Tuesday, December 27, 2016

                                         Dinner in Santo Dominico
                                         Handcrafted home in the eco-village
                                          The trail to the eco-village
                                         Another albergue dinner
                                          Joe and Alessia at the Yuso monastery

                                          On the road with Sunhee

Monday, December 26, 2016

                                          Endless changing landscape
                                          On the road

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Bicycling Iceland


Bicycling Iceland

My Iceland saga was soggy, very soggy. The plan was to bike the Ring Road around the country. I was half way around the Snaefellses Peninsula when rain and gale force winds chilled me to the bone. This was expedition biking with places for hot food and warm shelter few and far between. I was pushing the bike up and down hills with vehicles stopping to tell me I’m mad and it’s too dangerous to bike. I returned to the city by bus and did two loops of a few day’s duration when the wind and rain let up. Iceland is magical and I will be back. It was a learning experience, here are some tips.

Go during the tourist season when campsites are open and clothes can be dried. Membership in Hostelling International cuts the cost in many hostels and campsites. Go the extra mile or two when the weather is kind and hunker down when the wind howls. The North Atlantic is one of the stormiest regions on the planet, think twice about doing loops along coast roads. That said, much of the Ring Road is narrow with minimum shoulder and is busy. Prices are almost double Canadian, luckily there are shelves of free food left behind by campers in the campground kitchens. The Reykjavik City Campground and Hostel is the best starting point. It is a caravanserai of fellow travellers and you can really stock up on free food, gas canisters and camping gear (replace broken tent poles). Downtown is within walking distance and at the weekend the city parties until dawn. GoogleMap is essential to navigate the bike routes in and out of the city.

An intriguing possibility is to bike half way around the island to Seydisfyordur on the east coast and take the Smyril ferry to Denmark.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

The Tao of Hobbit Land



The Tao of Hobbit Land

Hobbit Land is all about the unity of all life and living in cooperation with the universal laws of nature. It is an island of the flowing, the unified and the braided in an ocean of the contained, the distinct and the separate.

Here, opposites are in harmony, not in rebellion. In a world of dynamic change, we go with the flow by cooperating with events rather than fight them. It’s a world where less is more. It's about a dream that was locked inside and flowered by removing the excess dross.

The hobbit house is built into a hill and it’s the shape within that makes it useful. Gaps were left in the walls for a door and windows. It is these holes that make it a home, usefulness goes from what is not there. It was built with intuitive life skills, rather than formal knowledge. 

Transformation and change are essential features of nature. Change is not a force, but rather a tendency innate in all things, it’s about following one’s own intuitive intelligence and handcrafting a life.  Cedar logs became the building’s bones and the dirt excavated filled the bags to become the walls. In time, they too, will melt back into the hillside. By following the natural order, we drift downstream carried by the current of the Tao.

In Hobbit Land we refrain from doing things that are contrary to nature. Everything is allowed to do what it naturally does, so that it’s true nature will be satisfied. Life becomes spontaneous and is spiced with serendipity and synchronicity – chop firewood, draw water, eat when hungry and sleep when tired. We become what we were from the beginning and transcend concepts and categories.
Since the cradle we are taught to divide our world into separate objects and events and this may get us through the day. But, that’s not the way of nature, rather it’s an illusion based on our Western legacy. The oneness of the universe is central to the mystical experience, it is where string theory and the Druid cord come together.  By dancing barefoot on the hobbit house grass roof we slip slide into the universal cosmic dance of energy.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

A Message from Bilbo



A Message from Bilbo

Here’s a secret from the road. There are three universal languages and no matter where you wander everybody in every village understands them. 

The first language is music. Whenever people gather music happens. Everyone has music in them, a harmonica and a pair of spoons are all you need.

The second language is gardening. You can kneel in the dirt anywhere and with anyone and engage in the timeless pursue of nurturing plants.

The third language is shelter.  Everyone understands four walls and a roof, they are our second skin.
We live in a funny old world. A long, long time ago in the wild wet woods if you built your house in a day you owned it freehold. The building materials where under your feet. Today, with a hobbit-size fist full of dollars you can still build a home that exceeds all building codes for structural strength and coziness using earth bag construction. It’s called a hobbit house.

Today a half of North America's energy and carbon emissions comes from housing and yet owning a home is beyond the beyond for many because a middle class income no longer supports a middle class lifestyle. We’ve been on a crazy shopping spree leaving a debt-ridden economy and climate swinging on their hinges. We have driven ‘old blue’, our planet, into the ditch and to get back on road we need hook the tow chain to nature and keep fingers crossed that she still has the strength to get us back on the trail.

 Dancing barefoot on a grass roof leaves no footprint. A third of the world lives in dirt built houses and their homes last for centuries compared to the sixty-year lifespan of the standard modern house. No matter whether you from the Shire or dark Mordor all buildings are ruled by the four gods of construction: water, earth, air and sun. Water goes where water wants to go, weak foundations and walls wobble, fresh air gives you energy to dance all night and the sun keeps you warm, the lights on and the music playing. Views of distant horizons remind you that great things happen when men, women and mountains meet. Hobbits know housing and they also know that the good life depends upon having a vibrant community. The village provides support for people as they adjust to a kinder world.