31st Jan.

Delicious whole cooked oats and local honey for breakfast.  Out on a fire wood task - Ianto swinging a big axe to cut Douglas Fir trunk sections, and my job was to wheelbarrow them up to the woodshed, and stack them to dry.  Ianto is now in his 70s - architect, permaculture teacher, gardener, cob builder, author, rocket stove designer.  I feel so privileged to be able to spend time with him.  We chatted about finding land, renting or buying, finding community, the importance of having people around, why it might be that people go off on long cycles, and wheelbarrowing tactics.  I'll treasure that conversation. 

Lunch with the neighbour Chloe, and her 3 home-schooled kids.  Anita and Wren, who are already mini cob teachers and tour guides, and 2 year old Moose, who has taught himself to chop kindling from watching people.  Pretty impressive eh?  They all live in a cob house up the hill, and I spent some of the afternoon wheelbarrowing more fire wood up to theirs.  Spending time here is enough to start to believe that we can be really wonderful animals after all, rather than a disgrace. 

The forest here is temperate rainforest, it's thick with moss hanging off branches, mosses and ferns growing well on the roofs too.  The cob houses are beautiful - curved, hand-sculpted walls, living green roofs, small and cosy, wooden ceiling rafters visible, and the rocket stove radiators with cob sitting benches along the length of the pipe work really well.  Ianto gave me a miniature copy of  the book 'Tiny Homes' - something easy to cycle with!  Linda's house here is in it, built by Ianto. 

The evening frogs here are so loud!  There are several ponds here and there, where subsoil has been dug out to build a house, so the frogs are in their element!