Dear Hive Friends!
It has been a grounding and almost celebratory week! We made some significant steps (again!) towards really settling here on our land - symbolic or metaphoric steps that certainly help my nervous system calm and harmonise.📯 🔔
We started marking the top edge of our land, where the 'public' footpath runs along the western side of our property. The uphill side of it had a messy and sort of oppressive mixture of very large bramble stems (trunks, almost!), old twigs and branches, medium-sized trees and 'myriad-issimo' stray saplings, and epic leaf litter.
LOTS of that got disentangled, sawn and then 'swept' over to our side of the track, creating more light in the afternoons on this area, and a lovely practical, visible barrier for animals and humans alike.
The track above is so very rarely traversed by anyone, but technically is a through path to a gloriously wild woodland walk, which connects with a round route returning up over the hill and back to the nearest village. At any point, someone could take it up as a dog-walking favourite, though locals seems adverse to the part where the track collapsed, and we have to climb down and up a small ravine to get to the rest of the via.
And so, this being a part of the track, across the top of the 'meadow' and right above our house, it has a voyeuristic energy to it - as nice as it is to say Ciao to anyone passing through once every two months! It feels much better to have the beginnings of a kind of nature wall, between us and nosy passersby. 🤭
As it grows, this natural barrier will also work as a funghi farm, a small mammal and insect habitat, and will mulch and prepare the earth below it for possible future hedge planting. Below; our basin of foraged pine trees, in waiting for a spot to put their roots down.
The activity of detangling and putting things in a slightly different-but-better natural order, is my favourite kind of homesteading work. The ease of creating big change and positive environmental impact is most rewarding, even if my back hurts from sawing bigger trees...
We cosy in, as the light fades, with our wonderful wee stove - and our new half-finished window! I'll write abpit that mega-slow process soon; a rather organic glass viewing-hole solution! Hehe!
I've been pretty disappointed to not be doing a regular Needlework Monday post this week, what with the lack of space in the house, and our powerbank running out: we have to replace a fuse, I think for the car cigarette lighter socket, which we use in greyer weathers, to charge the Ecoflow unit that is our main source of electric power. If we can't figure that out ourselves, there's a good garage over the valley, that we can visit. 🥳💝
Plus, today should arrive, after MUCH anticipation, an extremely special book that my brother mailed from Scotland a couple of weeks ago.
I look forward to reviewing this for you all!!!!
Off I go for breakfast with 
