Tuesday, August 30, 2011


today I learned it's really hard to harvest seeds from flowers after two cups of espresso

cage, cunningham, rauschenberg

Sunday, August 28, 2011

good morning germany


a couple more days here in the netherlands then I will be headed to denmark. the area that this town was built on used to be a swamp, then the government thought they were clever by buying the land to drain it and cover it up and turn it into a town, it wasn't too successful, and what remains now is a town that I think is kept alive by farmers, but since the area used to be a swamp the "dirt" is real sandy so it's tough to grow a lot of things without treating the land so you get the right kind of balance for plant life, so it's extra tricky to be an organic farmer. the plus side to having a garden with sand is there is not a lot of weeding to be done and when it's sunny I imagine it's what a garden at the beach would feel like. my hosts have been great one is from the netherlands and the other is from Italy, so food has been this balance of Dutch and Italian and some nights a combo of both. my hosts have been hosting wwoofers for the past five years, they don't do farmers markets but they have a stand out in front of their house where they sell whatever they have available and a little shop inside their home where they sell preserves and basically anything you can boil down and stick in a jar. free time has been spent eating plums, reintroducing myself to bike rides, reading, and going to Germany to go grocery shopping, because it's cheaper in Germany then it is in the Netherlands, the picture above of the fence and field is the entrance to the home, beyond that field is a horizon of trees which is germany, it's what my bedroom window faces and the first thing I see ever morning is Germany.

Friday, August 26, 2011


above is: the smallest jar of jam I've ever seen, some chocolate I'm addicted to, and after a days work I lay in bed in catch up on email and one of my lovely hosts, benedetta, brings me a home made piece of plum cake straight out of the oven.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Sunday, August 21, 2011

near vlagtwedde


northeast corner of netherlands, wwoof spot until the end of august. I arrived Wednesday and so far I have done some stonework with a walkway, harvested seeds, picked loads of plums, and learned to make bread the Italian way, the place I'm staying at is very close to Germany, it's about a 15 min car ride to the border, my hosts tell me they often go to Germany to buy groceries because it's cheaper in Germany than the Netherlands, so it's weird to hear them say 'we are going to germany, we'll be right back'.
I went for a bike ride to a neighboring village the other day and bought a ice cream cone.
I wonder how much that cone would have cost me in Germany

end of amsterdam


I bought a bike bell at one of the flea markets before I left amsterdam