Leaving A(n Italian) Garden After 15 yrs...

Dearest Hive Gardeners 🌳🐛💐

Today we had a small (possibly our very final) jaunt down into the (now almost completely overgrown) gardens below our Arthouse in Guardia S., Italia: we managed not to be eaten alive, or over-cooked in the midday sun (just lightly toasted, thank you!) and we even came back with a few goodies...

We were mostly slashing through the undergrowth to see how a pomegranate tree was doing; in previous years this would have huge ripe fruits a good few weeks earlier than the others in the zone, this being due to its perfect microclimate (and my regularly watering it).

But this year, the pomegranates were mostly eaten out! The remaining ones were very wee, and not so ready to eat - but we took them anyways, before the wasps/ beetles/ spiders/ birds/ mice/ caterpillars/ etc, etc, etc, scoff them completely!

We wrestled with a few brambles, nettles, mallow and tall grasses, eventually giving in before the last terrace; all the trees look parched just now, and many plants, even the hardy, wild ones, are losing the last of their vital force.

We gathered what we could in these days, from roadside and shopping basket; putting aside a lettuce, grabbing up some rocket from the lower streets: getting some (relatively) fresh air, between gallery at the wine festival and loading up our car for another shipment of belongings to our new land.

It is rather intense to say goodbye to this 'orti' - the old kitchen gardens, below our Via Dietro Gli Orti... I've come to know almost every plant, bush and albero as friends - almost as family, over the years I've lived overlooking them.

the sun sets on 'our' old gardens in Guardia....

Though the controversies of human relations with each 'section' of the zone have ebbed and flowed, I'm pretty proud of having maintained a sacred, grounded and ultimately very abundant rapport with the space as a whole - and with all that flourished in it.

us exploring the rather more hospitable and cooperative landscape that we are newly guardians of!

This has prepared me/ us for our having this new land, where we can finally let loose and thrive fully in wild nature. Perhaps all that wrestling with the jungle, as it felt like, was necessary training, for this period in front of us - this new age of cocreative libration under Natural Law... Certainly it is a wholly different reality to explore our divine relationship with the earth in: zero hysterical screaming neighbours, no large agitated groups of drunken young men, a complete absence of surveillance or interference, and a gloriously complete void of controversy.

all photos below here are from our new land

Just @vincentnijman and I, gently cooperating with our environment, in tune with elements and seasons.... It is no small feat, uprooting ourselves from one place and managing the logistics of getting us and our belongings (including myriad plants and small trees!) to the new land. But it is one that, once done, will see us settling again with a very much more ease-full prospect.

It is not always the easiest choice, to uproot - many things have held me here in Guardia; the familiar (dis)comfort of knowing what to expect, knowing in advance where each flower will bloom and who will walk by on such and such a day...

But at least once in a lifetime, a massive leap of faith MUST be made, in order to truly leave behind that which is not fruitful - and a new future must be trusted, to full-fill all that we dream of: all that we need, all that we want, all that we deserve for having put in Right effort and Right action.

The landscape around us in the future will be far far far more aligned with us and with harmonious living. Though we are super-tired, wound up from wine festivals, and weighed down with the expectation of how many carloads and long drives it will take to move us to Molise, we know that all is in place; we've already got our extensive seed collection to the new land, and some seedlings will be loaded up this afternoon. One trip at a time, we're building a new homestead, rather than striving to insert ourselves and our Rights to work the land into the chaotic embroilment that surrounds us here (and where the inhospitable jungle cannot be tamed by us alone)...

Between us we have a whole world of skills, knowledge, sentience, intuition and enthusiasm: this is more than we need, to create our #sovereignhomestead - so do follow us to see how it all unfolds!

With love to all of you - and all your gardens 🥰