Hello dear people.
I am busy, busy, busy in the garden amongst other things. Planting butterfly bush, mowing the grass, but also doing odd jobs and painting. Since a few months I have a regular gallery in Amsterdam which pleases me very much, my philosophy and their way of working connect perfectly well. On a later moment I will tell you more about it, but for now, the events in and around the project. The controller of the solar panels is being repaired and I have to wait for it a while because it has to come from Germany. The company that supplies this part is also quite occupied. I will await this. In the meantime with too much sun I have to turn off the solar panels for a while, otherwise the batteries will be overburdened. Besides that I am very happy with Kees. Kees visited here once to admire the project and since then he has 'got stuck' here. This means that he often comes to help me with odd jobs in and around the house. He is very technical and I think he can do anything! Unbelievable, he was just what I needed for the project. At the moment we are working on the water system at Natuurlijk Leven. We want to collect more water by connecting an other old well (which was never used) with the well I am using now for my water. Because of the climate change and the heating of the earth we will have more and more drought and I want to benefit from any shower of rain! Kees has made two new well covers and he will bring them here next week when we continue doing some work around the house. I don't know what is happening! I learn a lot from him, and that is always so much to the good.
I still am attracting a lot of publicity for the project because after all I want to change the world and want to make everyone aware that we have to do something about the environment NOW and soon! Amongst other things, I am on hyves, like million of other people and it works. So far I have created an enormous network and would you like to see it, then go to http://yby.hyves.nl. In the beginning of July another journalist will come here and lodge here. In this way she wants to experience what it is like to live completely self maintaining and environmentally friendly and she will write an article about it. Besides that I am answering plenty of mails and telephones about loam, wood fibre insulation, the water system, the wood-burning stove and many more. Plenty of sketches and ideas that are in my head are step by step developed and yet again the project has become so much more beautiful!
My agenda becomes fuller every year with appointments of people wanting to visit the project. Natuurlijk Leven is getting more and more interest and many more people want to do something for the environment. This makes me very happy.
Because of my project I am showing that 1 person can have an enormous reach, that 1 person can move across the world with her philosophy and that 1 person can indeed change the world! Everyone does it in her or his way and everything helps, as long as you do start and take action. I am not there by a long shot, but I indeed am veeeeeeery far and I will never stop. I will eternally fight for a better world!
The generator is still defect, Kees would also see if he could do anything about it. If anyone has plenty of knowledge about generator! Please! In exchange I can give you a nice work of art. Thanks very much in advance, you would do me a great favour wit hit! Sunday 1 July from 15.00 till 17.00 the new Expedition for Exposition 3 is opened. If you feel like dropping in and viewing my new works of art, mail or call, so I can place you on the guest list. Now I am going back to work, because there is plenty still to do!
Namaste!
Yby
Thursday 3 May 2007
When I walk through the meadow to the road, I often am accompanied by the black-tailed godwit, calling out, skimming through the sky. Or by the lapwings tumbling above me. They are true sky acrobats and they make the strangest movements. It is a bad godwit year in the Wynser-meadow, one of the birdmen told me the other day. Were there 40 nests last year, there are only four now! The grassland is much to dry. With their long bills the godwits in vain try to break open the mud lumps. Above the grass is a colourful glow, of yellow (dandelion and buttercup), red (sorrel) and purple (lady smock). Along the edge of the ditch the unruly coleseed shoots up. It is such a paradise here. No sounds, no people, only the tweeting of birds or the mooing of a cow in the distance. Sometimes a barking dog when the wind blows our way. And this morning two shelducks flew right above us. Amazing how quickly you get used to the silence. When I am in the civilized world again, I notice that I am annoyed easier by people. By the indifferent ghost-cyclist who, with a pack of cigarettes in his hand, cycles on the wrong side of the cycle path. Or by that driver that with a breakneck speed tears through the town centre and whom I with a movement of the hand urge to calm down. By that girl in the supermarket that hands me a flyer of a reptile exhibition. I gave her a lashing, because exotic animals are no pets and untold animal misery is inextricably bound up with keeping reptiles as such. How fortunate that I can leave this bedlam soon. That in a little while I can walk through the meadow for ten minutes without meeting anybody and then to arrive at the miller's home and the patch of ground where Yby is planting more and more trees, bushes and vegetables. This week she has laid out a small vegetable garden, opposite the terrace, with paprika plants, courgette, lettuce, broccoli and pak-soi cabbage. In the garden she also has planted berry plants (currant, gooseberry and blackberry), budlea (butterfly bush) and kiwi trees. Today, above the terrace, she has tied several lines for the three grape-plants to grow along. In the backyard, where Yby has build a natural wall of branches, a duck has build it's nest. Today we heard peeping and according to the dogs barking, who run invariably to that spot every day, young ducklings are born now. The dogs are not allowed to come near the nest anymore. This morning it was wonderful weather again. For a while I laid down in the 'living-pit'. In winter and in autumn it is a little pond, at summertime - at least in long periods of dryness - it is very nice to creep away in or sit in the sun.
