David Woodland

After my talk at Stussvik in early May 2015 (see http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=1175), I was driven to my “hotel”, the home of Englishman David Woodland. He had kindly volunteered to drive me on to my next destination at Øystese, where I was giving a talk at the first Hardanger Perennialen, the following day (http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=1177). His place was on the way there between Ølve and Hatlestrand… I had first met David back around 1990 when we were both taking part in the first national meet of the organic garden network just outside of Oslo in Maridalen. Others taking part at that meeting whom I’ve met for the first time since then over the past year include Nat Mead, Linda Jolly, Vidar Rune Synnevåg (my host the previous night) and Olav Vandeskog. He didn’t remember me, but I do remember this Brit who was growing vegetables organically and selling on the market in Bergen. David had turned up to my talk at Bærekraftig Liv in Bergen last October and we had talked briefly then.

Amazingly, it turns out that David grew up only a few miles from me in Colden Common ( I was in Eastleigh) in Hampshire. Not only that, his dad was Dennis Woodland who did a lot of the work and took pictures for the Hilliers Manual back in the 70s. David even lived with his family in a flat in Jermyn’s House where I gave a lecture last week! See http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=1281

Here are a few pictures from my tour of David’s grounds. He has lots of plans! David works as an organic inspector and travels a lot around the country. Hope you make it to Malvik one day :)