As fall descends on Ytterjärna in crisp gusts, leaves begin to yellow and the day has decided to share equal time with the night, even if just for a moment. The buzzing energy of arrival and the excitement of unexplored territory has gently receded in a comfortable exhale of growing familiarity. The common room in Tallevana is filled with people …
YIP Newsletter August 2015 – The New Chapter
Although the summer holidays have drawn to a close with children back at school and the YIP office again buzzing with life, the Swedish summer is still in full swing. The gardens are overflowing with vegetables and flowers of all kinds, the apples are growing bigger on their tree branches and hay is collected from the fields, stored away for …
YIP Newsletter July 2015 – The Closing of a Chapter
Almost silence. It came like the moment after a warm thunderstorm passes over and the birds come out from cover. It fell upon the place like a stealthy blanket, somewhat bewildering, but graceful and soothing. Before it arrived, a wave of nearly overwhelming energy walked beside the awareness that a culmination was approaching and stayed with everyone until the end. …
YIP Newsletter June 2015 – The Finale in Brief
It certainly hasn’t been the warmest of springs here in Sweden. Quite the contrary in fact with some sources saying that it’s the coldest May since 1962 and the rainiest it has been in Sweden at this time of year in two centuries! That being said, the spring buds have still blossomed and the shoots of grass that have been …
YIP Newsletter May 2015 – Financing the Future
As the sun gets steadily warmer, stays later and becomes ever more brilliant in our little haven at the water’s edge, spring has exploded in a wave of green, yellow and purple. Memories of times past bubble to the present, like early morning plunges into the icy fjord, campfires in the forest, or the simple things, like being comfortable outdoors …
YIP Newsletter April 2015 – Internships and Initiative
It has been a quiet time here in Ytterjärna for those of us who have remained behind. But slowly those beating hearts have trickled back into this mysterious place that we have all come to know as ‘home’. The quietness of the weeks that have passed has most certainly not meant stillness in planning and scheduling, conversation and design, in …
YIP Newsletter March 2015 – Working in the World
Has spring already sprung in Järna…? Perhaps it should not be said aloud for fear that winter might feel overlooked! Yet a warm sun shines from blue skies today, with all the hints and smells of spring. And despite the frosty nights, little Eranthis flowers have poked through the composted ground, strong and full of promise. Perhaps they just needed …
YIP Newsletter February 2015 – A Glimpse of the Labyrinth
The sun is shining down sideways from a crystal blue sky, decorated with faint brushstrokes of windy white. It’s cold. There is snow everywhere, but not too deep. In the midst of an action, it seems as though everything alive was suddenly caught in a motionless freeze, yet still retaining a gesture of captured vitality. The fields that once held golden rows …
YIP Newsletter January 2015 – In Brief
Järna is covered in a thin blanket of snow. The ponds are frozen solid and the fjord is getting there. With this cold, a new kind of energy is shining through the cracks of the previous year, cold, crisp and fresh. Two-weeks of wintery break from the curriculum brought some participants and OT’s away from our YIP bubble and back …
YIP Newsletter December 2014 – Into the Darkness
It is 2:54 in the afternoon and the sun has set in Yärnaterja. The few sunrays that poked through the thick cotton clouds in the morning have been swallowed up by the day and a thick grey blanket has taken their place. This is much the same routine as yesterday, the day before and many of the days before that: …