite some time. Other people and kids came and went. Joel was fine however. He played on the slide and painted a bit. Then the door opened and a family of three walked in. The woman, completely in burqa, sat down. Her husband and little son next to her. Silence. Actually, the entire room fell silent. The kids stopped playing. My son has seen women in a hijab before, but I don’t think he has ever seen a woman in a burqa. I raise my son very tolerant and he is good-hearted. The old woman at the corner is not a witch, gay people kissing is not yuk or disgusting; disabled people are okay – and if someone is in a wheelchair he hurt his leg very badly and cannot walk anymore. Tattoos are fine as well as  purple hair. As far as the burqa goes: I was not prepared at all! 

So while we sat in the crowded waiting room my son got more and more interested in this “ghost” as he called her. “What is underneath, Mommy,” he asked. “Is it a ghost? Why is she wearing this”, he wondered. Of course, he did not whisper. He yelled, pointing at her. Everyone was staring anyway, since the family walked in. But now, even the last child was quiet. Honestly, I was put on the spot and could not come up with any plausible explanation that would made sense to him. And of course I did not want to offend the family in any way. Live and let live! To each his own! At this point, my son tried to see what is underneath the burqa and tried to lift it up at her legs. I smiled at both apologetically and pulled my son away. The entire time, I could not see her eyes. They were hidden behind a grill or mesh of the veil. It was strange in a way considering I don’t like when somebody talks to me with sunglasses on. You know what a burqa is? Here a little Headgear 101: 

What happens once you tell your kids NOT to do something? Yep, they go right for it. He was still pretty determined at this point to find out who this ghost is. Then he wanted to be a ghost himself and asked me for a sheet to cover him. My only way to stop this was to take him outside. The waiting room was pretty full anyway, so other mothers waited outside too. I told a woman who laughed at what just happened in the waiting room while I dragged my son out and tried to calm him down. He still wanted to see the ghost one last time. To my surprise the woman said that she thinks that “if these people need to dress like this, they should stay in their country. We are in Germany after all. They should ban these women from walking around like this. And honestly, who wants to walk around with a burqa when it’s 33 degrees Celsius outside?” 

I thought about this for quite a while. Again, to each his own. But how do I explain a burqa to my three year-old son? This was my try:

“Listen my love, people are different. Some like to dress in pink, some in black, some in blue. It is like flowers, they are all different too. Different colors, shapes, but they are all pretty and we are all human beings.”

It seemed like he understood. At least he stopped calling her a ghost and trying to get back into the room. Win-win for now, I would say. 

What do you think? What would you have said?  Should I have apologized more? Do you think she should have maybe lifted the vail for a second to show my son that she is not a ghost?  

Stone pyramids. The perfect hiding spot for insects and small animals

Hello and Happy Monday! 

“Ein stabiles Netz braucht möglichst viele Knoten. Knoten sind definiert durch eine Vielzahl von unterschiedlichen Tieren und Pflanzen. Diese treten durch in der Nature erprobte und sinnvolle Beziehungen zueinander in Kontakt”

My parents have been into permaculture for a long time. They try new things, go to lectures and do tons of research to make their garden as beautiful as possible and of course to benefit from it. Since I am in Germany I learned a lot from them already and looked through their plethora of books on gardening, permaculture and to become as self-sufficient as possible. We planted and harvested together and tried to figure out how to get the most out of their 2 acres garden. They also mentioned Markus Gastl, gave me his books and I read “Drei-Zonen-Garten” and “Ideenbuch Nützlingshotels” with delight. If you are into gardening and trying to change things around a bit and don’t necessarily like to have the traditional English Lawn but more or less “a controlled chaos” you should read those books! 

Also if your attitude is “back to nature” and you like to stay away from chemicals (RoundUp, Monsanto and whatnot), Markus Gastl is the person to talk to and learn from. He loves Variety, Beauty and Benefit when he talks about his garden. I asked him about his fantastic experience when he rode his bicycle for 2 1/2 years and about 41,843 km total through Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, USA and Canada. Say whaaaat? Pretty amazing, right? And of course whenever a conversations comes to Canada, I am all ears. I love this country so much. So much that le husband and I bought land there. “Markus Gastl, my new guru, has to help me with some projects, give me insight and ideas, ” I thought, while I had one of the most eye-opening conversations with him. When he came back from his long trip, his heart was filled with  so many great impressions and experiences that he had the urge to give something back to nature. With created, built and planted his own garden. Hurtus insectorum – The Garden of Insects! Read more about his projects and the trip on his website. 

Here are some picture of one of his garden we visited on Sunday – Hortus Felix. 

Permaculture? What is it?

Basically, to fairly take care of the earth and the people. When done right, it can provide a somewhat guiding spirit to the tending and creation of your own land.

Markus Gastl invented the “Drei-Zonen-Garten? What is it? 

It is important to work with nature and not against and have a little dialogue with it here and there. Do you want the average garden that most people have and use pesticides to get rid of weeds? Spending time in the garden should be fun and not be seen as a burden. My grandmother used to say whenever she was in my parent’s garden that “no matter how sad I feel, this garden makes me happy. It seems like it has something healing.”  

If you are fortunate to own a garden, wouldn’t  you love to have a little paradise as soon as you step outside of the house? With bees buzzing everywhere, flowers, butterflies and other animals that love to stop by in your garden? How awesome are these hotels for insects for example? We could hear a lot of buzzing and saw little bugs crawling all over. Fantastic! 

Surprisingly fast and easy are the steps you need to take to grow vegetables, have a beautiful flower garden and so much more. It is actually less work than maintaining a sterile, clean garden. 

I love the Staketenzaun! Great idea! A little expensive to purchase but lasts forever! 

Benjes Hecke. I learned that I don’t need to throw anything away that grew and is already on my land! 

Overall, I learned a lot. If you ever get a chance to visit Markus Gastl’s gardens, do so! What an inspirational day! Markus, thank you again for taking your time to answer some of my questions. Hope to stay in touch. 

 Visit Markus Gastl’s website. Click here. Connect with him on Facebook, click here. 

Are you as new to permaculture as I am? Are you interested in permaculture? I would love to hear from you, connect and exchange experiences. Of course, once we start working on our land, I will document it all. Permaculture, especially in Canada: How does it work?