watching kereru

thinking about gifting.

2011-10-08T02:58:00.000-07:00

Some weeks are full of gifts given and received.

This week, off the top of my head, we gave away an aluminium shed, a bike trailer, clothes and books, firewood and seeds and we gifted time to the community garden, to transporting people to the library, to a friend who needed some support with childcare and another who needed a hand with turning compost.

We received (again, just off the top of my head) gifts of clothes, fresh food, seeds and a few seedlings, a large cast-iron frypan, flowers, aswell as a music lesson and concert.

These were all gifts that arrived into our lives unannounced as it were and allowed ourselves and those whom we gifted to, to be a little less reliant on the money system.

In the process of gifting we built new friendships and maintained current friendships, discussed ideas, learnt new skills, were physically active and got rid of stuff we no longer wanted.

We also built trust. Trust in reciprocity, in community and in cultivating qualities such as friendship, loyalty, sharing and cooperation; qualities that are not recognised by the market economy and yet qualities that we will rely on in the economic chaos that is to come.

Indeed, the qualities that the people of our city have relied on this year during and after the earthquakes.

The gifts in our life make a difference; they support our life, are the backbone of the girls' "education" and nurtures our deep sense of belonging. I've written about this before here.

We do our best to put our energy into exchanges which support our interdependence with others. These exchanges have always brought us optimism in the beauty and resilience that comes from respectful human connection.

(And if you want to extend your thinking around gift culture then check this great booklet out.)

her book of worries

2011-10-03T02:17:00.000-07:00

Shifting has meant a bit of driving, which has meant quite a bit of listening to "Clarice Bean: Don't Look Now."

During one such ride over the weekend Sky declared she wanted to make a book of worries just like Clarice Bean and that she already knew what her number 1, 2 and 3 worries were!

It seemed like the obvious thing to get started on today.

We have made quite a few books and think this method is the nicest; tidy without too much fiddle and it includes a blast on the sewing machine.

Pretty paper for the cover; upcycled picture, magazine inspiration, previous artwork. Whatever works.

Cut to the size you want and fold in half. Then cut the same size paper for the inner pages and, here's the trick if you don't want any splaying of pages, fold the pages separately, one at a time.

Lay pages and cover together and line up sides.

Then blast down the spine with the sewing machine...beautiful finish, just like that.

If you like, you can make the base of the cover longer than the pages, fold up on the inside of cover and sew along seam - this way and you will make a small inside pocket.

Unsurprisingly, this year has been hard on Sky's sense of safety in the world.

There have been so many opportunities to face our fears, breath deep, watch where our mind grasps on, cuddle quicker and for longer. Her worry book is a great place for her to name her fears and draw what they look like.

She's got a lot of relevant life-long learning going on this girl.

going home...again

2011-10-02T21:19:00.000-07:00

We were at our new/old home in the weekend and while Gunt and I worked on a chicken run and house, the girls got themselves busy, settling in and making themselves feel at home.
I treasure being able to witness these moments whenever we return home from being away or when we are staying in a new place for a few days. Settling in, reacquainting themselves with the spaces and finding some newness too. I know this feeling - it is full of the contentment of making a place home. Ruby, being a tad like her mama, likes to rearrange and set things up where as Sky just finds a place to make beautiful and sits on down.

Watching Ruby and Sky helps me feel at home again; with all this moving we have done in the last few years, they reassure me that home can be wherever one finds oneself loved and safe with just enough space to make a little beautiful.

taking time to remember.

2011-09-27T01:56:00.000-07:00

We took time today to celebrate the life of Wangari Maathai.

After hearing about her death from a friend's comment on my last post (thanks N) it's what naturally unfolded for us today.

I continue to enjoy and appreciate how celebration and rememberance springs forth from what is current in our lives or what catches our interest.

When so often it seems like time is the most scarce resource in people's lives right now, it is such a privilege to have the time to follow what appears ahead of us.

We celebrated in some of the ways we know how: we talked and read and sang and skipped and drew and watched some footage.

We lit a candle.

We might have planted a tree but we didn't. We happened to have planted a mandarin the day she died. That was the tree for her.

As I have said here before, I love my girls being immersed in stories of women with such power and clarity so you can imagine my response when Ruby declared we would save to buy Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai.

She figures if she can't meet this woman then she wants to at least watch a movie about her.

Surprisingly I have no qualms with that!

I will do the best I can

2011-09-25T02:12:00.000-07:00

Sitting with my coffee this morning I have been watching Sky read our current favourite book.

Mama Miti tells the important story of Wangari Maathai and the Greenbelt Movement in Kenya.

Inspiring, beautiful and simple.

I can't tell you how good it feels when the girls have such books with stories of such women in their hands.

As I watch Sky read the pictures, I remember to begin my day with an intention inspired by this beautiful story below told by Wangari Maathai.

I will do the best I can.

A perfect start to the week before me.

I have also posted over on the "lyttel town" blog today; a post inspired after spending a few hours over the weekend sowing and playing with seeds.

schooling the world:the white man's last burden

2011-09-21T02:01:00.000-07:00

You have an institution that is in place globally that is branding millions and millions of innocent people as failures.

- Manish Jain ( see "Rethinking Education and Development" on the sidebar.)

These people aren't failed attempts at being us, they are unique answers to the fundamental question: what does it mean to be human and alive.

- Wade Davis (see TED talk with him on the sidebar)

Yesterday "Schooling the World" came in the post.

I'd been waiting for it for a while; you may have noticed the link on my partly constructed sidebar.

If you are at all interested in the moral implications of the Western education system in general and in particular the social justice of sending it into indigenous societies, then this is a film for you.
This film astutely deconstructs our Western world view and our Western education system.

At least take a look at the trailer. It's worth it.

It's the kind of film I have been waiting for.

May blessings rain down on those who were involved in making it.

keeping it wild

2011-09-19T02:38:00.000-07:00

Science in the kitchen; yogurt, apple cider vinegar and feeding the sourdough starter.

We are just now starting to get really excited by wild fermentation. Our favourite up until now has been sauerkraut (a sure winner for a german partner) and we are starting on a new batch tomorrow using the cabbages I saved from my abandoned garden over the weeknd.

I like the experimental nature of brewing, fermenting and feeding bugs in the kitchen.

It is all a bit check it, smell it and see what you think.

It encourages bravery and courage.

It nurtures an attitude of wonder; I'd say the perfect starting point of any scientist.

And on the uglier side of things....if you live in Aotearoa and want to be enraged, check out the NZ Food Bill 160-2; read about it here, here and here.

To tell you the truth, when I was first told about it I just wouldn't believe it, and I believe lots.

It will affect all people who share seeds and who sell their own produce from the roadside or at our beloved Farmers' Markets. Unite with the world's poor who are also fighting similar laws in their own country, sign the petition, write to your MP and generally make a racket.

our fairy folk

2011-09-15T03:06:00.000-07:00

When Spring Equinox is just around the corner is there anything better than to make havens for the fairies to welcome them back to our garden.
And no better project for the mama than one with materials that can be just gathered from around our home.

tests

2011-09-14T12:39:00.001-07:00

We've been helping out a friend of a friend over the last couple of days.

She's studying towards some kind of Family therapy degree and needed a child to practise doing a psychological assessment on.

She asked and we agreed and what an insight it has been.

To step into the system of tests and questionaires and general mainstream assessment has been, let's just say, affirming of our life choices.

This has nothing to do with the results; we won't have them for quite a while and they are unimportant to us.

Rather it has been the process that has reminded me of what a different paradigm our family lives in to most.

A vocabulary test for the child that comes from the States.

It's 2011; can't we have a test from our own place in the world; our own words with our own images looking back at us.

A questionaire built around words such as "misbehaviour," "discipline," "naughty" and "punishment" - words we don't even use in our family; they don't make sense in our view of the child or of parenting.
What a deficit model to begin with we thought.

We couldn't answer many of the questions and thankfully the student understood and encouraged us to make comments in the margins.

As I wrote in the margins, I reflected on how in many ways we live our lives on the margin peering back at a society whose priorities often don't make sense to us.

There are many others who live on the margins but through no choice of their own.

How do they make sense of the tower of words? What do they see when they look at those images? How does the "assessment report" affect their future choices.
We tried to imagine a life defined by someone else's assessment and failing the tests constantly without fully understanding what they were asking.
We feel thankful to be comfortable where we are.
This is where life makes most sense for us and that's mostly enough for us.

small chunks of time

2011-09-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want something so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavourable. Favourable conditions never come.

- C.S. Lewis

I am slowly learning (and relearning) the benefits of grabbing small chunks of time.

This may seem obvious to many.

For me however, it has always seemed easier to do it big and less often. Food shopping (other than fresh fruit and veg), sewing, cleaning the house, yoga, making muesli, focusing on a project at home.

On reflection I realise I have always grabbed small moments for gardening - checking and pulling and transplanting and sowing in short bursts. Through those small moments I have grown great gardens and fed my family, but I mostly didn't translate that to other things.

But after a fair few months now with little of my own creative work being done, even less morning yoga happening and my muesli jar standing empty for a week, I'm discovering the liberation of small chunks of activity.

Twenty minutes and I will do the next step in my sewing project.

Fifteen minutes in the morning will give me 5 salutes to the sun at least and sets the rhythm I have been yearning for.

Half an hour before we go out will give me just enough time to help focus attention on that one problem she has been having on the design of her fairyhouse. The conversation keeps the flame burning and takes us one small step closer.

And I rediscover that I don't in fact need to wait for bigger chunks of time.

And instead of thinking I need to make the muesli for the next three weeks, I make just enough for the week while I prepare breakfast, in a pan (not the oven) and that way, always have enough for the hungry mouths in the morning.

(The felted handle cover has been one of those projects done in 20 minutes and saves burning my hand or the tea towel each time I pick up our cast iron pan. The idea came from here but I already had the felt from a jersey one of the girls had as a toddler. Functional and cute - just how I like it. Thanks Heather.)

stuff

2011-09-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

The owner of our house is returning soon so we are packing again....

a chance to go through our stuff and check whether it all comes with us.

This is certainly one of the benefits in moving a lot; paring down and traveling lighter.

This time around I'm letting go of quite a few of my books. Two boxes full in fact. People who know me know I'm good at moving things on for others to benefit from, but there have been just some books; books I have heaved around this country.

It is time to share them with others.

So as I have been filling boxes, I have been thinking about our stuff.
......

We generally don't buy it.
We don't have TV, we don't get junk mail, we don't do malls and so we remain free of the constant monologue from advertisers (actually that's relatively "free" since the menace seems to be pretty much everywhere).
We want people; ourselves, our family and our community to bring up our children. We figured a long time ago that we don't want to be competing with massive corperations on a daily basis nor are we any match to their billion dollar budgets and so we choose to keep them out of our lives as much as possible.
The freedom is sweet.
What we buy is usually well thought through, based on need and a resource that others may have an interest in sharing. Better still it's multi-functional. Op shops is where we buy the odd thing just because it's pretty.

We pool resources where we can so as not to carry more than is necessary.

We went without a vaccum for a year when we lived across the road from friends who periodically lent us theirs (we have a wonderful carpet sweeper handed down from my mum for the daily sweep) and we haven't owned a lawnmower for years but borrow one when needed and maintain it while we are at it.

Both these are done through our local timebank which I have written about before here.

This kind of sharing of resources feels good for all involved.

We also try to resist the "just incase" thinking.

This is our most challenging catergory.

Wanting to be open to creative projects, crafty quests and general spontaneous learning, there are always "resources" that can be accumulated "just incase" it can be used in the future. It's not like we have cupboards full - we don't have the cupboard space - but still the clearing is fairly constant.

Fabric and books are my vulnerabilities - old fabric, particularly my Nana's.

I have never missed anything that I have passed onto others.

The books that I have had for years and had been so dear to me at different times of my life are now gone; onto someone else's lap, on someone else's shelf.

I feel relieved as always. I'm happy that someone else is reading them.

And amongst all of this packing, it is spring here.

I feel blessed that she never forgets to return.

"life happens....

2011-09-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

...when you are making other plans."

Like earthquakes - a few big ones that brought down our city and town, and thousands of small ones.

Like good friends moving away.

Like stitching thousands of hearts on a street corner for weeks just for the sake of sharing a little kindness.

Like moving and then (in a couple of weeks) taking a deep breath and moving back again because there is nothing a family can do with their current home's owner returning, a tricky section and the "no-go-further-land-investigation-needed" white zone.

Last weekend was the first anniversary for the first earthquake.

I'm not big on anniversaries but a lot has happened in our lives here in the Canterbury area since last September and it sure is nice to stand alongside a community of people who have been through the same thing and mark it together.

We gathered in the Spring sun, ate shared food, played music and stitched medals.

