MANIFESTING OUR OUTDOORS KITCHEN
The older I get the more conscious I get about my wish to spend as much time outdoor as I possibly can, realising that I feel less alive when inside. My awareness of how divided and separate from nature we have made our lives today, is growing stronger and becoming less tolerable to me. I know I am nourished on all levels by being in a close relationship to nature; physically, mentally and emotionally. As I walk out the door, to be immediately revitalized as I take my first outdoor breath.
The natural consequence to dip into for me, is to create as many as possible of my living functions in the outdoors.
Making and eating food is one of those everyday chores that add up to quite a few hours a day, and also makes so much sense to do outside, as I automatically are much more relaxed and aligned in myself , entertained as I am from the birds- and trees- chatter and the fresh air, sun or rain and , and my experience that I am relating and being with my surroundings, more than actually doing something that I have to do, which often can be the case when I work inside.
We decided to make our outdoor kitchen on the veranda right outside our indoor kitchen, as that would make possibilities to interface functions and making our way to the outdoor as short and accessible as possible. .
We have been building with recycled materials we have been collecting over the years, and what we don’t have we source as used materials through the internet. The old windows and metal roof plating have been cleaned up and are as good as new and make the space a little protected from rain and east-winds, and of course that is making it much more pleasurable and workable in all kinds of weather. We even have made an extra wall of windows that we put up for the winter, and as protection from too much snow blowing in.
We found a small gas cooker online, put in an old copper sink that we still had from our brocante-hunting days in France and connected it to running water from our indoor kitchen. A few countertops made from weathered planks, some old nails in the wall to hang kitchen utensils and an old wine crate on the wall as a small shelf, et voila, we’re in outdoor kitchen business!
Astro-Heads-Up: Why an outside kitchen is related to the Taurus archetype
If the kitchen is the heart of the house, the outside kitchen might be the solar plexus of the Outer Living Spaces. Archetypically, the kitchen is a Taurus Space: raw food materials are alchemically transformed into (hopefully) both yummy and nourishing meals for body and soul. And an outside kitchen must be even more Taurus-ian then its internal counterpart. Out (t)here, we are even closer to Mother Earth. Preparing food outside, maybe even barefoot, eating it, sharing it, while directedly in connection with the elements, listening to the birds, the sounds of the wind, feeling the sun on your back while chopping charlottes- raises the sensory and elementary experience to new Taurus heights.