once every two months i send out an email with upcoming events and highlighted blog posts keeping you up to date with the project, if you’d like to sign up, click on the link here then just leave me a comment – only i can see your email address. the next newsletter is coming out on about the 7th november.
you know you want it 
my what an attractive hairstyle
it's made of grass, you may be wondering why i did this....read on
most of the jobs i do involve mud. some of them with the addition of powdered milk and oil. but all until now have been well thought out. yesterday, after an experimental irrigation system using the folds of the yurt cover to direct water towards some parsley seeds, i had some spare mud. it looked like it was going to rain so i quickly decided to fringe over the dodgy join between the yurt and the porch roof. i didn’t have enough mud, or grass and it was getting dark so i’m not expecting it to last long or work.
the fruits of my orchard (well the tomato element)
on arrival i harvested the two tomatoes which were the only alive thing in a sad looking veg patch. there hadn’t been more than a few drops of rain since may !! until this afternoon when the grey clouds finally gave in. it’s highly probable i won’t be able to get a fire permit in time for the bonfire party – town hall are (rightly) very cautious about fire when the hills are so crispy.
outdoor living - one should always leave buckets upsidedown (especially ones you wash your face in)
the ghost house
i didn’t make that name up – 5 minutes down the track from me is “Mas del Fantasma”. Mel and i went exploring after sunday lunch and found the door open and evidence of, not very recent, activity in the old mas - including an electric lightbulb. but the thing that made me really jump was looking up to see a hunter standing about 100m away from us when we came out. i squealed a little bit, i’m sure he loved it and i guess he proved his stealth. it was just surprising to see another human being in the valley.
then sunday night – and i know none of you arts weekenders will believe me – i cooked dinner wearing a t-shirt. that’s too warm for this time of year, i guess when the clouds came in they trapped the day’s heat.
another strange countryside phenomenon: i’ve been inspecting the olive trees and while some have barely the tiniest little pip of an olive, three trees – the one nearest the yurt, the one by the hammocks and another – are loaded down with big black fruits. how can it be so different from tree to tree? is it affected in any way by where partygoers decided to wee?
so this is what catalans do for fun on a sunday: version en castellano
first pablo, then sancho, then cristina crossed this ridiculously scary iron “bridge” on their way up the via ferrata (iron route) from Centelles, near Vic in Catalonia. pablo was quick, cristina was smooth, and sancho was wobbly. but at least it was the wire that was wobbling, not his entire body trembling with fear like the guy in the orange trousers who went before them. Orange trouser man got half way across and just started quivering all over, I was terrified enough watching him – i am never ever going to do that bridge (and sancho has since said that he is never doing it again)
I walked around the side for most of the route, but I did this bit:
heee, which i am very proud of. the hardest part is hanging on by one hand while you move the … that metal thing that i’m sure has a proper name…, and when pablo, who has just helped you into a harness for the first time ever, is shouting “whatever you do, stay calm”. thanks.
it was pretty much as i though it would be : scary and i hated every second. I kind of launched myself as quickly as possible to the top to get it over with. I wasn’t calm.
nice view from the top mind. a bit of a disappointment to see a car parked up there before i saw the flag, but such is tarmac.
oh and look at the crazy position this car got into outside my school last week. (i really thought for a few seconds it was just a desperate parent parking in rush hour). the handbrake came off and it rolled backwards down the road opposite then up the steps. my bike was less than an inch the other side of it, oooof.
i’m checking out via ferratas near boodaville, if any of you are into it i can happily drop you at the bottom – (and maybe even drive to the top to pick you up)
there are some near fuentespalda which is about a 50 minute drive from boodaville
well first check out some photos, including the awesome karate moves of some of the group – not only in the improv class but also when attempting to destroy wood
in the team photo people were asked to sum up what they learnt over the weekend in a single expression – do you need me to explain more or can you just look at their faces and glean what happened?