The medals were a variation on the hearts and acknowledged in a fun way our bravery and sheer stickability.

And here's the thing; major earthquakes are, well, major.

They kill people, damage families, bring down homes and split people's hearts open.

They don't happen every day.

Thankfully, we have had the time to fully take part in this significant year in our lives.

We have had time to engage in many, many ways with each other, our neighbours and our wider community around us.

We have had the freedom to take and create our own meaning from it all.

I'm so very grateful for that.

** I think Bob Dylan originally said the quoted line, but don't quote me on that.

it was papa's day...

2011-09-03T20:12:00.000-07:00

..and we celebrated.

If you had said to me a few years ago that I would be celebrating Mother's and Father's day I would not have believed you.

For a long time, I haven't acknowledged these days but put them down to ridiculous, commercially-driven ideas.

I still pretty much believe that.

Perhaps not so much the "ridiculous" anymore - I'm a mama now right, and we need to grab the acknowledgment where we can.

Gunt and I are getting better at celebrating in a way that feels good for us.

Celebrating at-home fun style or in the outdoors.

Celebrating with small, personal touches of love and appreciation.

Celebrating that builds relationship and connection with each other and with ourselves.

Celebrating with food - focus on the "specialness" and not the amount.

Celebrating that doesn't involve the consumption of "stuff" because of a lack of ideas of how else to mark it.

note the air guitar mid-photo and a whisk microphone in lower right corner.

A pre-breakfast blindfolded excursion to the beach, a family rock band rehearsal and a free choral concert all made a pretty perfect day for a pretty perfect Papa.

taking time

2011-08-31T21:49:00.000-07:00

Even when life is being tricky or you've just had one of those days which are tricky I have always been super grateful that the girls have the freedom of time.

This week we have taken some time to:
* count the rate at which the pussy willow bursts open on our table.

* investigate the inner workings of the piano more than once.

* find new ways in which to eat pumpkin (it's that time of the year) Our favourite? Pumpkin bread similar to this recipe, with less sugar.

* witness life in the blossoming tree outside our door; honey bees galore, waxeyes, bumble bees and a lone red admiral butterfly.

What have you taken some time to do this week?

long-term projects

2011-08-28T21:03:00.000-07:00

I've loved Lori's Camp Creek blog for a while now.

Earlier on, when Ruby was still under 5, I was drawn to it because it of my interest in the reggio emillia approach; her posts gave me confidence in my belief in long-term, child-led learning.

I also like the juice that comes from the discussion in her comment section.
Recently she posted a link to a TED talk by Gever Tulley about the power of tinkering. Check it out over on the sidebar.

I then went on and clicked around the TED talks for a bit and found the talk below.

It's a great description of a possible path to long-term projects.

My hope is that within a school setting the children still remain the key negotiators in what they are learning. Without this the long-term project becomes another take on a theme study.

I see the school timetable also imposes an end date. With the freedom of having no school timetable to stick to, our long-term projects can last for as long as the girls want them to and can be revisited again and again. With schooling families, I guess the hope would be that parents will pick up where the school finishes, that's assuming good communication links.

host a brooch

2011-08-27T23:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a few hours free in the afternoon to check out the Host a Brooch project running as part of the Christchurch Arts Festival.

The broochs are sculpted by the warm and friendly Jacqui Chan and made from the rubble and demolition materials that still litter the streets of Christchurch.

They are stunning and meaningful and have presence.
This was the brooch we chose to take for an adventure around the city for an hour.

It had been burnt flooring, now a delicate work of art.

Sky immediately found a brooch that she could wear too; found, worn and transformed.

We wandered and snapped photos.

We made beautiful pieces of jewellery from scraps of waste in our minds.

lyttel stitches and a giveaway.

2011-08-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

The latest edition of extra-curricular is out with an article on the heart stitching that happened here in Lyttelton after the February earthquake. This issue has a stitching focus so lyttel hearts project and sharing the goodness that happens when people gather together and create is a perfect fit for the "crafting for good" section of this little mag.

A tutorial on making a gorgeous foraging bag by Melissa of tinyhappy is also in the issue.

Perfect for the Spring treasure gathering that is about to begin.

I have one to give away so click over to the lyttel-town.blogspot.com and leave a comment and I will draw a winner at the end of the weekend.

taking in the bigger picture

2011-08-24T02:12:00.000-07:00

Just to let you know, life often feels hard right now.
That's just how it is.
For transparency sake I thought I'd let you know.
Clarity, perserverance and positive thoughts are called upon each day to make steps in decisions about our home, how we proceed and living well in the meantime.
You know how it goes, especially the Cantabrians among you.

I'm grateful for this little blog I began just over a year ago.
It has a presence in my life.
It reminds me that each day there are threads of happiness and beauty.

I mostly write about those threads.

Sometimes threads of struggle, worry and doubt weave right through the middle of the day.
Looking up too close, the darker threads can blur the vision.
Stepping back and taking in the whole fabric, the darker tones merge into a deeper, altogether richer array of colours.

The fabric as a whole is strong; the brighter tones are glorious.

I'll be remembering that today.

Sky was inspired to get up close to the dirt yesterday at the community gardens

so we took along the microscope.We watched Dirt: The Movie the night before

- a beautiful movie all about our complete connection to the dirt under our feet.

the quickening

2011-08-22T23:29:00.000-07:00

With a lot of time spent outside over the past few days I notice the turning towards Spring.

Winter has been kind to us here but still at times we have found ourselves inside more than we would really like.

The shift towards Spring brings shorter shadows creeping across our days and just enough warmth to stay outside longer.

It also brings a restlessness and impatience inside me.

So today we will dig our hands in the dirt, ground ourselves in a bit of physical work and try to remember the wisdom that says that all things happen just at their right time.

since we've been home

2011-08-19T18:03:00.000-07:00

As the girls grow older they enjoy more obvious structure built into their lives, to help punctuate their days and to see where they have been.

Although we have had little structure up until now, we have always had a fairly constant rhythm to our days. This daily rhythm has been mainly built around mealtimes and bedtime rituals.
This rhythm has always grounded me just as much as the girls.
It has also allowed me to manage the daily dance of working with the girls' interests, our community involvement, other outside activities and the myriad tasks that a productive homelife demands.

However, this year our days have shifted into more of a conscious coming together in the mornings, usually around the table; the table helping to anchor the transition from free play. As Ruby left behind much of her world of dreamy imaginary play, she showed interest in a more methodical approach to our days. It works well for us all. We talk about what we want to be working on. I may provide a provocation. We often read. They are enjoying working more methodically on mathematical problems.

We usually begin with something creative.
And this has been exactly what the girls have set up each morning since we have been back.

They have missed it and have been eager to reinstate our creative time together each morning.

A book which we were given while away has been our focus of interest. Collage has been loved at different times through the girls' younger years and has now returned as a firm favourite.
We appreciate the time to indulge our current love affair with it.

while we were gone.

2011-08-19T17:10:00.001-07:00

We have been away:

celebrating turning 8.
enjoying a touch of quiet to sew up a few treats for the birthday girl; a toilet bag for nights away and bonnets to continue on "The Little House" theme.
sharing photos with grandma about "the olden days" when she was a girl.
taking in a few museums having been starved of our locals in Christchurch since the quake in February.
Running crying from the "Earthquake House" at Te Papa after deciding they would like feeling a pretend quake.
Playing in snow and debating if snow had been seen there in the last 50 years.
celebrating common ground with friends not seen in many years.
Ruby taking in what she can of the TV world and declaring her new love is Masterchef!
celebrating family with cousins, aunties and uncles and lots of time with grandma and grandad.

growing critics and creators

2011-08-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

While visiting family for a while I am catching up on some reading:

"Knowledge is not what's true; it's what helps. Knowledge is what you use to get things done. It's situational and contingent. So we need to help people who are willing and able to critique, integrate, elaborate, challenge and work on and with the knowledge they come across. They need to see themselves less as nervous supplicants at the alter of knowledge and more as confident critics and creators. And they need to be skilled at doing it well."
- "What's the Point of School?" Guy Claxton.

How do you "work on and with" the knowledge you come across in your days?

using what we have

2011-08-02T03:39:00.000-07:00

For a while now Willow, the chicken, has preferred to sit somewhere quieter and altogether far more difficult for any human-sized creature to get to.

When we finally found her eggs, there was quite a stash.

So last week we went crazy with quiche.

Usually I collect the shells under the bench and once I have a few, I lightly bake them and crush them into some leftover porridge to feed to the girls (that's the hens not Ruby and Sky).

But this time I googled "eggshell mosaic" and got inspired by this blog post. The next day we rummaged around for any random dye we had in the house and immersed the shells.

We learnt a bit about egg anatomy and the effectiveness of the different dyes but mostly we had fun gluing and sticking and watching an image of sorts appear.

The dye that remained still seemed perfectly.....colourful and so we dyed some wool for a scarf for Charlotte.

The photo below is the wool looking it's best.

The colours ended up running into a single yellowy green: more opportunities for learning about possible unpredictable outcomes when experimenting.

festival time

2011-08-01T03:00:00.000-07:00

We had been waiting for a while for this festival.

Postponed back in June due to the earth shaking, the town still needed a chance to celebrate and the light returning still seemed like the most appropriate reason.

Apparently so did half of Christchurch; last Friday night the streets of Lyttelton heaved with frivolity and celebration.

And that's exactly as it should be.

The year has been a tough one for many in this shaky town.

Tough, and yet such deep veins of sweetness have been uncovered.

It felt good; the masked parade, the fireworks, the buskers and dancing in the rain to good, homegrown music.

It felt good too to have all the currently homeless businesses back out on the pavement, once again inhabiting the streets of our town .

Many thought of those people we have lost.

Many peered into the spaces where, not too long ago, our dearly loved historic buildings stood; gaps illuminated with light shows and sculpture.

And others asked after those who are still away or waiting to hear about their homes.

And yet the exuberance present at the festival reminded us that what is left, and in fact is thriving in the uncertainty, is the spirit of the people and the strength of the ties that hold us together as a community.

the masks made especially for the occasion each year.

Thanks to a local photographer Gill Taylor for the photos. I was preoccupied managing the giant puppet fish head.

thinking about home

2011-07-31T03:10:00.000-07:00

For a while now our family has been scribbling on scraps of paper, thinking, talking and dreaming about what our home may be one day.
There has been a lot of scribbling; drawings, notes, numbers, concepts, coloured pencils, doodles and perspective.
We have learnt a lot about fully listening to one another along the way too.
Our section on the hill, our financial resources and our wish to finally "come home" has been our impetus.

It has felt like a long and windy route.
At times it has felt like blizzard conditions; the track markers hardly visible and I haven't always been able to hear Gunter over the shrieking wind.
At other times it has felt like just grey, overcast skies.
When we have talked about our ideas with people other than our friends who know us well, we usually feel like we miss the boat; the people seem to paddle far ahead in their mind, led by their pressumptions and prescribed ideas.
We sense that they never really heard what we said.
Often though we haven't been clear in what we've been saying; while trying to formulate our own imaginings, we trip ourselves up on our own cluttered ideas and feelings of inadequacy.

What has really made the difference recently is having a bunch of friends get involved with the details and figuring solutions out alongside us.
A couple of naieve decisions made a few years ago has got us in a bit of a silly situation and The Harbour Pool ( I wrote about this group here. I need to write more; it's a very exciting group) decided that this is a project for the collective and not just for our individual family to juggle.
Phew.
Including our dear friends in on the conversation has made all the difference.
The project has now got forward momentum and the possibility of fabulousness.
Now there is little chance of our family sinking under the weight of our own limitations (in our minds and our pockets) as there are ten other buoys keeping us afloat.

One of these dear visionary friends has been feeding us with concepts; ideas to play and have fun with.
This morning her "pick" was sitting in my inbox.
At first glance I presumed the platform (pictured) was a joke.
Apparently not.
When I returned home later in the afternoon, Gunter and Ruby had been looking and linking and chatting and dreaming.
So I had another look.
I watched the slideshow and fell in love.Without the help of friends, my heart wouldn't have been split open, expanding my mind, filling me with a rush of possibilities and dreaming up new ways of being at home.

the mighty onion compress

2011-07-29T19:14:00.000-07:00

A couple of posts back I promised to share our earache dream solution; the simple onion compress. I'm keen to share this because it seems that most little ones get some sort of ear infections at some stage, possibly more so here in Aotearoa where many houses are chronically damp and cold.

We managed to sneak past them with Sky but when Ruby was a toddler she had a couple of ear infections with temperatures (note to self:high temperatures, another post.)
Early on when we were confronted with Ruby being sick for the first few times (especially if a temperature was involved), we called Gunter's mother in Germany for reassurance and advice.
It is thanks to her that we discovered the wonderful onion compress.