Anonymous
Once in a while I let other people write some about what they experience here at Natuurlijk Leven and not everyone wants to have his or her name on a site. Thanks for your beautiful words miss anonymous! Lugging mud-sacks and with that bit by bit raising the ground level is an activity with which I quite entertain myself in these dry days. As dry as it is now everywhere, it is as likely that soon an awful lot of rain can fall out of the sky, and I'd like to be prepared for that. I'd rather not have the vegetable- and herb garden to drown. The climate is changing and we all notice it. Also here all around in the meadows this leads to sad occurrences. Godwits have not build many nests anymore because of the long drought.
A long, very long time ago there were two men here from the magazine 'Aktueel', they visited me for an interview and to make a lot of photo's about my philosophy. To be exact, it was on Wednesday 29 November 2006. The world-wide consequences of the climate change were not a very hot item yet. At least, in magazines and newspapers it was not a subject that was often covered. I told Gerhard (the journalist) about it and what we as human beings can do about it. And that we have to start NOW with making the earth beautiful again and that there are a lot of possibilities with environmentally friendly building, living and existing. We have to keep our eyes and ears open and listen and more than that: take action! Many people talk about it, but it seems as if we first are waiting for an enormous disaster to occur before we actually want to change! Why is laziness such part of human beings and all this waiting, waiting and waiting! Why has my article still NOT been placed? … Because people like Pamela Anderson and other sexbombs take precedence. 'Aktueel' wants to change, Gerhard told me. They also want women to start reading the magazine and they want to write about other topics. Like for example an artist that has her own philosophy. Whether I wanted this and if I would cooperate with them. Of course! The more people I reach with my message, the better! People should hear and read about how to build and live nature- and environmentally friendly. How to use the natural energy resources (sun) that do not burden the environment. How to drink your own rainwater by filtering it. This, in order to have people think and to enable making the world a little prettier again. This is our paradise. Not elsewhere. Why do people have to pollute the earth and keep talking about that later they will go to the paradise. ….. How do people even dare hope that they will go to a paradise when they themselves are making a rubbish dump of the earth? If Jesus did exist He or She would have never wanted for people to treat each other and the earth like this. He is crying, filled with grieve and even more so because people still don't understand. The other day two Jehovah's Witnesses walked across the meadows on a very early Sunday morning. They loudly rang my outdoor bell. The three dogs rushed outside and barked and barked which made me run outside half dressed to see what was the matter. Two men with briefcases, dressed in suits wanted to leave again whereupon I thought: damn! I didn't dress myself so quickly for this and I called them back. I had calmed the dogs somewhat down. The men didn't dare to come too close to the wicket. We entered into conversation and they were talking about their religion and tried to convert me to their faith (what they are assigned to do). I told them about my philosophy, Natuurlijk Leven, the art, how I stand in life and that I believe in the power of being and not looking for it outside myself like they do. I asked them how they see animals and they answered that they considered humans much more important than animals. I said "but you are also animals, aren't you?" To them this sounded like madness. "We stand above animals", they said and I said: "And then the women and then you I suppose, hahahaha!" They did not respond to this. They didn't seem to be blessed with a whole lot of humour. They looked around them somewhat confused and said, looking at Natuurlijk Leven, "it is like paradise here, just like in this drawing" and one of them showed me a picture of how the world would look like as Christ would have returned and if there would be a new earth. Not an unattractive tableau by the way: people playing with a little bear and the lam laid down with the lion. People and animals together in peace. Exactly, I said. This is exactly what I am creating. A better environment and treating animals better, starting with oneself. Only, I joked, this is the paradise of Eve and Eve, hahaha!!! They could laugh about this just as little. I asked them what they did for the environment and for the animals. This appeared to be no more than waiting for Jesus to return to earth. He would make our planet beautiful again. Phew, that will be a long wait, I answered. "And in the meantime you allow the world to rot and be polluted? Didn't Jesus mean to tell us that humans were already in paradise and that the earth is the only place from which we have risen and to which we will in the end return? This is what we have to do it with and this is our paradise, which humanity is polluting. Wake up! Why do we always have to look for things outside ourselves and don't we look inside, and to where we already are and stand. When we die, our body will go to our polluted earth. But wouldn't it be so much better to end up in a beautiful and clean piece of earth? Anyway, I wished the Jehovah's good luck with all they were doing and told them not