Imago Forest Family expands

By Hannah Parsons

We jump straight into the week with more amazing pond action first thing Monday morning. Hannah, Paul and I manage to dig and line with plastic a pond in one of my mandalas, surrounding it with beautiful old pieces of wood and plants from the dam. I feel exceptionally proud of our efforts until the water line starts reducing! We realise we were hasty in our excitement and didn’t check the liner properly for holes…we all begin to wonder when we will complete a successful pond…one day we hope!

We continue our work in the Mandala, putting in some seating and planting a strong and sturdy ‘bean farm’ out of bamboo and string. We stagger the planting so we have a lasting crop and can’t wait to see the first shoots to trail onto their trellis. Julian has the task of mowing some of the long grass in the mandala, which is now starting to look almost park-like it’s so tidy! While I begin to rearrange my much used and rather unkempt seed box indoors, Hannah and Paul plant three special pumpkins in their own individual beds in the mandala. We end the day with news of a new Wwoofer, Michael, who will be arriving in a few days to join our ever-expanding Imago Forest family!

Wednesday Julian goes off on delivery duty while we three remain enveloped in a cloud at the farm. First thing, Paul and Hannah discover a very poorly chicken (one of the Barbarellas in dome 1) lying on the ground…she’s rushed inside by the newly formed chicken ambulance crew (Hannah and Paul) and nursed all day in the warmth of the yurt…we fear she won’t make it. It rains continuously, except for a break of 30 minutes when we rush out to dig yet another pond. We get it done and back inside to the warm fire just before the heavens open again! We bake bread, little rolls and carrot and orange soup for dinner. Julian arrives home at 7pm and we all tuck in…yum.

Thursday we seed clover, cowpea and alfalfa into beds for future chicken feed. We sow sunflowers in areas around the mandala and around the verandah at the yurt which will look stunning when they come up. We sow some more seedlings into trays as our recent success has been pretty good, and plant some of the older seedlings out into a pot to later decorate the mandala. With lunch on the stove Hannah, Paul and I sit and wait for Julian to return from the top gate with our new Wwoofer…how exciting!