Such a great deal has happened in the last year. Almost exactly one year ago I returned to the UK after looking for a new place to live, and failing to find it. But I did resolve to find a different way to live, not wishing to spend the rest of my life in front of a flat-screen telly watching the world end.
So, I followed the path I found truest to myself: ways to live sustainably, (without resorting to the extremes of cold baths in a yurt), and met some wonderful and inspiring people in Brighton Permaculture Trust. I travelled to Spain in January to have a look at Andalusia but it was decidedly uninspiring, covered in citrus and avocado plantations, sprayed with glyphosate and irrigated by excessive use of pumped water from deep in the soil, in addition to being covered in seriously hideous housing developments. So "no" to southern Spain.
In may I went to France to complete a certificate course in permaculture design. An amazing 2 weeks, in which I learned such a lot and met some lovely people, heard stories of other lives and other landscapes and found out more about how to join together all the aspects of human life on this planet, how instead of being divided, competitive and isolated we can rebuild our communities and live with the planet, instead of living by plundering it.
And then in June Ottavio and I came here to his family's house in northern Italy, as we do every year. The plan was to stay a few weeks, then go on to the east, to Slovenia and the Balkans. But we never got there, because one day we were walking down from his house to the lake (Maggiore) and we passed a gate with a "for sale" sign on it, in the middle of an area of woodland. Intrigued, O. phoned the agent's number and asked what it was that was for sale, as nothing could be seen but the gate. We'd previously been shocked by the prices around the area, as its right by the Swiss border and the asking priced for houses can be ridiculous. So when he was told that it was a house, with land, we were expecting a very high price. Surprisingly. the asking price was quite reasonable, so we asked to see it. The agent appeared half an hour later on a Vespa with the keys and we went to have a look. I'll spare you the negotiations, but a week later we'd agreed to buy it, and 6 weeks after that we did exactly that.
The house itself was originally two old buildings, made of stone, which were joined together in 1965 and made into a house. Its always been a summer house, never lived in all year round. But its big enough and parts of it have big thick walls. The back walls are partially underground. It has a living room, 4 bedrooms, a small office, 2 bathrooms downstairs, a tiny dining room and a truly nasty little kitchen, in addition to two outside porticos, one with a fireplace, and a balcony.
It also has a garden of 2000 square metres or more, the same amount again of woodland, its own roadway and a bridge. It has a little stream running by, a rainwater tank of some 4000 l. and a spring of clean, pure water.
The previous owners had owned it for many years as a summer house, and have done some disastrous tree planting. So now half the garden is covered by overgrown spruce trees, planted ridiculously close together, with a gigantic and beautiful copper beech tree right in the middle. The woods by the stream have some problems with 2 or 3 of the huge chestnuts overhanging the house being infected badly by armillaria fungus, and a huge oak tree, half dead and leaning perilously. Much of the rest of the woodland is full of self-sown laurel, seeds spread by birds from the berries of laurel hedges.
So we have wood. In quantity. and water. Historically, the land here on the slopes above the lake was farmed in terraces, with mixed use: much fruit growing (grapes in particular) with some vegetable gardening and animal grazing. There were chestnut trees (proper grafted varieties), hazelnuts and some chestnut coppice, Higher up towards the mountain there was summer pasture, birch woods and beech woods where the charcoal burners worked. After the end of the second world war many of the local population had gone, the men into the army or as forced labour, and everyone else to the city, and the woodland took over the terraces and the hillsides. Everywhere there is evidence of old habitation and agriculture: small settlements now lost in the trees and fallen into ruin, terrace walls fallen and crumbling and now the woods are home to deer and wild boar, squirrels (red) and a very large dormouse population, and the old paths and tracks from one settlement to another are slowly being overwhelmed, though many are still used by the holiday hikers in the summer.
And then in the 1960's and 70's the city dwellers wanted to come here for the summer, so the traditional pattern of the villages changed: the villages are old, with houses clustered around courts, with cellars and stores, byres and pens, narrow alleys and streets and a main plaza, with the church dominant. The land below the villages was farmed and fertile with plentiful water. Now its covered in villas, holiday apartments, grandiose homes with views and walled and gated gardens. During July and August, the squares and bars are full, noisy and busy. In the winter, only the old and the few permanent inhabitants remain.
Our land is old agricultural land: we have wide terraces facing southwest, and a wall below and to the side helping to keep the wild boar out. We have deep soil, and the plan is to grow fruit and vegetables. We will use wood to heat the house in winter and to cook. We have water for irrigation. We will change the house to make two main downstairs rooms (one living room, one large, comfy kitchen.) We'll put a bathroom upstairs. We'll use the sunlight and our own wood for energy. Invest what money we have sensibly to make a place which will support us by planting fruit trees, restoring the woods, building the soil and returning the place to health and looking to the future so after my time here ends there will be a legacy for the next generation.
We've started already with the project to clear away the conifers:we'll use the value of the wood to finance part of the operation and keep some of the wood for our future use. We've paid an agronomist to survey the trees and write a report for the necessary permits. We've installed a super efficient wood burning fireplace in the living room with a system of natural convection to heat two of the bedrooms above. The next project is to make the big kitchen, install a wood burning cooker and a hot water system which uses heat pumps and the power of the sun. And, of course, to start the work in the garden ready for the spring!