Chop up a medium sized onion into small pieces and stuff it into one of those small cotton socks that have lost their partner or place onto a small piece of cotton and tape it up into a fairly flat package.
Only use natural materials: cotton, wool or silk.

Place on the painful ear and cover with a woolen swab (or a folded piece of wool.) The idea is to keep the area as warm as possible.

Hold in place with a woolen scarf or a cotton strap. You can also use a fairly snug balaclava. Once Ruby was only interested in lying (with the pillow raised) with her ear over the compress - she fell asleep so that worked too.

Keep it on for about 30 minutes and apply a fresh one 2 or 3 times during the day. I often applied it while she slept.

Thanks for the modelling Ruby

(we always had her laying as upright as possible to help the ear drain;

a detail forgotten at the photo shoot!)

This is the main remedy I used at the acute stage of Ruby's ear infections.
That, and lots of sleep, warmth, quietness, herbal teas and the love, care and attention that we all need when we are unwell.
The carers mantra: Cancel everything. Slow down. Pay attention.
Having a few nurturing treatments to apply still helps me to slow down and pay attention, while also giving me a few things to do.

knowing my place.

2011-07-27T04:28:00.001-07:00

For a while now I have been following a group in India who are working to shift people's thinking around learning, self-transformation and cultural change.

I get excited and am encouraged when I remember the bigger picture of what we do in our daily lives; cultural transformation happens one person, one family at a time.

Read and be inspired by some of the writing here.

This video about "transitioning from schooling societies to learning societies" was taken at the "2011 Learning Societies Conference" in Himachal Pradesh in India.

Wisdom and Salt Water from Priya Ravi on Vimeo.

At times it can feel quite lonely with the life choices we make; sometimes it feels like the rest of the world is pulling in the opposite direction.
And then I watch a video like this and remember that these conversations are happening all over the world and I remember immediately and know all over again that this is my place.
I couldn't be anywhere else.

warm wraps

2011-07-25T02:01:00.000-07:00

Home to the wonderful gift of a snowy day.

It doesn't happen often, we are lucky if we get it once every couple of years, so when it does we take to the streets.

One definite advantage of living on steep streets is the ride you get all the way to the sea and by 9am the streets had filled up with people playing on skis and plastic sheets and anything that might give them a bit of a slide.

With this cold weather came the first bout of snuffles for the year.

Sky still has a chesty cough lingering from our trip away so now we are home and have supplies at hand I have been applying a chest compress at night.

My girls are healthy and have fairly robust constitutions it seems but over the years it has been reassuring to have a kit of home nursing practices (many are found here) that I can apply to support their healing in times of illness.

And anyway, you know how it is, sometimes the mama just needs something to do.

Applying compresses for different symptoms has become a nurturing ritual in our home and the associated warmth, smell and touch creates an atmosphere of love and caring which is hard to beat when you feel miserable.

Early on I created a "compress kit" of different sized cloths.

An old felted baby's woolen blanket and a couple of old flannel cotton sheets cut into lengths for leg compresses (these can double for the throat) and torso-sized cloths.

A few of each and long enough to wrap around generously.

I also have a few muslin cloths (note to self: need to do a post on onion compresses) and two muslin pockets with carded wool inside (for added warmth without adding weight).
For the chesty cough I lay out a woolen and a cotton torso-sized cloths. I roll each end separately (as above) for ease of wrapping and then I fill the hotty placing it on the cloths to warm. I lay a smaller sized cotton cloth (chest-sized) out and liberally apply drops of eucalyptus esssential oil and lavendar until well covered and place this on the hotty and then fold it over (as below).

Carry this all to the child's beside and place cloth where the child can lay back onto it.

Place oiled cloth on chest and firmly wrap first the cotton and then the woolen cloth around whole torso. Either pin in place with safety pin or hold in place by pulling over a snug woolen singlet (this may be easier with a wriggly toddler).

In the morning remove compress and place oiled cloth in a ziploc bag to use again that evening.

My ramblings may sound fairly daunting but don't be put off.

Try it out as best you can and you will figure out what works for you - that was my initial method.

The girls are so fond of these compresses Ruby also has one tonight - lavender around the chest for a restful sleep and a touch of eucalyptus just for good measure .

simply together.

2011-07-24T02:24:00.000-07:00

We are blessed to have friends who share their hut in the mountains with us.

We get away there when we can and with one thing and another we haven't been up nearly as much this year; we were well overdue.

We were rewarded with a good layer of snow on the ground and a decent slope with good run out just outside the front door.

Mostly we fill the small living space with boardgames, jigsaw puzzles, art materials and books and it has been known for the mama to hardly leave her sleeping bag on the shared bed.

This time around there was alot of general mooching as Sky got hit by our first cold this year and lay low most of the time - that is except when she ducked outside to make snow maidens and floral installations.

At the hut our choices are greatly limited.

We all love the simplicity.

Food is basic, clothes are practical, washing is in the river or in the water you have collected and our days are filled with relishing what is right in front of us; Rummikub, a cup of tea, another trip through "The Art Book for Children," a walk while the sun appears, hand grinding another coffee.

There is such freedom in limitation.

along the way.

2011-07-17T22:50:00.000-07:00

In the depths of Winter there is nothing like a Suzuki Winter Workshop to keep the spirits high and the fingers warm.

And a bit of painting and drawing and baking in between - always a bit of art along the way.

We are busy playing and packing; preparing to head for the mountains tomorrow.

I can't wait.
You can check out what else we have been doing here.

www.lyttel-town.blogspot.com is the other blog where I write, as part of a collective of writers tracking what it means to be part of a conscious, evolving community looking to the future.

Come over and have a look and even let us know what you think....a bit of feedback is always good.

our dear charlotte

2011-07-13T01:57:00.000-07:00

Meet our dear Charlotte.

She is a much loved and carried around member of our family.

Charlotte is Ruby's baby.

When Ruby found her just on three years ago, it was pretty much love at first sight.

We were visiting friends and they pulled out some playthings for the girls, among them was Charlotte.

As we went to leave that day our friends, noticing the bond that had been made between mama and baby suggested we take Charlotte with us. They explained that Charlotte didn't have a great quality of life stuck in the hall cupboard at their house.

Ruby was hesitant. She knew the love was deep and questioned her own ability in giving Charlotte the best life possible.

She decided on a foster arrangement; she would do a bit of respite care now and again but give Charlotte back in between times.

Well, once she arrived home Ruby quickly realised that returning Charlotte to a life in the hall cupboard just wasn't possible and we went about formally adopting her.

Like so many mamas the world over, Ruby has her in bed each night and insists on giving Charlotte the warm blankets.

Like other mamas, she wakes in the night to check she is covered.

She comes everywhere with us and as with a lot of families with babies, it is sometimes a real squeeze to get out of the door while also remembering the spare clothes, blankets and carrier for Charlotte.

The carrier we made for Charlotte early on has worked really well. Ruby wanted the flexibility of a being able to carry Charlotte both on the front and the back. The pattern we came up with was super easy; basically it is a double-sided rectangle with long straps and velcro as a fastener. The rectangle pulls up between the legs and fastens around the chest.

Here is what we did:

Choose 2 pieces of fabric.
Measure distance from chest to back and cut out 2 rectangles of the same length.
Sew 3 sides of the rectangles together, right-sides together and pull through.
Measure the length of straps you need - we have the straps coming over the shoulders, crossing over the back or the front and coming back around, ending with a tie. A bit longer is better than a bit short.
Cut fabric this length and double the width you want the final strap to be. Sew right sides together and pull through.
Slot the unfinished ends of the straps into the unfinished end of the rectangle and sew the end shut.
Add a length of velcro on both sides of one end of the rectangle. Sew the other side of the velcro to the other end. This fastens around the chest.

Strap your baby on and head out into the world knowing your beloved baby is snuggled up to you.

Thank you Charlotte for the love you have provided for Ruby.

We feel lucky to have you.

what holds us together

2011-07-10T03:00:00.000-07:00

For many decades, an artificially induced hysteria about "basic skills"

has been the masquerade used to intimidate us into abandoning children

to a form of schooling that simply doesn't work. Behind this mask,valuable

lessons of service to a vibrant community of real human beings have been denied to the young - and all of us have been denied the reciprocities healthy adults need with children across the full spectrum of ages.....When schools consume the youth of the nation in confinement, and all the products of their labours become paper to be thrown away, there is no joy possible in the seeking of such goods. The pricing of time through grade points establishes an irrational currency by which something precious, time, is corrupted in the service of arbitrary and nonsensical urgencies."

-John Taylor Gatto, "A Different Kind of Teacher."

I've been wondering about what we lose, as communities and as human beings, by sending our children away for most of the day into schools for the majority of their childhoods. Apart from what the children gain from a life without school, I'm excited by the social implications of communities accepting children into their midst each day.
Service or gifting time to others is part of the ethos in this family. We see it as part of being part of a community, with or without natural disasters to deal with.
Cultivating generosity, love and interconnectedness just seem essential to living well with others and anyway it's usually fun and always feels good.
What better way to debunk greed and separation than to give of your time freely and where better to do it than in the exact same community as you live in. These relationships that are created in the act of gifting time can be maintained more easily and these in turn feed the rich web of community connectedness and the health and well-being of the community as a whole.

So when we can, we spend time doing things for others.
Ruby and Sky take their role seriously helping out where they can as well as spending a lot of time laughing, chatting and dancing, among other things.
A few days ago we had a load of visiting university students helping us out around Lyttelton; we collected rubble from people's access ways and used it to fill a retaining wall at the community garden. It was a thoroughly satisfying day for all involved. The lecturer and I chatted over lunch. The students were doing a day of "service education" and she informed me that this is what the girls were doing as well. Living outside of institutional definitions we see our work simply as taking responsibility for our part of our relationship with this community we live in.

more self-led research

2011-07-03T03:45:00.000-07:00

A research project of sorts that arose out of the positive response that we got from making the gratitude banner earlier in the year:

questions that Ruby has been pondering since she was about 4 years old. Questions investigating stories and truth and different people's beliefs and our origins.
a chance to ask these questions in a way that was non-threatening for her and for the receiver.
choosing a wide-range of people she felt comfortable to ask with a couple that were slightly more challenging.
discovering elements of formal writing.
getting mail in the post and listening to what people have to say.
thinking about presenting our findings....I can feel a graph coming on.
reflecting on the concept of reciprocity and thinking about how she might respond to the participants.

What fun to get so much post in the mail and the letters have been so encouraging and thoughtfully answered.
Whether your children go to school or not, it's been a great way of introducing issues around research, encouraging others to take children's questions seriously and exposing Ruby to the array of people's responses in a safe environment.

love in a little town

2011-06-27T20:59:00.001-07:00

One of the things I miss out on not being on Facebook are local films about our local community!

James was around a while back - warm, casual, pretty much one of us.

He's made a beautiful short film.

It captures the essentials about our town - the love, the creative solutions, the embracing of what is and getting on with it - and exactly why we couldn't think of anywhere else we would rather be.

Thanks James (you can read about him here), thanks to the Facebookers who let me know about it and if you like to film vote for it here (it only takes a moment).

Love in a Little Town from James Muir on Vimeo.

digital balancing.

2011-06-26T03:20:00.000-07:00

"The sharp increase in digital use suggests that most young people prefer the interactive enticements of on-line browsing to old-fashioned reading. This is not surprising for an age group readily attracted to the edgey, the excessive and the titillating. As economist Tyler Cowan says,"When access to information is easy, we tend to favour the short, the sweet and the bitty." The trend toward the superficial and the abbbreviated, fostered by the inherently beguiling nature of handheld devices, poses a real threat to helping young people learn how to think....

Unless young people shut out, at least to some degree, the outer stimuli that surround them and that are constantly vying for their attention, they have little chance for experiencing true introspection.....

Faced with these choices, young people are constantly being lured away from undistracted quiet, away from contemplative moments."

_ "Teenage technoholics: The Digital Revolution, it's Effect on Your Children and What Parents Can Do" by David Sloan, published in the Spring/Summer edition of "Renewal."

The excitement and sparkle of the girls' belly-dancing performance over the weekend.

Pondering technological engagement and introspection for myself and the girls.

I don't do TV or facebook or twitter or even have internet access on my cellphone. I feel the pressure, especially with facebook but I just keep choosing to "miss out" on that.

I do love the community of bloggers I have found on the internet but there is a fine line between the technological engagement filling me up and tipping into being a drain.

I have recently started to track my time on the computer since with emails and blogging I can find myself on the computer at night rather than doing things I would rather be doing, having quiet time or just going to bed. Tracking the time makes it more conscious.

For the girls, now and again they watch a movie. The old-fashioned, slow-paced movies, often musicals, are their favourites and what we keep coming back to again and again; Polyanna, Mary Poppins, The Secret Garden, The Wizard of Oz.

