About me
Greetings my fellow earthlings, and welcome to my blog!
My name is Janne Eikeblad and I am the creator behind Voiceofnature.
I’m kind of like a modern day elf and have a somewhat unusal lifestyle, living remotely on a small ‘homestead’ together with the love of my life, our little baby boy, a flock of ducks and 2 white cats. Here in the beautiful Norwegian fjords, we immerse ourselves in nature, letting our love for trees, permaculture, gardening and anything wild and free flourish. We live in a 100 year old log house which we have restored, with a huge garden leading down to the fjord, surrounded by woodland and fields, in an area close to tall alp-like mountains.
We are certified mushroom experts and we run a small mushroom farm where we grow gourmet and medicinal mushrooms all year round. We are deeply passionate about healthy living, foraging, herbalism and anything which reconnects us to nature. We absolutely love the idea of self-sufficiency, combining the skills and wisdom of our ancestors with new techniques for sustainability.
I have a background in art and organic farming. I’m also certified as a Permaculturist and an Ecovillage Developer.
I hope I can provide value, insight and inspiration for anyone looking for a slightly different way to live, or who wishes to live more healthy and sustainable on this planet, or to just include more creativity in their daily life.
The fairytale ecovillage: Vanaheim
My highest passion and main goal is to create a real fairytale ecovillage. This is something I have been working tirelessly towards all these years. We have been laying off every little penny we can, and we see that we are close to attaining our goal of purchasing larger areas of land and start building our enchanting home. We want to give as many people as possible the opportunity to join us in creating their own dream homes and green flourishing abundant gardens.
Here is the website of our project, with a discussion board with over 800 members! www.natursamfunn.no
Art as a way of life:
As long as I can remember I have immersed myself in fantasy worlds and fairytales, and I let those inspirations influence everything I do. I’m a true fantasy nerd and quite a geek. As a kid you could find me reading stacks of books or creating art or writing my own stories. In addition I spent a lot of my time at my grandmother’s farm and with her goats and other animals, running around in the mountains, or being dragged around looking at cultural heritage sites with my parents. All of which I much prefered to school. I’ve always been a loner, but the good news is that being a bit weird just makes life more fun, deep and interesting!
Whatever I do, I see myself as an artist, and my life as art. “Artists are people driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and the desire to hide.” Which sums up one of the reasons I run this blog. It would be so easy to hide away, but on the other side I feel that I have an important message to the world, and I just can not keep silent about it.
If you have followed me for a while, you would know I absolutely love to do anything crafty, especially drawing, sewing and designing clothes, creating jewelry, working with pottery and ceramics, just to name a few. I’ve been into old handicrafts for over a decade, working mainly with wool (felting, knitting, crocheting), pottery/clay as well as leather and hides. I’m also on my way to become a more professional photographer. In addition I’m known for decorating my home and anything around me quite intricately and whimsically.
Why Voiceofnature?
In my early teens I developed a deep personal connection with nature and especially the forest and the trees. I would say that nature saved me at a dark time of my life, and from then on I pledged to dedicate my life to restoring nature, making everything more green and beautiful and to inspire humanity to live more in harmony with this wonderful planet. Ever since, I have tried my best to gain the skills required and to find the best tools for a better future for us all.
I am not the voice of nature, but I got the call to be a voice. I gained the ability to tune into and speak for the planet, feeling the connection, being one with the mountains and the rivers and the trees, something we can all do! I always aim to go deep and to feel and understand the heart of all things. I really feel the calling to communicate, but I always was too shy to be a public speaker. I find it easier getting my message out there through art, photography and writing.
Why do I dress like this?
As I spent increasingly more time in nature in those early teens, I felt that the forest was my home and that is where I wanted to blend in. I started only dressing in greens and browns, with more organic, whimsical and natural shapes and textures. I let my inner fantasy nerd blossom and my creativity run free, and my inspiration ranged from woodelves, nymphs and fairies, to viking and medieval times, to hermits and bohemians. As far as I knew I was the only person dressing like this, but to my great surprise, in more recent years I’ve connected with a whole tribe of similar weirdos, and our numbers are growing rapidly! I see it as my duty to dress unusual and “weird”, even in an area where I’m the only one doing so, and I always hope I can inspire courage in others.
Natural building and architecture:
If you have an interest for architecture and unique houses, especially built with natural materials, as well as old-style Norse and European buildings, you have come to the right place. I want to be able to create beautiful, healthy and affordable houses, and I want to share it all with you. So for the last decade I have been studying and learning about natural building and tirelessly wandered the Earth in search for the most interesting and wonderfully made dwellings and the best teachers! I have been lucky to build and to learn from various amazing builders.
Finding new ways for humanity to thrive:
We have to redefine what living as a human on this planet really means. There is not much time left! The animals and insects in the world is declining rapidly, massive amounts of wild nature is being destroyed every minute, the oceans are emptied and filled with plastic, the athmosphere is heavily polluted and the climate is changing. So many people are miserable and hate their way of life. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the problems we are facing. I think it is important to feel the grief and to acknowledge the pain. But I’m not here to scare you or make you feel sad. I’m here to share with you solutions and positive visions for the future. And I think humanity need new dreams and visions to change the course of where we are heading. And we need to fall in love with nature, the forests, the animals and the mountains in order to protect it… that is why I so often feel the need to show you the beauty and the wonder of it all and help bring about a state of re-enchantment!
Come join me and my adventures, and I will show you the hidden beautiful sustainable world that is rising. We are creating the lifestyle of the future!
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I used to blog on the domain www.naviana.blogg.no “Navianas Grønne Verden” for 10 years, before moving the blog to my own domain. My old blog was then deleted. A special thank you if you’ve been following me all this time, or even just half of it!
How to support my work:
I’m a true idealist and a highly passionate person. I’ll tirelessly spend all the time that I can on helping nature, saving this planet, helping others heal, and inspire and teach about natural living. If you find value in what I do, please consider supporting me on Patreon (to be created) or through a donation to my non-profit eco project organization which is run by me. It means the world to me to continue doing all of this and there is so much more I want to do, really big and amazing things. Your support would free up my time to work on my true dedications and ecourage me so much!
Just running this website takes a lot of work and costs me some hundred dollars a year, I put so much effort into my content and I continuously aim to improve it, and to post more of what my readers love. Creating a post takes all from hours to days.