das loft

Another little summary of the area that I just wrote to someone. (Hopefully the more I do this the more I can convince some of you to come out here... ;-)

The West is treating me well. I love Nelson and the Slocan Valley. You'd probably love it, too. It's such a happening, ecoactivist-friendly place. There's so much good stuff going on here: gardeners raising chickens in their backyards, a great organic food co-op where you see everyone you know, an in-town organic coffee roastery and an organic brewery, the Kootenay Co-op Radio station that airs a great program called "Deconstructing Dinner"... The houses are colourful and unique and practically everyone has a vegetable garden, and fruit tumbles onto the neighbourhood back alleys. There's so much amazing arts and crafts in the downtown. Every business features the works of local artists on its walls. And then you go into the valley and you meet timber-framers, carpenters, natural builders, textile designers, illustrators, website designers, permaculture gardeners and raw milk farmers. Canada's first grain CSA is just around the corner in Creston; the local French bakery bought several shares, which they'll mill fresh for their dough. There's such a concentration of good people here that are so with it!

It's really exciting to imagine making this place my home. It really feels like being part of something important and meaningful.

I'm still looking for land. I'd like something close to Nelson... maybe even in Nelson. But if so then ideally on the outskirts, because I don't want to be far from the wilderness. Meeting those urban chicken farmers is inspiring me to do urban agriculture here. In any case I'd like to wait until real estate prices take a dive, because I think everything is still pretty inflated at the moment.

[To my friend who's in Europe:] I'm so glad you get to enjoy Europe for a month! How lovely. One thing that gave me the warmest feeling about Nelson was how much it reminded me of a little Bavarian town in the mountains.

Labels: art, food, gardening, land, nelson, winlaw

Okay, okay, fine... I'll post to my blog.

:-D

I'm an uncle. My nephew, Quanah Willow Kristoff Shotwell, was born April 20th. He's as cute as can be, and I love him very much.

In other news, I'm heading out to BC in less than a month. I'm taking a permaculture design course (or "PDC", as they're apparently known) in Winlaw, a village not far from Nelson. Then I'm going to stay out there, hopefully until I've nabbed me a serious piece of real estate. Gonna grow most of my own food, yo. It's exciting.

Until then, I'm going to be crazily busy trying to get all my projects done and moving out of my apartment in Toronto. Should also be exciting... :P

Love to y'all.

Labels: baby, bc, farm, land, permaculture, Quanah