That's the level of their technological engagement and we are good with that.

Childhood is a short window of time.

Delaying the allure of digital technology means there is more time to play.

Delaying it means we have more space to grow a relationship with the real world and the people in it.

Delaying it also means that we have the time to build a relationship with ourselves in the quiet moments between.

We figure that this will give them a more solid foundation for when the time comes that they choose to step out into that technological highway.

Where do you find your balance with the digital world?

welcoming back the spiralling light.

2011-06-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

This year with so little certainty here, the certainty of the returning light is especially reassuring.

We celebrated with a simple wreath, beautiful lanterns dancing in the darkness and shared food with friends.

Whether you are in the North or South enjoy teetering on the tipping point.

introducing: the section on the hill

2011-06-20T01:17:00.000-07:00

This is part of the half acre section we bought 3 years ago.

After the earthquake in February and 2 years of trying to sell the section we have decided to refocus on moving on to this section on the hill.

We feel very committed to this town, it seems obvious (now) that we recommit to the place we already have. Lyttelton being "quake central" we are guessing that there will be minimal, if any interest in buying land here for a long time yet and the longer we hold it while living somewhere else the further we go down the financial plug hole.

So here we are again - in some ways in the same place we were 2 years ago but in other ways standing in a different place within ourselves.

The vision for this land has always been to develop a thriving edible landscape; part food forest, part intensive beds, a few animals (chickens, ducks, bees, our worm farm and anything else that would fit) integrated into the design and some type of shelter for the humans!

The steps were dug by Gunter a couple of years back just before we abandoned the idea of building here the first time around.

On the left, off the photo, is a steep gully planted up in native seedlings that are thriving. Thanks to the timebank member who offered us his seedlings growing on his property and advised us to plant small; the smaller the seedling, the better they will take hold.

It seems to have mostly worked.

On the driveway the native species we planted are also growing well. This planted up edge is planned to buffer the property creating a corridor for native birds and other native insects, adding biodiversity and creating a shelter belt.
Most of the rest of the property looks like this.

The section faces almost directly South (for those from the Northern Hemisphere, remember for us in the South this is fairly bad news) and is steep as is most of the land in this small town.

It isn't all bad news though.

Look at the view we savour whenever we are here and with good permaculture design we will do the best we can and the rest we will rely on local systems to provide.

gorse

We also have quite a bit of this thanks to our English pioneering ancestors. In line with looking around at what we have an abundance of and using that, I have had plans to harvest this to experiment with plant dyes but haven't got there yet.

There a few edibles in amongst the grass, in particular chickweed, a staple salad ingredient at the moment, yarrow.....
and a lush and healthy nettle plant that we imported from our last house. I brought it for it's seeds. I'm planning a large plot of healthy nettle. For eating raw, the sting will disappear once you have rinsed it under cool water.

We continue to try to rent out or sell our small bach that we moved out of in March but in the meanwhile we tend this garden aswell; harvesting food and kindling and collecting green waste and compost.

There is a lot we can not do or do not know at this stage but there is much we can do and this is how we have chosen to reconnect with our section on the hill.

There is one terrace on the hill.

This is where we have started; clearing the grass a bit at a time with the machete, laying an easy sheet mulch bed and getting a bed of garlic in the ground.

celebrating anyway

2011-06-17T00:36:00.000-07:00

Just so you know.....

You won't be seeing many broken pictures here from the recent earthquakes.

After Monday I am really over broken.

We see 'broken' every day and this time it fills me with sadness and loss, more so than February.

I don't want it reflected back to me in this space.

You can see plenty of broken images here and here.

It is reassuring to see how quickly people begin to adapt to change.

Here we begin to try and imagine living with these quakes into the future and this will take us time but in the meantime we will celebrate anyway.

With Matariki and Winter Solstice upon us and the Festival of Lights postponed, a good local crowd decided to gather and celebrate what we have - an awesome community full of resilience, imagination and creativity.

Friends had already bought ingredients for a warming chai tea and had organised a yurt to put up on the old Ground site. Music folk from The Harbour Union played and everyone rejoiced to see a bunch of us stitching hearts and came and joined in.

The lovely Paige, local belly-dancing goddess brought delicious cakes to share with families. She confessed it had been a personal therapy to get through these shaky times; an ancient way for women dealing with crisis.

We all encouraged her to continue this particular therapy and share the results.

Community therapy through baking and eating.

This is Ruby's element. She is on fire in the midst of a party.

We left her there all afternoon and she headed back down in the evening with Gunt.

She made chai, offered food and chatted with lots of friends. I couldn't help thinking that school would just cramp her style.

And Sky also was in her element; singing and playing by herself, happy to be on the fringes -

a moment after this photo was taken a couple of men in high-viz vests asked her to come away from this mostly-collapsed wall. Um yes, with all the shaking, good thinking guys.

crafting with our hands.

2011-06-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

We are nearing the end of The little House series.

This is Ma pregnant.

As with the big 6.3 quake in February this time around we continue to find comfort in crafting with our hands.

Lately it has been handcraft central here with Ruby falling in love with the immediacy of finger knitting and Sky the immediacy of needle felting.

We at last cracked the way to finger knit fast.

H..e..l..l..o. The secret is to stand on the long end of the wool and let it run under your foot as you knit. I know this may seem obvious to all you veteran finger knitters but not to us.

Since Ruby has discovered this she has been making bracelets, necklaces, pot stands and flowers, belts and handbag handles.

Sky on the other hand is deeply into making broaches and wands with her felting needle

Cut a star or oval out of a piece of felt or a blanket you have (a thicker one gives more strength to the form.) Needle felt wool onto this. Sky is still enjoying playing with the colours swirling into each other but it could also be a letter or a picture. You can add beads or buttons if you wish. Stitch a safety pin on the back for a broach or a stick on the back of a star for a wand.

Looking toward next week, Ruby is particularly keen to begin spinning with a drop spindle as in here and here.

We both like the idea of it being 30,000 years old.

Basically I've been putting her off and investigating spirals instead to connect with the form and movement of spinning.

Well that's what I tell myself; I think it has mostly just been putting her off.

We've had a lot on.

I'll keep you posted.

As for tomorrow we are heading down to London street to stitch hearts.

This is just what I need after little sleep last night and a day of wondering what is around the corner.

The Winter Street Festival was planned for tomorrow night, but because of the possibility of falling buildings (not that there are many left to fall) it has been postponed.

We thought the stitchers could be a presence anyway, stitching in public (during knitting in public week)and sharing the love again here among the brokenness.

it seems this is how it will be

2011-06-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

After another big 6.3 earthquake on Monday this is what is taking up our days:

Picking up, sweeping away and stabilising.
Being amazed and thankful for the unusually warm and sunny June we are having. This has made a real difference.
Helping friends shift friends out of their broken homes.
Sharing food and love with friends and people unknown to us previously.
Finding little bits of order in the chaos on my floor - this is where things will be until a better solution presents itself.

Adding to my list on the fridge of people to check on.
Making further emergency plans so as we all have back up plans (this is unusually precautious of me but with a 30% chance of another earthquake of the same or bigger magnitude it's probably time to be precautious.)
Finding centredness by breathing deeply throughout the day whenever a shake comes. For those who don't live here when the big ones hit instinct takes over and you either flee or stand firm depending on where you are. Once the earth has stopped jumping then we remember to breath deeply.
Rubbing Weleda Aurum/Lavendar/Rose cream onto warm chests at night to help restful sleep. Giving the girls "Quake Relief" drops to calm their nerves.
Finding ways in which to still have beauty adorning high places. Handcraft projects on the piano? Soft landings are good.

Holding onto a touch of rhythm to our days to bring steadiness: eating good food, finding clean water and drinking enough, getting some fresh air while walking each day, and working on the sleep ( see above). My morning yoga limps along.
Loving those hardworking men and women who are working tirelessly to repair our city. With so much value laid upon the "knowledge economy" these days, earthquakes do well at reminding us that practical people; people working with their hands are the people who are really making the difference.
Leaning into the back of the fear and uncertainty to find strength and perserverance.
Feeling fragile and resilient.
Feeling thankful.

our wee suzy

2011-06-08T21:04:00.000-07:00

Look at this little beauty I bought for myself last week. My birthday was coming up and it was in it's original box in my favourite op-shop. I mainly bought it for cutting our bread - it cuts even, slim slices rather than the door-stoppers we can often hack off. Hopefully it will make the bread go further or at least give me the illusion that it is going further.

I generally don't buy stuff and especially not gadgets but I simply just couldn't go past such an solid, metal, hand-powered machine.

You can hardly call that a gadget.

Made in Waihi, New Zealand you know.
I love the weight of it; the firmness of the handle.

The bonus being that the blade, much like a skill-saw blade, reminds me of my dear dad.

As you can see there are lots of criteria a purchase needs to pass before I buy it. I'm happy with that - excessive consumerism is sickening and the story of where most gadgets come from these days is down right inhumane and causes environmental death.

Around here we like hand-powered tools.

Recently we have discovered the effectiveness of the machete. Our scythe is temporarily out of use because of a blade that needs attention so we have turned to using the simple machete.

The hillside we have begun transforming into garden is steep and covered in waist-high grass.

The machete means that we only cut what we can mange to transform into garden bed; we don't waste time trimming grass that will be left to just grow back.

We can all work together because the quiet of a hand tool doesn't destroy the stillness, maintenance is a simple steel and the purchase price was a sweet $20.

A fossil fuel free landscape so far.

Oh and for those of you who have followed the story of the lyttel hearts, I thought you may like to know that His Holiness the Dalai Lama who has been visiting Christchurch over the last couple of days, was given a heart which he wore at the public address.

What a privilege indeed.

How blessed we were to have him visit and to be in his presence.

As he said, "we are all brothers and sisters and when a brother or sister is sad or broken, you go to them and share their sadness."

Deep gratitude.

needle and thread

2011-06-04T04:49:00.000-07:00

They keep finding stitching projects.

They got really comfortable in using the materials and tools during their hours of stitching in March and now find stitching possibilities at every turn.

The authentic context provided the initial impetus to learn the skill and from there it has directed by their own curiosity and need.

Their work basket is now a permanent fixture next to where we do a lot of our shared reading.

Extra hair bands are always good and this one came about one day when Sky's hair was annoyingly falling into her face. She attached a bit of elastic at the back for stretch.

Problem solved.

And a wee purse to hold her precious buttons in. Cute blanket stitch. Tricky looping.

My stitching basket has been fairly untouched for a while now except for a wee crown I stitched for a 2 year old friend a couple of weeks back. An easy but always treasured homemade birthday gift.

friday

2011-06-02T16:41:00.000-07:00

Homeschooling is an act of liberation and an act of passion.

It is an occasion to walk away from institutional images of life

and to embrace a vision that is filled with personal meaning

and unmistakable truths for our families.

-Earl Gary Stevens: Home Education Magazine.

You might notice I like collecting quotes.
They remind me.
They inspire me.
Sometimes I just say "yes" out loud, like the one above.

The thing is, it seems to me that personal meaning comes from within and is cultivated by doing work that is important and worthwhile to oneself.

Giving children the freedom to spend time doing whatever it is that engages them for as long as they need means that they will learn to recognise what worthwhile work is to them.

The stories and images they will cultivate while engaged in this work will be their own; unique expressions of their own humaness.

As they continue unhindered in their discovery they will also learn the joy that comes from working hard at it.

Liberating indeed.

the work of the moment

2011-05-29T14:19:00.000-07:00

Collecting horse manure is one of those Autumn jobs that we have on our list.

A local horse-riding school provides us with this gardener's gold; activator for the compost and the exciting first vegetable bed on the section up the hill.

The girls wait in anticipation for the next collection day as they love the chance to romp around in the hay bales.

Hide and Seek is a hay shed favourite as is general jumping, sliding and rolling.

Afterwards Sky will draw as is her usual practise when she arrives home from somewhere.

Sky draws while I pick hay from the wooly jumpers.
I catch myself at times being astonished by how creative expression flows so naturally from her. She owns it.

We have always prioritised an environment which invites creative exploration in our homes (as written about here) and the girls have had endless hours of engaging with different materials and practicing different ways of working with them.

In other words, they have spent hours and hours playing freely with various materials.

As Sky's drawings and creations evolve she uses those lessons learnt during free play to work purposely towards a specific goal.

She would never think of asking me how to draw something and I wouldn't anyway. It's one of the few rules we have, guided by the principle of always supporting the child to maintain ownership over their creative journey. She may need help with figuring out a bit of detail and it often only takes me to gently remind her of the experience she has had of the image she is creating.

What the hay straw look like as you jumped on it?

What did you see when you saw the back of her head?

And still the product holds very little importance.

