Numero 182
12:45 PM
It's hard to write this post because looking back at our time with Helen and Stuart at Numero 182 means thinking of it in past tense. I know that we won't be able to watch the river glisten as the sun sets or spend another evening drinking and trying to piece together Darren Brown or even pick at the blisters on our hands after a hard day's work. But the feeling of it. The happiness of being surrounded by people you like, doing work that is worthwhile, that's what will follow us.
So before I really start to cry as I write this on a crowded, very public train let's just recap on what we accomplished in our 19 days at Numero 182.
When they first arrived over a year ago from England, Helen and Stuart had no idea there were even terraces below the house. After taking down an oak tree for a bit more of a view, they discovered it wasn't just brush and trees after all. By the time we arrived, they had cleared out enough of the forest to see the terraces stretched down to the river, but they were still covered in layers of brush and bramble. We spent our first two weeks raking and clearing and burning all the bramble we could manage off of five terraces. It was intensive work but we made it through the pain and frustration of raking up what are essentially sticks with spikes. After being spiked and poked and pricked an uncountable amount of times, we can say the burn piles were creepily satisfying.
Then it was the fun work: building staircases and creating beds for the vegetables. The last day Stuart made a perimeter of electric fencing (to deter the wild boar) and we constructed the cold frames and suddenly everything was there. What was usable land had become something valuable, something that would give back to our hosts in a meaningful way. In these last few days Stuart told me that they were nowhere close to being able to plant in spring when we arrived and now they're ahead of schedule, actually able to start early thanks to the cold frames. We left feeling accomplished and like we had really made a difference during our stay.
The train that I mentioned that I'm not crying on is currently taking us up the coat of Italy to the south of France, where we will spend a night in Nice before moving on to our third host. His place is in Perenaz on the coat and the current coastal views hint to me that i'll love the scenery there as well.
But as for the company, there are some very big shoes to fill.
H W Z
2 comments
Sniff!!! We miss you guys too, and you really DID make a huge and very valuable (and valued) difference. Thank you for your hard work and thank you for your lovely words. Safe travels and happy adventures - we will be following your journey! (And when you read this back in 10 months time you'll be like "Helen and Stuart - which ones were they?!!") :-) X
ReplyDeletehehe we may just be like, "Didn't we stay with someone named HelStu? Man that was a weird name..." ;)
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