Be careful what you wish for...

 ...it might just happen!

A saying that I've found there to be a lot of truth in over the years, and usually it presents something quite different to deal with than what was first envisioned.

I've joined a couple more Facebook groups recently partly for work, and partly for my own benefit, one of which is Zero Waste in NZ! Basically it's for folk who are on the same waste reduction, simpler living journey as myself. Although some would say it's a harder way making a lot of stuff yourself rather than simpler, but personally I'd rather spend an extra hour in the kitchen than trekking to and round the supermarket, not to mention walking home again laden down with stuff.

Recently someone posted a question about food storage that resulted in a flurry of photos of people's pantries full of jars, tins and baskets. It has to be said there was a lot of pantry envy going on in the group! I find it hard to envision what a pantry would look like with only my dietary requirements in it given that hasn't happened for over a decade, and I've gone gluten free since then, not to mention having relocated to the opposite side of the globe which does rather tend to redefine 'local products'. But I guess if 'my' stuff were all together in a cupboard rather than squeezed in and around everything else in our kitchen, it probably wouldn't look that different from those I was oohing and ahhing over. Anyway, I was particularly admiring some large glass jars someone had and I was thinking they would be great for my oats and my 'porridge' mix (which these days looks more like muesli, but it still gets soaked overnight and cooked up in the morning). But I'm trying to avoid buying anything brand new and large jars don't often show up at the market or in op/charity shops. Some re-jigging freed up a large tin to use for my mix, but not before I'd been eyeing up the jars I get my milk in as a possibility.

But the milk jars get cycled round between the farm, drop-off point and me so the only way they'd become available would be if I stopped getting the milk. Whilst I've been wondering for some months if I could manage without milk without reverting to buying imported tetrapacks of soy/rice/almond milk, I kept putting that decision in the too hard basket. But now the new dairy regs are about to kick in at the end of the month the farm milk is no longer available as the tests the Ministry requires are exorbitantly expensive. So, I now have two large jars! (the 3rd is still at the farm, some you win, some you lose). One is already full of rolled oats, the other is awaiting a decision as the tin is working out quite well.

So I got my large jars that I wanted, and I didn't have to buy them new, but now I have to figure out what to do about milk... I've enough milk either fresh or frozen to last a couple of weeks yet at least, so there's no rush. But I've got a bowl of almonds soaking which I'll then freeze so when I do run out I have no excuse and can whizz up some almond milk as and when I need it, as remembering to soak the almonds in advance has been my stumbling block in the past. And of course I can get Trade Aid organic coconut milk (which is rather nice) at the healthfood shop, but it's hardly local, and neither are the almonds, but I can buy organic almonds loose using my cloth produce bags rather than in plastic. It's all an ever changing juggling act of priorities....

I'm sure I can cope without yoghurt on my porridge, especially as I'm making sauerkraut again as our garden has gone into cabbage patch overdrive, so I can get a daily dose of probiotics at lunchtime instead. Although I could make yoghurt with coconut milk if I really wanted to. It probably means making more oatcakes or seed crackers and fewer pikelets again, but that's no big deal, and as Gill pointed out many moons ago you can make pikelets with water!

So after pondering what I should challenge myself to tackle next in terms of lowering my footprint on the earth it turns out the decision has been made for me. And I think that's probably enough to be getting my head round for now.

exploring possibilities

When we were planning the programme for the Junior Young Friends Camp we found ourselves inundated with offers from Friends to lead sessions to the extent that we found ourselves turning down and restricting offers. That was certainly one of the plus points of planning a camp to overlap with Yearly Meeting, there were so many Friends on hand who wouldn't usually all be in the same locale. But we also had lots of interest and support from Friends on Waiheke Island where we were to spend the first 5 days and as it turns out we could probably have filled our programme with them alone, which is encouraging for future years planning!

At our Monthly Meeting Residential Gathering at the end of April I got a very enthusiastic invitation from Ian for the JYFs to visit the Eco Village on Waiheke where he lived and get a guided tour. Well I wasn't sure what the JYFs (aged 13-16) would think of the idea but I was certainly interested! And thankfully the rest of the planning team figured it was worth going too.

I must admit I was a little apprehensive as to how it would go. I hoped Ian's passion would be contagious and that the JYFs would at least humour someone old enough to be their granddad and wouldn't find it boooooooooring.... They were pretty quiet when those showing their homes and explaining how they were built etc asked them questions, so it was hard to know how much they were engaging with what they were seeing. But then around a corner they spotted the house built into the hillside, 'a hobbit house'! It was like opening the flood gates; they were a babbling brook of ideas and dreams cascading in all directions. By the time we got back to Friends House they had planned 'Quobbiton' where they'd all live together in a variety of earth houses all off grid, using electric vehicles, and bringing up their children in a rural idyll; which whilst owing a lot to Awaawaroa Village in design and setting would definitely have a decent internet connection and be within mobile phone signal! And I have to say I'm with them on that caveat. Also my personal vision of such a community would have it a lot closer to public transport, shops and services.

I was impressed, once again, with what is possible with earth houses. The possibilities for individual design and artistry combined with ages old techniques which have withstood the tests of time really appeals. There's a very homely feel to the spaces they enclose that must speak to some ancestral memory. I was horrified to learn though of the new building code restrictions which mean if building large enough to need planning permission you can no longer re-use old joinery such as window casements. Given the vast amount of such building material available for re-use in this country from Christchurch it seems a criminal waste of resources. But with a land built house of 10 square meters or less (ie not needing planning permission) the loo has to be in a separate building or accessed from outside if attached, and I have to say as a regular nocturnal visitor to the facilities that severely limits their appeal for me, but I guess I could get used to a night-time commode.

A question I would've loved to have asked but didn't being mindful of the fact that we were there for the JYFs benefit rather than the adults, was how did those living in that remote valley with a very labour intensive lifestyle plan to manage if life found them without the physical ability to cope with what was needful to keep everything running effectively let alone efficiently. As someone with varying health and ability to manage our 1/4 acre section I have found out more than once that weeds are no respecter of energy limitations, and cooking your food from scratch is all very well when fit and healthy, but it is quite another matter when you're only up to foraging for instant sustenance rather than starting from raw ingredients. They said themselves it isn't a lifestyle that often appeals to young adults, so can they find enough folk whose situation is perhaps like mine (minus their own chronic health issues!) who can be the live-in help? I'm figuring most conventional home helps would baulk at getting to some of the locations (even now travel time is paid) let alone dealing with composting toilets in outbuildings and working within the ecological footprint of their clients in a manner that sustains the buildings rather than destroys their wonderful finishes.

Maybe in another twenty years there'll be an accessible corner or Quobbiton where I can park up my tiny house; be surrounded by young families, with an earth-built community space where we can all get together. I'd get to allo(grand)parent the children and there'd be folk there to chop wood for me and help with the heavier gardening tasks. Sounds pretty good I reckon. Now if we can just find that miraculous middle-of-nowhere-yet-close-to-town site we'll be sweet...

biting off a bigger challenge

If you've been following my blog for a while you'll know I've done the Plastic Free July challenge for the last couple of years. This year will have an added twist as I'm catering for our Junior Young Friends Camp for Quaker teenagers for a week during the month.

Can I produce food that will satisfy over a dozen potentially picky eaters on budget without amassing a huge pile of non-recyclable plastic? What's more can I do it in a kitchen I've never been in before, in a place where I don't know the shops?! Thankfully I have a wonderful local ally who is doing some research for me, and has promised to ring me from the kitchen of Friends House Waiheke so I can ask 'is there a....' to make sure I can round up in advance all the dishes and utensils I'll need etc for cooking from scratch on a bulk scale.

I did the catering for JYF Camp in 2006, and still have some of my recipe sheets from then with bulk quantities for baking scones and biscuits already worked out which will save me some time and mental energy. That time we were in Totaranui, Abel Tasman with no easy access to shops to top up if we ran out of anything, thankfully I won't have that challenge, but I won't have a nice big commercial kitchen this time - some you win, some you lose! The menu will be vegetarian, and a lot of it will be vegan and gluten free so that I don't end up cooking multiple versions of things. My main motivation for saying I'd do the cooking is because I wanted to try to keep what I ate as close to what I would usually to improve my chances of getting through the gathering with my insides happy. The other challenge will be getting enough sleep, but that isn't something I can do much about in advance!