Rather it is her internal process and how she engages with her work that I am excited by in the interest of her long-term learning. It is her ability to problem-solve, clarify, refine and experiment with the challenges as they arise.

Thinking as a community.

2011-05-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

"There is no personal enlightenment.
Awakening occurs only in the activity of loving relationship."
-source unknown

Self-sufficiency, the term, is bandied around quite a bit these days.

I guess I just don't quite get people's thinking around it.

Don't get me wrong; I am committed to growing as much of our food as possible for our family, preserving the surplus, making as much from scratch as possible or recycling, upcycling or just doing without.

In a nutshell, keeping our home and family as a unit of production rather than of consumption.

But self-sufficiency has never been our goal.

Self-sufficiency surely is an illusion.

We live in a community with others and are part of the awesome web of life on this planet.

There is no me without you; there is no self separate from the whanau of others.

And so when we think about future-proofing the way we live we inevitably think about the community in which we live.

We practice thinking as a community.

(All photos taken while at our local Farmer's Market recently.)

For example, we live in a village which faces in the main southwards.

Not ideal growing conditions here in the Southern Hemishere, so when we look at food production as a community, we think about how we can design the community as a whole on permaculture principles.
We imagine dividing the village into microclimate zones so as to grow suitable crops for the particular climate of each backyard and sharing out the harvest.
When we get excited about becoming kaitiaki for honey bees we think of people in the community sponsoring the care of village beehives for the benefit of everyone.
When we think about the local economy, we think about an economy that will support everyone in the community not just line the pockets of a few. We barter where we can, we support the Timebank and we investigate cooperative ownership of business and land.
And when we think about growing our children, we look to our village and all the wisdom and skills embedded there and we rely on this to be the foundation upon which our children can grow safe and happy
.
So when we were asked why we were returning to Christchurch while at Auckland airport recently (the woman who asked was truly shocked that we would be doing such a thing), the answer for us was obvious.
We feel deeply thankful to have found this community after so many years of searching.
To dig our feet in here and to commit to the place means that we can call it home.

Published also at www.lyttel-town.blogspot.com

living well.

2011-05-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

Not sending the children to school is a whole lot more than managing their learning.
In fact, one quickly realises that "managing their learning" can be mostly a false illusion.
What I have always most appreciated on this path is that we are in the driver's seat of our own lives as much as possible and with that is the responsibility of creating the life that we want and imagine possible:it doesn't give me any leeway on justifying living a half-lived life.

Our family values freedom, responsibility and a belief that healthy communities are infinitely wise, resourceful and a rich environment for growing children.
Our family is blessed to live in a community which is much like a large loosely knit extended family. That is why we live here and our family works hard to support this. We look for ways in which we can live as intentionally as possible with others in the community because we know nothing can replace a deep sense of connection and belonging.

We happened upon this video again the other night and it still resonates strongly with us, in particular this advise:

"live together as well as you can. Enjoy life together as much as you can."

So often when I get too busy, get too in my head or just lose my way for a bit this is the advice I have come back to again and again.
Because really what else is there.

Hmm, this is all to say that life is good right now.
A few days ago a woman suggested I was idealsitic.

I listened. I pondered.
For me idealism lacks action. It seems to me that idealism plus action means walking your own walk and that has always been our wish. Consciously creating the best life we imagine.

Isn't that what we are all doing on some level?

With constant change upon us here in Christchurch, I am cherishing all the gifts that life sets before us on a daily basis and marvel at how easily the girls learn and grow right up and through the thick of it.

and so our days go by

2011-05-16T00:34:00.000-07:00

We spent much of the day making lanterns, writing letters and preparing for a feast.

We make lanterns each year for the Winter Solstice but these lanterns have a different purpose.

During the community garden lunch last week, we decided to hold a gathering to symbolically farewell our old historic town, most of which has been or still will be demolished due to the earthquake back in February.

People need this pause; to grieve what has gone before.

With the cold descending and the long nights upon us, it is the time of the year to say goodbye and face the deep quiet of winter.

We gardeners know these things and so with the help of flames and music and silence, we will hold hands in the darkness and say goodbye.

The girls are really looking forward to it.

Sky wanted to find a way of lighting up some of the darkness and began on the lanterns in the midst of breakfast. The lanterns were her project.
Ruby has written letters, many to the demolished buildings where memories linger.

Being a girl who loves the dramatic, she will add these to the fire.

We will also each stitch a special heart to leave behind.

Inspired by Nickie at A Delight Filled Life, my plan was to make a lantern for the centre of the food table. I had planned to use modge podge for the vanishy finish but I didn't have any on hand. Instead I used standard pva to glue the leaves on and watered it down to for the couple of layers over the top.

It worked well: the effect is stunning.

If you want to watch a film illustrating the sheer desperate measures oil companies are going to in their last gasping breaths, as well as be stunned by nature's beauty, watch the film on this post.

Don't do it Canada.

hope

2011-05-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

"You never change things by simply fighting the existing reality.

To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obselete."

-Buckminster Fuller

mama's day

2011-05-09T04:44:00.000-07:00

I don't really go in for all the "holidays" that are thrown at us from shop windows each year but over the parenting years Gunt and I seemed to have developed small and personalised ways of celebrating the mama and papa days. In the least it is a reminder to rest a little in amongst all the living that gets done around here.
This is how we spent the day:

I love to go out walking with the girls. The pace, the conversations and the discoveries. We have just started up our local newspaper delivery again and the girls love it: finding the hidden letterboxes is always fun, reaching for the slots and of course the enjoyment of posting. The girls earn timebank credits and get the privilege of doing worthwhile work for the community.

Dehydrating part of the apple harvest. We eat far more dried apple throughout the year now that we dry our own. We like them still ever-so-sightly moist and so we put half of the supply in the freezer. They taste just as good when they are thawed and it prevents any mold.

We had a Topbar beekeepng workshop on Saturday at the community garden.
The philosophy behind Topbars is spot on for our family: becoming bee guardians and viewing all the gifts of pollination, lushous honey and beeswax as reciprocity in the relationship.

You can read about them here and here.
After Gunt helped build a hive for a neighbour last Spring, we ran out of time to build our own before the season was too late. We are excited to get building again, this time hopefully with a small group of other topbar beekeepers.
So we drew up plans and dreamed about "village beehives."

autumnal sweetness

2011-05-05T02:31:00.000-07:00

Harvesting seed from the favourites in our garden.

Picking, smelling, bending, holding, biting.

Listening to the tinkle of the empty seed pods.

Talking.

Pleasure in working with the seeds and the potential they hold.

Taking the rake and bags with us whenever we head out, ready to swoop on leaves to bag and stash.

Running, throwing, bending, carrying.

Listening.

Talking.

Sacks of leaves to help build up new garden beds.

As we go about our daily tasks, we work with our hands and talk.

This is how we spend great stretches of our time together.

The simple joy of working together and talking about what it is as we go.

The connection with your work, the connection with each other and the profound satisfaction of doing work that directly sustains you.

Deeply understanding the cycle of planning (sometimes), working, waiting and finally reaping the fruits of your labour.

And learning a whole lot along the way.

hello may

2011-05-03T20:47:00.000-07:00

It's Autumn here.

The days are noticeably closing in around us. We find ourselves retreating more often to the side of the fire, to the comfort of warm drinks and quiet stories in the middle of the day.

Stitching still continues. Now a steady companion to our read-alouds and often stuffed into pockets as we head out the door, the "heart list" is in constant motion.

After such busy street-living in the chaos of the late Summer, we now palpably feel our quieter rhythm and a turning inwards.

We continue to adjust to our scarred city and our recovering community.

The feelings reflect the realities; deeply shaken, revealing and complex.

It is a shocking but very special time.

Holding and honouring all of this is central to our lives right now.

This is what it means to be doing most of your living and learning in a community rather than being separated from it.

Inhabiting the streets, buildings and wild spaces of a place means that when this place is broken, healing ourselves also necessarily means taking part in healing our community; the land, the people and all the cement and metal and wood and brick in between.

And we are so very grateful for this sense of belonging and commitment.

We head down to the gaping wreckage of our main street regularly through the week.

We continue any number of our current projects in the public spaces of the temporary cafes -anything that is open can do with the business - or we just walk and look and stop and chat.

As we turn towards winter and enter into the shortest days it seems vital that we keep inhabiting our streets and gathering our ideas so that our sense of connectivity and collectivity continue to evolve our plans for the future of our town.

The girls want to be part of that: they are part of that future, and so, although our rhythm quietens and our energy turns inward, we find ourselves each day heading out the door.

********

We were excited to celebrate the Wunderbar reopening last weekend after many of us thought it was on the demo list. It was also the launch of a special charity CD making money for the town's rebuild. Make sure to check it out: The Harbour Union and here.

transitioning.

2011-04-28T01:51:00.000-07:00

On holiday

Let's say it was a bit of a beachy holiday.

Searching for kaimoana.

Playing in the surf for hours.

Collecting treasures.

Dawn baths at hot water beach.

Back home.

Spot the difference?

Let's say, I'm taking a few days to get used to the temperature change.

the rest of the weekend.

2011-04-16T03:02:00.001-07:00

Celebrating two weeks of holidays with Gunter in style: homemade doughnuts, a family piano concert and some favourite boardgames.

Walking with our community to witness the beginnings of our main street being demolished. Standing, talking, stitching, remembering and contemplating this new "normal."

having fun with eggs in the midst of Autumn.

and launching a new blog tracking the rebuilding of Lyttelton: the projects, the grassroots leadership, skills and systems for building resilient communities and what a "culture of possibility" looks like. Check it out at www.lyttel-town.blogspot.com.

We are in Auckland for a few days staying at Earthsong and then heading to stay with family on the Coromandel Penninsula.

We are enjoying the stable ground.

5.3

2011-04-16T02:51:00.000-07:00

Being under an elderly friend's house clambering around piles of wood and assorted machinery is not a good place to be when a hefty 5.3 aftershock hits.

When I get home the power is off and we have no idea where the candles, the torches or the matches are amongst the boxes.

These are exactly the times to have dinner in the car, singing and discussing different electricity sources.

We then head off for a drive in search of street lights and distraction.

Sky is pretty fragile.

We go over our "keep calm and carry on" strategy and practice our deep breathing. The girls give the Earth a good talking to and we give ourselves a good talking to about our emergency supplies.

We head home which has already had it's power restored.

We celebrate our resilience with ice-cream and hot chocolate sauce.

It's always good to all sleep close together on nights when the Earth is shaking and it's a relief to a Mama's heart to see her girls laughing and smiling as they snuggle down to sleep.

Phew.

community research

2011-04-14T00:04:00.000-07:00

It seems that we have much to be grateful for looking back over the first phase of this year.
Our recent harvesting from the garden immediately confronts you with the abundance that is right before you.
Shifting into the perfect situation for right now also feels sweetly serendipidous.
And the girls regularly being thankful that "our house didn't fall on our head" and "that we are all together," underscores our fragility.

So figuring I could follow up on this thread of engagement, I suggested that we might want to make a "Gratitude Banner" to bless our new home.
Ruby had another idea. She suggested we take it down to the Community Garden and share it with people there.
Aha, I thought, another community project! This girl is onto something.
And so that is what we did.

We walked and collected leaves. We blissed out with watercolours. We made stencils from the leaves, cut out the shapes and found some wool.
Yesterday amongst the gardening, the meetings and birthday celebrations people contributed to the banner.
They wanted to.
Of course none of the comments mentioned material possessions. They mostly mentioned relationship.
Major earthquakes seem to do that to you: they sort the essentials from the fluff.

Ruby now has other ideas leading from this.
She has thoughts about using it as a way of collecting information about big questions she has.
Community research you might say.
Self-led, self- designed and arising out of an authentic context.
Intensely difficult to achieve in a classroom.
Naturally evolving when engaged with your own life and with time to explore the possibilities.

inside/outside

2011-04-12T04:00:00.000-07:00

The cold snap last week had everyone lighting their first fire of the season.

It was a perfect reminder that Winter is just around the corner and to get outside as much as possible. We are living at the foot of one of the local cemeteries - a perfect place for an early morning walk and climb. We have been finding some magnificent mushrooms but need to find someone to show us the ins and outs of how to identify edible varieties.

What we do so miss at this time of the year is being at the beach. With sewerage infrastructure still being repaired from the earthquake damage, some of the local beaches are a horrible sight and all of the water isn't safe to swim in. So it is indoor swimming at this stage.
With many pools condemned, we are just thankful for some cool water to go wrinkly in and I'm especially happy to have a stretch of a couple of hours to catch up on a little project for our community blanket.

jean liedloff

2011-04-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

Jean Liedloff, author of The Continuum Concept died on 15th March.

I remember buying her book in my early twenties, long before I even thought I would have children.

