Hello!
And welcome to A Stranger Here Myself. My name is Zeya, and this site is a home for the images, stories, and gratitudes gathered as I go about the strange and beautiful business of being human.
Like you, I am many people with many stories to tell. Some are expressed through words, others through images, and still others through the things that can be built, grown, or crafted by hand.
One thread that has woven its way through much of my life is a desire to explore how we might live well and beautifully on our gorgeous blue-green island. This curiosity has led me through deep studies in literature and storytelling, international development and humanitarian work, permaculture design and natural building, and the many ways human beings strive to create meaningful and sustainable places to call Home.
Along the way, I've worn many hats: traveler, photographer, storyteller, builder, gardener, and designer. Photography and writing have been my most essential tools, both providing me with an impetus to pay closer attention to the world and offering a means of reflecting some small part of its extraordinary beauty.
Having added a fatherly hat to the collection, much of my time these days is spent closer to home: tending gardens, making and repairing things, educating my son, and pursuing creative projects that seem to multiply faster than I can finish them.
Here you'll find the accumulated artifacts of my travels and interests: photographs, written reflections, chronicles of epic adventures, and records of unusual projects. If you've found yourself here, I hope you enjoy wandering through it all.
In addition to my small photography business, I make my way in the world these days by offering my skills and experience in garden and home care, helping people design, tend to, and improve the places dearest to their hearts. If your garden needs tending, your fence needs mending, or your chickens need a new house, please reach out to me at zeyaschindler@gmail.com. I'm currently welcoming regular landscape maintenance clients, as well as opportunities to apply my experience in sustainable building and design work across a variety of interesting projects around the home and garden.
Thanks for visiting!