to forget the animals and nature. But ow, that was no concern of theirs, because Jesus will do all of this for us. This is what they wanted to tell everyone. Gosh, have I worked so hard to create Natuurlijk Leven, and there comes Jesus like a wizzard making the world perfect in a trice. Everything that was once pure and beautiful, but that humans screwed up, we have someone else take care of, because humans don't like to blame themselves of anything. It's always the others that are guilty and someone else will always forgive us, is what we think. Missionaries travel to the tropics and are not interested in and do not want to go deeply into the Indian tribes, that lead their own live there. Instead, the believers want to convert them and they find these native people, these forest inhabitants, pitiful, dirty and poor. Leave them alone! Why are they considered lesser human beings, whereas they perhaps have more knowledge than we westerners. Does a neat suit make you who you are? Does a big house make you who you are? Does a religion make you who you are? Does a relationship make you who you are? Do 'certain' friends make you who you are? Does the world make you who you are? Does your job make you who you are? No! You are already here, everyone is special and already here. An outward appearance is no more than an empty shell without brains. Be yourself, wow! Isn't that so much easier and calmer? You don't have to change yourself and let alone others. Coming closer to yourself by means of simplicity. Not clinging to anything, just relax. In this world we more and more get distant of simplicity and peace. Natural areas and tropical rainforests, habitats of many animal species, disappear. In nature we can learn so much. Nowadays less and less children know what true nature is. They stuff themselves with unhealthy food, sit behind the pc for hours and become fat. Because they hardly get any exercise and, just like their parents, they silt up. Even so the earth becomes silted up. People get more and more distant from natural life! I hope that many people become aware of that we can't go on like this anymore, that we truly need to do something to save ourselves and the world. Perhaps someday my article will be placed in the 'Aktueel'. It is probably at the bottom of the stack, typically human. The most important things, the things that really matter (usually the most simple things) are put away. The earth is crying, whatever you believe or want to believe, do not believe or whatever religion you have, it doesn't matter! Wake up! The earth is crying and before you know it, nobody is left. Because - as an old Indian saying says: Only when the last tree has died & the last River has been poisoned & the last fish has been caught, will we realise that we can not eat money.
Namaste!
Yby
Wednesday 4 April 2007
Dear people,
in the meantime the water filter system model EC 106P-R from Atlantis Benelux has been installed by Kees. It is amazing that with this system you can filter rainwater and turn it into wonderfully clean drinking-water! With this same system you can even transform (as if by magic) seawater into potable water! No wonder these water filters are used a lot on ships. Today it is said to rain some again and then my well is filled with water again, drinking-water! I am so very happy with this system. I would recommend it to anyone, who wants real clean drinking-water and save costs. You don't have to buy mineral water anymore and you don't get any strange substances like chloride and fluoride etc. in your body, because those substances can be found in our tap water. The system is installed easily under your sink and it takes not much space. Furthermore, I have two new dogs that otherwise would have ended up in an animal shelter. Chico (4), a proud, beautiful, gold-coloured Catalan shepherd and a small, black-haired cute dog, originating from Hungary (1,5). Bram is overjoyed with his new housemates and his congeners and larks around with them to his heart's content. I am now working on a good fencing so as to keep them from running in the grasslands - now in the brooding season - and disturb the meadow birds.
Yby
Friday 23 March 2007
Each builds his nest environmentally friendly here
The bird brooding season has started again and all around me is love!
Lapwings, geese, black-tailed godwits, ducks and other water birds perform one ritual after the other, as if they display a modern dance. How wonderful it is to see. But where love is, is violence. When one bird is building a nice, creative nest, another one attacks him. Therefore every day a fight in the sky can be seen, between all kinds of different birds. Every bird has its own territory and now one else is allowed in it, including humans. Like them, I am also very busy with my nest! Natuurlijk Leven is growing and blooming, she is not physically growing but does have an enormous range all over the world. From all over people come here to see this special place. Maybe because it remains so small? Natuurlijk Leven is a large, living painting, which anyone can enter, providing that the purity of the maker is appreciated and followed. You plunge into another world. Smoking, drinking, cursing, meat and dairy products are forbidden here. Because it will damage this beautiful creation. This painting shows that it can be different in this sometimes cruel and mean world. The earth itself is perfectly all right, she gives us anything we need to live a good life, but it is the humans living on it that unfortunately have destroyed a lot, and continue to do so.
Natuurlijk Leven has got a new sponsor!
