The Birdhouse or How to Live Your Dreams|A Conversation with Bella LeNestour

Christine: So, hello Bella and welcome to this episode. The first thing I want to ask you is, what is the BirdHouse and what made you want to create it?

Bella: The BirdHouse started out as a place to meet up with our neighbors in the Beachwood Canyon, where we offer permaculture classes, sing, feel connected, and learn from each other. Right now, because of Covid—and maybe thanks to the Covid—our circle is growing. We’ve become a platform for California and even further, joining with others to take action to restore degraded soils. Even on a small scale, there is something to be done. This is how our circles come together and help each other.

We don’t have a lot of land, just one acre—(1400 square meters), but above all, the BirdHouse is an opportunity to demonstrate a new concept of stewardship, by working on our own land as well as the land of neighbors.

At the BirdHouse, we teach soil restoration techniques, we share our experiences, we create, we sing, we work with nature, we are part of an emergence movement in which we believe, in which we exchange ideas, even if we don’t have all the answers.

Christine: So concretely, what you do at the BirdHouse—in this place, on this land, in these Hollywood hills—is that you organize events. So what are the themes that you tackle? Tell me a little bit about these projects. How do they work?

Bella: We host Salons where we have conversations around the principles of permaculture, such as the village spirit in the age of the self. Or we revisit ideas that may have become outdated, like the idea of the American dream, or the false idea that everyone has equal opportunities in the world. This is an opportunity to “decolonize” our minds and ask the right questions by including people from different backgrounds in the conversation. Finding the right questions is often the most important.

We’ve brought in philosophers like Charles Eisenstein who wrote The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible, which helps us see the possibility of a world that is interdependent, and where this notion of “me”, of self, of being separated from each other, can be reviewed and corrected.

For now, like everyone else, we need to continue with Zoom. We’ve brought in poets, philosophers, and more recently, Lazaro Arvizu, who is a Tongva artist/educator from the Tongva-Gabrielino. In fact, the BirdHouse, like Los Angeles, is built on a basin, on land that belongs to the Tongva, although the Tongva are not recognized at the federal level. The BirdHouse has invited Lazaro to help us develop an educational program for children and adults, with the Tongva cultural group of which he is part.

Christine: What I’m hearing is that the BirdHouse is really, first of all, a community experience—and I even really want to say, an experience of communion, an experience where we seek together to open our horizons, to reflect, to learn from each other, to welcome each other, to honor each other. And therefore, there are great human values of meeting and respect. And I also hear a whole theme around the environment, around the restoration, and even the regeneration of the soil.

Moreover, you recently attracted the attention of a Dutch group, the Eco Restoration Camps (ERC), and you’ve been designated as an Urban Eco Restoration Camp. What does that mean and what is this dimension of the BirdHouse?

Bella: Until now, the land that has been restored by ERC camps has been in rural areas, where soils have been degraded by deforestation and where the land has no real estate value. So  it’s possible to install large Mongolian Yurts and to do solidarity tourism where people come to an ecosystem camp during their holidays to actively participate. They are accommodated and can work part of the day, and spend good times together with fellow travelers and locals.

In the case of the BirdHouse, in a neighborhood like Hollywood, with the staggering price of real estate, we can’t install yurts to accommodate visitors, unless they are invited by members of the BirdHouse, which is always possible.

Rather, it is an opportunity to demonstrate a new concept of urban commons: working on plots given to us by the city or our neighbors, and restoring soils by teaching others how to do it. Well, I don’t mean that they are given to us, but rather lent, of course.

At the BirdHouse, people learn how to use tools, put their hands in the soil, understand permaculture principles and put them into action, to test how to improve soil composition, and plant trees. Together.