As the years pass by the impact of plastic on our environment is becoming more and more evident. And as with many development 'solutions' the solutions often cause more problems themselves. Who would've thought when they came out that using microfibre cloths for cleaning which can reduce the chemicals being flushed down our drains, and wearing fleecy clothing made from recycled bottles would end up simply shifting the environmental pollution rather than getting rid of it?

It is becoming increasingly apparent that there is no such place as 'away' to throw anything, and whilst we grapple with ways to deal with 70 year's worth of debris that isn't going to biodegrade the challenge is not to add to the problem. But you have to pick your battles, or your priorities, otherwise we'd all get completely bogged down trying to get through even a single day without some detrimental effect on our environment. Where we live and what we do in life changes what is possible and most effective. The trick is in supporting each other in whatever we can do rather than being critical for what 'others' don't do. There is no one size fits all solution, and if the 'solutions' simply end up shifting the problem then it is probably better that we don't all try to solve it in the same manner anyway.

So I'll be doing my bit to keep the amount of non-recyclable plastic to a minimum at a vegetarian gathering that will bring Friends together from one end of these islands to the other (Kaitaia and Dunedin!). The aim of the event is to inspire our young people and help instill in them some of our Quaker values, hopefully 'let us try what Love can do' coming through loud and clear. And to those who want all Friends to stay at home and not fly anywhere, fine, you stay home and make your point. We'll get on with doing our bit the best way we can, together.

doing what is needful

I found a wopse trying to hibernate in the firewood the other day (no idea which variety of wasp other than the stingy sort which probably means non-native). Unfortunately I found it the hard way as it was in the middle of a bundle of scraps at the bottom of the log bag that we bring firewood in from the woodshed, and I'd grabbed that handful to throw on the fire. I assumed at the time it had headed for a swift cremation along with the leaves and bits of bark, but when I later went to put a large log on the fire to bank it up overnight there was a rather dozy and somewhat crumpled specimen on it's back buzzing half-heartedly. This time it really did get toasted, me mitigating my sense of guilt against the knowledge that it was probably kinder to put it out of its misery.

I don't like wopses, especially not the imported sort that make short work of some of our more vulnerable native, and endemic, species. Luckily swift application of cream and taking an extra antihistamine meant I came off no worse from the rather closer than preferred encounter, I react badly to such stings and as it was the finger with Granny's wedding ring on that had been stung I wasn't about to risk it swelling up like a balloon (again...). But despite the damage they cause to endangered wildlife, and to me, it still goes against the grain to kill a wopse.

It's the same with snails. Finally I have conceded defeat and accepted that chemical warfare (aka slug bait) alone isn't going to be enough. It is the iron based sort, kind to birds and animals which at least reduces the chances of collateral damage. But given the snails at least seem to specialize in a high ropes course style negotiation of the garden without touching the ground where said bait lies, advanced tactics have become required if we're to feed ourselves rather than a rapidly multiplying snail population from the veg patch this winter. So tucked under the outdoor shelves with the empty plant pots and bits of concrete blocks left over from a long gone patio (where the sun room is), there is now an old jar with very strong brine in it and a growing population of dead snails.

What tipped the balance for me wasn't the loss of kale and sprouting broccoli, but the huge number of snails on the swan plants which are food for the monarch caterpillars. The caterpillars are struggling enough to survive as it is without such competition for food, so my extermination efforts stepped up a gear. I don't feel very comfortable about such genocide, but that's the thing with pacifistic tendencies, they aren't easy things to live with.

Ages ago a non-Quaker friend lent me Friendly Persuasion (1956 film version) to watch as she couldn't believe I'd never seen it, being me it sat on the shelf untouched until she asked for it back which prompted viewing that night! (I don't get round to watching films very often...). In case anyone else hasn't seen it I'll steer clear of any spoilers, but it tackles the challenges a Quaker community faces when the American Civil War reaches their doorstep. Sticking to your principles isn't easy at the best of times, and civil war doesn't really fall under that heading. Deciding whether to fight or not may be a far cry from deciding whether to kill a wopse or snail, but it all boils down to the same thing, as Jess Birdwell puts it, you do what you have to do, whatever that might be. A reminder about trusting your conscience, that still small voice.

There are so many things in life where there are implications for life and death no matter what you choose, or not to do. What might be right for one cause, such as protecting our native and/or endangered species, can have fatal consequences for other creatures. The only good possum here is a dead one as they threaten the survival of huge swathes of our native ecosystem. So I'll keep up my my extermination of snails, bump off any more dozy wopses I find in the woodshed, and enjoy my possum & merino gloves as the weather gets colder... for as long as I can.

Living lightly

Last weekend I spent mostly in the company of folk who are involved with our local EcoCentre, and/or have an interest in sustainability as we had a 'Living Lightly ~ Sustainable Lifestyle safari' today, as well as the usual Saturday morning coffee group that meets up. We had a couple from Palmerston North with us, one of whom Corrina is a researcher at Massey University and she'd come up to do some interviews with some people who had completed a sustainability survey and other folk who fit the category she was looking for. As I was suggesting several names across the country to her on Saturday I was reminded of a comment Sandy had made at Summer Gathering; she said when she started working in environmental activism (she works for 350.org ) she started coming across Quakers at every turn, she'd no idea so many were that active in the field before! So small wonder that I'd met Corrina before as a result of her having a Young Friend as a research assistant a few years back who'd been asked to find focus groups up and down the country! Yet another example of the connectivity of Quakers and the few degrees of separation between us.

There were other links between those of us who gathered together on Sunday, other than the obvious interest in sustainable lifestyles. Only about a third of us were part of Kaitāia TimeBank and/or Transition Towns Kaitāia and already involved with the EcoCentre. But being a small town/rural community there were many and varied ways in which most of us knew some of the others, even if only by sight. (We did have one couple though who had come up from Whāngārei just for our safari so there was a bit of added pressure on those of us who had planned the event for it to live up to expectations!) Connections between us were things like friends, relatives, genealogy, golf, work, neighbours etc. But here we all were with a shared interest in living more sustainably, not an aspect of our lives we'd necessarily all known about each other before.

We car pooled for the event where we visited four very different properties and approaches to 'living lightly' in the world. This not only improved our collective environmental footprint, but made parking easier at each place and added to the networking opportunities the day presented. Future shortcuts to finding the person/information we need perhaps?!

Having been hearing about the rammed earth houses in Ahipara for some time now it was great to finally get to see one of them and hear from Heeni about how they came to be built. The feel of a rammed earth floor was amazing, especially when there was a concrete floor in the kitchen and bathroom to compare it to - like walking on hard sand at the beach compared to a hard pavement. And that was with floor coverings down too rather than bare earth (although we did get to lift the corner of the mats up and try that too!) I found myself dithering over my Tiny House dream - up until now I'd been convinced that one on a trailer was the way forward for me so I could move it as well as myself over the years. But that floor felt so good... also I loved Jen's kitchen in her ferro-concrete 'sculpture' house, but that would be far easier to replicate either on or off a trailer. Although I again felt torn between my wish for simplicity and an uncluttered life, and my lifelong love for something that looks like it comes out of a children's picture book! I think somewhere there must be a happy medium between minimalism and organized chaos that works for me.

The afternoon had fewer revelations for me, I'm already familiar with Lyn's 'Pigtits and parsley sauce' website/book/facebook page, although I did pick up a couple of tips I'd hitherto missed. And the final property was where I used to live, so the only surprise was how much different the bottom of the vineyard looks now William has taken the vines out between the olive trees (which have superceded the vines as the main crop). I have to say the grounds are doing well out of his retirement!

