The After-holidays-hangover

So I made a few new years resolutions:

First: Get started with this blog again. I keep on coming with excuses for not writing here. If I'm not doing it now then when?

Second: Start to live more healthy. I got my second child in last October and now it’s time to get rid of my wobbly belly by starting to run and basing my diet on something else than chocolate. Both own these resolution have also bigger meaning because they are there to keep me sane especially during these hard winter months when I'm trapped alone in the danish countryside with two small children while the man of the house is mostly at work. So writing will make me feel like I have someone to explain my thoughts. And running and living healthy just make me happy.

Actually I have a third resolution too. Fight against the throwawayism. By this I mean the shopping oriented culture where more and more shortlived products pass through my family’s life and home. It comes with the mentality where we no longer value the materials that go into products or the labor that built them. Neither do we really care where the products end up after we have finished using them as long as it’s out of sight, out of mind. The culture that is constantly trying to lure it’s way to my home “because it’s so easy, fun and convenient and especially desiged and targeted for families with children”.

Let me tell you first why I'm interested in this right now. Because of my every year worsening after-holidays-hangover. And this hangover has nothing to do with drinking or eating too much, it’s the stuff, the garbage bags filling with wrapping papers, packages and Christmas decoration, and kids crying for more and better gifts. Every year Christmas leaves me with the same empty feeling after all that proving your love with stuff and consumption. And as if Christmas wasn’t enough, then comes the new year which we welcome with another consumption peak of disposables. “Here’s a garbage and trash thrown in the sky for five seconds joy, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!”.

I’ve been battling with my anxiety every year but now that I have children it’s worse since I can’t pretend like there is no Christmas. Could I celebrate Christmas on my own way without so much emphasize on the material? Sure, but how to do it when everything around them says “the more material, the more fun”.  Even disturbingly many Christmas programs has the same message where the children’s holidays were ruined and souls left with everlasting scars if they wouldn’t get Christmas presents! And I know it will get even harder as the kids grow up and they’ll learn to compare the amounts and sizes of their gifts and money spent on them. Even though I’m talking about Christmas here I’m also talking about the mentality children learn for the rest of their life. Children learn that you can show your love with stuff. They learn that they can show worthiness with stuff. They learn to patch emptiness with stuff. They build their identity on stuff. They learn that you are the stuff you have.

So hereby with this new year’s resolution I declare to try to get my children to appreciate immaterial in their everyday life before it’s too late and I will try my best to avoid selling my soul to consumerism. I will also try to come up with new ways to reuse things and to avoid disposables. And yes, I’m doing this despite the obvious risk of becoming the embarrassing party pooper who lectures about the environmental effects of a plastic drinking cup and the evil monster who steals children’s gifts and party decoration :)

Happy new year and patience to all those in my near family circles! Here's an inspiring video to start year 2014 :)

The dream of a tiny home

I wonder if this house has a guest bathroom

There is this rather entertaining american program that is always aired when normal active people are definitely not in front of tv. It's called Property virgins and apparently I'm the only one watching it. Property virgins is s a reality series where in each episode they help to find a house or a flat to some North-American first-time homebyers. And this is what I have learned from Property virgins:

• There excists a word called “masterbedroom” and no matter how small your house is the masterbedroom has to be massive and include a bathroom.
• You cannot take seriously a flat/ a house with only one toilet.
• Something called “My stuff” needs at least the same space as two extra persons living in the house would.
• There is always preassumption that as soon as it’s economically possible people will buy something bigger and more spectacular. 

    The housing demands in Scandinavia are a little bit more modest. For example it’s usual that there’s just one room dedicated for the entire household’s bowel movements and personal hygiene and the houses in general are smaller. Here the high heating costs set the biggest limitation for building mansions and especially living in them. But I guess the mainstream trend is the same, we need more space and more room for more stuff. It’s  normal that in some point of our life the purpose of living is just to pay back the house, the car, the boat, maintain them and buy some more stuff. Instead of you owning them, your house and things start to own you.

