Preparing my home to be rented while I spend a year writing and traveling was a heavy lift, yet here I am. It will take a few days for my body to recover and longer to reorder my brain after the high-octane stress of urgency and weighty decisions. But I am in Denmark and it’s summer and the weather is perfect.
The house is in a haveforening—a Danish-style of community that dates back to the Industrial Revolution when the Danes began to migrate away from rural living to find work in the cities. This particular haveforening has a less illustrious history. It was begun illegally more than 100 years ago when indigent laborers built shacks on the town dump where they picked through the trash for a living. The City of Copenhagen has long since made honest citizens of the residents here but, compared to other garden-home colonies I’ve visited, there is a distinctly renegade feel.
Check out theWhole Stories Shortlysubstack to see pictures from the haveforening and subscribe to receive new, free stories every Sunday.
