Calce Argilla Apiccicosa

The last month was intense. I ran out of money and started relying totally on the generosity of others. I left Israel, and had a weeks holiday on an idyllic Greek island with a close friend from home. Then boarded a boat to Venice, a journey of almost 48 hours,during which i met a family of angels who helped me buy a bicycle and invited me to their home. I hope to take them camping. Then i cycled through a land of vineyards to permaculture centre LaBoa for an EU funded training course -im now qualified to facilitate courses in natural building finishes, ie. lime and clay plastering. I arrived in the night, in the rain, to find 2 friends from England there as fellow participants! Every night i stayed up talking with somebody, drinking Limoncello or gorgeous next door wine, we made yoghurt every day from the other next door dairy, and one night there was guitar ad voice improv. My understanding of the mediums is much improved - its like i had large particles of knowledge (coarse sand) that needed the spaces between filling up with the glue or smaller particles (fine sand and lime). I regret using hydraulic lime at Random Camel now. Working with japanese trowels, and with clay...oh...how sensual. And exciting to play with the boundary between structural and decorative, plaster and paint. In the cities of the Veneto, grape pomace (pulp) and brick dust were used to colour the walls of the houses. We visited a clay factoryand limekiln, ooh big machines. Not so complicated...neither is slaking lime - i want my own slaking pit wherever i work. Everything can be a pigment. One day i helped weed the vineyard of Il Barone, and he paid me partly in wine.  I found a dead jay by the road and plucked the sparkling blue feathers to make jewellery.
The photos below are from Xesus, thankyou, theyre of the LaBoa house and course.

My girlfriend Su came to visit me, and we made a giro (cycle tour) up to the Dolomiti mountains, camping in breathtaking countryside, staying with people we met along the way. Mechanics in bike shops saved us when our machines broke down, which occurred regularly. Su is an excellent emergency mechanic herself, sporting the facial bike grease in evidence. We drank orange coloured spritzers in funky bars in Venice city, prosecco for a euro a glass near the Piave river, and instant coffee from our own campfire, from my portuguese little blue pot. It was startling to recalibrate to anothers company while travelling, and im hungry for that feeling now, to be together on a journey with someone who loves you. Im deciding when to return to the UK.
Perhaps i start cycling now, visting those friends i made in other countries along the way.  Its a crossroads - any recommendations? 

Also ://www.flickr.com/photos/gemfromhome/sets/

Reed mat walls for practicing plastering and experimenting with materials

Mixing straw with lime putty to full holes in the straw bale walls

At the lime kiln - this is the fuel they burn the lime with. Sawdust they produce from waste wood.

Rialto