I can't see me ever reaching 80% food self-sufficiency as Jen has, not on my own that's for sure, but living as part of a community swapping food surpluses to meet the needs I can't supply myself etc is certainly something I'd like to be do better at. I need to improve my gardening skills though to have much to offer other than quinces and Golden Queen peaches which we generally tend to have a glut of regardless of my efforts! Although we did get to the point of giving away broad beans by the bagful this year. We've got an EcoCentre project we're planning that I'll blog about some other time to encourage local food sourcing which I'm quite excited about which will help keep food miles down and encourage collaboration. It was quite funny seeing how many of us related to Jen's inspiration of growing up watching The Good Life (available to watch on YouTube I have just discovered!) and pouring over John Seymour's Self-Sufficiency book!

The main aspect of the day was coming away inspired, and determined to do more with our garden. I really need to start putting a bit more effort in in terms of educating myself rather than relying on my usual haphazard Darwinian approach - only the fittest survives out there! Once in the ground plants get little in the way of specific help and I've not been very good at planning where they get put in the first place, although I do use the companion planting book we've got to try to avoid the worst combinations.

We're planning to do another similar safari day, perhaps later in the year. I wonder what changes I'll have implemented here by then, and what ideas I'll've been able to draw on. It's good to know that I've got a good bunch of folk around to support me on this journey and that I've added a few more names to that list after this weekend.

processing food issues

I came across this article about what's in food these days that either doesn't appear on the label or is cunningly disguised as something far healthier and more natural than it is. It really is quite scary and certainly an incentive to keep away from processed foods. There aren't many in my diet these days anyway, but the article increased my determination to only buy locally grown fresh fruit and veg, preferably at the market, to avoid the chemicals used to prolong the supermarket shelf life of the same.

After Marion's comments about how little probiotics are actually in yoghurt I'd been thinking about trying fermented foods, especially as I kept seeing references to a Facebook group about it that a former colleague is in. Admittedly I was initially planning to buy some sauerkraut from the healthfood shop, but whenever I thought of it they were out of stock. Probably just as well as I then came across this article which explains how much better home made is. So I thought I'd have a go at making sauerkraut, from homegrown cabbages no less! Granted they were rather pathetic specimens, as brassicas and hot dry weather don't mix very well, but still homegrown none the less. A quick trawl of the local op/charity shops produced a suitable vessel (a re-purposed ceramic coffee crock!) as I couldn't find anything at home the right shape/size. As it has a lid it'd do fine to store the finished product in too. Unfortunately I hadn't taken into consideration just how hot it has been and didn't add enough extra brine over the top so it dried out and went icky, but lesson learned and at least it was with cabbages that would've probably ended up on the compost heap anyway! I'll definitely have another go although I'll wait for cooler weather.

Then in one of the urban homesteading email updates I get I spotted a mention of making apple cider vinegar and how easy it was. Given I use quite a bit of this I promptly googled to find a recipe and came across this one. As our apple trees have been busy shedding handfuls of squitty little apples that are way too small to normally be bothered with along with several half-pecked larger ones each day it seemed worth trying the scraps method as let's face it that's all you're left with once you've cut away the wormy/bruised bits. I'm planning to use the vinegar for the rosemary hair rinse I make, once I've got making it properly sussed hopefully I can bottle up enough to use in the kitchen too, but I might use more edible looking apples for human consumption! I started it off a couple of weeks ago and it has a very distinctive vinegary smell so fingers crossed.... I'm now hoarding more bits of apple in the freezer ready for the next batch!

I was hoping our tomato crop would increase now we seem to be regularly getting a bit more rain at last, they've been a bit slow this year, but it doesn't look promising. I want to get some frozen either whole/halved or as passata for use later in the year but so far we're eating them as fast as they ripen! I generally don't use tinned tomatoes when I'm cooking for just me & Phyllis, but when we've got Joanne & Oscar here too they get used fairly regularly. I should probably just buy some from the market to cook up then at least I know they are local.

We have (okay, Phyllis has...) spent the last few weeks peeling and chopping peaches by the basketful - my role in this is mostly collecting/picking them. Our trees really seem to have appreciated the pruning they got and have been absolutely laden. Many fall off already going brown and/or split, but they are so tasty they are worth cutting up for the good bits. The freezer is gradually being stocked up with a stack of 2ltr containers of stewed peaches plus we've bottled some. Joanne made a batch of chutney but it is a tad spicy for Phyllis so I made a milder second batch, once we'd scrounged some empty jars! We've given away several bucketloads, as well as a similar quantity of quinces. As the quinces are much harder to peel and cut that task falls to me.

The grapes have been prolific this year too - I've tried making some grape juice, but I'm not a big fruit juice drinker so there's little incentive to go into mass production! Joanne has made some grape jam, but I'd rather make something less sweet... Anyway there are plenty volunteers to take the fresh fruit off our hands, including the blackbirds!

It is good that we have a community of friends around us keen to share surplus garden produce. There is very little that gets wasted here. We have a regular supply of free free-range eggs coming in, and locally caught fish for Phyllis. Those we supply with fruit tend to bring us jars of whatever they've made with it in return. Home 'grown' honey, olive oil and firewood are supplied by family so we really are in the thick of an alternative economy here.

The EcoCentre, where our local TimeBank has a physical base along with several other community groups, now has a seed swap stand - bring along your surplus seeds you've collected and swap them for others, or put a koha in the box if you don't have anything to swap in. We've only had it going a couple of weeks and it is building up nicely. The great advantage of swapping seeds is you know they are plants that have obviously done reasonably well locally. We also have some plants for sale on the trading table, again ones that are surplus to requirements in one place ready to be re-homed.

Keeping things local and enabling locals to support each other towards a more regionally self-sufficient state is a big part of the kaupapa here. We're vulnerable in the Far North to being cut off from the rest of the country by flooding and regular landslips, and despite recent promises of upgrading bridges in the region (oh what it is to have a by-election that could change the balance of power in the government!), people are waking up to the fact that we need to be more self sufficient up here, more resilient. Being able to feed ourselves and each other regardless of whether the main highways are passable or not is a big part of this. We're resource rich really, we just need to be better organised at distributing what we have locally, and it not having to head down to Whāngārei or Auckland to come back again like the milk does!

Maybe the revolution is just a bag of groceries (rather than a t-shirt) away....

herbs and spices of life

I now have a jam jar full of coriander seeds stripped off plants from our garden and a handful thrown back on the ground in the hopes that some at least will elude the snails and grow. Just to be sure in the meantime though I have bought some seedlings from the market which have just got big enough to plant out. Snails seem to adore coriander, which is a shame as I do too and whilst I'm happy to share, the snails will just scoff the lot of the seedlings which seems a bit unfair if you ask me. I must remember to harvest plenty of leaves this next time around and freeze them to see me through the winter. Whilst I'm all for cooking with seasonal vegetables having coriander available for curries does improve what you can do with what is around!

We also have various basils, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, lemon thyme, marjoram, lemon balm, chives, garlic, bay, lemon verbena, a couple of varieties of mint, chillies, comfrey, chamomile, curry plant, calendular, lavender, feverfew and lemongrass which along with the kawakawa makes for a goodly selection for cooking, remedies and herbal teas etc. But what has got me excited lately is discovering I can grow turmeric and ginger here too, thus supplementing my home grown spices as well as herbs! I've planted some turmeric and am hoping it copes with the fact that I chose the hottest and driest part of the year in which to do so. The first shoot has broken through the soil so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'll wait for spring to try ginger as I've read up on the best growing conditions and figure under the quince tree is probably my best bet, a space currently covered in trailing pumpkin plants and generally needs a bit more work. Not to mention that falling quinces wouldn't be too kind to young plants! Our quince tree has the bonus of passionfruit vine growing through it this year from NorthTec's horticulture dept next door. A vast improvement on the convovulous that we still haven't quite managed to eradicate from the fenceline between us.

We've also got a stevia plant, which I've dried some leaves from. It can be used as a sweetener, but I've yet to remember to use it as I don't often cook in a way that calls for any these days. I might be best making some extract by infusing it in vodka and then straining it - you only use a few drops at a time, so the alcohol being added to the food is minimal. However I think I'll need more leaves before I can give that a go.

