In May 2021, my father found a good book from the 1980s: Roeck and Marquet (1980). “Belgian sagas and legends”. Illustrations by Henri Lievens. In the chapter “the virgins,” Dymphna came back, who has inspired […]
Forest bathing as a way of life (?)
The International Forest Therapy Day (IFTD) are returning this summer, with an interesting new theme. I am not original and copied the theme in the title. Forest bathing Forest bathing – or shinrin yoku is […]
A Flemish ghost in the throat: Imagining who Cathelyne van den Bulcke was
One week earlier, I walked with S., a friend, in the Flemish town Lier, once a rich city with Game of Thrones intrigues. The city has installed a walking tour, with different stops and QR […]
Feel invited to join one or more of the 3 new writing(with)plant sessions early February.
The world can look dark, especially in January for the people who live in the northern hemisphere. The days are short, the winter holiday decorations and cosiness fade away. Nature seems asleep or dead, except […]
Dimpna, a story about an uprooted irish princess rerooting in Flanders, and a 6 centuries old method of care for the mental ill
On a July day, in 2021, I was in Geel, with a fellow offspring of a witch that did not get burned in the 17th century, to “dig up some bones”. That’s what we call […]
Rooting with stones #3
A new home in an ancient landscape The Aveyron is one of the biggest and at the same time most sparsely populated departments in France: 31 people per km2 compared to for example 488 people […]
2 new writing(with)plants sessions in November 2022
Often we underestimate the power of plants. We, humans, think often that we are the only stewards or helpers of the earth, but plants can be our allies too. Therefore, we organise virtual circles where […]
There is no such thing as an Empty Landscape.
Last summer, I was for a week in Czech Republic, visited Prague and dreamed about a rewilded story of Sarka. Afterwards, I participated in the Summer training school programme “Tracing & dwelling in post-anthropocentric landscapes“, […]
Rooting with stones #2
Changing agency in an imaginary landscape The power of stories People love stories. Our whole lives are made up of stories. Some researchers say that the main reason why humans developed speech is… ‘gossip’. Whether […]
Rewilding the Czech legend of Libuše’s vision and Wild Sarka
I met Libuše and Sarka nine years ago. I lived in Prague for a year, because I was enrolled in a vocational training in film making, with focus on video editing and script writing. My […]