Olivia

Olivia is very proud of and loves her baby chicken very much.  She made sure to show it to, and pass it around to all of us, us being Erin, Damien (in the background) and myself.

The three of us had gone to this location to see the landscaping, done in a style known as permaculture.  The idea behind it is to capture the water, hold the water and use the water that comes onto the landscape and not to shuffle it off to a gutter as quickly as possible.  The water is used to grow all kinds of plants, lots of them being fruit bearing and the like so that fresh food is available in the backyard.

The underlying idea is to create a connection to your immediate environment well also making it more sustainable.  The other sneaky part of this was how it creates community.  See, we weren’t there to visit Olivia’s backyard, we were there to visit a neighbor and family friend’s backyard, but the families had torn down the fence between their yards.  It was one giant garden, one giant green space, one giant communal area.  So while we talked to Erik, his neighbor’s daughter Olivia started to talking to us, and we got to know more of the community than just Erik.  All in a backyard.

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May 08, 2009 | Categories:Editorial, Portraits, Portraits Portfolio | Tags: California, community, Good, Permaculture, So called thoughts, Sonoma | 2 Comments »