Surprisingly below the mainstream dream there is a strong opposite movement of radically downsizing your living space. Apparently the idea of being able to fit yourself and all your belongings in a small treehut is something that seems attractive and liberating for more and more westerners. Many people have realized that less space and possession equals to more time and money spend on better things than maintaining, cleaning and worrying. Smaller houses are more ecological, enhance familybonds and are way easier for stuff management. Some of them with the passion to shrink their life have more philosophical approach and say that that less space and possession provides them with mental clarity and peace of mind.

If you are looking for more simplicity and minimalism, I urge you to watch the inspiring documentary below and for further small house-dreaming check out this link.

City rednecks make a difference Malmö

Does this look like a ghetto to you? 

One of the last summerdays in September I traveled to Sweden to visit Malmö's inglorious Seved citypart. I knew in advance that Seved was a highly problematic multicultural area, with lots of brutal criminality, gangviolence and other social problems. In last January even the postmen had refused to deliver mail in Seved in a fear of violence. Yikes!

So what was I doing in Seved? The reason was to visit the association called Odla I Stan. Odla I stan has taken aim at the Seveds problems with rather unusual method – urban agriculture.

Göran Larsson and Linnea wettermark
 are the masterminds behind Odla i stan

Every strip of land gets used in Seved

                                                  Food from the backyard

Odla I Stan started in 2010 to encourage locals to use the excess grassplains, street verges and other vacant lands in the neighbourhood for growing food. Today there are several common gardens in the Seved area besides small individual gardens plots or gardening boxes that are spread around the neighbourhood. Gardening boxes and soil is donated by the property management so the citizens only need to have their own seeds and invest some of their time to get fresh, organic vegetables straight from their backyard. Everybody in the area is welcome to participate. 

One of the common gardens in Seved made
with the permaculture technique called sheet mulching

Gardening boxes full of food

Social life in the gardens

As I walk through the Seved, I have very hard time locating the criminal stories that I’ve heard from Seved to this green and actually very attractive neighborhood. It’s definitely a far cry from the ghetto I have pictured in my mind! People are very friendly in Seved and you can sense a good social togetherness. “It hasn’t always been like that”, says one of the active gardeners and tells that before the gardening started she hardly knew anybody in the area. Now she is a part of a strong network of citizens and together they keep on eye on each others gardenplots and the neighbourhood. Eventhough vandalism in Seved area is very common, the gardens have remained in peace - if you don't count a couple of dissappeared tomatoes and pumpkins.

Today, like every Wednesday, she and a bunch of other locals are working together, this time to build a compost system. Besides compost building, these weekly meetings can include for example working in the garden, cooking or honeymaking. Cooking evenings have especially proven to be useful for everybody. Immigrants learn to use the Nordic vegetables and berries and the native swedish citizens learn about the new exotic dishes and new uses of herbs. Many people have found new skills along with the project. One of the active growers called Fatma tells how she has always been interested in honey making but never had the chance to learn it until now. Now she is in charge of the Seved honey production. Another volunteer worker called Anna, has worked in the gardens so intensively during the last years that she would go for a professional organic citygardener. Also those with other talents and interests than digging soil have found their ways to contribute. Different local artists have participated making the neighborhood more inviting with garden furniture and funky vegetable graffitis.

The locals together building compost system 

Lifting the life for the entire community

Odla I stan shows a good example how citygardening can work as a good tool in developing cityparts with social problems. Odla I stan is stlll far from solving all the social problems in Seved, but it has created a tight community and as a response Seved is slowly gaining popularity as a place to live. Instead of having to shame living in inglorious Seved, people have now now not only gained back the desire to remain living in the area but also started hold pride of their green neighborhood. Gardens work as new meeting places in the common space where the desire for good healthy food unites everybody and works as a great excuse for communication and teamwork. Along with gardening citizens have gained a feeling of ownership and a sense of belonging to the green areas of Malmö. Most importantly they have realized that together, despite cultural or age differences, they have the power to make their own neighborhood a better place to live.

Interested to find out more about urban agriculture in Malmö? Go to www.odlaistan.nu