In the end of March 2020, I published my harvest project ‘Becoming the Frog’, some kind of graduation project if you follow the training via ANFT and did a small medicine walk to show I […]
Category: Belgian Wood Stories
11 Palms – the public life of sacred trees in the fringe of Bangalore, India
Thanks to The Nature of City Festival, I could attend field visits all over the world in the last week of February. Virtually of course. One of my favourite visits was to the fringe of […]
Ecofeminism anno 2021: ‘return to’ forest (healing) activism
In February I connected with a Brazilian serial rooter, currently rooting in Brussels, who is doing her Master thesis about urban gardens as commons applying an ecofeminist lens. The exchanges of thoughts and questions reminded […]
Where are you born = where you root: forest-related fertility and birth rites in 16-19th century of the French countryside
The time of the ‘old hag’ is almost finished and soon we’ll celebrate Candlemass, Imbolc, Setsubun or any other ‘first light/chase away demons’ festivities in the whole of the world. This blog summarises and reflects […]
Like each forest, I have different ages – a reflection during my birthday
Today is my 32nd birthday. Since last night I stay on my own in a wooden cabin in the forest, for the following nights, with books, hot drinks and a live performance by squirrels and […]
Learning more about the effects of a nature immersion with the help of children’s drawings before and after a forest bath
Some weeks ago, just before the second lockdown in Belgium, I had the honor to guide a forest bath to 34 Flemish children in a nearby village. They were age 10-11. I know one of […]
Reading Landscapes, Remembering Local History
Hallo iedereen! I sent you warm autumn greetings from Flanders. This week I noticed a lot of squirrels collecting beech nuts for winter and I found a lot of fly agarics on the fairytale forest […]
When the beech loses her throne – about redesigning our cultural landscapes
The climate is changing. Faster than we had hoped. In August, many majestic beeches – the queens of the Germanic forests – dropped their leaves because they were under drought stress. The king of the […]
Rapunzel’s forest tale: a story of healing
It has been a month ago that I wrote a blog. The last blog was about my grandmother’s death and how I found solace and inspiration through the willow in our garden: My grandmother was a […]
Let’s address whiteness in the outdoors
The International Day for Biological Diversity is a United Nations–sanctioned international day for the promotion of biodiversity issues. It is currently held on May 22. This year’s theme is “our solutions are in nature”. However, […]