things I bought today (not pictured: a bad cup of coffee)

today I rode around on the tram, feeling envious of everyone whizzing around on their bicycles, feeling too self conscious to rent one because I don't even remember the last time I was on one (high school?) and if I did I would probably end up rolling off the street into a canal, I'm impressed with the amount of riders there are around here, perhaps I will buy a bell so i can ring it when I'm walking down the street so people will get out of my way. i found myself in a little book district where I was in awe of penguins little paperback classics, I eventually would like to have them all, they are cheap and fit into a pocket, good bus material. so how is amsterdam? I don't know I spent most of it in different book stores, perhaps tomorrow I will go back and read about this city.

I'm in amsterdam, but I can't go out because I have to do laundry.

so I sit in my hosts cute little kitchen while I listen to the machine chug away, looking up places to go, wondering if I will be suckered into buying a pair of clogs and thinking how much I DONT want to go to the van gogh museum.

the end of york.
the hosts stick the fruit and veg sign out on the road in front of their house when they have goods to sell which is wed-Saturday. things they sell: potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, figs, squash, cucumber, eggs, basil, apples, runner beans, blue berries, raspberries, mint, flowers, bell peppers, beets, leeks, onions, carrots, melons, pears, strawberries when in season, plums, nectarines, hazelnuts, there are probably a few items that I've missed. the photo above shows how fast things get picked over, they restock items if it's earlier in the day. the money gets dropped through the mail slot, so often when I would go out and return I will open the door and there would be money all over the floor. needless to say the nursery has raised the bar on what wwoofing is really about. I've had great experiences in all the places I've wwoofed at but as far as being really hands on this place by far was quite educational.
p.s. I potted those basil plants. if I could take plants on the plane I would have taken them all with me.

the nursery, york

this has been my wwoofing location for the past two weeks, located in a suburb of York, the couple I'm staying with have been hosting wwoofers for 17 years. they have three lots, the photos below is the lot that's located behind their home, they have two other lots located offsite not far from the home. they grow almost every type of vegetable, lots of fruit and some things I've never heard of before, also their technique of growing their apples in a vine like style is something I've never seen before. my time here has been spent sowing seeds, digging up veg, planting new crops, harvesting, a bit of weeding and occasionally feeding the hens. all their crops are organic and they don't use any sprays. they don't do farmers markets but they do supply some stuff to a "whole foods" store, and have their own little following of people who get a bag of fruit and veg from them every Sunday. so Sunday's are spent harvesting the items that will be distributed in these grab bags for their " customers" they also put goods out in front of their home on an honor system for those passing by, I would think that people would take the goods and run, but that's not the case around here, quite the different setup in this land over here, I imagine a set up like this would fail greatly but the neighborhood they live in has proved me wrong. it's been pretty gray and rainy so on days when it's to wet we work in the greenhouses or stay indoors and make jams and chutneys. and dinner and lunch is always prepared with items from their garden, I think I can pretty much live off their tomatoes and basil crops. the other two woofers are from Barcelona, their English is a bit light so communication is sometimes justified through a lot of hand gestures. it's been a great two weeks, tomorrow is my last day at the nursery, Sunday I head to Netherlands and will have four days free in Amsterdam before my next wwoofing adventure.
the strangest thing that was made here at the nursery was a tofu cheesecake, it was tofu mixed with a bit of banana and some blueberries on top, it tasted more like a banana bread and far from any cheesecake I have ever had, although it was still pretty tasty.

day trip to Leeds

took the train to Leeds today which is about a twenty minute ride,
went to the city gallery and to my surprise they had an exhibit on Damien hirst, I couldn't have been happier.
the gallery is also connected to the library which is pretty smart, the halls of which have this wild combination of tile.
Other than that Leeds is just a huge pile of name brand shops and thats about it.