Newsletter Níjar, July edition 2025
Dear Friends,
With the start of the Andalusian summer life slows down and moves towards the early and later hours of the day. The traditional siesta during the hottest moments is no romantic luxury nor is it born out of laziness. Though life comes to a stand still in the afternoon, during the welcome freshness of the early morning and during the cooler evenings all work is done with joy.
In this months journal resident Andree takes you along on a kaleidoscopic journey and introduces glimpses of the living in the Garden of Nâm. Welcome to a peek behind the scenes…
Since the 1st of April Shala is living in the Garden of Nâm. How does she experience her living here? “All the people I met are nice and very friendly, I never met an unkind person here. It is heaven, there is such a beautiful garden filled with the sounds of birds and frogs, this is really a place for relaxation and rest. I see a lot of people coming and going, they come differently than they go. They come tired, overworked, worried, sometimes a bit arrogant… and they go calm, peaceful and in loving kindness. They come for a few days, 2 weeks or more than a month. The people that work here are unlikely kind, and always the guests leave glad and contentedly. It is a good place for a vacation, it is a quiet place, there is rest, there is good food and here you can find yourself. There are places for holiday making with “Hali Kali”, loud music, a pool, dancing and a lot of beer, that you won’t find here, but you will find more joy and leave filled with rest and good memories. So when you need rest, the help of friends, when you need healing and introspection, come to the Garden! “ Shala told that she is happy to live here and that she never, ever wants to go to another place!
The vegetable garden
Summer has arrived and the vegetable garden is suffering from heat and drought. The last broccolis and cauliflowers are harvested, the leaves turn yellow with white spots, although the plants get their water. But there are still Brussels sprouts, courgettes, spinach, pak choi and some eggplants are growing and partly harvested. Also the red peppers are ready to be frozen. Since march we eat green salad out of the Garden. But, slowly the vegetable garden is going to her summer rest. The months Juli and August are like the winter in the north and mid September we start again.
Fruits
Almost all year round there are fruits in the Garden; now the peaches, apples and bananas are mature and ready to be eaten; there is a big quantity of bananas and they are very nice and sweet, much more tasty than the bananas that you can buy. We have a few hundred on the kitchen cupboards, ripening and waiting to be consumed. And we gathered already 3 big melons. Many more are growing… We also ate the first figs; but the big amount is expected between August and November. Then we eat figs every day and our neighbours help us with the huge amount. Between the end of September and December the pomegranates, grapes and oranges will be ready. And off course in November we are going to pick the olives.
All these months we can use extra help, to eat the fruits, and off course for all the regular activities but also for the process of picking the fruits, cleaning, drying or freezing the fruits, making compotes, marmalade and juices, etc. So feel welcome in the Garden!
Peppertree
In the middle of the Garden is the Peppertree, this tree has many small rose berries that taste and look exactly like pepper. People can eat them, and we sometimes cook with them. Chat GPT tells me that it is not the real pepper. The black, red or green pepper comes from a tropical plant that can grow very high, when conditions are optimal. We also grow cayenne peppers as plants, so were never out of pepper.
Desert garden
Recently the Garden was improved with the “Desert Garden”. Along the paths on field 8, the lowest field, there are nice big cacti in a bed of natural stones. At the end of the Garden you can sit among the big cacti , in the desert with sea view. It is a very nice piece of the Garden! The cactus garden is also getting very nice; the cacti grow enormously and we had fantastic colourful and fragrant flowers on the San Pedro and on many others! This part of the Garden is very well kept, mainly by Maria and many visitors enjoy it. They call it “genial”!
The rose garden
The last month the Rose Garden is improved and enlarged. Cloths are placed to prevent the proliferation of weeds, and then they are covered with nice stones. It is quite a work to measure and cut the cloths, carry the stones and make the plastic totally invisible. The roses will fill this part of the Garden with the nicest colours and scents.
The heat
Now that the trees are growing and the Garden is flowering, and temperatures rise to 36 to 40 degrees, we have a lot of worries to keep the Garden good. When we give too little water, especially to the fruit trees, they can get too dry and even die. So we are standing with tubes to help them in the heat. Another problem is the insects. Off course we do not use insecticides and then our fruits are eaten by wasps, bees, worms etc. Fortunately Edwin studied a lot and knows how to use alternative methods; for instance a mix of white vinegar, soap and water or a soup of brown beans with soap, to keep the trees clean. Every day Edwin walks through the Garden with his big white bottle to spray the fruits. Working in the Garden with temperature above 35 degrees is almost impossible. So we do this between 6 and 8 in the morning and after 19.30 in the evening until late at dark. Yoginâm has changed the time of being present in the Garden to about 20.00 ‘o clock as this is a bit cooler with nice evening light..
During the day El Comedor is a pleasant place to be; as it is situated on the north side the building there is not so much sun and the big ventilators on the ceiling provide a cool wind. The couch and chairs are comfortable and there is always cold water, coffee or tea available. When the rooms, windows and shutters are closed during the day, the room is also not too hot, for sleeping. But still we don’t need blankets or even sheets.
