Voting time, Esteban art, garden fire, cute cats, figs, tomatoes & plums!

We have lived within a broken system for so many generations now we have forgotten what it really means to be free. These days if you want to do anything at all of any significance you must ask your masters for permission and they may very well tell you NO! And you will do what you are told, fearful of what will happen if you don't, because you are in fact no more free than prisoners in a very large and well organised prison.

Take fishing for example. If I want to go and catch a fish because I am hungry (here in this region of France where there are plenty of rivers and plenty of fish) I cannot do it without first asking for permission, paying for a license and then sticking to their rules while doing it, all the while making sure to have my permission slip ready to show on demand to any representatives of my masters who may ask for it.

But how can any one person claim ownership of these fish which travel across various different properties and even boarders with ease? Further to this I can assure you there are not enough people who care about fishing here for this system to have made any difference whatsoever to the fish themselves because what we are really talking about here is a monetised control system which keeps us in check at every turn (particularly around issues such as freely feeding ourselves, doing business with others and building our homes). And if you really think this is freedom, you are probably the kind of person who thinks that voting for one of these people will make a difference to the future of France.

The appearance of choice should not be mistaken for freedom

This subject is on my mind today because it is voting time at the moment and yesterday the people of our village made their choice between these 12 politicians. A laughable affair in my books because it doesn't matter who you vote for when:

• The system is rigged (winners are pre-ordained)
• The system is broken (even the most honourable politician cannot affect lasting change where corruption is prevalent)
• If voting really made a difference they wouldn't let us do it!

Competitor number 9 appears to have some haters already.

Sabrina mentioned that she wanted to go and vote and I gently reminded her that she would be wasting her time. She smiled and explained that it was more about the politics of being seen to make a vote, upholding a certain appearance which keeps people thinking we are 'normal' like them. Great I said! We are on the same page then.

I think you can guess who's going to steal the show despite being disliked by the majority (because he has been groomed for this position and upholds the values of the WEF).

Now where have I heard this story before?

Art update

In other news Esteban is doing some really cool art at the moment.

When I asked him what were the things on the left and right of the picture he said it was a castle, but one needs to connect the two sides to see it. Like this.

I did not prompt him with this idea and I love how he is thinking. Changing our perception of how things should be.

Here he has used water colours to create an eco village.

All roads lead to the park ;)

Garden update

Over in the new garden we've cut the grass and today was fire day, getting rid of unwanted wood.

Here is Esteban excitedly running off to the natural spring, to fill up a bottle of water for us. Something he is happy to do on his own now.

We had to keep the fire small because this land is dry & the wind was picking up.

In fact, we will not be permitted to have fires like this in a few weeks (due to those masters I mentioned) all the way through to the end of the year. The rule is imposed with hefty fines and while I can see the logic of being super careful with your fire in an area prone to dry conditions & sudden high winds, I don't believe we need masters to come to a common agreement in a region.

The solution quite obviously sits within an education system which takes region into consideration. So if all children here were taught how to contain their fires safely, you wouldn't need the rule and associated fines. It's just better for business this way.

I was not trained in the art of fires yet I know instinctively to douse the area around it with water and not leave it unattended at lunchtime while the rest of my family went to eat.

This was a fine opportunity to just sit (on a few well positioned palettes) and enjoy the peacefulness of the moment.

I also put up this pea & cucumber fence up, simply because the support poles were already there and the fencing was unwanted. It all fits together like a jigsaw puzzle if you just let it.

The flying car was created upon their return.

And I was very grateful to eat my lunch in the sun.

While watching the children play :)

Cat Update

I know you wanna see 'em, so here they are ;)

Just starting to open their little eyes.

Though they do of course still sleep most of the time.

I wonder if anyone ever thought of setting up a live cam watching kittens? This would be a far more interesting and rewarding experience than watching humans in a box (Big Brother TV series).

Fig Update

Do you remember how I said I couldn't confirm if my fig cuttings had roots yet? Well, now I can! After removing the cling film from this one I saw at the base these pink & white roots protruding from the wood.

So every one of my 12 fig cuttings have been victorious in their quest for life and are doing exactly what nature intended for them (unlike the 12 politicians the people of this village are pinning their hopes to!)

I noticed baby tomatoes growing at the base of these figs and smiled because we are still eating tomatoes from last year's harvest. And I think you will agree this photo sums up perfectly the cycle which is available to us (free of charge!) every year.

We are also still eating these amazing reine-claude plums we dehydrated two years ago. They taste like a chewy haribo type sweet and all the family love them.

Honestly, they taste just as good as the did two years ago and I am thinking they would probably last a decade if we wanted them to.

And this is why we now have a small army of reine-claude trees, some grown from seed, some grown from cuttings and some grafted directly onto the small plum tree in our garden.

Love & Light everyone 🌱