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Overview

  • 2 references 1 Confirmed & Positive
  • Fluent in English, French, Russian, Spanish; learning Spanish
  • 54, Male
  • Member since 2011
  • "Sowing the seeds of Love!"
  • Learning every day...
  • From Liverpool, England, United Kingdom
  • Profile 95% complete

About Me

CURRENT MISSION

Enjoying life in the moment.

ABOUT ME

I have travelled and worked abroad a fair bit. Coming from a city-type environment, I decided as a young adult to try to spend as much time living and working in the countryside as possible. As such I have picked up a few skills and a bit of knowledge in farming and gardening. I love to talk about all things to do with agriculture and I love the outdoors and camping wild and hiking up mountains and swimming in lakes and rivers.

I also love daydreaming and composing a poem.

One of my own poems:

Wild...

Born to be Wild, we are of the Earth
Yet I well understand how we've given birth
To a system of death, within it life dies,
But we give it life, as we give it our lives.

What happened to peace, to love for our brother
To love for an Earth we should see as our Mother?
When we've distanced ourselves from the soil and the trees,
Do we hear the life in the birds and the bees?

When we give life to objects, not even alive
Polluters, destroyers, the machines that we drive;
The machines that we cherish; the machines in our lives.

Or do they drive us and can you not see
That without them our lives would be truly free?

We're born into freedom, why make ourselves slaves
To a futile Hell, to help dig our own graves?
When we poison our waters, our air and our lands
Then we poison ourselves, and from our own hands!

I'd rather see trees, as my living friends,
Than drive long roads, in a Mercedes Benz!
Yea I know in my heart it's the ignorant few
Who still feel we're right€ to pollute as we do

This Spirit of Power, of Industrial Greed
Of Military Might, and Media Need
In abiding by these we imprison our souls
Great folly and madness is out of control

But there's plenty I know, who are not so bent
On senseless destruction and whose time is spent
In the knowledge that quiet, resides at our door
At Peace with our Mother, turning once more

Her turns are our Soul, our Spirit, our Home
As no slave to man, no slave to his dock
To his silly laws, or his ticking clock

For my law is Nature, and She says to me
That I have Her Spirit and She makes me Free.

This is a North American Indian poem by an anonymous author I enjoy:

There was a time, when I saw the world Coyote lives in. I had walked up, with a friend€“ once upon a time, behind the rocks; the big ones that rise up, mossy-greened, and cradle the forest-shadowed ponds that the ducks and moose love, to seek the slight-sloping, grassy meadow hidden behind them. We half-lay for hours in the tall emerald grass among the ancient trees that towered over the drifting textures of the land. While our elbows supported us we talked of plants, and stones, and the wisdom of moss. Slowly we began, as humans sometimes do, to slip into the wildness of the world. Our language began to slow down, pause and falter. Into silence we drifted and for some reason that only our souls understood that day we flowed with it, not talking. Colours became more vivid and the air began to sparkle. Our breathing and the sounds of the forest took on a luminous quality. And into this silence Coyote ambled, following a game trail that flowed, brown runnel, near our feet. Her tongue lolled out the side of her mouth, and she was laughing that crazy laugh Coyote has, while her eyes spun as she watched the dancing bones that lie under the fabric of the world. Crazy, gambolling Coyote. Third force in Universe. I said under my breath, Turn your head to the right. And my friend sat up and said, What? And in so doing, lost her chance to see. I, still watching, saw Coyote€™s eyes shift out of that crazy, spinning universe and shocked, no, betrayed, by the secrecy of our immersion she flipped straight over and ran, tail between her legs, only some strange kind of dog, up the trail. What I glimpsed through Coyote€™s eyes lodged in a part of my brain I did not know I had. I can reach out and touch it sometimes. My eyes begin to spin, and I feel a bit dizzy, and I can see dancing bones under the fabric of the world. I still do not know what the world that Coyote lives in does when no one is watching but I do know it is ancient, far beyond the species lifetime of humans and that next to it our world is only a chip of wood floating on the ocean.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I have used couchsurfing sparsely so far, yet all the hosts I have contacted and lodged with have been excellent.

Interests

http://forestgardeners.weebly.com

http://www.helpx.net/profile.asp?usercode=1866592YT - my profile page on 'helpx.net'

Travelling and volunteer working on mostly organic farms - I love working with animals and planting seeds in the ground that then blossom into all sorts of wonderful life!
For many years I have been studying trees, and plants and herbs and traditional medicine and healing traditions and holistic treatments, and I often make my own simple concoctions.
I have had the good fortune to meet and befriend some good folk, who are practitioners on a more professional basis.