It deeply influenced my thinking not just about parenting but also about how to participate and therefore live well in a community.

What I read instantly resonated with me.

Click here to listen to an inspiring interview with her about the humane treatment of infants and children. It's just on an hour but well worth it.

In fact put it on your list of "must listens"!

saying goodbye.

2011-04-10T01:00:00.001-07:00

It seems that whenever I move away from somewhere I have lived, I need to spend quite a bit of time in the garden to say goodbye.

Leaving my gardens have always been the hardest part of my shifts.

Today - the perfect autumn day - was my day to farewell my garden.

I pottered about, trimming, pulling, digging, sowing, planting and carrying.

Given the time of year it is, there was a fair bit of hacking as well.

The soil is in superb condition and it felt good leaving the garden in better shape than when we arrived.

I've also learnt that I need to pot of few bits up to take with me.

I just can't leave my gardens empty handed.

Cuttings I have struck, herbs that needed dividing, some baby strawberry plants and a few divided perennials all got crammed into the back of the car.

I expect I will especially need these plants this winter.

The earthquake and it's long-term effects on people's daily life continues to unfold.

Having a patch of earth to tend in the midst of the dark, cold weeks will be just the tonic to remind me that Spring will indeed return.

still stitching.

2011-04-09T03:49:00.000-07:00

Even when we are not stitching hearts for others at the farmer's market or in the schools, the girls still choose to sit by a window in our new home and stitch in the sun. For Sky, a small wallet that she gets to practice blanket stitch on, for Ruby, a stitching bag to hold her treasures and me, a wee woolen bunting to be stitched onto the Lyttel Stitches blanket.

Woolen blankets are not surprisingly my new favourite material to play with.... phone pouch, slippers, new hottie covers and a warm skirt requested by Sky are all on my list.

Stitching continues to provide that small calm spot in the middle of the day as we regain our rhythm once again.

moving on.

2011-04-03T21:07:00.000-07:00

We are housesitting a friend's home for 7 months.

A friend we met while stitching hearts.

Housesitting is one of the options we decided to "put out there" after a Summer trying to solve our financial pickle. Eventually we realised that we needed to stop trying to fix the problem and begin with a totally different intention. You can read about it here.

We discovered that what was possible is that we could change our family's "story" around money. The "story" that we were playing out was one Gunt and I are very familiar and comfortable with on many levels. It's the story that we were both brought up with but just not the story we want to pass onto our children.

So, we decided to play with taking control of the money we earn rather than the money feeling like it had control over us. To do this we needed to stanch the flow of it leaving us the moment it arrived.

Creative and personalised solutions are always so satisfying.

They have such a good fit.

We can take care of A's home and do some of the jobs that need fixing around her house while we can take a break from paying mortgage repayments.

No money changes hands. Instead services are exchanged, relationships are deepened and once again we find the community taking care of each other.

The web of connection grows and strengthens.

soon.

2011-03-31T21:18:00.000-07:00

Ruby using what we have at hand.

We are shifting. I'll be back soon.

gathering together

2011-03-23T01:56:00.001-07:00

We have been trying to rediscover some rhythm to our days based in the home this week.

With the stitching project we have been drawn outside and away for most days during the last month but with the energy of the community shifting, my own energy is reflecting this shift.

A pattern to our day helps all of us feel settled and is especially valuable now when all of our outside commitments remain turned upside down.

As the stitching slows a little, we are all needing these simple rhythms to help us feel secure post-quake.

And so we find ourselves at home a bit more, stitching following us there but also a bit of quiet to pick up our daily staples and to remember some of the other projects that we had on the go pre 22nd February.

Reading together several times each day: me to them and them to me.
Piano practise: Knowing where this comes in the day certainly helps to keep our commitment to practise.
Time spent at the craft table and to follow up on some of the many writing opportunities.
Time to dance and prepare shows each day.
Gathering, preparing and sharing good food together.
Being present enough to note down questions and interests that arise and time enough to follow these up as best we can.

In many ways it has felt like the earthquake shook us up and split us open just as it did for many people.

We have surprising plans afoot and these times in the day when our energies gather together steady our step and ease the tremors of change.

autumn equinox

2011-03-20T00:51:00.000-07:00

The seasonal year turns another notch and we find ourselves back at the edge of autumn. I must say I am a little nervous as we head into this next phase of the year. There will be some confronting times during the coming cold and dark days for people in this community.

The weekend brought us:

Time in the garden - In the still of the early morning Gunter and I spent some quiet time in the garden.We thought we would make a start on the potato harvest before breakfast. A dozen handsome pumpkins (a little early but sometimes you need to just bring it in when you can), arm loads of tomatoes, cucumbers and corn, and 22 kg of spuds. One bed done; three to go!

Packages from afar - Touched by a special package in the post filled with buttons, lace and woolies to be stitched onto this week's hearts. There is so much herstory in those little packages

Some sign language learning- and while "you-tubing" for more signing inspiration finding this sweet little film which made me smile.

A bit of reading - here
A bit of viewing - here
And, no surprises, more stitching. Even Prince William himself was handed one on Memorial Day. I hope he's wearing it!

friday

2011-03-17T20:29:00.001-07:00

This last week we have been with the children, visiting one of the local schools in the lunch hour and offering a bit of certainty in a simple project.

For some who are struggling with fear and/or lose, the stitching project has provided a safe place to retreat to. They may have visited regularly at the coffee corner and return to us in their lunch hour.
For some it is something a little special as they transition back into being at school. Possibly back to a school without their friends as families choose to move away.
For some it is a chance to love and heal a beloved "baby."

Focusing on the next stitch, their bodies relax just a bit and tension falls away. Bodies are tired from broken sleep and adrenal glands are depleted from the aftershocks.
Focusing on the next stitch, their mind is present with the task and can let go of the worry of what is to come.

Then I awoke this morning to Sky telling me that she planned to make a penguin today.
The original inspiration was a cut-out unicorn gifted to her earlier in the week which has been helping her to sleep.
She scoured the bookshelves for penguins, drew a penguin picture she was happy with and then copied it onto a plain woolen blanket. We had it cut out and half stitched before breakfast. She finished it off at the coffee corner where she could show off her handiwork. Puppets are on the list.

The meditation in stitching and the very act of creating something beautiful continues to heal our community, one stitch at a time.

Check out http://www.5inabed.blogspot.com/2011/03/craft-love.html to see the love and beauty that is coming to us from afar.

wednesday

2011-03-16T01:49:00.000-07:00

Growing resilient young women has always been central to the choices we have made as parents.
Amongst the qualities that are essential to growing resilience is a sense of agency; agency to make positive change in your life and in the world around you.

As a family, our lives are sped up right now and we are hardly at home compared to our usual pace, but these are extraordinary times and we have found the small drop of positive change we can make at this particular point.
So that's where we are.

There is no better place to learn about agency in your own life than to be responding to the need before you in a way that sings to you.
Each day the girls stitch a bit, help a bit and give the hearts away.
Chatting, singing, drawing and scootering are threaded throughout.
As they are part of creating the change, they watch, listen and have agency in a community dismantling, repairing and revisioning itself.

monday

2011-03-14T00:22:00.000-07:00

Another day to learn more about what an open heart looks like:

the woman who dropped the container full of buttons at the stitching corner. Old vintage buttons, cute character buttons and iridescent glass buttons have kept everyone under their spell for days and kept the creative juice fresh. Apparently after picking them all up after two quakes, she was now done with them. Hundreds of dollars worth of buttons given away on stitched hearts.

the endless food provided by many. People contributing how they can.

Gus, a guy visiting from the North Island with 2 large boxes of freshly smoked fish to give away. Just because "he felt like it."
All the blokes that are stepping up, picking up the needle and stitching a heart.

For the whole time that we have been holding vigil in the main street the girls have been taken care of by the village. They chat, help out, take off with someone for a while, sing, stitch, listen and watch. Their life and what they need to learn unfolds before them. They don't need to wait. They are present within their life and respond accordingly.

Their mama marvels a little that they are here infront of her, aware of the devastation in Japan and the possibility of loss in each day.

Japan, there are no words.

trusting

2011-03-13T03:19:00.001-07:00

Walk in the rain,
Smell the flowers,
Stop along the way.
Build sandcastles,
Go on spontaneous fieldtrips,
Find out how things work.
Tell stories,
Make up new rules,
Trust the universe.
- Bruce Williamson

lyttel homecomings

2011-03-11T00:21:00.001-08:00

It's been over 2 weeks now since the Earthquake.
At times it feels like time has stopped still since the 22nd February.
But some things are moving forward and the two local schools reopen on Monday.
Families are steadily arriving back in town after having taken a break away from the aftershocks and the chaos.
We have had a steady stream of homecomers today at the coffee corner.
Families finding a way to reconnect with the community, catch up on news and gently find there way back.

It's a way of us looking after each other.
Rather than returning home and facing the mess and chaos of the 22nd alone, people are seeing us gathered on the corner as they head up the hill and pull over to see what's going on.
What a warm homecoming.
A handmade heart to gentle the fragile heart inside.

Thanks to those individuals and groups that have offered to either send supplies or make hearts for us. We are here for as long as it takes and visiting schools next week for those children who need a wee stitching project. Big love to your support.

street schooling

2011-03-08T23:15:00.000-08:00

Some things are slowly resembling something like "normal."
For instance, this morning we had our piano lesson.
After super inspiration last night and a bit of a stitch marathon, we busied ourselves with some loving on the way up the hill to our lovely piano teacher's home.

Yesterday, as we were stitching, the girls were asked by a passerby whether they were looking forward to going back to school.
A friend laughed.
"Can't you see? They street-school."
I like it.
Street schooling.
It's a bit like that right now.

what we need right now.

2011-03-07T19:15:00.000-08:00

The hearts are growing day by day.
We have been stitching full time for the last week.
This morning we were at the Community Recovery Building giving them to Civil Defense workers and people coming in for assistance.
This afternoon we were at the coffee corner.
Next week we will be in the local schools as they reopen providing a bit of time-out space for children who need it.

But we need supplies.
We want this to remain an exchange of love and support with as little money as possible changing hands.
So do you have any spare buttons, old pale blankets, thin wool or fairly thick needles?
We could do with any you can spare.
Send me an email on watchingkereru at gmail dot com and I'll send you the details.

lyttel stitches

2011-03-06T23:09:00.000-08:00

For the last few days we have been stitching madly anywhere that people are gathering; mainly at the coffee corner outside the library.
A crafty friend began with the idea on the 1st March and we have been stitching ever since.

Simple hearts.
An upcycled woolen blanket, wool, thread, whatever buttons we can find and a safety pin.
Stitched with love.

People come and join us. A chance to sit and chat, take a breath together and focus on a small project.
Imagine - even the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Captain of the All Whites each have one of these lyttel hearts decorating their chests.

A small way that we can spread love in a chaotic and uncertain time.

Holding on to reality.

2011-03-05T11:37:00.000-08:00

Overheard while Ruby spoke to her Grandma in the North Island last night on the telephone:

"Grandma it's not as bad as it looks on TV. On TV you don't see your friends and their happy faces and all the houses that are ok. There are a lot of sad buildings but a lot of good ones too. Just don't watch so much TV Grandma."

Having no TV keeps us engaged with what is infront of us rather than being drawn into fear and worry.

While we were away we watched some of the footage on TV. That was plenty enough.

Images are powerful and help others who are far away see some of the reality we face.

When these images are repeatedly shown throughout the day, for days on end they mostly lead to the reality being distorted.

Last September when the first earthquake hit and people were freaking out with the aftershocks, the most help we could be was to tell them to turn off the TV, the radio and the computer and go outside. If the person had children, we knew the kids would follow.

Relaxation and calm would immediately increase and fear and worry subside.
With the recent earthquake it's heartening to hear Ruby is now sharing this wisdom with those she loves.

holding onto our community

2011-03-03T03:54:00.000-08:00

Each day we are holding onto each other.

There is such a positive feeling in our community amongst the rubble and the chaos.

It is as though the shell has been cracked open and we are holding the space for new life to be created.

In this space, love is palpable between friends and strangers.

We hug easier. We share our stories with those who we may not know well.

We hold onto our shared humanity.

This community, amongst the grief and the sadness, is ready for the future.

Below is an article I wrote for next weeks edition of the local newspaper.

Investing in our community after the quake

A lot of people know of our community and love the place; they love the vibe, the vision and the people who live here. People from around the world are donating money each day to help get this town back on it's feet and support it's visionary community.

Money is pouring in.

It would be easy to spend the money straight away; there are plenty of needs right now. All important, many urgent.

But with the quake came a collapse of much of what we have known. In it's wake there has been a new space created, eerie and hollow right now but nevertheless a chance to take a breath and envision what we will create in this new space in the future.

