Lambs

The last week I've been busy preparing a delivery of my lambs for 2 shops. Royal Tichelaar in Makkum and the soon-to-be-opened Options in Amsterdam. The knitted lambs, Barbara does a lot for me, had to be filled with pure wool. For the filling I use clean wool but unwashed with the authentic fragrance of lanolin. Lovely to work with. The flock grows with each lamb, and they all have their own character. They are all made of organic undyed wool in browns, whites and greys. They are very popular, and I'm happy to know that they found new homes from Friesland to New York.

Fog

For days now we have a fog. From my window I see nothing but this mast. Boring, but also beautiful.

Occupy

This is Occupy Amsterdam. An amazing gathering of people, ideas, questions. Maybe asking questions is the most important beginning of opposition. As Remco Campert wrote in his poem: VERZET Verzet begint niet met grote woorden maar met kleine daden zoals storm met zacht geritsel in de tuin of de kat die de kolder in zijn kop krijgt zoals brede rivieren met een kleine bron verscholen in het woud zoals een vuurzee met dezelfde lucifer die een sigaret aansteekt zoals liefde met een blik een aanraking iets dat je opvalt in een stem jezelf een vraag stellen daarmee begint verzet en dan die vraag aan een ander stellen

Reflection

Sometimes, in the buzz of activities, duties and running around, I see an image like this. Reflected on my wall in the beautiful late-autumn light was this simple geranium. It made me stop, see and feel.Good to reflect every now and then.....

Greenhouse

Today my online order from the wonderful webshop vlinder&vogel arrived. A lovely package, and great design inside. A mini greenhouse, based on winter garden designs from the 16th century. Wrapped in cardboard and made of recyclable polypropylene. Great to grow seeds, and prepare for spring. Or just sprouts ready for eating! They have other great products as well. I'm a fan!

Community Garden

Yesterday, just a few minutes to browse through the other favourite bookshop Architectura & Natura- besides Athenaeum where I work- I bought The Thrifty Forager by Alys Fowler. A well-designed book about city gardening, foraging in parks and how to recognize what to pick and what not. Her subtitle is living off your local landscape. The reason for me to buy it is not to be thrifty, but to become more aware of the vast potential of that local landscape. Leaving though all the possibilities described in the book, it thrilled me. Today I applied officially, on behalf of some fellow tenants, to use the 'garden' next to our building as a community garden. At the moment you can hardly call it a garden. It's full of boring bushes, and the soil is filled to the brim with shingles. Even planting a small bulb is impossible. How great would it be to grow our own veggies, strawberries and apples. It could be a lovely place, for it's quite secluded and has many sun hours. So we've asked to remove the shingles, replace it with pure soil and give it it a go. So that we can be part of the worldwide development of community gardening, urban green, city veggies and sustainable use of precious space. Hopefully we'll have a reply soon in order to start in the next spring.