Apparently tea bushes will grow around here, well they do up at Jane's in Diggers Valley anyway. I'm really tempted to have a go at growing it here even though she has promised us a 'picking'. Unfortunately I don't think I'll ever be able to grow my own cacoa, but otherwise I'm getting close to being self sufficient for things to make hot drinks from.

It's really satisfying being able to grow so much in our own garden. I'm getting better at drying, freezing and infusing herbs in oil for use through the winter too. Remembering to do this at a time when I don't actually need to do it to use them is something of a challenge at times, I'm much better at processing stuff for immediate use! But then isn't that like anything in life, it is far easier to deal with immediate needs than plan ahead for the what ifs and maybes, and it is only experience that can teach you what you should've done sooner!

power-less

I'm sitting here listening to the rain (blessed rain!) and the thunder rolling around wondering if the power will stay on. This time though I've thought to have the laptop fully charged, as is my phone!

Last Sunday was a slightly different matter though. It was one of the usual planned power outages for line maintenance that we get here about once or twice a year. There is only one main power supply line to the Far North, although they are in the process of building a loop line round the East Coast. The construction and linking up of this being partly why the power outages are for so long and seem to come around more regularly than they used to. So at 8am prompt the power went off, to be reconnected just before 5pm.

After weeks and weeks of drought conditions the rainy weather finally had reached us a few days earlier and has hung around since. So on the one day in the summer when nice weather outside really would've been handy, it rained. Almost all day! Well we managed about 3/4hr in the garden in the afternoon before the light drizzle returned to big splodges of rain again. But nice as it would've been to be out there doing more the ground so desperately needed the water so we couldn't complain, and it was filling up our new water tanks nicely! Yes we could've carried on out there and just got wet as it was hardly cold, but unfortunately then your insect repellent gets washed off and oh boy are those mozzies loving the dampness...

Had we had power I would've been proofreading/editing articles for the Friends' Newsletter as it was our deadline day for contributions for the next issue. I would've been working on Documents in Advance had any new material come in (which it hadn't as it turns out, despite the Jan 25th deadline for much of it! Yep, herding cats again...), and I would've been joining in Monthly Meeting in Mt Eden (Auckland) via skype and no doubt doing some hand sewing throughout that. But no power so no internet, I hadn't remembered to charge up the laptop before the power went off, and thanks to the rain it was too dark for hand sewing without straining my eyesight.

Fortunately we'd organised to have Meeting for Worship here that morning, and the much appreciated return of the camping stove on it's usual long term loan after it's trip camping a couple of weeks ago meant we could even have a fresh cuppa rather than rely on thermos flasks! But even with chatting over a cuppa and munchies that only took up 2hrs of the day....

I had so many things I'd planned to do but didn't like more gardening, hand sewing and letter writing - the old fashioned pen and ink way! But somehow that didn't happen. A couple of hours got lost in books; I made a start on some cucumber pickle (then left it to sit overnight with salt on the veg drawing out the liquid, it turned out rather well if I do say so myself); I went through my wardrobe and ummed and ahhed over a few items that I hadn't worn in ages but that is because I haven't needed to look smart, and I guess I'd better assume that might need to happen again one day! I pulled out a couple of sleeveless tops I want to use to make a pattern from (a combination of the two styles) and got as far as putting them with the material and pattern-paper (aka lunchwrap!), but then got sidetracked trying things on, working out how much to shorten a dress I seldom wear to a tunic length, and making another cup of tea...

In short a day without power was easy enough to get through for me. It did make me reflect once again on how life would be oh so different without it either at all or on a rationed basis. When I spent the night at Edith's in Nairobi after the World Conference of Friends in 2012 the power went out about four or five times that evening, and that was considered normal. I guess you adapt. When so much of my life relies on having an internet connection to the rest of the country, and indeed the rest of the world, life would be radically different without a reliable power supply.

It was probably good to have a day where I had to take a good long break from the computer, although had I any say in the matter I wouldn't have picked that particular day! A gentle reminder to make sure I do so more often perhaps? Of course a fair amount of computer time is required every day at the moment, but as my hours at the keyboard increase I need to be mindful of work/life balance, especially when the distinction between 'work' and things done in my 'free time' gets a bit blurry. So for the next week or so I'm making a conscious effort to set time aside away from the computer each day to do something that I'm doing because I want to rather than because I have to! So whilst today's visit to WINZ doesn't count even though I was out of the house and away from the screen, going to Lorna's for the weekly mah jong session most certainly does. And the more of those things that don't require electrickery the better.

rain at last!

It's raining!!!! There are two reasons why this has caused great excitement in our house in the last 24hrs. Firstly we've been desperately needing it for weeks: the ground was parched and cracked, the veg garden was suffering, the fire risk has been extreme and the farmers around here were getting anxious. The second reason is we have two new rainwater tanks - 2,000 litres capacity collecting off one side of the garage roof. With what has fallen in the last 24hrs we've already got about 100lt in there which is pretty good going for mostly fairly light rain.

I emptied the kitchen scraps bucket on to the compost heap this afternoon and went to wash the bucket out from the hosepipe when I realised I could use collected rainwater instead, much better to be chucking the swilled out contents on to the garden without the added extras of chlorine and whatever else goes into our tap water to make it taste so disgusting before it is filtered! It'll probably be a while before we have enough in the tanks to run a hose off it, but even just to be able to fill up a watering can or bucket is great.

It's just a small step towards improving our footprint on the earth, We've got re-purposed sorbitol tanks set up, they're sitting on some old concrete fence posts laid down on the bare earth. A few fixings and a short length of alkathene pipe and hey presto! Jess had fun with the gold spraypaint sealing all the joints in the galvanised cages the tanks sit in so hopefully it should last a good few years. What's more Oscar traded a supply of firewood sustainably cut from their land (mostly storm-fall plus thinnings) in exchange for the tanks so we supported alternative economies, re-purposed materials and reduced our tap water consumption all in one project! That's pretty good I reckon. A shame Phyllis had to wait 30yrs to get the rainwater tanks she wanted but at least it has happened whilst she's still living here.

Now to figure out if we can squeeze another tank or two in somewhere to collect the water off the other side of the garage, or the house...

Oscar with Chris & Jess moving the tanks into position 

All in place and waiting for rain to fall...

what canst thou say, and do?

Somehow I managed to find myself on an email list this week to whom a discussion document was circulated by the Futures Committee (a national Quaker committee looking at issues around global change etc and what we can do about it). It was addressing issues around climate change and what we as Quakers were called to do collectively and individually.

 "Can we work together to develop ways in which we can cope with this daunting challenge and bring it on board as a part of our everyday life? Can we develop ways of expression that makes the story accessible to our community, even to the extent of changing our priorities and world view? Can we develop ways of taking the message outside the Quaker community and help other organisations to “break the silence” in such a way that it enables them to address their challenges more effectively?"

And if Quakers can't stand up, speak out and take action on this who will???

So here's my tuppenceworth for now.... For many years I've been slowly chipping away at 'bad' habits, rethinking my consumption patterns, decluttering so I need less space, taking part in 'Plastic free July', weighing up the pros and cons of various travel options etc etc. It is, as the document says, a daunting challenge, as nothing is ever straightforward. We've reached the point now where the carbon footprint of keeping the internet functioning internationally is becoming significant, so skyping instead of flying somewhere isn't necessarily always the answer! This doesn't mean we shouldn't be trying to work towards zero carbon travel, or finding more sustainable means to keep the worlds' servers cool, or that we should all just jump on a plane anyway regardless. It's about weighing up the pros and cons and each doing the best we can. And that is where the importance of support comes in and sharing different ideas and experiences.

One of the choices I have control over again in my life is food shopping. For several years I wasn't the one doing the shopping so I had less say in the matter, but over the last four years that ball has been back in my court again. Eleanor's recent post covers some of the dilemmas and thought processes that I've worked through over the years. I have to say simply cutting out a lot of processed/pre-packaged food from my life makes supermarket shopping much quicker again! Luckily my life is such that I have the luxury of time to cook all my meals from scratch and I don't have to convince anyone else to change their habits to match.

