it's been a week since I got back from my (surf)trip and boy did I surf some excellent waves!! It had been some time sice I surfed some qualtiy waves ( last time was the surftrip to Panama) so I was really aware of the preciousness of these waves! It's not an everyday thing (yet :-) ) for me, but who knows in the future where I might end up...?
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| Big barrels in Hossegor (France |
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microplactics - this is the stuff our fish swallow
and eventually what WE eat! |
First day arriving in Moliets (France) i was blown away by the mount of trash and plastics that had washed up on the shores. It really hurt me in my heart and in my head to see mother nature like this... I immediatly started doing daily beach clean ups by myself... sometimes collecting the equivalant of 2 big trashbags in only 30 minnutes. It looks useless, just one man doing this, but it doesnt feel like that to me. As I've learned over the the past few months...
"every little bit counts!! even if it looks pointless!!" And it really does, because people where watching what I was doing, the complemented me, talked to me, so I got the attention of a few and that's a big step forward! Sometimes they even helped me little bit.. how great is that! :-)
And then it hit me, just that first day, that this could be one of the things I maybe would like to dedicate my life to, cleaning up beaches, oceans, helping our lovely ocean friends like (not so) Free Willy or Nemo! So I started to get in contact with Surfrider Foundation Europe
http://www.surfrider.eu/de/accueil.html which is a departement of
http://www.surfrider.org/ and
http://www.initiativesoceanes.org/?lang=2
These are organisations based on volunteers which organise beach clean ups and try to reach the public and make them aware of what's happening to our oceans today. It's most likely that I'll be joining them soon to help out.
It was wonderfull to see nature still thrives in spite of what man is doing to it... went for some hikes in the Pyrenees and was amazed by it's beauty! The idea of doing some hiking there in summertime immediatly came to mind :) I really enjoyed the time spent without laptops, facebook, cellphone and all the others distractions of modern society... gave me time to meditate, to read a book or just to sit there and watch the world around me :)
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Coming home from the trip had a real surprise for me as well, as "the permaculture priciple" had been busy while I was away. I asked my neighbour Jenny to look after my two pets (Degus), and as she came by every day to check on them, she watered my project garden from time to time cause it had been quit dry in Belgium. She told me she had lots of joy in helping me out. This is an example of permaculture and community... and I am very greatfull for this! To mig surprise, being way for two weeks, I saw my vegetable garden had really exploded!! Salads, herbs, beets, carrots, ... everything had grown so much i couldnt believe it at first! ( I even thought Jenny went to buy some big vegetables and planted them in between ;-) It felt really good to see that my work had payed of, and it felt even better that I could share these vegetables with Jenny and my other neighbours. It made me realise, that you reach so much more with community and that is what permaculture is all about... Helping out each other and sharing!
I'll finish up with some pictures of the contribution of spring to my garden...
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| Pots from plukrijp, still going crazy! :) |
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| first strawberry!! yummy!! |
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| what a difference with 2 weeks ago! |
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| explosion in the vegetable garden |
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| more explosion! |
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| always nice to have some colours in the garden! |
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| apple trees starting to come alive :) |
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| more "life" in the garden :) |
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| homemade couch for chilling in the evening sun! |
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| strawberry bed, looking good |