  • animals
  • dogs
  • birds
  • writing
  • poetry
  • beauty
  • dancing
  • environment
  • gardening
  • traveling
  • volunteer work
  • outdoor activities
  • hiking
  • camping
  • swimming
  • agriculture
  • communications
  • law
  • medicine
  • volunteering
  • lakes
  • rivers
  • mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: International cinema, Russian/French/Spanish movies, Old movies such as It's a wonderful life with James Stewart and Donna Reed or The Man who would be King with Michael Caine or Dr.Zhivago with Julie Christie and Omar Sharif or Spartacus or Trading Places, Ken Loach movies, The Fifth Element, V for Vendetta, Kundun, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gandhi, Educational/protest movies like The World According to Monsanto, Permaculture movies like Greening the Desert and Greening Eritrea (youtube)...

Books: Dying to be Me, We, The Heart of Darkness, Ota Benga, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Into the Whirlwind, Wild Swans, Tell Me No Lies, Plants for a Future, The One Straw Revolution, The Ethnobotanical Guidebook of SIIT Arboretum Botanical Gardens, Rainforest Home Remedies: the Maya way to heal your body and replenish your soul, Forest Gardening...

Music: Jazz and Folk and RnB and most anything - love it as anyone can participate and it's great to dance to...

WE ARE INFINITE BEINGS - http://www.iaminfinitebeing.com/about.html;

Blog for Traditional Herbalists in Times of Transition https://theherbarium.wordpress.com/declaration-of-intent/

Plants For a Future www.pfaf.org GREAT PERMACULTURE

Anti-vaccine http://vactruth.com/about/ and http://thinktwice.com/

"Take control of your health" http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/10/02/vicky-debold-on-gmo-vaccines.aspx

REAL SCIENCE EXPOSING PHONEY SCIENCE http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Ban_GMOs_Now_-_Special_ISIS_Report.php

Natural News - http://www.naturalnews.com/042244_golden_rice_medical_fraud_GMO_regulations.html
If you really want to help malnourished people around the world, teach them how to grow their own nutrient-rich vegetables like carrots, cabbage and beets. GMOs are not required. All we need is open-pollinated seeds, permaculture education and fundamental human compassion, rather than corporate greed...

The Ecologist vs Corporate Greed and the Endemic corruption of Global corp
http://www.theecologist.org/The_Brofiscin_Monsanto_Files/777778/open_letter_from_douglas_gowan.html

Power of homeopathic recovery from illness http://www.marlev.com/Articles/HTArticle.htm

http://emrojapan.com/ Incredible Effective Microorganisms

A REAL NGO in Niger fighting desertification and exposing the phoney 'International Aid Industry' 'The Famine Scam' http://www.esthergarvi.org/about-eden-foundation/

http://johnpilger.com/articles/blair-olympic-deals-and-the-glimpse-of-another-britain

LOCK UP THE BANKERS NOW! http://disinfo.com/2012/07/iceland-jails-bankers-erases-citizens-debt-recovers-strongly/

THE WICKEDNESS OF GREED
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/munduruku-leaders-voice-opposition-belo-monte-dam-letter Even the laws that protect the environment don't exist any more, the environmental licenses are being given out in full knowledge that the construction projects will impact and destroy nature, even impact the lives of the people who will be affected, and this is not taken into consideration, the risks they will suffer, the life that will never again be the same for them. The life of the forest animals, in danger of extinction, as much as the fish and all biodiversity of life. The Munduruku population and other inhabitants who depend on natural resources, whose subsistence comes from the river and the forest: we want our rights to be guaranteed, the respect for our lives, the respect for our land, respect for our culture. What institution is this, that gives an operating permit and yet is the same institution responsible for protecting the environment?
Given the facts related above about our situation, we hereby state that we are outraged by the way the Brazilian government has been treating us. We see the disrespect done to our peoples, the Constitution being torn to shreds, becoming invalid, in order for our rights not to be guaranteed by it. Now, our own territory has become a battleground, where we are being exterminated, assassinated at gunpoint by the government's armed forces. We no longer have the right to scream out and be heard and no one comes to our assistance when we ask for help. The military police should provide us with security and protection. We see that this is not happening, on the contrary. The government is using violence and sending researchers against our will to carry out studies and justify their projects on indigenous lands. We were never consulted and no one told us about the government projects in our areas. And when the government finally talks about dialog, they are already building dams on our rivers. When we protest against the government decisions, they say they don't accept our decisions, all that matters are their decisions. This is what Minister Gilberto Carvalho said in the meeting on Tuesday, June 4: "Whether you like it or not, the hydroelectric dams at São Luiz do Tapajós, Belo Monte and Teles Pires are going to be built." And so, what purpose does it serve to now consult with us if our decision won't be taken into consideration? Where are our rights, our right to be respected?

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Many of the places where I have worked and volunteered such as "Plants For a Future" in Lostwithiel, Cornwall: a team of dedicated pioneers, with a little help from Mother Nature, transformed a previously worn-out monoculture potato field into a green oasis full of diversity and beauty
www.pfaf.org

Teach, Learn, Share

I love meeting and talking and swapping stories!

Countries I’ve Visited

Bolivia, France, Guatemala, Guyana, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Russian Federation, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, France, New Zealand, Portugal, Russian Federation, Sweden, United Kingdom

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