A couple of years ago I switched to buying organic raw milk from Rainbow Falls Farm over near Kerikeri. It gets delivered to local drop off points, ours is the health food shop, in glass jars which are returned each week and reused. I could get non-organic raw milk more locally (fewer food miles) but I'd have to collect it from the farm which is way further than I could get to under my own steam, so I'd need a lift in someone's car... I decided to get raw milk as unlike pasteurised it doesn't make me sick (literally if I consume enough!), and it replaced the soy or rice milk I'd been buying. Pricewise it was comparable with what I was already paying per litre even though compared to ordinary milk it is more expensive. The soy/rice milk came from Australia (more food-miles) in tetrapaks (not recyclable locally). I had to balance that against the down sides of dairy farming, even organically, and the ethics around animal farming. Oh and the fact that medically adults simply don't need to consume the liquid intended for baby cows, and indeed there are plenty good reasons for not doing so! 

But, I like some yoghurt on my porridge, it is one of the few ways I consume probiotics (although Marion would argue that the quantity in yoghurt is negligible I reckon it is still better than none!), and the paneer I occasionally make tends to get used instead of tofu which whilst I can buy Kiwi made (and from a company that pays a Living Wage!), the beans still come from Australia.

One alternative is make my own almond milk which I have also done, especially over the winter when the cows are dried off, but generally almonds aren't grown commercially in this country so they too are shipped in from who knows where and I can't really afford large quantities of organic nuts, so who knows what nasties are involved in their growing?

Another alternative is use coconut cream, and water it down for using as milk. Yes I can get organic, but organic or not it is still in tins (recyclable at least) or in tetrapaks, still comes from the South Pacific if not further afield, and those food-miles have crept right back up again...

So, as with Penn and his sword, for now I'm sticking with my one litre of organic raw milk a week as long as I can! 

I came across another interesting dilemma recently, it was an infographic (which of course I now can't find, but this is similar) about the environmental cost of alternatives to plastic bags. Basically cane, and for us here harakeke (flax), baskets are best. If locally sourced, sustainably harvested, and handmade they come up trumps in terms of mileage, water usage, and production/wages/working conditions are hopefully at least liveable with, given that handcrafts are seldom lucrative sources of income! Cotton/calico bags often come at a higher ethical price than you'd expect - producing cotton involves a lot of water, and cotton often comes from factories paying very low wages and with poor working conditions etc...

That made me think about my main hobby of sewing, as I tend to use mostly cotton fabric. For a many years I've tried to use what I have rather than buy material specially for a project, but that has primarily been for financial and space reasons - I have a lot of material! It isn't that I buy a lot, it often gets given to me, plus there are old clothes, linens etc that can be re-purposed but meanwhile take up room in my cupboard/under the bed, which kind of goes against the whole not collecting 'stuff' idea! So when no matter how much I tried the different options on hand and there still really wasn't anything suitable in my stash for my current project, I headed to the market and bought a second hand duvet cover (for a whopping $3!) which I unpicked to use for the extra material I needed. Re-purposing something already out there rather than buying new. Another ongoing project is making a ragrug doormat out of old t-shirts, leggings etc and some long since inherited fabric of a similar ilk. My challenge for that is not to buy anything at all for it. I might need to start putting the word out though if I'm to find any brighter colours for it!

A lot of the changes I, and many others, are consciously making in our lives harkens back to the way our grandparents' generation lived. But for us it is through choice, rather than necessity. Sure I could buy imported fruit and vegetables to ensure I had the same variety available to me year round, but actually I'd rather just eat fresh tomatoes from our garden in the summer and autumn that taste like tomatoes than eat the watery alternatives the rest of the year. Here in the Far North the growing season is year round so I could have lettuce every day of the year (if we water it through the summer!) if I really wanted to, but we still have seasons where some stuff grows better than others and I like that changing variety. I'm sure I'll be sick of beans soon, but that's okay, I'll have plenty of months without them before long! Yes I could have half a dozen scooshy bottles of assorted cleaning fluids in the cupboard, but you know what? I'm discovering that there's precious little you can't get clean without some combination of white or cider vinegar, baking soda, washing soda, salt and lemon juice.

There are some good local websites for Kiwis also working towards a more sustainable life, whether for economic or sustainability reasons, a couple I keep track of are Wendyl Nissen's (whose book A Home Companion I really enjoyed and I use her recipes for cleaning/toiletries regularly) and Lyn Webster's 'Pig tits and parlsey sauce' - she's also written a similar book. Lyn moved up here not that long back, hopefully our paths will cross at some point!

None of us are wanting to sound sanctimonious or self-righteous about the changes we have made. As Ben Pink Dandelion said in his 2014 Swarthmore Lecture giving up the Bentley can be a challenge, especially these days when our lives are no longer under the scrutiny of Elders making sure we're being 'proper' Quakers living out our Testimonies! (He wasn't joking by the way, he really did have an old Bentley!). Both Britain YM and the YM of Aotearoa New Zealand have made a commitment of working towards sustainability and included it among out Testimonies. Australia YM calls it 'Earthcare'. Whatever we call it, it is becoming an increasingly important part of our Quaker journeys, and as with any other aspect of spiritual journeys they aren't all the same; they twist and turn around each other, often covering some of the same ground but in a different order (or direction!). Sharing our journeys towards a more sustainable life, as with sharing our understandings of god, the inner light, what we do in the silence of Meeting for Worship etc adds different perspectives, strengthens and enriches our collected witness; and helps us get to know each other better in that which is more mundane as well as eternal.

Our lives are all different and what might be easy for one can be a huge challenge for another. What is important is doing what we can in our own lives, making the changes and the commitment to keep that a process rather than just recycling the milk bottles and considering that's the end of it. There's always something more that can be done... by sharing our stories hopefully we'll inspire each other and provide some moral support along the way, especially when it all starts to look 'too hard' to make any further progress.

to do...

As I've no doubt mentioned in the past I've gotten into the habit over the last 15yrs or so of keeping a 'to do' list book when I've needed to. I started doing it when I had four part-time jobs and it was the only way I could keep track of what I had to do for where by when on top of what needed to be done for home and various Quaker committees I was on. Since then I've drifted in and out of using it, but generally finding that unless I'm in really good form it is the only way I can keep on top of things. Generally speaking I have to be really ill or extremely well not to require it to keep track of what I need to do, and whilst I've never yet gone back to juggling that many different forms of employment I seem to make up for that with voluntary work!

I have to admit I've been known to write things down once I've done them just so I get the satisfaction of crossing them off the list and proving to myself that I have got something done today, honest. But I will also carry things forward time after time for over a year in some cases to make sure I don't lose sight of things I mean to do eventually. The trick though is keeping enough easily achievable things on the list so I don't end up with two pages of carried forward tasks which are for whatever reason well and truly in the 'too hard basket'.

This year, when energy levels and brain functionality have been challengingly low at times there have been weeks where I've not even opened the book, either to add anything in nor cross anything off. But when I get a good day or even better a run of good days I find my response to the 'carried forwards' is a good indication of just how good (or not!) I'm feeling! If my heart sinks I just move on, find something else to do that is easier. But days where I've had a reasonable run and several of the easy things have been satisfactorily ticked off I make a point trying to find something that has been sitting there for a while to tackle.

One of the tasks had involved making a phonecall I wasn't looking forward to. I've been finding phonecalls hard to make this year, much preferring email/facebook which are much more manageable in terms of energy. But a week ago I decided that well I'd just grit my teeth and do it. And surprise surprise the person was out! Gah.... a whole month of psyching myself up to call and then I get nowhere. Oh well, it has waited a month, what's a bit longer?! But although I didn't get the information I needed to finish off one task, being ready to tackle it meant I did manage to complete a similar task that has been waiting just as long to be finished. I still haven't had another go at making that phonecall though...

The 'active' pages in the book had stretched out to four or five, generally I try to keep it to two, or the most three. So I carried forward various tasks and tidied up my list. Admittedly the carried forward lists is longer than the recently added by a long chalk, but once I'd got them all written down together rather than spread over several pages the list didn't look anything like as daunting. The thing is this week we've had some lovely spring days and the garden has been way too tempting to ignore. So whilst that is definitely looking better for some extra care and attention; and Joanne and I tackled to woodshed yesterday and apparently got it looking the best it has in the 30 or so years since it was built; my list has been carefully left to one side...

