Wwoofer - Matthew

Matthew, an upmarket cocktail barman from New York stayed at La Mariais for two weeks and was a whirlwind of energy - he constructed a bamboo trellis, made fabulous vegetarian food, entertained us with his own style of ukeleli playing and singing, helped with earth rendering in the house and dug and planted in the garden .... a true renaissance man for a renaissance project!!

Matthew creates in the kitchen

Matthew spent hours creating wonderful original dishes using mostly produce from the garden here ...



One of his best  - spaghetti squash and green salad
side dishes with sarrasin galettes and a mole sauce ...

Matthew liked to present and explain his dishes to
a captive audience before tucking in .....

A chickpea salad .....

 

Ecoconstruction

Mixing the earth and sand for rendering in the house ...

Bringing the render mix upstairs ...

Applying the 'thermal corrector' mix ...

 Matthew in the Garden

The pièce de resistance ... he built a trellis in the garden using bamboo cut from a friend's forest after browsing some of my books and researching on the internet for ideas ...

His lashing and knot making skills
learned in Scouts as a child finally
came in handy for this project ...

Wow wee ... you don't do things
by halves!!

 

Matthew's leisure time ...

 

Thank you for all the wonderful music ....

Expressing excitement about  his new ponytail ??- a
gift from Lauren and Hannah ...

Hours spent researching recipes,
music and so on .....

Wwoofer - Hannah

Hannah, a Dutch University student of gender and media studies stayed three weeks and became an invaluable member of the La Mariais project ...

Thank you Hannah for the laughter, one pot macrobiotic cooking, the singing and hoola hooping ... as well as everything else ...

Hannah's Reading Programme

She spent a fair amount of time reading books on general permaculture including ' Gaia's Garden' but also tackled some philosophy and macrobiotic cooking texts ....


Hannah and Grey Cat became firm
friends within days .... here taking
time to read the book 'Food from the
Forest Garden' while sporting her unusual
duck like shoes ... apparently very
comfortable ...




Reading a book about the 'slow
movement'

Ecoconstruction
 

Preparing the wall for a 'thermal corrector' render ...



Wetting the wall  before applying
the earth render ...



Applying the 'thermal corrector'
earth render ....

 

 

Dancing on the ladder??

 

Working on the finishing render ...
 



Applying the finishing earth render -
one volume of soaked earth to
two volumes of sieved 0,2mm
sand (sable de Bayeux) and some
flour glue .....

Hannah's Culinary Experiences




Queen of the 'one pot macrobiotic' cooking - here
serving one of her delicious dishes ....

 

 

Preparing apples from the land
for making stewed apple on the
outdoor wood stove ....
 

Always up for experimenting with
new ideas for food - here trying
to make some kind of meringue
with chickpea fluid .... while
posing as a teapot ....

A slightly unusual washing up
outfit .....

Hannah introduced a new plate
cleaning technique to us ....

 In the Garden

 

We soaked nettles in a bucket of
water for a couple of weeks to
make a liquid plant feed - here
taking out the soaked nettles ...

Preparing to plant a polyculture
of lettuce, coriander and dwarf
beans ........ with a keyhole path
 

 

Leisure time  

 

Hoola hooping in the mornings ...
 

Morning stretching, yoga, hoola hooping ......

Learning songs on the Ukeleli .. thanks
for the shared music sessions .... great
fun ...........................




Hannah an Matthew enjoying a jam ...

 

A shared meal with wwoofers and friends ....

 

Researching recipes, songs .....

 

Will it be a ponytail or a man- bun??

 

 

Wwoofer Lauren Booker

Lauren arrived from Texas with a desire to find alternatives to the high-tech approach to nutrition that she studied during her degree in food technology.  Although initially overwhelmed by what seemed to her an incomprehensible chaos of activity, she threw herself into reading books on permaculture and alternative philosophy and slowly came to understand the project here at La Marias.

Lauren's book choices

Lauren was fascinated with Rupert Sheldrake's
ideas of  'morphic resonance' outlined in his book 'The
Presence of the Past' - the idea being that there are
complex'force fields' that determine the path of
evolution .....

She devoured the book ' Gaia's Garden'
in just a couple of days and came to understand
more about the principles
of permaculture gardening that are being
practiced here at La Mariais.
 

Lauren becomes an eco-builder

She is a rock climber - so pretty strong ....
here demonstrating her skills on a
rockface at the bay of Mont Saint Michel ...
 

She combined reading and doing .... here learning
how to lay terracotta tiles with me ....

She quickly got the hang of it and
worked independently to finish ...

 

She then moved on to mixing materials for the
earth floor ...
 

Lauren using the level on the earth floor ...

Drilling wooden guides into the
walls to act as guides when
earth rendering ....



Lauren in the Garden

She harvested garlic ...

Stripped sellotape from cardboard
sheets in preparation for laying
down as mulch in the forest
garden .......

... and collected seeds from the garden
to be used for sowing new plants
next year and for sprouted seeds ...

 

Cooking inside and out

She became an expert at cooking on the outdoor
woodstove ......;

... and made a fabulous spaghetti
squash chocolate cake ...

.... enjoying the cake




Working with Hannah to make a
pudding with chick pea liquid ...

Socialising, eating and going on trips

Lauren and Hannah give Matthew a ponytail and
consider the possibility of a man-bun ...

Enjoying a shared meal with produce from the garden ...

 

A trip to Mont Saint Michel ....