Living together in Living Nâm
We practice Living Nâm in sharing service, the work, the joy and sometimes the pain or problems. Here are a few examples:
Last week, on Sunday, our hard working, latest inhabitant Ulli fell in the activity room and broke his wrist. Fortunately only one bone and not completely. But nevertheless it was very painful and now with the plaster around the left arm and wrist, Ulli has to rest and take care for it with every movement. He was used to start early morning at 6 with working in the garden; to improve and clean the paths, to remove weeds, spit the hard ground, dug canals for the water, etc. etc.
Now with all the complaints and dis-eases that we all have, including the older age of some caretakers, we together are still like one good worker, Yoginâm said. (We only eat for 8) But also firm Ulli has to stop working for a few weeks, so now he can concentrate on learning Spanish as he is committed to live in the Garden and make himself a living here.
At the same time Andjanie and Simran were stuck in Doha. Their flight to Hong Kong, where Simran was going to train Wing Chung with some of the best students of the former trainer of Bruce Lee (!), had a stop in Doha, just on the moment that the American base in Qatar was bombed. They witnessed the end of the third World War! They had to stay on a very, very crowded airport for 24 hours and were without drinks and food for 12 hours, waiting in long rows to get another flight. Around them, people desperate and insecure if they could ever leave, how long it would take…old people sleeping on the floor. They lost their comrades of the Wing Chung, because everybody was so confused, with so many people they lost each other. Hubertus sent a movie with best wishes of everybody in the Garden. And after 24 hours they had a new flight and reached Hong Kong! Later we hear about their adventures.
Also our “Kabouter”, who helped the pioneers enormously, who brought us “ the Pavillon”, broke her wrist while working in her own rocky garden. Her wrist is serious broken, shattered and operated with a titanium plate and 7 screws. This is off course very painful and takes time to heal. We are glad to support her, whenever needed.
And then during making pictures for this newsletter Andrée fell, while stepping back to improve the scene. Fortunately she did not brake anything. But the Garden and the rooms ask permanent attention as to where you do your steps, as there are many stairways, steps and borders.
Excursions
One guest invented a new excursion for us, directed to the mountains and the mainland around Sorbas. Mostly we offer an excursion to one of the nicer beaches in de National Parc Cabo de Gata, where you can make nice walks in the winter and enjoy the beautiful landscape and cooling swimming in the summer. This new excursion starts with the winding road through the mountains to Lucainena de las Torres, the next village 20 km to the north. There are still towers and ovens from the iron mines, which closed in 1931. Impressive scenery! From there leads a nice road to the village of Sorbas in the middle of the valley of gypsum, “Los Yesares”. The visitor centre of the village gives a lot of information and you can make a nice walk to see the various layers of the earth in the rambla. Millions years ago, this was the border of sea and land.
Two km outside the village are spectacular caves, there you can descend into the Earth. Adriaan, Angela and Andrée have done a try out of this excursion and it was very successful; In the caves is no electricity, the visitors wear a helmet with a light to shine on the nice glittering stones with the gypsum and on the adventurous route across the caves with very narrow passages where you had to crawl or climb. The experience without any light or noise, in the purest dark and silence, was very nice. The visit with walking and climbing lasted 2 hours, and we were proud that we made it, as being by far the oldest participants! The cave is in spring and autumn available for special groups who want to practice shamanic rituals, travelling in middle earth and experience real darkness and silence. So groups are welcome! It can add a very special experience to a program of yoga of shamanic courses.
The Feast
On 21 of June there was the Feast, in Níjar and in Amonines, nicely connected by Zoom. All together about 50 people participated and with the actual camera connection it was possible to feel connected as one! The blessings of Yoginâm for the participants in Amonines, one by one, went with the camera to the individual persons, very nice. The attunements were sung, the drum and harp were played, we recited the whole “Oh Abbah Book “and there was nice music of Alexander and Human. We chanted all together. It was a wonderful, joyful, perfect feast! We danced the Abbah dance, clapped our hands and our house-dog Toby participated again so wild and enthusiastic. He runs around, jumping and dancing. I was really touched that we could be in such a “one-ness”. The feast is for me one of the most nice experiences in my life and to our friends, a trip to Nijar of Amonines is certainly worth it. In the summer it takes from Rotterdam/the Hague the same time; about 4 hours by car or by plane. So, when you missed the Feast there is another chance. On 21 of December the Feast of the Greater Light will be celebrated!
The hairdresser
In the Garden of Nâm Andjanie (and sometimes Simran) are the stylists of hairdressing. They cut the hair straight and advice on using aloe to improve the hair and avoid the tap water, which contains chlorine. This might damage the hair and cause hair loss. It would be better to “mandi” the head and hair with water from the well. We are planning to collect more water in the future.
Summer in The Garden
In the summer with the high temperatures, many people long to be close to the water; this can be at the sea or the basin of the well in Huebro. The beaches are up to 4 degrees cooler than El Cerrillo, and the sea has the ideal temperature. The beaches are off course popular in the summer so it is best to go a bit earlier or later. Or just enjoy the cool sea together, like the Spanish are used to. The latest months most guest go one or two times on excursion to the National Parc of Cabo de Gata to enjoy the nice natural beaches and the sea. This is something that the dogs (and Andrée) really like!
We hope that you enjoyed the stories that Andree has shared with you. Summer holiday is coming or has already started. Would you want to come and see some stories happen for yourself? We will gladly welcome you to the Garden of Nâm.
In Asha