So today I am concentrating on celebrating the fact that I have had energy 'to do' quite a lot this week, more than I've done in months in fact. Tomorrow I'll go back to the list in the book though and see what I can clear off the the 'to do' list.... well they are forecasting rain after all!

transformation

I've been catching up with some photo uploading on to Flickr. Some people use their Flickr accounts to showcase their best photography, others like me use it for several purposes: to share photos, a back-up, and a record of progress - be it the life of a child, renovation of a boat or in my case the gradual development of a garden.

Many's the time I've looked back and wished I'd taken photos of all the spots that used to be over-grown and thriving on neglect. Unfortunately the plants that tend to thrive through neglect aren't usually the ones you want to have an abundance of, if any of it. But it didn't occur to to me back then to photograph the unlovely and unwanted, it was only after the transformation began in earnest did I think to start taking 'before' pictures as well as 'after' ones.

Looking back through the album of garden updates I see certain areas of the garden cleared of weeds and then gradually slip back to a more overgrown state again, never quite as bad, and much more easily cleared again. Sometimes the offending plants aren't ones that would normally be classed as weeds but over enthusiastic garden plants who don't want to be contained. A weed, after all, is simply a plant in the wrong place.

Something I've got into the habit of photographing is the rather unlovely green waste pile, partly because it is incredibly satisfying to take a couple of trailer loads to the tip and see the pile shrink. But it all too quickly grows again hence the need for a reminder! This pile is made up of the stuff that won't compost easily and any invasives we really don't want to put back in the garden. Next to it is the pile of stuff to be mulched and re-used on the paths, or if big enough chopped up for firewood. Being able to look back on old photos and remind myself of just how much has been dealt with and disposed of over time is quite satisfying.

As part of the treatment for my health problems I've been going to counselling for the last few months. When giving my counselor an overview of my life to date early on in the piece I pointed out I'd been to counselling before, after my marriage break up, and I'd dealt with a lot of stuff then. 'When was that?' she asked. 'Oh from sometime in 1998, through to about the end of 2000 I think' I replied suddenly realising that actually I wasn't entirely sure, but I knew I'd just stopped going by the time Colette died, but which year was that??? I was busy drifting off in my own little world trying to figure out just 'when' it had been, when I was broken out of my reverie by it being pointed out that I'd lived through 14yrs of life since then, and not exactly an uneventful 14yrs either.

Oh.

Those bits of garden you weed and get them looking all lovely and then they suffer again when you neglect them whilst you focus on something else? Yup. Those bits.

The good news is that as with gardening the hard work you put in earlier does pay off and sorting out the mess is a lot quicker the second time.

I wonder if this is why I like to look back at those piles of garden waste as a measure of progress. Seeing the 'problems' all lumped together rather than spread out around the place makes you appreciate better just how much crap there is to deal with even though a quick glance around doesn't reveal anything like the depth of the issue. (Those convovulous roots are a right pain to get out, and they grow back if you leave so much as an inch and turn your back on them.) Seeing the pile grow and shrink over time proves to me that a lot of work has been done, even when it doesn't look like it at times. It is also a reminder that life isn't static, and just because you've dealt with something once doesn't mean you won't have to do it again. To be quite honest I'm getting sick of pulling out canna lilies but if I don't keep doing it they'll take over and smother everything else in their path, except the convovulous of course!

I remember thinking back whenever-it-was that having gone to counselling and found it really useful I wouldn't shy away from going back again in the future and I'd be really positive about it as a tool for coping with life if anyone asked me. Yet when it was suggested again this year all my old reluctance had slipped back when I wasn't looking. However I do know it is helping, I am seeing patterns in my life that I'd never quite joined the dots up about before. So in theory I can either avoid certain things happening again, or at least go into a situation better prepared for it. In theory anyway, there's a huge part of me that is thinking up 'Yeah, right...' Tui ads in response to that idea, but hey who knows, it might just work!

There are times when the only way to tidy a cupboard is to empty everything out and start again, or clear a patch of land and replant it. We can't dispose of the clutter of life experience quite so easily, but we can take things out and have a good look at them from a different angle; and that is so often when the connections and patterns start to show; when the things that really don't need to be right in front of you all the time shaping your responses to the world can be acknowledged, dusted off, and put somewhere out of the way to make room for more positive influences to grow. Unfortunately large scale clear-outs require energy, and when you've got less to spare is usually when the clear-out is needed most. 

Energy can't move when life is too cluttered, and it might not just be cluttered with material 'stuff' or doing too much. I thought that last year where life was much simpler than it had been and I had space to focus on some of the things I wanted to be doing in life, it would be what I needed to find a new direction. But whilst I was busy adding things in to life, I wasn't doing anything about clearing out the 'clutter' inside of me as I was too busy literally clearing out the clutter in the house and garage and getting on top of the weeds in the garden! It took getting really quite ill to get me to stop and take stock of life on a different level.

It is harder to document piles of emotional clutter than it is piles of green waste in a way that can be looked back on to appreciate progress later, or to bolster you on those days when it feels like no matter how hard you work at it you feel like you're getting nowhere. So this post is as much a reminder to myself as anything that yes, progress is being made, but also that I need to keep working on these things otherwise life gets out of hand again.

to use or not to use...

I while back I was pondering on the use of plastics in gardening after Cherice's EcoLent postings. I meant to get around to do some research into this. But whilst I did get around to throwing away the disintegrating tubs in the potting shed, looking into what the interweb had to offer in terms of collective wisdom somehow fell off the 'to do list'. Not all that surprising really I suppose as my energy levels still aren't that great and brain fog keeps sneaking back in. However good ol' Facebook came to the rescue and a link to this article about plastic in the garden popped into my feed this week!

I guess it make sense to follow the plastics mantra if you wouldn't put it in a baby's mouth don't put it in your garden - although there are plenty things your average baby will put in their own mouths that I'd rather not even think about!

I like 'The bottom line: Until a better alternative comes along, some reusable plastics are still a good bet, energywise', it is reminiscent of George Fox's advice to William Penn 'Wear it as long as thou canst' - recognising we can't make every change straight away in our lives, but we should do what we can when we can.

reconnecting

We've got glorious sunshine and blue skies out there today, but I'm doing the sun-smart thing and hiding indoors for a while before heading back out into the garden.

Actually I'm not that long back from a trip to the park at the end of the street with neighbour Emma (aged 7) and her friend Chloe who I also know from their kindergarten days, but we'd stuck to the shade of the big puriri trees they were climbing most of the time, it was too hot not to! Last week we had Charlotte with us (another kindergarten alumni!) and did much the same. It is good keeping up contact with children after they've headed off to school. Watching their transformation as the years pass often causes me to reflect on the paths that my friends of that age and I have taken. Thanks to facebook I know something about quite a few of them these days, people I'd otherwise lost track of 25yrs or more ago.

Last weekend also saw a trip to Opua in the Bay of Islands with Eleanor to see the Tall Ships and catch up with Tasha who was on the Lord Nelson as Cook's Assistant. Tasha and I hadn't seen each other for 10yrs, but it felt like no more than 10mths at most, the years that had passed since we saw each other regularly at YF events and served on committees together in the late 80s and early 90s just melted away. Despite both of us having had some pretty life changing experiences in the intervening period they obviously hadn't changed us that much! Or maybe they had but it simply didn't matter?

We discussed, amidst other things, how we'd reconnected with so many parts of our past through facebook, and probably knew far more about the day to day lives of our (F)friends now than we did when the main form of communication over distance was handwritten letters! Both of us had quickly lost track of most people we'd been at school with from having moved away etc but had been finding all sorts of people online lately (including each other!).

It's interesting seeing where in life my old school friends have got to. I wonder if someone had asked us 30yrs ago where did we think we'd be in life by 2013 I'm not sure how many would've got it right! I certainly wouldn't have, nor do I think anyone else would've guessed my future either. But that is probably as much a comment on the changing world we live in as anything else - emigrating then was a far bigger deal. The world these days is a much smaller place - the fact that Tasha can turn up on the opposite side of the world and find half a dozen people here she saw regularly 20yrs ago proving the point! Plus finding this out and tracking them down now is a doddle compared to writing a letter and waiting weeks for a reply, assuming you ever got one...

