A House of Straw

Ever since buying a copy of The Straw Bale House and another UK book designed around building a straw home in a temperate climate such as here, just like the foolish first little pig, I have been dreaming about building my own house of straw. Something like this:

Or simpler, on one level like this:

I love how they are new, but look rather timelss and classically human dwellings. That the walls can be curved and rounded with interesting ledges and niches, how they can spread out downwards to the ground, gently grounded -planted. The Nant-y-Cwm Steiner school in Wales is lushious with walls that flare out to meet the ground, a live mossy grass roof.... of course I'd like one of those too:

A composting toilet and a spring or well for our water. Now all I need to do is find the land with such planning persission as we would require, and also keep it to the budget which we have. Also with living costs for one year. Seems rather daunting. Don is keen to spread this out but if we rent somewhere for a year then our money will be gobbled up with the paying of rent. I am so disatisfied with the prospect of continuing my existence as it is currently. This eating up of every resource on earth, the living here -where I am right now: everything is dead - the people, the land. There is no vibrancy here, no joy, no community and no spirit. It deadens me, slowly. I do look for beauty in a single tree or blade or shoot, after a while the larger whole of living here swamps the tiny bits of joy I can cultivate or sow or observe. I want to live lightly. A sustainable living. I want to leave my children with a piece of land and the hope of being able to provide for themselves in totality, to share with them the skills I learn in order to be able to do this: organic vegetable growing, animal husbandry, the building of a compostable toilet, a clay oven, how to trap and skin a rabbit. In my bones I can feel a world where my children or grandchildren will be working to stay alive with so little (since we, this generation, are sucking Gaia dry so quickly) and I sometimes feel desperate to learn so much! Not in ten years but right now.

I need to cultivate more patience I know, otherwise I will itch with wanting and honestly I am trying to learn to give up the desire for more, more more.... in all of it's forms.

I can read at least. That I can do right now :) My sanity often resides within pages of books where I can find measures of comfort that is surely unworldy.

So we did not change our lives today very dramaticallly - but we did change our Nature/Seasonal shelf. First day of Spring, so happy to pull off the winter pictures and clay statues for sprightly lambs and hopeful nests! All Felix wanted on there was a 'nest like the one in the book' (Gerda Muller, Spring) and Isaac was keen for us to make little wool lambs since he saw some new ones at the farm the other day with his Nanny.

With Felix:

And without (note - the blackbird has only one leg - as pointed out by Isaac. Felix chimed in - no it is in his mouth... ugh! What strange boys :lol )