Well, it's coming down to the wire at this point - my time spent here in Greece that is. In 48 hours I'll be back home in Vermont and I'll arrive with mixed emotions no doubt.
This morning, I awoke at Stamatina and Alex's apartment and gradually eased into the day. Stamatina made fresh orange juice, coffee and bread with jam and I was in heaven sitting outside on the front verandah enjoying the sun and reading Water Storage by Art Ludwig. The kids were having a great time riding around their bike/scooter respectively and taking turns shooting one another with their water pistol.
Snap back to reality though - which was a good thing. I had spent time the previous evening beginning to flesh out design implementation and phase planning for the landscape component at the property in Lefkas and Stamatina and I began to run through the numbers I'd come up with as well as my recommended planning and implementation stages. We did a bunch of fine tuning and the process was very useful to me in helping me key in on the project and the best direction to take early on.
I recommended that early primary foci should be on soil and land forming. This includes soil testing, aerobic compost tea application, seed ball distribution as a way of enhancing the diversity of species on site, nitrogen fixing tree/shrub planting, and other types of high impact land shaping and development (all of which must involve building up rather than digging down due to archaeological restrictions). While we certainly didn't actually complete anything, I think we grew closer to beginning to develop a site design and plan which was very valuable.
Soon after, I had to catch public transport to head across town to the town of Pikermi for a permaculture workshop that we had scheduled there for the late afternoon/evening. This trip involved a fair few transfers and took almost two hours all told - bus to metro to bus. I was grateful to finally arrive on time and without any errors. There in Pikermi, I met up with Nicos, we caught a snack - I got a twisty spiral spanakopetia like pastry, and then waited for our host Dina to pick us up.
We spent a few moments catching up on the past weeks experiences and Dina arrived and brought us a few kilometers away to her home. On the outskirts of Athens, she lives on about 2 acres I would guess, in a lovely home nestled between hills on all but the south side. The sky was blue, the sun was strong and the views beautiful (even somewhat seriously of the airport terminal - off in the distance to the south).
We took some time to get to know the site, and then talked a bit about the days activities. I was to give a presentation on permaculture and from there we'd move outside and make some site observations and talk about how we might begin to go about designing.
While our networks were very similar to that of our previous event last week in Nea Makri, we had an almost completely new participation so it meant that a formal introduction was in order. Much of the presentation was really more of a discussion, somewhat confounded by the need to translate in between. It made for an interesting, tangential and circumfrential conversation that led us in valuable directions but also meant that we glazed over a fair bit of detail due to our time constraints. It was to be expected though.
We then shifted gears outside and talked about observational skills and how we can use them to ultimately inform our design. We started with the path of the sun and explored it in some depth - as it changes during the season, as it affects microclimate and how important it is to consider in good design. Next, we turned into water and started at the top of the landscape, imagining its path of travel as it cascades down the gentle south facing slope at Dina's place. It seemed that we covered much ground and that the participants were more or less all on board.
As the sun went down and the sky began to darken, it was clearly time for a break so we gathered around the pomegranate tree which was loaded with fruit and helped to unload it. As we stood in the dusky light sharing conversation, a nearly full moon began to rise on the horizon. It was a gorgeous sight for those present to soak it in.
We set up tables outside on Dina's covered patio and then moved on to share food and conversation for another few hours. This was a very positive group who seem to be motivated to act and bring about some change, though I think that the form has still yet to emerge.
Around 11 or so, we parted ways. I had missed the bus that would return me to Athens to catch the Metro but fortunately Spyros had driven and offered to bring me to the Metro stop near his home. I was grateful for this.
On the way back, we spoke about politics in America and how permaculture had arisen in our lives. Spyros is a very nice young man who now works as a journalist and is preparing to move to Berlin in one week. During our return he got distracted from the task at hand and managed to get lost amidst the maze of highways on the edge of Athens. Under many circumstances this wouldn't have been a big deal, but it was late and I was already cutting it close for catching the last metro back to Agios Dimitrios - the stop nearest Stamatina and Alex's.
There was little I could do but hope he found his way and things got quiet in the car for a little while, as at that time I had no idea where I was except that I knew it was a long way from my destination. The last train left at 12:15 he said and I had to make a connection in order to make it home. I was a bit worried.
Finally he said he knew where he was and it would be alright. I tried to believe him as we made probably 10+ turns in a matter of 4 minutes on the road. But he was right. He dumped me off at the station, I got there just as a train was coming to a stop (though I had to chance getting on as I was unable to purchase a ticket in advance) and tried to relax into the journey.
When it got time for my transfer though, I rushed to the crossing only to learn that I had just missed the last metro for the night. I was very disappointed to hear this but knew it wasn't the end of the world. I headed back aboveground and called Stamatina to let her know I was on my way back. She had begun to worry if I was okay as she had been expecting me hours ago. I caught a cab and ended up with a jerk for a driver. He did a fine job behind the wheel but just seemed to have a bad attitude. At this point though, attitude really wasn't the most important trait to me - knowing how to get me home was. In 10 minutes we were moments from my destination and I happily paid the 10 Euro fare.
I got home and greeted Stamatina and Alex, grateful to be back. We caught up on the day's events and said 'kalinichta' (goodnight). Which is what I should be saying right now. Only one more day...
No comments:
Post a Comment