What this is about is that the soil has been abused and so polluted with chemicals, that it’s no longer alive (and  it’s happening in France too). To restore the soil, it’s necessary to bring in bacteria and fungi so that, like your digestive gut, it regains its living biome. This makes the soil absorbent, like a living sponge. Whereas now, when it rains, the water isn’t absorbed but runs off and takes the top soil straight into the storm drain. The soil has life when there are plants living on it. The plants absorb carbon in the air, transform it into sugars and hand it off by the roots to the soil microbes.  These  microbes then transform it  into food the plant can be nourished by, to grow more leaves, which bring about photosynthesis, which replenishes oxygen in the air. There is a whole cycle that takes place—and that can only really take place—when we have a living and nourishing soil. And what happens in the transformation is that these microbes do their job. Healthy microbes are really good things.

And it’s easy to do actually, and that’s what is so inspiring. Because if I listen to the news, which tells us that we are moving towards the apocalypse, I don’t want to get up in the morning. But now that I’ve learned there is a way to change things, even at a personal level, and that the more we restore the soil, each of us as individuals, each like a small stamp on a letter—and if we add all these little stamps together, in fact we arrive at a certain mass which can even change the water cycle! Because plants transpire and bring moisture into the air. 

And I can’t even explain it in scientific terms, but you don’t even have to understand the science. We just need to ask, how do we do it? Let’s do it together—and it works! We don’t really have time to test to find out how long it’s going to take for it to make a difference. So we say to ourselves: We’re doing it now, it’s our way of participating and making a difference. In fact, it’s already all green around us!

Christine: There is already a difference for you, in your reality and your daily life. It’s much more alive and much richer, and what I see is this: if we all do this on our little piece of land, our gardens, our spaces, and wherever we can, then we can arrive at this mass that will make the difference. What I also understand is that you at the BirdHouse, you do it, but you also teach others how to do it.

Bella: Yes, and we are also trying to find a system that can be reproduced by others, including how to navigate the bureaucratic system to make them understand which priorities need to change, so that they will consider giving us access to a piece of land that belongs to the city. So it’s also getting a system bigger than us to understand how to make these changes.

And then there is the music. We have a group called the Band of Singers, who sing and write songs together. And during the days of soil restoration, we come on site to serenade them and inspire them to work.

Christine: I understand that the restoration of the soil is something that is very close to your husband, John. As for you, what role do you play in the BirdHouse?

Bella: I have several, so I change hats a few times a day. Being the co-founder of the BirdHouse with my partner John, means that I am part of all the meetings where there are decisions to be made: who are our allies; what will be our programs; which medicinal plants will we plant this year; when will the next event be?

I also participate in the programming of our choir, with our conductor and musical director: Maesa Pullman, an incredible talent with whom I have the pleasure of collaborating. She produces the arrangements of the pieces that participants compose around the theme of a particular workshop. A theme that inspires biophilia, the love of nature. There is no audition to be part of our choir. We have professional musicians among us, as well as participants who simply enjoy getting together and singing. Maesa has the ability to help shy people find their words and flourish while creating. She and I decide on the themes of each workshop. There are four a year, lasting 6 to 8 weeks. Usually the workshop is followed by a small concert.

Recently, we had to drop the idea of having concerts since we couldn’t invite an audience. So we said, “Let’s do a ceremony for us. We will first work on four pieces that we will prepare together on Zoom, then we will meet at Lake Hollywood, and stand on the bridge, while respecting the necessary distance from each other, and we will sing to the water of the lake.” At the last moment, there was a new re-containment in Los Angeles, so even this version without an audience was no longer possible. But let’s say that’s how we work together: by declaring a sacred space, we will play for an audience, for us, and in honor of nature.

Christine: It’s really idyllic, this BirdHouse. There is also another dimension, that of the Apothecary. Can you tell me a little bit about that, and the plants?