There was a rather cynical article shared on facebook recently about status updates and how the author reckonned most of them were fairly egotistical and that only a tiny percentage of your 'friends' really cared about the majority of what you shared. I think the article was a little tongue in cheek, but it generated an interesting response from one group of F/friends of mine who disagreed strongly. My take on it was that yes for those who amass 'friends' like collector cards and 'friend' everyone in sight then yes the author probably has a fairly valid point, but for those of us who have friends scattered around the world, and whose lives have physically crossed with so many others in a way that connects them deeply if briefly then no! the percentages are more likely reversed and we do want to read all the news about the majority of our friends, otherwise why be 'friends' on facebook? It is sooooo much easier to post an update every so often than write a dozen letters, or even emails, especially when you don't have homework to avoid any more! I love the fact that even just a month or so of updates and comments mean you can hit the ground running with conversation and get past a lot of the basic small talk that can take up far too much precious kanoi ki te kanoi, face to face, time!

In an international group skype call yesterday I made reference to the concept of having different threads connecting people, sometimes there is just the one point of connection - work, church, family etc but the more threads you have in common, shared interests and hobbies, life experiences, beliefs, political opinions, activities etc and the more ways in which you communicate the stronger the bond can become. So when one thread is stretched, perhaps to breaking point, the rest can hold things together and provide some continuity, some safe ground. And so even when there are years apart those threads can be picked up and woven back into the tapestry of our lives without batting an eyelid.

Anyway, 'tis time to get back out into the garden again and reconnect with my weeding!

snapshots

Seeing as I have a bit more time on my hands at the moment than I have had for some years I've been trying to get into the habit of using my camera more (photos here). Several of my friends have done the 365 challenge, ie a photo a day for the whole year - some have even done it more than once! I've been intrigued particularly by the variety and ingenuity of images posted on those days when it gets to almost bedtime and you realise you haven't taken one yet, as well as the wide range of day to day photos.

The first few months aren't quite such a challenge, but to keep finding new things around you on the days when you don't really go anywhere or do anything 'interesting' requires a whole different mindset as you walk around. I'm used to keeping my 'photographer's eye' open when travelling etc, but to do so day after day within the same environment is a challenge - especially when the day looks all set to be grey, dark and miserable! One recent photo published was all (unintentionally) blurry, but it had been the only photo taken that day, the photographer said '...it's terrible. But also not terrible, because that's the glowing white face of a girl I love a lot'. This reminded me of a bunch of photographs a child took with my camera one time at kindy - odd angles, half faces etc yet the child was delighted with them as they didn't just see the photos, but the associations and stories that went with them - which begs the question of priorities, who do we take photos for? Ourselves to keep memories alive, or for others to understand and/or appreciate too?

I've started taking more photos in the garden, partly to record the progress made as I try to get it back in to shape, but also because I want to capture something of the beauty I see in it. However with a camera that is starting to sulk I'm finding close-up work a challenge as it really doesn't want to focus there. This has led to some interesting results at times, where the original object of the photo is blurry but what is just behind it is crystal clear and often quite striking - just a pity that that glimpse isn't usually enough to make a decent picture in itself. I'm sure there is (yet) another metaphor for life here, about allowing yourself to see past the obvious to what is just beyond it but getting only a tantalising glimpse rather than the whole picture - is it enough to work with? Or do you need to go back and revisit it, and hope that this time you'll see more? Do we keep the blurry reminder as well as the new insight? As usual, far more questions than answers...

more gardening philosophy

Monday was a day of yet more gardening, another onslaught against the convovulous... I do feel like I'm making some progress though. We're a long way from being clear of the stuff but the parts of the garden where it reigns supreme are being encroached on from all sides, well all the ones on our property anyway. Whilst none of our neighbours would mind in the least if I hopped over to their side and cleared it away for them too I don't have the energy to be so benevolent.

I have to admit to being very much a food orientated gardener, which is why over the last couple of years I've focused so much on re-establishing the vegetable patch and not worried as much with the rest. I have no great love for many of the flowering plants that we have in abundance because they are spikey, invasive and/or give me hayfever which to me are three very good reasons to get rid of them; however I wouldn't be in the good books for that so instead I settle for trying to contain them within certain parameters and beyond those I consider them fair game.

Mondays task fell into two areas - clearing under one of the apple trees on the Northtec side of the garden and under the vines on the opposite side. The apple tree has a huge bed of alstroemaria underneath it which makes weeding out the convolulous properly a pain, except at this time of year where the old growth has died back and the new is only just starting to reappear. I got some huge root systems out and thick stems over an inch in diameter which was very satisfying. I'd cleared the apple tree canopy of convovulous some months back but as I couldn't get to the roots it had regrown. Now with the roots mostly out and the tree pruned it looks much more manageable - except for round one side. This is where the banksia rose and another climbing rose are - yep, dratted spikey things... Lucky for them I've heard their history and how they've come from Phyllis' parents place in Waimate (South Island, not Waimate North down the road!), via various Kaitaia homes she's lived in to here so I'm more inclined to go easy on them and encourage them rather than be hard on them! But there's only so much scratching my arms can take in one day so it was off to the other side of the garden...

... to get my legs scratched instead! This time weeding around bromeliads. Okay so there are other plants in there too (that should be) but of course it was near the scratchy stuff most of the work needed doing along the fence line. I'm afraid though that this time if any came up with the convovulous by mistake it was into the barrow they went without a second thought.

During this I was pondering further the analogy of life and gardening, and how some things that are dear to one person can be very much a thorn in another's side (and thumbs, feet, arms...) but with some understanding of where things have come from and what they mean to that person it is easier to be tolerant and understanding. But sometimes they can be too much to let you move forward with your own life and unless you free yourself from other peoples' legacy and/or desires you can get stuck, swamped and left with no room to grow and flourish.

Of course sometimes there is a compromise, some give and take, times and seasons for different things. Sometimes you have to deal with things in small doses, a bit at a time so you can persevere until the job is completed rather than push beyond your limits and then give up in disgust or too much pain.

I was reading an article in one of the Herald's magazines that was referring to certain life choices being seen as selfish by some, often by those who have a selfish interest in the opposite happening! In gardening someone has to start somewhere, they create a garden and in time someone else comes along and takes over. What has been done will often shape what happens next, some things get planted knowing that you'll quite probably never even live long enough to get the full benefit of it and you hope and trust that your successors will nurture your planting and encourage it to grow.

But sometimes the next person has other ideas, other plans, other needs - instead of an immaculate lawn and rose garden you get a sandpit and swings, or a veggie patch; a favourite tree gets cut down to build an extension on the house for a growing family; a 'natives only' garden gets filled in with flamboyant exotics... Should they be chastised for not following the plan you had envisaged when what they have done is create something that makes their heart sing? Yet it can feel like the end of an era, and those still around to see it may well grieve for what was and could have been. But others will benefit, share the joy, make their own memories in that place and no doubt in time what has been created will become the new benchmark against which what follows is measured.

As I said, it is an anaolgy that just keeps, ahem, growing...

it's a lot like life

I've been spending a lot of time in the garden again, trying to get various jobs done before the long awaited promised days of heavy rain reach us.

It has been tough work - my hands and arms are scratched; my calves are impersonating the monster in the Grandpa Toad book in terms of spots below the knees, only from mozzie bites rather than hurled berries (getting eaten instead of being about to eat...!); I've got a cracking bruise on my shin from where the loaded wheelbarrow toppled over and I'm being given a daily lesson in physical anatomy as various muscles tell me in no uncertain terms exactly where they are. However another corner of the garden is being reclaimed from the wilderness and Operation Obliterate continues to advance against the tide of convolulous that threatens to submerge the garden under a sea of green and purple (at least it is pretty, even if it is invasive!).