So how might we use the financial resources being gifted to us in a way that most benefits our hopes for this community in the future?

First and foremost, money standing still benefits no one.

The greatest gains to our local community comes from circulating the money; spending it on local projects that benefit as much of the local community as possible.

Imagine a community money pool. Priorities are made about what projects best serve this community's future and interest-free loans are made. As these are paid back and more money is donated, more money is loaned out.

The bare skeleton of a financial model but nevertheless a beginning. If you wish to be part of the conversation that will further develop this model contact .........

From our collective wisdom exciting solutions will arise in response to the devastation we face right now. Solutions that will be particular to the needs of this community.

Solutions that will set us right for an exciting future in this little harbour town we call home.

holding onto the season

2011-03-02T10:56:00.000-08:00

We are back from a restful few days on the West Coast.
While away and now we are back, we are doing our best to hold onto the rhythms we normally have in our lives.
Since the Earthquake, often it has seemed like so much has changed around us.
By maintaining as many of our usual daily rhythms as we can, we are adjusting and keeping ourselves emotionally secure.

We hold onto the Season.

The late Summer garden is laden with gifts of food as it is each year.
We continue to harvest daily and find comfort in knowing we have enough food to see us through.
With the electricity back on we could even put aside a bit of our Tomato Pasta sauce as we do each year.

While away we went exploring and with a little help from our friends, found wild blackberries.
We foraged for hours, eating lots and freezing some.
Magically we managed to have just enough left to make a few jars of jam and some delicious blackberry syrup.

Once again we return to the natural world to centre ourselves and heal our jangled lives.

holding on

2011-02-25T20:37:00.000-08:00

Since Tuesday we have just been holding on to what we can.

As the quake hit, I ran and hung on to the girls.
Tuesday afternoon as the hours passed, I hung on to the message from a neighbour : someone had seen Gunter heading toward town on a student's scooter. He was searching for our overseas visitors.
As we waited for our small family to be reunited, we gathered with friends and hung on to each other as the news of our devastated city unfolded.
As the power returned to the house we hung on the phone filling up with love from friends and family.

Our home is fine.
Our family is safe.
Our hearts remain with those who have lost so much.

We are on the West Coast visiting friends for a few days.
No helicopters. No aftershakes.
Gathering ourselves in preparation for returning and helping rebuild our communities, we hold onto each new day and the chance to be together with those we love.

easy meals

2011-02-18T00:04:00.000-08:00

Oh I love the ease of menu planning at this time of the year.
Look in the garden and harvest what is ready - the evening meal is half done.
Below was the haul from this afternoon bar the cherry tomatoes which were devoured on picking and the beetroot that were already in the pot.

We have been swamped with cucumbers this year.
We had expected a meager harvest; having no glasshouse I thought it would struggle to be consistently warm enough.
However, being a Summer staple in our family I germinated a few seedlings and stuck them in under a cloche. You can see it at the bottom of the photo below.

Even with loads of competition from the corn, pumpkins and tomatoes, we have been enjoying cucumbers daily from that small strip since December.

I do think there is a lot to be said about just giving it a go in the garden and being ready to be surprised.

I'm guessing the magic has been the regular doses of worm juice.
At last we have an effective way of decanting the worm juice into used milk containers throughout the year, ready to be diluted in the buckets and watered at the plants feet.

engaging with the water we use.

2011-02-16T01:13:00.000-08:00

Beautiful rivers are central to what binds me to this landscape.

Many of my favourite childhood memories are set near rivers:

collecting wild mint with my Nana.
collecting water from the river with my Grandad.
swimming at the local river with my mum and sisters on a hot Summer's day.

This love of rivers developed in my formative teen years when I spent all of my spare time either kayaking on rivers, swimming in them or tramping next to them. It became part of who I am.

During this whole time we always drank straight from the rivers.
My children won't experience this simple freedom.

With big decisions about to be made about the future of our local rivers (read more here) and having watched this beautiful film, we wanted to raise our consciousness around our water consumption again.

One of strategies we wanted to reintroduce was "shower buckets"; the simple task of taking a bucket or two with you as you shower.

From this one simple step, this is what happened.

Your partner immediately limits his showers and chooses more "stand-up washes" having seen the amount of water that is used during what he thought was a "quick" shower.
You speed up the showers you have anyway because manoevring around the bucket is slightly awkward.
The sound of the bucket filling heightens your awareness further. While the weather is warm you choose to opt to turn off the water whiling soaping up.
The garden flourishes, having been mainly watered by these "shower buckets" and produces a bountiful crop.
Water becomes part of our family's daily conversation: facts are discussed, observations shared and plans are made to further develop our domestic greywater system.

homemade skin care.

2011-02-09T20:47:00.000-08:00

We have been making our own skin care products for just over a year now.

Our soap, moisturiser, lip balm, healing calendula salve and shower body scrub (something I would never buy) now are all made with our own hands.

We use calendula-infused oil a lot for it's healing properties.

Making my own skin care products had always seemed an obvious progression; being as close to the source of our consumables is preferable and just more satisfying for us. However, it was Ruby's persistent interest in l otions and potions that provided the necessary push to make it happen.

Initially we got together with friends to trial our first batch of moisturiser and soap.

Trialling with friends was a key step. Standing alongside someone, asking questions and seeing how it's done sets an idea into action. Highly recommended.

From there it was just a matter of getting hold of a set of digital kitchen scales, figuring the right recipes for our family and finding our groove in making them regularly, something which has been a process in it self.

Earlier this week we made a triple batch of my favourite moisturiser. Some for the family, some for my mum and some for a special friend.

This is a rich moisturiser, perfect for a weather beaten skin in need of some hydration.

Cocoa butter rich moisture cream

Oil Phase

20 ml avocado oil

5 gm cocoa butter

8 gm plant-derived emulsifying wax

5 ml vitamin E oil.

Water Phase

55 ml water

5 ml vegetable glycerin

1 ml citrus seed extract.

20 drops essential oil.

Place oil phase ingredients and the water phase ingredients into separate pyrex jugs and place in water bath until they have both reached 65 - 70 oC.

While still over the heat, slowly pour the water phase into the oil phase. Stir constantly (To speed the process up I use my stick blender conservatively. I pulse it every 5 or so seconds)

Take off the heat and stir until the emulsion is 45oC and then add the essential oil.

Stir a little while longer until it thickens a little. Pour into a clean pottle and store in fridge.

All of our recipes come from the super-informative "Do-It-Yourself Pure Plant Skin Care" by Carolyn Stubbin. This book has lots of recipes, information on raw ingredients and rooted in the Southern Hemisphere.

As for the ingredients, I buy them locally at The Herbal Dispensary but we have also used the fantastic Go Native website.

My skin has never been so taken care of.

It feels like a nice thing to do after such a long time in the weather.

documenting stories

2011-02-08T19:42:00.000-08:00

A lot of stories have been emerging from many of Sky's drawings recently.
She is delighted that she has a scribe available whenever a story begins to form in her mind and especially enjoys them read back to her.
Of course I, the scribe, am honoured to be of service to the emerging story and the emergent writer.

At 5 Sky finds the mechanics of writing fairly tiresome and demand a lot of attention; muscle control, the shapes of letters, let alone the formation of words.
Sky's writing progresses as meaningful tasks present themselves. Short, succinct letters to family and friends, notes, lists, love letters to her parents are all writing opportunities arising naturally in her daily life.

The stories that have been stepping from her drawings however are an utterly different kind of writing task.
Her excitement is with the story itself and not with the writing it down.
I offer to write it for her, she passes me the pen and paper and dives into the telling of her tale.

Listening and writing for Sky as she experiments with structure, content, grammar and vocabulary creates a precious exchange between us. I get to be silent and really listen and observe her. Sky sits in the driver's seat of her learning and enjoys the challenges that come with such things as finding her own voice and making her own decisions as a writer.

I often offer to write things down for them.
It's a gift I treasure.

(Note: immediately after the last photo was taken in the previous post a jug of water fell on the camera. So, there won't be many photos for a while, perhaps just a few from my files. Wish the camera luck.)

waitangi day

2011-02-05T19:51:00.000-08:00

The girls understand the concept of the Treaty fairly well.
Their lives are full of negotiations and deals.
They fiercely defend the notion of fairness.
They have also felt the grief when promises have been broken.
A sound place to begin.

We chose to spend the afternoon down at the water's edge, exploring it's treasures and finding just enough kaimoana for dinner.

what's possible?

2011-02-01T01:52:00.000-08:00

Last year was a challenging year financially.
Over the Summer holidays I seriously considered the option of going back to full-time paid work.
I like to fully explore the options.
From where I am now I know this is not an option.
That is simply not the path we want to take.

Thankfully at the end of last year I read and watched a bit of Margaret Wheatley and her work inspired me to sit with a fresh approach.
A solution still needs to be cultivated but we needed to somehow start in a different place.

We are now beginning with a different question.
What's possible? is the question we are now fully exploring.
Beginning with "what's possible?" rather than "how are we going to fix the problem?" totally shifts the energy.
Phew.
With this new starting point it seems that we keep the focus on what we want and how to continue creating that in our lives.

The "back-to-work" route was a reaction to the weight and relentlessness of a problem that wasn't resolving. It seemed an obvious option except that it would have taken away exactly that which we believed in.

"What's possible?" opens our minds and hearts to more creative solutions; it helps keep us in the driver's seat of our lives, focussed on developing and manifesting our dreams, as individuals and as a family.

Looking back on this process I am reminded of how decisions we make can alter the whole course of our lives.
I'm relieved we remained where we are, choosing the the untrodden path before us.

Check out what Margaret has to say about this question on her video

busker's festival

2011-01-30T18:57:00.000-08:00

The Annual Buskers Festival is always worth two days in town, especially when your brother's visiting.

We love this festival because loads of families come and spend the day laughing.
I love the spirit of street performance - an honest exchange between people, low tech and artists in charge of their creativity.
There is no better place for communities to meet and celebrate than right out on the street.

Of course the gorgeous Topp Twins are always our favourite.
They have so got it going on - good, sound Kiwi humour, good voices and always political.
They gave away about $180 at the performance we were watching. Three $50 bills and and bunch of $5 bills.
Gave it away to people in the audience.
Unconditional giving is a powerful act and it challenges the popular "money speak."
It publicly demonstrates generosity in a greedy world.
They then collected money for a man in the audience who needed an upgraded wheelchair.

On the way home we picked up the movie, "Topp Twins Movie:The Untouchable Girls", from the library and watched it again, just for the fun of it.

the happy gardener

2011-01-26T23:29:00.000-08:00

She finds herself in the garden each day.
An abundant garden is hard to keep out of. There are so many treasures to be found.

She observes and comments.
She carrys the buckets and waters.
She harvests and weighs the produce.
Tending the garden and picking the produce naturally leads her to preparing the food.
Most nights she makes the evening salad.

"Next year I'm going to do my garden differently. I want to plant in rows. I don't want the plants all over the place."
Hmm, yes, gardens are magically a bit all over the place at this time of the year.

Through the seasons

2011-01-23T02:17:00.000-08:00

As we drive in the driveway, home from the trip to the Coast, the side pockets in the car are full of feathers, shells, flowers, a nest and sticks.
The girls head towards the house with their arms full of these found treasures, kick off their shoes and end up at the Season's table.
Sky wants to take care of the feathers; they are her current favourite. The softness and weight of a feather suits Sky's love for wings, wands and magic. The feathers are popped into a vase, a few on the cloth and Sky turns toward to the creative space, humming. She draws a family of fairies.
Ruby lingers longer at the table. Detail seems more important to her. Decisions around how to place each treasure can be fairly complex. In the end, the table is adorned and reflects back to us highlights of our trip away.

The Season's Table has always been a focal point in the homes we have had with children.
From the time Ruby was a baby, I began creating a space reserved for outdoor treasures and seasonal celebration. In the beginning I mostly determined what went on the table and how it was set up.
The space taught me to notice the beauty of the Season's more.
As Ruby began to walk, I would lead her past the table as we came in from outside.
It quickly became the space where she kept her treasures.
As Sky grew, she followed Ruby's lead.

Usually there is a basket of tools to invite further investigation if we wish. Always a magnifying glass and a pad and pencil. Identification books have sat there for years but have hardly ever been used. The girls just don't seem that interested in naming.

Our Christmas table is full of Summer beach trips and our Easter table is full of the harvest. When so much of the media still reflects these rituals with Northern Hemisphere seasons, the table is an authentic reflection of our place in the world.

We love this space.
It is a collaboration of all the members of the family.
A shifting expression of our relationship with the natural world.

free for the picking

2011-01-23T02:00:00.001-08:00

The foraging season is in full swing here.

On our trip to the West Coast last week we found the best wild raspberry patch.
Actually we found one and we picked and ate and picked and ate and picked and ate for near on three days.
Then we found another bigger patch on the way home.