Completely self maintaining is where I aim to go with this project. Self maintaining with thanks to the sun, wind and rain! Mother earth gives us anything to be able to provide for ourselves. She gives us so much more than the few words I'm writing down here. Rain plentifully falls in The Netherlands. I discovered that there are beautiful systems, that are able to filter and clean rainwater so good that you can actually drink it. This water is even much and much cleaner that the water coming from the water pipes. This filtered water is good for body and mind. And for the environment, because after all, rainwater is again reused.
That is what will happen at Natuurlijk Leven soon. Rainwater is changed to clear pure drinking water by an ingenious filter system. The company Atlantis Benelux has these wonderful water filter systems for sale and sponsors Natuurlijk Leven with one. The filter installation doesn't take much room. It can be simply installed under your sink. There are so many possibilities for our health and our environment. World-wide water is becoming more scarce. Furthermore water gets more polluted. Rain- or ditchwater can be altered into clean drinking water with these systems. At Natuurlijk Leven you can see with your own eyes that it all is possible! And if it is complicated? Not at all, in a very easy way you have your own drinking water, as much as you like and you will never have to worry of being ever without water. Soon at Natuurlijk Leven you can taste, hear and see how this system works and perhaps you will be as enthusiastic as I am about it. I have enough information to spread to anyone interested here. Just a little patience, I will let you know as soon as possible when the filter system is installed!
Namaste! Yby
Monday 22 January 2007
Do I still live after the storm? YES!!!
The old roofing tiles are all still on the roof, once in a while I saw something fly past what wasn't mine and the water in front of my house of the Offemear did rise to a very high level. Therefore I called the miller and Wetterskip Fryslan (transl.: Frisian district water board) because I was afraid that I would have enormous water damage again like in August 2004. Miller Jippe Braaksma of the Wynser mill came immediately and opened the sluice, in order to have the water flow the other way. I was very grateful to him! Soon Henk Sickma of the district water board also came to inspect things.
I myself had (before they came) shovelled barrows with clay from another part of the garden, with which I had started to throw up a bank on a low point. Henk Sickma threw up a bank on the other side of my house, where, according to him, was also a weak point. He told me the water would rise some more. Should it come over the embankment, I could call him at once. Quite reassuring, I thought. Luckily everything went well and the rapid action of both men and myself have prevented worse.
Mr Sickma told me that the district water board want to throw up a natural embankment (lots of mud I think) around my house, so that in the future I will always keep my feet dry with downpour and high water levels. Also for Jippe the miller an embankment around the house is advantageous, because then he can use the pumping-part of the mill again, without the danger of putting my house under water. On Thursday 26 August 2004 (see project progress at this date) it did happen and the house was filled up with water. A good plan, that now only has to be carried out and then everybody is satisfied.
Other news is that the generator is broken. Meaning, the generator itself is running smoothly, but somehow the power doesn't get to the house itself. Should anyone have the knowledge about diesel generators? I can use all the help and in exchange I can give you a painting if you can fix it for me? The last time another company had broken the generator. Because it was their fault they had to pay the costs for repair of 900 euro! And because the generator ways as 'little' as 160 kilo, it has to be transported across the pasture to go to a repairer. I hope the defect is something small.
The last weeks were cloudy all the time, resulting in few solar power. Therefore I used the generator as emergency power for working at the computer, sawing wood and hovering. Fortunately the sun is shining more and more and I have the hope of being able to do everything without the generator soon. But no power is also relaxed! and very enjoyable. Then you can simply not work at the computer etc. and you are more inclined to read a book, cook on the stove and candles and oil lamps are lighted and wow! How cosy and full of atmosphere! You are completely dependent on how much power nature gives you at that moment and I find that very special. Here nature is the boss and this feels logical to me. My diary is wonderfully filled with appointments for visitors and guests that want to see my art and can experience how it's like living with my philosophy. I find it delightful!
FURTHERMORE! Three of my works of art are chosen by the collection committee of Kiwanis (auction modern art Kiwanis Leeuwarden on 26 March in the Frisian Nature Museum) and with the profit this time they help children from "de Swaai" in Beetsterzwaag (Friesland, The Netherlands), which have to deal with a intellectual limitation and/or a psychiatric problem. With the profit they will purchase sport attributes fort hem! The view days are on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 March. Therefore all come to this auction for the good cause (see agenda at Natuurlijk Leven for the time)
On 15 April next, approximately 10 works of art of mine are displayed on the beautiful walls of the Kloosterkapel (transl: cloister chapel) in Sijbrandahuis (Friesland, The Netherlands), during a performance of the well-known Frisian band Briquebec. See also the agenda for the right times. I can bring three people in total. Those who would like to come, can just call me.
I wish everyone all the best and do stop by in Wyns, even if it is somewhat muddy, wet and swampy in the meadows, believe me! This does have it's charmes. And besides, we are not made of sugar are we!
Namaste,
Yby