The sun is setting.
The sky above the horizon is colored in the most beautiful colors that light couldpaint.
They are fading into each other, turning into different shades without any interruption.
Everything is fluid and volatile.
Then darkness is taking over the sky. Light is leaving the world and night has come. I welcome the night
as part of the day. That I love as I love the light, since it makes me descry lightness.

I look into the world and I see life in everything. I love to see it. I can feel the life inside me connecting to all life around me. And then there is this continuous flow of life energy between two souls.
I don‘t want to see death. I can close one eye and see only life with the other one. Then I can pretend that presence is eternal.

I used to ignore death, but death wants to be seen. So it came to me and showed itself in its barest and
harshest form. With big black dead eyes, it stared into my soul. My innocent soul, that only wants to see life.
It made me close all my eyes, stop moving and feel dead from within. Feel the pure absence of life and
death as the inextricably part of life.
Now I feel life and death. I see life and death with both eyes wide open, in everything alive. As a
necessity to enable progression and development.
It doesn‘t have to lead to an end and involve pain and suffering but can lead to new spheres of existence.
I learned to love both, as I learned to love day and night.
How could I hate one of the truest of all things that I know is real?
How could I feel different than loving and grateful for anything that I experience?

The Tree of Life symbolizes the eternal cycle of life. Often it is pictured in symbiosis with other animals,
in which the tree provides living space and nourishes and protects these. In return, the inhabitants of the forest are providing the trees with nutrients and care for them.
The tree is a reflection of life and shows us the close connection between evanescence and reincarnation.
It represents growth and life force and the connection to mother earth. The roots are symbolizing
stabilizing forces, while the branches and leaves signify regeneration and progression.

Right before easter we cut back the willows behind the greenhouse. Willow is a really special tree that can be used for so many different things, baskets probably being the most recognized. I have always liked to create things with my hands so the straight willow branches laying behind the greenhouse felt like the best chance ever to give willow a go. Of course I went to YouTube for some help concerning inspiration and some practical information on how to even get started. The first idea I must give the credit to a co-volonteer because it was not mine, I rather just stole it or got inspired or whatever (it’s all fine no feelings hurt). Anyway, the idea was to build a willow fence in the garden which I think turned out really nicely. When I started I thought it might take a few hours but no it took the whole day. But it was very enjoyable work and fairly easy!

The next project was to make an attempt on making a willow basket. The first struggle was that I think I let the willow try for a bit too long in the grass so they where a little bit too dry when I started. The method of making it was rather straight forward and not too difficult to understad, although I soon discovered that the challenge when you work with natural materials is that not all the materials are the way you want them to be. No brach is the other one alike but I think that’s also part of the charm. Anyway, the picture below is my second attempt, the first one didn’t turn out as round more like a water drop if you looked from above.

A while after doing the fence we took down the upper, old orchard and when we collected the tree-branches and trunks there were a lot of really straight ones that could be used as building material. I immediately thought of building a bench, I don’t even know where it came from but it felt right so I went for it. I had a bit if the same experience as with the fence because I thought this also would take a day or something but of course it didn’t, it took two weeks. The first step was to prepare all the branches, meaning cutting them the right length and flatting out where the joins are. I did all the sawing by hand so my arms were dead in the evening the first day. When I started to assemble it was very unstable and wonky so I but in extra support diagonally but I had kind of already thought I would need it. Because I work with fresh round wood I also had to pre-drill all the holes for the screws but some branches still cracked. When I was finishing the last of the assembling I had the bench on the table for better reach and I was climbing on the table and fell of and sprained my ankle. Therefor I had to wait over a week before I could finish it by weaving the sitting area and the back support, hence why I took two weeks. In the end I was very happy with it, almost so happy so that it was worth spraining my ankle :)

I really liked working with willow and I am very thankful I had the opportunity to do it. I think I learn a lot, especially that it always takes longer then I think. The only sad thing now is I have run out of willow, but there is always a new spring coming.