Maren had left her car parked in town for three days and in Clausthal-Zellerfeld - somewhere even the Germans I met hadn't heard of - that meant the car needed to be dug and towed out to avoid it risking the fate of a rogue snow plough. After watching a few too many cars slide around the town I opted to head back with Sebastian in the 4x4 while he informed me we were making doughnuts this evening. I thought he meant dessert but something was lost in translation and I quickly saw my error when he found an untouched patch of meter deep snow in the University to spin the truck in circles.

Conversation with Maren led me to completely re write the about section of this website and make it my new homepage as she stressed to me the importance of communicating why you do things instead of what you do. That thought stuck as I sought a better summary for my motivations than 'it felt right'. She had a tight grasp of her own values and how that motivated what she did as well as an international base of friends and influences partially evidenced by the christmas tree decorated by trinkets from various corners of the world.

For the trade Maren had arranged for us to go on a snowshoe hike in exchange for photos for the outdoor centre. Further to that Sebastian had a Blacksmith forge as part house he was refurbing he spent his free time refurbing, creating stark visual contrast to the winter hues of the outdoors I couldn't pass up photographing. Outside all of this I took all the chances I could to wander around the winter landscape. Snowy vistas, crisp air and soul warming homemade food after days spent wading through the snow.

Location

Trade