Maybe next year we'll ask for some help. I'd enjoy having others staying here to see how they feel about the place, to hear their ideas, to learn from their experiences. Meanwhile, I'm getting ready for the winter......
So, I followed the path I found truest to myself: ways to live sustainably, (without resorting to the extremes of cold baths in a yurt), and met some wonderful and inspiring people in Brighton Permaculture Trust. I travelled to Spain in January to have a look at Andalusia but it was decidedly uninspiring, covered in citrus and avocado plantations, sprayed with glyphosate and irrigated by excessive use of pumped water from deep in the soil, in addition to being covered in seriously hideous housing developments. So "no" to southern Spain.
In may I went to France to complete a certificate course in permaculture design. An amazing 2 weeks, in which I learned such a lot and met some lovely people, heard stories of other lives and other landscapes and found out more about how to join together all the aspects of human life on this planet, how instead of being divided, competitive and isolated we can rebuild our communities and live with the planet, instead of living by plundering it.
And then in June Ottavio and I came here to his family's house in northern Italy, as we do every year. The plan was to stay a few weeks, then go on to the east, to Slovenia and the Balkans. But we never got there, because one day we were walking down from his house to the lake (Maggiore) and we passed a gate with a "for sale" sign on it, in the middle of an area of woodland. Intrigued, O. phoned the agent's number and asked what it was that was for sale, as nothing could be seen but the gate. We'd previously been shocked by the prices around the area, as its right by the Swiss border and the asking priced for houses can be ridiculous. So when he was told that it was a house, with land, we were expecting a very high price. Surprisingly. the asking price was quite reasonable, so we asked to see it. The agent appeared half an hour later on a Vespa with the keys and we went to have a look. I'll spare you the negotiations, but a week later we'd agreed to buy it, and 6 weeks after that we did exactly that.
The house itself was originally two old buildings, made of stone, which were joined together in 1965 and made into a house. Its always been a summer house, never lived in all year round. But its big enough and parts of it have big thick walls. The back walls are partially underground. It has a living room, 4 bedrooms, a small office, 2 bathrooms downstairs, a tiny dining room and a truly nasty little kitchen, in addition to two outside porticos, one with a fireplace, and a balcony.
It also has a garden of 2000 square metres or more, the same amount again of woodland, its own roadway and a bridge. It has a little stream running by, a rainwater tank of some 4000 l. and a spring of clean, pure water.
The previous owners had owned it for many years as a summer house, and have done some disastrous tree planting. So now half the garden is covered by overgrown spruce trees, planted ridiculously close together, with a gigantic and beautiful copper beech tree right in the middle. The woods by the stream have some problems with 2 or 3 of the huge chestnuts overhanging the house being infected badly by armillaria fungus, and a huge oak tree, half dead and leaning perilously. Much of the rest of the woodland is full of self-sown laurel, seeds spread by birds from the berries of laurel hedges.
So we have wood. In quantity. and water. Historically, the land here on the slopes above the lake was farmed in terraces, with mixed use: much fruit growing (grapes in particular) with some vegetable gardening and animal grazing. There were chestnut trees (proper grafted varieties), hazelnuts and some chestnut coppice, Higher up towards the mountain there was summer pasture, birch woods and beech woods where the charcoal burners worked. After the end of the second world war many of the local population had gone, the men into the army or as forced labour, and everyone else to the city, and the woodland took over the terraces and the hillsides. Everywhere there is evidence of old habitation and agriculture: small settlements now lost in the trees and fallen into ruin, terrace walls fallen and crumbling and now the woods are home to deer and wild boar, squirrels (red) and a very large dormouse population, and the old paths and tracks from one settlement to another are slowly being overwhelmed, though many are still used by the holiday hikers in the summer.
And then in the 1960's and 70's the city dwellers wanted to come here for the summer, so the traditional pattern of the villages changed: the villages are old, with houses clustered around courts, with cellars and stores, byres and pens, narrow alleys and streets and a main plaza, with the church dominant. The land below the villages was farmed and fertile with plentiful water. Now its covered in villas, holiday apartments, grandiose homes with views and walled and gated gardens. During July and August, the squares and bars are full, noisy and busy. In the winter, only the old and the few permanent inhabitants remain.
Our land is old agricultural land: we have wide terraces facing southwest, and a wall below and to the side helping to keep the wild boar out. We have deep soil, and the plan is to grow fruit and vegetables. We will use wood to heat the house in winter and to cook. We have water for irrigation. We will change the house to make two main downstairs rooms (one living room, one large, comfy kitchen.) We'll put a bathroom upstairs. We'll use the sunlight and our own wood for energy. Invest what money we have sensibly to make a place which will support us by planting fruit trees, restoring the woods, building the soil and returning the place to health and looking to the future so after my time here ends there will be a legacy for the next generation.
We've started already with the project to clear away the conifers:we'll use the value of the wood to finance part of the operation and keep some of the wood for our future use. We've paid an agronomist to survey the trees and write a report for the necessary permits. We've installed a super efficient wood burning fireplace in the living room with a system of natural convection to heat two of the bedrooms above. The next project is to make the big kitchen, install a wood burning cooker and a hot water system which uses heat pumps and the power of the sun. And, of course, to start the work in the garden ready for the spring!
Maybe next year we'll ask for some help. I'd enjoy having others staying here to see how they feel about the place, to hear their ideas, to learn from their experiences. Meanwhile, I'm getting ready for the winter......