I found myself pondering again on the similarities between gardening and dealing with life - clearing out the deadwood, the things that smother and hinder growth in order to make postive steps towards being fruitful and productive. Sometimes you need to dig deep to remove the remains of what has been there before before you can move on as they are too hazardous to safety (and sanity!) or too restricting to leave in place, but some things can just be left to lie. What has gone before leaves it's mark, it's imprint on the soil, whether it has stripped it bare of nutrients or added food for future endeavours, broken up hard packed soil ready for a less hardy crop or leaves behind seeds or roots that enable things to grow back sometimes when and where you no longer expect and/or want them...

There are the thorny issues that need grappled with - yet sometimes the thorns are on the same plant as the sweetest fruit. Some things need pruned to grow back stronger (vines both figurative and literal!), when you have a lot on your plate you can't expect to keep on top of it all at once and sometimes you just have to let certain areas go until you have time and energy to deal with them, for everything there is a time and season... and so the analogies go on, and on, and on. As with gardening really, you never get to the end of it.

gardening

Well we finally got some rain at the weekend, probably the first time in a while anyone around here has got excited about a wet Easter! Luckily this was accompanied by enough sunny weather to keep the beachgoers happy as well.

So having finally reached the point where it looks like things won't bake as soon as you plant them (the general idea being grow your veggies, then cook them - not the other way around!) it was time to get the winter veg garden going, and preferably growing too.

This year I've been able to plan out the garden better and do some major reorganising, hopefully meaning that the resulting crop rotation will increase our output. With various perennials firmly in place it had been limiting the options on that front so I've gradually been moving some of them around to more logical places to enable better use of the space we have rather than trying to extend the patch any further as it is already considerable as far as I'm concerned. But then I still haven't quite got used to a quarter acre section (of land) being the norm, certainly not when it comes to maintaining it anyway.

Another thing I'm still getting my head around is what grows when up here in the Far North given that our winters recently have been on a par with my parents' Scottish summers (although that is probably more indicative of how bad their weather has been than how warm ours was!). I don't need to worry about frosts but I do need to make sure I don't plant certain things at a time when you have an uphill battle beating the caterpillars and stink bugs to your produce (always check your summer broccoli very carefully unless you like it with added protien...). I was just googling when was a good time to take rosemary cuttings and happily clicked on the Gardeners' World website without thinking... then backtracked to find somewhere with the seasons in the correct months and an understanding of gardening at 35 degrees latitude!

But anyway, having checked a local planting calendar I set off for the garden centre knowing I was looking for onions, silverbeet and spinach, beetroot and broccoli at a seasonably appropriate time. I have had mixed success with root veggies here but certainly plan to have another go. The tomatoes are still going strong and since the rain have been producing cherry sized tomatoes again rather than pea sized which is a definite improvement when it comes to using them! I'll probably put in some quicker growing chinese leaves to tide us over until the spinach and silverbeet get big enough to harvest - but there was only so much I was planning to carry the 3km home in one go.

I've started reorganising the strawberry bed, but know I'm really a bit early on that front. However the bed has been elongated and narrowed, so using early runners to plant out the new patch plus digging up a couple of plants that were now in the 'wrong' place was a good start. I'd love to have raised beds but meanwhile I just have to remember to leave myself some footpaths when planting out and add in the odd stepping stone for getting around without trampling on anything I don't want to.

We're a long way off being self sufficient with vegetables but we're getting a lot closer. When we were clearing out the garage recently I found a pile of old sacks - ie real sacks, made of sack cloth! So I'm planning to use them to plant spuds in - you roll them down to about 15cm, plant your spuds and gradually roll the sack up and add in more soil as the plants grow. Same as the tyre stack method really I suppose. Anyhow, sacks we have, tyres we have not, so sacks it is! I found that idea in a recent AA magazine (as in cars not alcohol - Phyllis is a member!) although they suggested using coffee sacks. A cunning plan if you live somewhere like Wellington with it's abundance of coffee roasteries, but less so in Kaitaia.

Seeing as Phyllis loves her sweetpeas I planted a load of seeds we'd saved from this summers plants and then soaked for a day or so before planting to give them a boost. If they all come up I've no idea where we'll put them all so I'm thinking a 50% strike rate would be just fine!

Now I just have to hope the promised rain for later in the week comes otherwise I'm going to be wishing I waited another week or so as I lug the watering can around seeing as our hosepipe ban is still firmly in place...

clearing out

The last couple of weeks have been something of a whirlwind. Joanne (Phyllis' daughter) came over from Brunei for 10 days as it was her term break and the two of us have gone through the house and garage doing a major reorganisation, de-clutter and tidy up. Given so much stuff had been shifted out to the garage so the carpet could be put down it was the perfect opportunity to sort through things.

It has been quite a process with varying amounts of enthusiasm shown by other members of the family for the decision making. There was a mini family get together last weekend and one of Phyllis' daughter in laws was chatting to me whilst her husband and his brother debated the worthiness of what looked to us like just (another) lump of rusty metal - "It's easy for me" she said, "I've no sentimental attachment to it, I'd just say chuck it!" (especially given the rather handy skip sitting on the driveway...). I knew exactly what she meant.

One of the spin-offs of the major clear out/tidy-up is that there is now room for more of my stuff to migrate the 8km down the road from my previous home. Apart from several feet of books and bookcases mostly what is still there is yes, you've guessed it - stuff with sentimental attachment. The sort of stuff that is oh so easy for me to raise my eyebrows about and do 'you don't really need to keep it do you?' when it belongs to someone else but is far harder to part with when you know the story behind it and the memories attached.

However my plan is to bring a few more boxes of stuff and not just simply put it in the place that has been cleared out there in the garage but go through it, properly, and try to whittle it down, even if only a little. Admittedly what I have is the result of several such siftings and has not simply been stashed away "for 'ron" (ie later on) over several decades. Paying for storage and shipping is a huge incentive to reduce the volume of your belongings I can tell you!

Is it useful? Is it beautiful? Does it make me happy? They are the key questions I now try to use when clearing clutter thanks to Karen Kingston's wonderful books - whether you believe in feng shui or not she has some fantastic advice about how to part with 'stuff'.

Since Joanne left the work around the house has slowed down, mainly due to having done most of what was needed, but we had the skip for another day after she left so yet more garden waste was shifted from what had been an enormous pile. Now that corner of the garden looks so spacious and, well, clutter-free! There is room for the things we want to encourage to grow, it is easier to find the quinces as they fall to harvest them - echoing the feng shui theory in a slightly different way. Whether it will bring about longer term changes in our lives who knows, all I know is the short term effect has been a day spent rescuing mice from the cat who has found she now has easy access to a nest of them somewhere in that corner! I'll keep you posted...

be careful what you wish for...

... because you might just get it!

So, I was saying I quite fancied some time simply being at home, catching up on the garden, doing various jobs around the house that have been bugging me for a while. And guess what - one fractured hip later here I am, spending the next 6 weeks at least at home caring for Phyllis, getting on top of the garden and reorganising the house due to putting in new carpets and then not putting everything back so she can negotiate the house with a wheely walking frame! Ooops, that wasn't quite how I had it in mind to pan out when I was being wistful some weeks back...

We are embarking on a major clutter clearing exercise, deciding what Phyllis wants in the house rather than living surrounded by things she's inherited from her father-in-law when he came to live with them several decades ago and that somehow have never quite found another home. It has been the perfect opportunity to go through wardrobes (built in and thus all having to be emptied to be carpeted), clear shelves of 'stuff' and not put it back until sorted. It is going to take us a while but it is going to be so worth it.

When the carpet men stuck a load of furniture on the lino they dragged it across and scratched the surface, so I'm getting to try out another of Wendyl's recipes with some homemade lino polish tomorrow (it really is proper lino we've got, not modern vinyl) - here's hoping it works as well as Wendyl reckons, I suspect any failings will be due to lack of elbow grease on my behalf rather than her recipe!

I've been making tomato soup with the tomatoes, red onions, garlic and basil all from the garden, and I've been looking up receipes for quince chutney given the size of the crop we've got this year - our usual recipients have already had what they want and there are loads on the tree still. There are peaches and apples falling fast ready to be stewed and frozen as well - I don't have time to go out to work too!