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One of the moments that makes all the stress of travel worthwhile.
Waiting for the ferry to Sicily, this guy in a kind of beat up car in front of me was repacking his stuff, and pulled this out.
I went over and we were able to converse in Spanish. I told him how great they were and gave him one of our mini books.
He had driven to Barcelona with a bunch of these little constructions to sell, but hadn’t sold any. Price, about 50 Euros (cheap!).
Native Siciliano, Marco Paderni, from Catania.
Then he took out a 2nd smaller one (second pic), pointed to it and said “Regalo” — gift. I thanked him, but demurred, referring to air travel.
What generosity! Isn’t it strange how people with the least resources are the most generous?
Builders: Check out this lathe using a saw blade instead of lathe turning tools. In the bottom floor of the Japanese pavilion.
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Lesley’s been weaving shawls, blankets, scarves, and knitting hats for her Open Studio event on Thanksgiving weekend. I’ll post a reminder a week or so before.
Surfers’ dream…
Today Jay posted this 5-minute video on Instagram:
www.instagram.com/p/CO1Kf7dp11o
To know what you are going to draw, you have to begin drawing.
–Pablo Picasso
I did a virtual presentation of my book, The Half-Acre Homestead on August 20, 2020) at Bookshop Santa Cruz, one of my favorite bookstores in the world. I usually do a bunch of bookstore appearances for each new book; this year I just got the first one done at City Lights, before Covid closed things down.
It was recorded. About 30 minutes are me doing a slide show from the book. The last 30 minutes are questions from the audience — what do I think of domes, A-frames, underground houses? How to build nowadays? Cob and strawbale and Hardy Board? Chickens. My image looks blurry (at least here) and I suspect this is because of our slow DSL connection. (C’mon Horizon, ride to our rescue!)
www.crowdcast.io/e/bookshop-santa-cruz-7
I am Bastien Forestier. I live in Boussy Saint Antoine near Paris. One year ago, in the winter, I was driving across Normandy to go surfing. On my way I stumbled upon la Chappelle D’Allouville, a mystical wooden treehouse made by a monk in 1609. So I decided to build a shelter using this technique.
I began doing wood shingles and beams. First with axes, then I bought a shaking axe.
I used the trees around me. I know them all since my childhood. Now after a year i have a roof and walls. I am very sure to make more houses like this in the future, inspired by Tingely’s cyclops maybe.
I like that the people in the neighborhood call it La Chapelle (the chapel).
Note: These are actually shakes, rather than shingles. –LK
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As shown in our new book, The Half-Acre Homestead
