Come to Nature — Let Us Create and Be Merry
Published: 2016-10-22Tags: горско училище, семеен отдих, Природен кръжок, занималня в природата, доброволчество
Translation
This is a translation of a Bulgarian-language post. It conveys the content faithfully but is not the author's original English writing.
"Look deep into Nature, and then you will understand everything better!" — Albert Einstein
Our friends — friends of Nature, of children, of horses, of beauty!
Here by the Iskar reservoir is our new home — Happy Horses in the Shavarite Reserve. As always, we open our doors to well-meaning friends and fellow travellers who are in love with life — people with a special corner in their hearts for beauty, children, Nature and animals.
Through something like a family cooperative, creating something like a nature centre, forming weekend clubs/activity groups — with transport available to and from the centre of Sofia — we want to draw children into the activities that are everyday life for us:
- Creating and managing a horse pasture;
- Safe and natural communication with horses;
- Horse riding, English style;
- Falconry;
- Natural horse-keeping, agriculture and gardening;
- Getting to know the animals, birds, plants and the environment, and caring for them;
- Natural building and architecture;
- Nature-aligned practices — using the elements as a source of energy, managing resources, herb gathering, composting, gardening and more.
We invite all children and parents to whom this seems a wonderful idea to visit us.
At first we are gathering opinions and suggestions, and very soon we will be expecting you to join in one of the many daily activities typical of a horse farm. Since ours is in a brand-new place, besides those we also have others connected with setting ourselves up here.
Currently ongoing tasks are:
- Designing and building a composter, a greenhouse and a permaculture garden.
- Dismantling the stable from the Vitosha pasture and moving and reassembling it here, in the large hall at Shavarite.
We are waiting for it to warm up a little so we can see to burying the pipe that supplies us with water for everyday needs, as well as the sewage pipe. We got through the whole hard winter without running water or sewage, which is nothing new for us, but we would still like to take advantage of these great conveniences of civilisation, especially since all the conditions for it are here. 😃
We are about to organise the dismantling and transport of a little house made of insulation panels from our yard in Pavel Banya, to be reassembled here and serve as shelter for the volunteers we expect this year.
- Less urgent are making signposts for the entrance and along the reserve's paths — they can wait until spring, but they can already be thought up and designed now.
The same goes for various seating nooks and the wildlife observation hide.
We have many things we cannot manage on our own, and we believe that many of you have the energy, the desire, the creativity — and would do them better!
We hope that in time, with your help and the help of the children, we will manage to turn this corner into a desirable place for weekend rest, sport and creative expression.
A lot of creative work lies ahead, both theoretical and practical — so come along! It is worth coming for the whole day; prepare as for a picnic, and there is always something warm and tasty here on the fire. And in the gully there is fresh nettle, so you won't leave empty-handed… And there is your Sunday programme.
Communing with and in nature is like a metaphor for life and the search for one's true self.