Our first workaway experience! Wow, so much to take in it’s hard to know where to begin. We are staying with our lovely hosts Jonna and Rhien in a quiet corner of Belgium, on the border of Germany. The locals speak german, but we hear a mix of french and dutch during our day as Rhien and Jonna are originally from the Netherlands. Time to get those language muscles working, my german is rusty to say the least!
We spend our day working hard around the farmhouse, there are no animals here but we keep busy cutting and moving wood and various other tasks around the house. Our luck has placed us in the middle of the longest winter they have known here in Belgium so with temperatures hovering around -2 degrees during the day we dont get much chance to work outside at the moment. Lots of nice walks in a winter wonderland though! With easter coming up we have preparations for a family gathering and a mineralogical conference tto keep us doubly occupied.
Vicky is learning plant and seed lore from Jonna and I am learning much about living off the grid from Rhien, so many skills are needed its incredible. We have been here nearly two weeks and have nearly three to go, so expect a final update at the end of the month. See you there!
Much love
Ben x
-
- The frozen garden
-
- Dveloping quirks but the old girl got us here and we love her!
-
- Ellie doesn’t seem to mind the snow
-
- A little wood pile of the neighbours
-
- A view of the house from the trail
-
- Front of house from the road
-
- Hard at work on the restoration project
-
- Sanded down, adding back in lost details
-
- Detail varnishing complete … next comes the waxing stage
-
- Bertha, the woodburner that keeps us all warm and supplied with hot water
-
- A tiny part of the enormous wood storage
-
- My first carving project … its, um, a bird
-
- Small portion of the gemstones in Rhians collection
-
- I counted 5 display cases at least…
-
- View from our bedroom. Snowy!
-
- Snow covered field outside our door
-
- Library in the living room … Ben goes green with envy
-
- Shame they are mostly in Dutch!
-
- Vickys Easter tree creation
-
- Its usually greener this time of year
-
- New minerals for the rock garden
-
- Not even temperatures below freezing can defeat the uber-coat
-
- Our bedroom, in the original Dutch style
-
- My two girls getting some much deserved rest
-
- Our ever watchful friend in the bedroom
The Grass Is Greener 