For me Nomad Garden grew out of another garden. Shanti Garden in Mandrem, Goa is a place to slow down — to stop thinking for a while and start feeling: community, yoga, long dinners, no rush. I wanted a place like that here too, to share that way of living with anyone curious enough to try it — or simply to join us.
We met by chance: Alex came to buy a monitor from an ad while I was selling things off before wintering in India. The second time, I brought my own camper over to park at his place for the winter. When I came back in summer, it was obvious there was something to build together — here, on his land by the Kaparcha river.
Alex has lived in campers for twenty years and still drives his Volkswagen T3. He's on good terms with wind and water — kite, windsurf, sailing boats, paragliding, enduro — and with metal: he welds, builds and fixes. Almost everything standing here was made by his hands, and he says remarkably little about it.
My own projects grow out of curiosity — about people, places and new ideas: Shanti Garden in Goa, Nomad Garden here. What I enjoy most is the process and the company; I like sharing what I have and staying open to whatever others bring in.
The place grows slowly — step by step, in the mood, starting with what we enjoy ourselves. It won't get big. It isn't a hotel and isn't a parking lot: it's a garden where you can breathe out, be yourself, and work out what you actually feel like doing. One of us is usually around; when we travel, we stay reachable. The cats, who consider this garden theirs, never leave.