Before the clothes were put away, before the washing went on, before the car was even properly unloaded, I dove into preserving some of the raspberry magic.
We now have a shelf of raspberry jam (raspberry jam is the very best jam), a bit of raspberry syrup and with just enough left for another breakfast bowl laden with the red jewels.

Is it possible to feel full up with raspberries?

And these are the treasures I found on my morning walk today. I have been picking from this particular plum tree for the last couple of weeks. Picking a pocketful each morning sees us through the day.

alles gut zum geburtstag

2011-01-09T23:14:00.000-08:00

Today was sprinkled with little special moments as we celebrated Lennie's birthday.

The girls liked the idea of celebrating their brother's birthday while he slept through the Winter's night in Germany.

Happy Birthday Lennie. You are adored.

back home: the coffee

2011-01-07T20:11:00.000-08:00

When we arrive back home from a few days away usually we are out of coffee beans and need to get a roast on fairly quickly. That is, Gunt needs to get a roast on fairly quickly. I've managed to leave the roastery in his court, or more precisely on his job list.
Gunt has been roasting our coffee for about 6 years now originally inspired by a dear friend of ours.
Each year we buy a 60kg sack of fair trade, organic coffee, usually from East Timor so that the air miles are as few as possible and we share this with our wee community of converted coffee roasters. This makes our daily habit affordable ( green beans are generally a quater of the price of roasted beans) and allows us to be involved in more of the coffee's journey to our cup.

So how do we do it?

Roasting equipment is a popcorn maker, often picked up cheaply off Trade Me.
Optional is the tin can on the top used to adjust the heat emition.
Essential in our house is the accompanying ukulele.

Put 3/4 cup of beans into the popcorn maker.
Different brands have varying capacities. You need to allow the beans to move around so as to roast the whole quantity.
Turn the popcorn maker on and let it run until the chaff has come off.
At this point Gunt puts on his personally designed tin can to retain more heat around the beans.
It has an adjustable opening to allow some of the air out.
Don't be put off by this quirky gadget. A lot of people don't bother with it.
From there you wait for the beans to "crack" twice.
This "cracking" is fairly obvious.
Then you need to cool them down quickly.
Gunt pours them into our cast iron frying pan and swishes them around a bit.
Done.
There is loads of extra information on the internet. Have a look and give it a go.
You'll never go back.

back home: the garden

2011-01-06T09:21:00.000-08:00

Whenever we get home from being away for a few days I never get past the garden on my way to the house.
This time was no different.
It was evening, the girls were tired but they too couldn't help but ooh and aahh at the garden with me. I watered some essentials, picked a couple of cucumbers and zucchinis and of course pulled a few weeds before making it inside.
I also happily picked some of the tops off the basil.

Picking the tops helps stop it going to seed and encourages leaf growth.

I'm so happy it is basil time again.
Pesto is what I mainly keep my basil for.
Pesto, without the parmesan cheese, in pasta, on a loaf of foccacia bread I am baking, on a sandwich or a pizza or, as the girls prefer it, straight off the spoon.
And I usually have a bit left over to pop in the ice cube tray and freeze - the ice cubes is just my way of creating a free-flow form of pesto.
By the end of Summer I have tons of little ice cubes of pesto in my freezer ready for quick winter meals.
I love that.

The morning after we arrived home, I got up and harvested the garlic. Apart from needing it for the pesto, the tops were seriously browning and I was keen to clear the bed.
I usually plant my garlic from May to early July, not often on the traditional Winter Solstice. I generally harvest early-mid January depending on how it looks and on our holiday plans.

This year I planted it into a no-dig garden of newspaper, horse manure, leaves, seaweed, garden weeds and straw. Friends had brought the main ingredients around as gifts for my compost. I hadn't got to making a compost but I needed somewhere to plant the garlic and so I just lay it down on the grass and left it for 6 weeks.

With little else other than a bit of wet and a bit of warm ( and the odd touch of worm juice) we have a years worth of good sized garlic hanging in the shed.
We'll put aside some of the larger cloves for seed in the winter.
The rest we will eat.

back home: just one thing

2011-01-04T17:52:00.000-08:00

So we are back home for a while.
We've been camping with friends.
The kids played. The adults generally did as little as possible.

And the new year has begun and I have a few things nudging my brain.
One of them is monotasking.
You see I decided to leave my chaotic mind back in 2010.
It didn't make it through the gates of the new year.
So I'm committed to doing one thing at a time as much as possible, sticking with it and completing it.
That's it.

I used to pride myself on my ability as a multitasker but somewhere between babies and the present moment the ability severly slipped.
Last year was a shocker. I had become the classic "start something at one end of the house and 15 minutes later, have 5 different half finished jobs in a trail behind me" type.
Apart from being ineffective, it was infuriating and unhelpful.

And so right now this is my daily practise.
One thing at a time.
Naming it and deciding what 'completed' looks like helps.
On arriving home, we took down the Christmas decorations. All the decorations in the box was 'completed' for me for that day. Dealing with the box was the next step.
Mindfulness and repeated refocusing is also helpful when 'leakage' occurs; when other tasks leak into the one you are focused on. Clearing the Christmas decorations also meant being confronted with the all the creative projects that had begun to accumulate under the Christmas table. Then there was the vacuuming and the possible sorting of boardgames.

One thing at a time.
It feels unbelievably satisfying to have a trail of fully completed tasks behind me come the end of the day.
I like the chunking of time that occurs.
I like feeling more present in my action.
I like arriving at each full stop.

gratitude

2010-12-28T12:24:00.000-08:00

Gratitude is what I'm working with right now.
Deeply cultivating gratitude everyday.
We give thanks most evenings before our last meal of the day.
Gunt and I often talk about all the things we are thankful for.
Ruby and Sky live gratefulness most days.
But I have been noticing in myself recently a habit of pushing forward, wanting my life to be better or more...something.
Although this desire that arises isn't based on material possessions or money, it still is a state of not being comfortable with right now.
My thinking is that coming from a foundation of gratitude is as revolutionary as any act.
Gratitude disrupts our culture's dominant discourse which tells us that we do not have enough and are simply not enough as we are.
A discourse which leaves us in a constant state of wanting and looking outside of ourselves for more.
And so a project is evolving in my mind for the month of January.
A gratitude wall in the heart of our home.

We are off camping for a few days. A chance to catch our breath and unwind with friends.
I'm looking forward to the ease of living outside with the ocean.
Enjoy the new year.

imagine

2010-12-24T08:44:00.000-08:00

animals in the cathedral

2010-12-23T16:24:00.000-08:00

As Christmas rolls around each year I find that some things change, some celebrations evolve into something else and some traditions just keep staying the same.

Going to the children's animal service at the Cathedral in town is something we do every year. The grandeur of the Cathedral (thankfully it escaped being damaged in the earthquake), the unpredictability of the animals and the inclusiveness of the Dean of the Cathedral makes it all feel like something we like to be part of. The animals always bring a lot of laughs (stubborn goats, mooing cows, pooing sheep and a general animal smelliness) and fills the Cathedral with life and vibrancy.
Enjoy your children, enjoy your family and enjoy your friends in the next few days and take the quiet spaces in between to appreciate yourself and the beauty you have helped create.

last minute presents

2010-12-23T15:42:00.001-08:00

A set of bulk food bags for a couple of friends who missed out last year. These are a hit at the local Wholefoods shop and give food shopping a touch of pretty.

We have gone with easy and simple as our guide for gifts again this year. In making and giving these gifts, the girls absorb an appreciation of simple acts of love and kindness.
These treasure bags were whipped up by the girls a few days ago as a token of their love. Nothing could be easier - a circle cut with pinking shears, a running stitch around the top stopped with beads and filled with 'treasures.'
And a dear friend from the north brought us some sheets of beeswax which we have been able to enjoy making into candles for friends.

summer solstice

2010-12-21T09:36:00.000-08:00

At this time of the year it often feels tricky to find a way to celebrate the peak of light in this cycle in a manageable but real way.
A meeting with dear friends early in the morning at the beach was a perfect way to start. Lapping water, shared stories, laughter and breakfast.
Later in the afternoon as gusting wind battered the coastline we met again at another beach with more friends, hunkered out of the wind behind cars and shared a meal while kids chased seagulls, played in the waves and collected driftwood to build a circle to embrace the meal.
Sadly we missed the lunar eclipse, the family all crashed asleep at sundown.

The gift from the day was a friend reminding us that, as with the sun, the peak of our physical bodies only represents the beginning of our real power. As the descent begins, the power increases.
Just what I needed to hear.
Welcome power.

antics of a jam maker

2010-12-16T20:49:00.000-08:00

Well, Ruby and I have made an excellent start on making our strawberry jam for the coming year. Some will go to friends as Solstice presents but most will be lathered on our weekend breakfast rolls.
I was wanting to find a way to stretch that strawberry goodness a litte further this year and so I wanted to experiment with a strawberry and rhubarb jam recipe.

This is the recipe I used:

Strawberry and Rhubarb Jam

500gm strawberries

250gm rhubarb

350gm sugar (the recipe suggests 500gm)

Chop up the strawberries and the rhubarb into a bowl, pour over half the sugar and let stand overnight.

In the morning, bring to the boil, add the rest of the sugar and then bring to the boil again.

Simple.

Sterilise jars and jar lids and pop into jars while still hot and then listen to them pop as they cool.

Preserving time always seems to find me making frantic trips around the community for ingredients or implements I have run short of. Thankfully the community garden accepts bags of jars from people because somehow each year I never have enough jars from my previous years preserving.

Oh yes, I have been known to literally run to the garden to grab extra jars while halfway through jam-making.

Last night was one of those frantic trips.

Rhubarb had become short and the second lot of jam needed to be made, so after dinner and a movie with friends, I nipped past the community garden and did a late night pick.

Oh, our dear community garden, you provide me with food, family, inspiration and beauty, and you looked even more splendid by the light of the moon.

harvesting has begun

2010-12-14T19:56:00.001-08:00

On the edge of Sun week and we have begun harvesting from our garden beyond the daily salad, spinach and silverbeet pickings.

We had our first meal of the Lisette potatoes in the weekend and today I pulled 1.3 kg from under one plant.
We now have the list on the fridge tracking the amounts we harvest and the scales at the ready. Each time the girls come in from the garden with an armful of potatoes they weigh them and add them to the list.

Then there are these beautys (King Seeds, brocoflower). A few of these are growing in a spot where there was driveway 3 months ago. At the beginning of Spring we dug the bed with pick and spade, dumped a bucket of bokashied vegetable scraps and planted on it straight away.

We started experimenting with Bokashi a couple of years ago when we were renting and didn't have an active compost on the go. Now I choose to put all my cooked food scraps through the Bokashi system and either dig a hole and bury it or use it as an activator in the compost. With cooked scraps dealt with in this way it minimises rodents in the compost and is an easy way to boost a tired vege bed.

A bag of Bokashi costs $6 from the local Council Service Centre and lasts for about 4 months. We use a couple of paint buckets sitting inside each other, with holes drilled into the base of the top bucket and a snug plate turned upside down on top of the scraps.
Then there is the ever-growing collection of Cabbage Tree leaf bundles piling up around the back of the house. At a rate of about 3 bundles every couple of days we will easily get through the Winter months using these as the best firestarters we have ever come across.

Even when they are thoroughly soaked through, they catch fire quickly and add enough heat to the firebox that we didn't need to use kindling all last Winter.

And just waiting for me on the kitchen bench is 2.5kg of strawberries and some rhubarb in the fridge for me to magic together our first batch of strawberry jam for the season. Perfect timing since just this morning Sky licked clean the last jar from the last season's store.
Happy Summer.

we

2010-12-09T13:05:00.000-08:00

I too resisted... the concept of service when I was younger.

Now I realise that on many levels service is really all there is.
The trick is that I have a choice about who or what I serve.
I find meaning in serving my children, my community and the Earth.
I see it like this..if I don't serve something outside of myself then I serve my 'self', (with the false illusion) that my self is a separate entity.
-a comment I left on a blog this morning

Ten years ago I would not have believed I would ever write such a comment.

But, here we are, 10 years on and this is how it is for me now.

My greatest teacher is the environmental crisis that we witness unfolding before us.

We no longer have the time to ignore our interdependence with each other and the rest of life on this planet.

And, of course, my greatest motivator is the love for my children since it will be their generation who will suffer the consequences of our inaction (and if you need motivation then watch this film).

As we learn to merge the concept of "them" with the concept of "us" or "me", we, as in the Earth and all the creatures that inhabit it, will begin to evolve in a direction which will sustain and heal us all.

I quietly hold this shift in consciousness as one of our family's intentions now and as I look ahead of us into a new year.