Trip to Pioneer Valley

I recently flew over to the States to look at the Heartwood School and meet with Will Beemer about a possible apprenticeship this summer. I was pretty excited as I have been really focusing on finding a niche in timberframing since I began researching it a year or so ago. The area is the place to be- after four years in crowded Northern Europe I am more than ready to be back where you can take a walk in the woods; where there are actual stands of trees.
The school looked like a great place to make connections and get some great training. I should hear back from them in a couple of weeks. I stayed with my cousin in Northampton and had a great time exploring the area a bit and eating some awesome sushi (something I have desperately missed). The whole area really felt like it would be a pretty ideal place for us to move next year. We'll see.
One of many interesting things I got to do was check out the incredibly well stocked Smith College Museum of Art. Especially cool was the exhibit on Beyond Green: toward a sustainable art. My easy favorite was an idea called paraSITE shelters. I love the ingenuity and practicality of them. A lot of the rest of the ideas were okay- some were a bit hokey, and it seems everyone has to write these immensely wordy statements to explain every thought that went into the conception of anything. A bit much to stand there and read the walls.

A church steeple in Northampton; they are turning this old church into a music club-



On the way to Heartwood-



Woodshed-



School greenhouse-



Another woodshed, a potential project this summer-