Bella: Yeah, it’s a project that Jessica and I have set up. She and I met at the end of a nine month herbalism program in Topanga, and from there we’ve been learning more about herbal medicine, which lasts a lifetime. We set up a herbalism workshop at the BirdHouse to teach everyone how to take care of their own well-being, and that of others, a “culture of care” starting with even the simplest plants around us. Roxanne joined us. I love how she teaches the botanical and medicinal aspect of a plant, as a certified herbalist, but also a more metaphysical aspect, that of the spirit of the plant.

We are a group of five around this project, which started  just before Covid arrived—so we had to “pivot” because we could no longer bring participants in person to the BirdHouse. So without delay, we set up a Tea Circle where we meet on Zoom at each change of season to have tea together. We choose the plants based on their medicinal properties and the seasons, and the events we go through. 

Sometimes we even enter a more subtle realm that brings us closer to the spirit of the plant, even if our circle is made on Zoom. For example, a plant like Lemon Balm will feed the nervous system and bring a peaceful mind and a peaceful belly, settling the anxiety in the stomach. Or another plant, such as Holy Basil, can help us to have a perspective on a situation, allowing us to take a step back. So in addition to the medicinal side, there is also an emotional and etheric side that is supported.

For the moment, we share these moments on Zoom, but the five of us continue to advance the project. Personally, I take care of preparing the plants, drying them, packing them, so that the locals can pick them up at The BirdHouse. We also have a lot of participating members who are part of the circle from a distance, so they have to find this plant locally, before we meet online.

I have always loved being an apothecary. When I was little, I always made funny mixtures with my grandmother’s eau de toilette and potting soil, all mixed in bottles… So I really enjoy taking care of that part, the preparation of the plants.

In addition, two months ago, I received a copper still and we are going to start making distillations. In fact, tomorrow we’re going to do a hydrosol using pine needles, which one of us just brought back from Montana. Tamara filled her entire car with pine needles from the Blue Spruce pine. She called me from the road to tell me how good it smelled the whole trip. It’s good for keeping your head clear and feeling awake, like walking in the forest.

Christine: What I love is that by doing this apothecary work, you first honor something that is of your very nature, something that you did as a child. Me, I support many people to find their place in life—and at a given moment, when we walk on this quest to find our place and to find our talents, and to find our right place in our work, in our profession, in our place in society, there is often a point where I invite them to revisit their childhood and to remember what you liked to do when societal pressure did not influence the way you organize your days, when you were just honoring your natural impulses. And often it is an element of information that can be very rich.  And so there I see that you liked to make potions and mixtures and somewhere you find this pleasure that you had as a child, and today, with more knowledge, more time, it takes on its full extent. It’s really nice.

So to put together a magical project like that, I feel like there really is something about giving yourself permission to do what you really want to. I want you to tell me a little bit about what motivates you and what is behind it all, what makes it possible for you and your partner John to put together such an incredible and idyllic project?

Bella: I think the number one reason is that in order to get up in the morning, I need to have a sense of possibility.  I need to find my own way to participate and I will not be able to do so if, on the contrary, what I hear is that we are coming to the end of our world as we know it. It won’t work for me. I need to find something that makes me feel connected to other people. I love working in a team, and finding my way to participate. So for me, it happens more particularly in the subtle realm, through song and medicinal plants. This is what gives me the juice and made me want to take this risk, because it is indeed a financial risk, to have taken this project in hand. And I have to say I couldn’t have done it if not for John, my partner, who has incredible confidence that things will turn out as they should, at the right moment.

It was the same when we lived in France. We used to live on a barge, and John immediately learned how to be a boat captain and get his license, which really isn’t easy. We had to find our way to become comfortable in what we were doing, something that resembled our life in California, while living in Paris. And I have to say, this is something I wouldn’t have taken care of on my own.

Christine: It helped a lot to have another person who could be a driving force and who could nurture these possibilities with you.

You have children. Can you tell us a little bit about the relationship you have with your kids, because I feel like you and John are teaming up and you don’t do things like everyone else. Is there something you have done for your children that may have had an impact on them?

