destruction!! no words are needed

click the picture see photos / clic en la foto para ver mas

before...

after...

chicas and chainsaws

do you like mel’s safety gear? those trousers are made of metal.

starting the chainsaw took us about an hour, you really have to give it some welly. but then we took down two dead trees – an almond and an olive. the first trees i’ve ever chopped down – we did the wedge in one side and everything

apart from getting winter wood, i did very little this weekend. the temperatures are still ridiculously warm for november. there was some wine, some napping, a freaky dream about Mel’s dog having human hands and burying its head in a bucket of pee.

My important job was picking up an official paper certifying that i am now a farmer, and as usual i tidied up and inspected growing things….

mel's greenhouse out of sticks and old bottles - a great idea that i'll be copying

the parsley seeds have sprouted, i planted them where they'll get loads of water off the yurt and it seems to be working

i haven't planted any onions for 6 months, so these fellas are doing well. good luck to them

happy 3rd birthday to boodaville

en castellano aqui

well it’s only been called boodaville for a few months i suppose, but the seed started growing on the 7th November 2008 when i took the day off work, went over there in a little rental car, signed the papers with Antonio’s ageing parents and a notary to buy a 1.5 hectare plot in rural spain, and cracked open a bottle of cava in the sunshine.

november

2008

7th

The project has evolved since the original idea and just to clear things up – here’s a summary of what’s going on down at the land:

I am working in parallel on building a comfortable home with rooms for rent (read more here) and developing eco-tourism with a focus on educational workshops about sustainable living, called the “positive impact project”. It’s mainly about fun and adventure, but also aims to show people ethical lifestyle alternatives which could be adopted on a long term basis. If we inspire visitors to make permanent changes to the routine can we can claim that by choosing a boodaville holiday your overall effect on people and planet is a positive one? maybe – hence the name project…

the anniversary weekend was all about bonfire

and hulahooping

more highlights coming up.. as i think of catchy headlines

diary of an arts weekend…

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

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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.

eco-living and performing arts weekend

7th-9th october

workshops · physical theatre · improv games · dining under the stars · eco-living · river swimming · yoga · hill-walking

the weather is looking great for this event, hooray! i thought october might be pushing it a bit but temperatures are still in the high 20s and last weekend we were in the river at sunset… if you want to join a small group of us for fun and laugher there are still places available!! click here for info and to reserve your place

local swim spot

 

networking

when i’m not actually at the land moving furniture around and slowly progressing in various eco-projects  i like to think i’m being useful by networking. this summer i’ve met the wonderful people from the nowhere festival who will hopefully be coming over to Boodaville and use the space to work on art projects in preparation for next years event.  They told me about about some exciting sounding local organic farms…  more

eco tourists???

i imagine you’re dying to know how many people came for my first trial run holiday…  well 6 people enquired and 2 people said definitely yes. unfortunately they were couchsurfers which seems to mean flakey. and poor

so it was just me, gary and rob, but i documented our activities for the purposes of showing you all what you’re missing out on

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The Boodaville Project

So this weekend, apart from a quick swim, I worked on the business idea and produced a leaflet – this is it guys!!! the beginning of the rest of my life…..

the boodaville project pdf, read and enjoy

Come for a holiday this July…

four day adventure break,  14-17th july 2011

hiking in Els Ports national park

• canyoning, hiking in Els Ports, swimming in waterfalls and more….
• general plan –  up early each day for breakfast, out for activities in the morning, picnic lunch and relaxing river afternoons. outdoor dining every evening and optional workshops in the gerprovided: all food and drink including 3 meals a day snacks and some booze (but i’d appreciate the occasional helping hand), all transport including transfers from Reus or BCN, space for you to camp with basic facilities, drinking and washing water

• optional workshops on at least one evening – you choose what you want to learn.
• cost : this a trial run holiday, at the end of the four days i will charge you your share of food/ activities/transport  approx – 50 euros each for food and 50 for activities/transport. I’m not making any money and I’m not responsible for you in any way. [email subject: july break]

my favourite boodaville pictures :

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all the photos are now in the boodaville photo gallery

ooooooof

organising a mini-festival is an interesting, and not entirely pleasant experience. it’s like a roller coaster. every day you have someone cock you about, but to balance it there are so many more people who just love the idea and their support and brilliantness makes it all worthwhile. well almost… what will really make it worthwhile is having an awesome weekend

organisational downs : school not telling me or any colleagues until april that we’re supposed to be at work on the saturday so none of them can come including our flamenco guitarist, greg franklin joining a band booooo ; the day i shouted at bernat and made him build a toilet even though he’s not coming; gemma borrowing my car while i waited  several impatient hours for her to return complete with full frontal mud covering – the looks we got from people in town were priceless; people who say they’ll do something the first six times you ask them, then forget to tell you when they discover they’ve got a better offer; a 250 euro speeding fine; truth is there’s much more ups and as i’ve discovered in previous years it’s only the brilliant people that make it

organisational ups (warning, high cheese content) : theloveofit casually telling me they have it all under control; stefs text yesterday out of the blue telling me he’s bringing a pedal power and 3000w soundsystem setup; duck doing what needs to be done; finding the path to the river successfully, using my eco-ribbon, and making friends with some trail bikers along the way (sorry jamie); pau’s awesome efforts to finish what he started even though he’s got a million things going on in his life; howard coming round to build the bar while i wasn’t there – that’s almost top of the list but it’s a tough call…; gemma and mark putting up with a rainy weekend; hootie not being able to come, my new flatmate staying up til 2am translating with me, people who do what they say they will and particularly architects who produce museum style info boards about the project, everyone who’s put up with me being a complete stress cake and not talking about anything else for months (bernat xx),

chriiiist. this is quite emotional. i warn you i’m gonna be very very sensitive at the party – i might wear a badge saying “please be nice to me i worked as hard as i could. constructive criticism welcome in three months” any sentence starting “you should have…” might cause me to crumble – in a similar way to the collapse Charlie witnessed in carrefour before boodaville 2009. (never do all the shopping in one go then choose a cashier who has nails so long she can only touch the buttons at a rate of one per second)

right then, i’m ready. let’s get this shit on

see you there buddies xxx

on my way to the river

i found this at valderobres market. i found it amusing