On the Peace Boat we talked a lot about sustainable living and eco-friendly lifestyles. Since I've been home I've been trying to practice it! I've done lots of cooking from scratch, and spent hours gardening and landscaping, and today Emily and I built a little patio outside her window. It's a project that she's been envisioning and planning for awhile and today was the day! It was hot and sunny, but the corner where we worked was in the shade. First we leveled out the ground [with lots of help from Dad!] then put down some sand and laid the bricks. We used a pattern that Em found online, called "Flanders Weave." It is perfect because not only is it beautiful, but it is also named after one of Emily's favorite places, Flanders in Belgium.
Flanders is the Flemish [very similar to Dutch] area of Belgium. Belgium is an interesting country. It's almost like two countries in one, with a French-speaking area and a Flemish speaking area. Brussels, the capital, is bilingual. Cities have two different names. Anyway, Emily went to Belgium and lived there for two years. It is a beautiful place with amazing food, the best chocolate in the world [for example, have you heard of Godiva?], beautiful architecture, charming small towns and spectacular cities. It is definitely one of my favorite parts of Europe, and one of the nicest things about it is that it's not terribly crowded with tourists. It is still possible to walk around the streets and feel like most of the people around you are moving about their normal lives. Bustling cafes are filled with happy locals. Families walking with their dogs stop at the corner shop and buy a big paper cone filled with fries to snack on as they continue down the street. In Antwerp you can by perhaps the best waffles in the world, piled with "slagroom" [whipped cream] or fruit or chocolate... Yum...
Anyway, we built a patio in Flanders Weave style, using old bricks from a barn that burned down. They were old but they had so much character! They are not all the same solid color, and they are slightly different sizes. Best of all, we were able to re-use, and keep those bricks from just being "waste." Now they are a beautiful patio! :) We laid the bricks in the nice pattern, then we filled the cracks with sand, and made the corner SO much more attractive than it's ever been! Now THAT was a productive day! And I only dropped one brick on my foot... Now it's time to go shower and rest!