overall it was a huge success and i’m pleased with the organisation for a first attempt – which i’m sure was credit to having such a lovely group of people. As predicted it was cold at night and to solve this problem i will be providing hot water bottles in future i promise. the food was delicious and in all about 80% was organic, or locally made or fair trade. the workshops sounded hilarious (i was stuck in the kitchen and could hear them laughing from up top!!) and the walking, river trip and yoga fitted in perfectly.
i completely love it when visitors get as energised and excited about the land as i am – and i thought it was brilliant that Fiona et al decided to get up at 7 on sunday for a silent walk up to a rock with a view to do a meditation.
what guests had to say:
“It was truly an awesome weekend with some truly awesome people and I hope we’ll all do it again someday. Thank you Anna!!” – Scott
“I found the conversation really enrichening and inspiring across the whole weekend and you all took really well to the Improv – it was great fun!” Matt Kemp (workshop leader)
“It was truly a wonderful weekend and unlike anything I’ve done since moving to Barcelona. Thanks to all of you for making it so fun and supporting my first attempts at improv” -Iva
ok – and just in case you think i’m being too selective here’s Brian’s response
“Apart from the cold hellish nightmare bumpy ground plagued sleeps, it was perfect.”
(like i say, i’m getting hot water bottles – and this event took place in October)
my other highlights -
hearing shouting from the workshops where people were loving the empty outdoor space to let rip
people who wouldn’t normally do that sort of thing admitted that they enjoyed the number 2 toilet 
matt‘s opening song in the yurt (we took our concert inside and lit a fire – extreme cosiness!)
jumping in the river (let’s face it, i wouldn’t have gone in if i was on my own. i don’t care what you say Brian, it was freezing)
and although i nearly hit stress point on saturday (particularly when the shopping took 3 times as long as expected because of village gossip..) it was a pretty smooth and painless operation, and thanks to Maurice who spent lots of the day cleaning up and making tea.
things i’ve learnt:
the open olive grove next to the red brick house up top makes an awesome space for “defend your castle” type team silliness
the yurt just fits 11 people and a concert in
people eat a lot at snack time after a 2 hour improv workshop
the fastest i can get from calaceite to my place is 3.5 minutes
Matt Kemp is a legend
i want to run the whole boodaville project on donations – that’s to say that people pay enough to cover their expenses, on top of that they give a voluntary contribution they feel comfortable with so people in the future can enjoy the same experience.
yoopee, i’m pleased to announce that the eco-living and performing arts weekend is fully booked up. we will be a perfectly formed group of 11 , i can already tell you the empanadas are delicious and my bags of goodies are packed ready to host everyone.
the money thing always comes and bites you on the ass – i think i can cover the weekend’s expenses with the amount i’ve suggested to each guest – but since my plan was not to spend time budgeting and just see how it works out… i’ll have to wait till afterwards to see if i break even. a lot of the food is organic, or well farmed and local, the bread will be 70% from eva in calaceite, and the rest from my local patisserie here in bcn. i tried to avoid supermarkets and in all i think i spent 40 euros in bon preu and .. eek.. dia. ironically i had to go to bon preu to get fair trade coffee and sugar.
kitchen utensils – much as i tried to get second hand (3 jars), good quality from local shops (droley coffee maker, wooden things, scissors) i ended up in the local chinese cheap shop for about 20 euros worth of stuff. i just wasn’t ready to pay 10 euros for a chopping board. sorry
you want to hear the gross stuff??
in the second hand shop i was looking at a large coffee maker, and actually in the queue to buy it, when i took it completely apart and in the bottom where the water goes there were white bulbous growths all over the inside. i nearly retched eeeeewwwwww. then after i put it back a guy came over with it to buy it, i pointed to the bottom with an eeeww face, while trying not to let the shop assistant see. he bought it anyway.
oh and just for your info i now have 4 buckets of shit lined up slowly decomposing into compost— “4 white buckets sitting on the hillside.. if one white bucket should accidently…”
