Pizza rolling thoughts...

It's easy being philosofical when sitting with a pizzaroll, some cookies and a cup of cooca. I'm pondering so many little things. Like, for example, if the members of the biodynamic movement in Sweden are called biodynamics, what are the members of the FOBO association called?

Fobics?

Well, the acronym stands for the association of organic biological cultivation (in swedish "Förbundet organisk-biologisk odling"), but organbiologics doesn't sound right either. Rather it sounds like the one course you hated but had to take to get your exam. I'm a new member of the association, and if I have to choose I'll take fobics - I'm not afraid of my own weaknesses.

Another thing I'm pondering is the Swedish Allotment Garden Association. This is the second year I've visit their booth on Nordic Gardens asking if they had some information about the allotment gardens of Uppsala (the kind with cottages), and gotten the answer "ask the local authorities". They had a big booth at the biggest garden fair in Scandinavia and hadn't even gotten around to get some information about allotment gardens in a city on an one hour drive distance. This year I was so stunned I asked
"Don't you have any information about anything outside Stockholm?"
The answer was
"No"
If I hadn't had a friend with me as a witness I'd thought I was dreaming. I mean, it says "National association of allotment gardens" on their homepage - shouldn't they keep some records on what's happening in the nation in that case? It looks rather lame to build a big booth at a national fair without being able to give relevant information to others than locals.

But things are progressing! I've had much more fun surfing allotment webpages this year than last. Swedish allotmenteers are showing a growing interest for the web, and the content on current events have improved. Since I'm following allotment Sweden via the web I can't say if the changes had started before they turned up on the webpages - but things seems to be moving in the right direction.

Will I ever get an allotment cottage for myself? Probably not. The indoor gardens takes all my free time and strength. But I'm following the allotment movement like you're following your favourite soccer team, and I'm a diehard fan of the thoughts that cottages and plots shall be available for people with a normal, or I should rather say 'small' budget. That's close to my own philosphy that everyone should have the possibility to garden/cultivate stuff - and I grew up in an allotment cottage.

Over to something distantly related; I got my first fanzine and seed catalogue from Föreningen Sesam (the Sesam Association). Wohooo! I'm sinking into the depths of geekyness pretty soon after I've taken up a new interest. (I started my carreer as an amateur illuminator by visiting Carolina Rediviva (the Uppsala University Library) and checking out some real medieval manuscripts hands-on - this is usually the endpoint for others.) If you've joined Sesam you've sunken deep into the cultivation swamp. The next step is to wander by foot through forgotten agrarian areas to rescue the last living seeds of LardLotty's moth nasturtium.

Hmmmm, I wonder if the rest of the family would agree to do this as an vacation? Or perhaps I could talk my jurist-economist friend who joined me to the garden fair into it. We joined different associations to get access to a maximum of seeds. She joined the Flowerfriend Association (sounds only slightly less funny in swedish) and I joined the Sesam Assosiation. You shouldn't be stupid. But preferably geeky...