Bella: I think it’s possible. Now they’re adults—they’re 24 and 27— but when they were little, we used to travel a lot because of our work. We made documentaries about music. So during the periods when we were preparing a project and they were off school, we realized that what worked was to ask them to give us two days—to be patient, to bring their books, until afterwards. Then we would also give them two days of our time, going to the park to play, to eat ice cream. So we had to respect this balance between the time we needed for work and the time we gave them, and to the extent that this was respected, it worked for all of us. And the fact that we lived on the boat also provided a lot of good things for them.

For example, during school holidays, we would navigate for a week, but we felt like we were gone for a whole month, because everything was lived in slow motion. In navigation, we take the time to see the curve that arrives, we pay attention to the branches bending over the water, we notice the heron on this branch. We prepare for our boat’s arrival in the lock because we know that we will not have the opportunity to turn back. There is no way to reverse a barge so in fact, you always have to anticipate. They learned that, and they learned to have a lot of free time and that maybe being bored is not so bad after all… Result: they are both musicians and learned music when they were very young. This to say that this notion of taking time, with fewer distractions, or even living more frugally, it did them good.

If we cooked potatoes while sailing, we kept hot water for washing dishes, as we would have done a generation earlier. When we shut off the engine to tie up somewhere for the night, we had just enough electricity to plug in our phones. They lived a life where they didn’t really know about the tv shows other kids knew in school. It may have been a little hard on their social life, but they survived and now they tell us they are glad they had this life.

Christine: Ah la la la la la. So I want to know how our listeners can find out more about the BirdHouse. What is the website and can listeners participate in these workshops? Tell us how people can support the project, and find out more about the BirdHouse? Can we make donations?

Bella: We can start by giving the name of our site: atthebirdhouse.org We are a non-profit organization, which means that everyone who wants to donate gets an equivalent tax exemption. BirdHouse members can choose a monthly subscription according to their means, with a minimum of $2 per month to at least cover Paypal fees. Haha. 

As a member of the BirdHouse, you have the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities, and to receive our newsletter, which we send out every month. You can also register for our next Community Apothecary Tea Circle, on March 21st, 2021, and our next  Band of Singers workshop which will begin on Monday, March 22, 2021. These workshops will once again be on Zoom, which allows people to join us from any location.

Christine: And people from France? The choir is in English but could people from France join the choir?

Bella: Yes, but with a 9 hour time difference!

Christine: In any case, I won’t be at all surprised if some of our listeners choose to visit your site to be inspired, to see a little how you do things, because what I find most inspiring in this whole story is that you have honored your vision. And this vision is constantly regenerating: the way you regenerate the soil; you regenerate your vision; you follow your momentum; you see who are the people who are there; what needs to emerge; what you want to do; what would be good for you, for others; for the Earth. There really is a momentum and a cycle of creativity, desire, passion, and taking action that creates this dream.

The word that comes to me when I listen to all this, is the word “idyllic”. And to achieve something idyllic, you have to dare to believe in your dreams, you have to cultivate the possible, you have to, as you said, do everything on its time, make the choice not to be a victim and get up in the morning saying to yourself, ‘There are things to do and I will do my part. I want to be the change that I see in the world.’

 So there is a whole posture of life, an open heart, a clear horizon, dreams, projects, and taking action. And then a whole community, a whole culture of doing things with others, and of shared talents. So really a very beautiful human story that I have great pleasure in sharing with our listeners.

Is there something, a little last word, you would like to say to close this episode?

Bella: Maybe one of the images from a book I just read. It’s an India ink drawing with trees bent by the wind, a hard wind and the branches are bent, and you wonder if all the trees in this forest are going to be uprooted. You see in the distance a little boy and a horse. This story is like a bestiary with animals that have all kinds of things to say. And the horse says, “When everything gets out of hand and you have no idea how to do it, then choose to do something you love, that is right under your nose.”

Christine: Awesome, awesome!  Thank you, thank you so much, Bella!

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