Yay for local mother Jo Campbell! She couldn't get along to the big Eyes Wide Open emissions target protest in town (because she was on Playcentre duty) ... so she organised a small protest for parents and children just outside her Playcentre instead.
I was away, but the rest of my family went along, and apparently it was great.
You can see the video here. (If you want to spot my loved ones, just look for the pink bomber jacket!)
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Herbal health
After saying I wouldn't blog much, I don't seem to be able to stay away from it!
Yesterday at the Museum of City and Sea, I caught a good half an hour of Donna Lee's presentation on herbal cosmetic and hygiene products - and was very inspired. She even sent everyone away with a sample of her tooth powder, made from baking soda, spearmint essential oil, and stevia powder. I have yet to try it, but it smells lovely.
I've been looking over Donna's beautiful website, and coveting -
a) some of her courses and workshops
b) some of her products
c) some of the resources to make your own products, which she also sells.
(And by the sounds of it, she sells more than what you actually see on the website.)
So far, my own forays into herbal medicine have involved regular lurking and link-following round the Herbwifery Forum, as well as beginning a distance course at the International College of Herbal Medicine, run by the marvellous Isla Burgess. (You can see her in the movie Earth Whisperers.)
By the way, I love the concept of herbwifery and herbwives - 'grassroots community herbalism'. More about it here.
Yesterday at the Museum of City and Sea, I caught a good half an hour of Donna Lee's presentation on herbal cosmetic and hygiene products - and was very inspired. She even sent everyone away with a sample of her tooth powder, made from baking soda, spearmint essential oil, and stevia powder. I have yet to try it, but it smells lovely.
I've been looking over Donna's beautiful website, and coveting -
a) some of her courses and workshops
b) some of her products
c) some of the resources to make your own products, which she also sells.
(And by the sounds of it, she sells more than what you actually see on the website.)
So far, my own forays into herbal medicine have involved regular lurking and link-following round the Herbwifery Forum, as well as beginning a distance course at the International College of Herbal Medicine, run by the marvellous Isla Burgess. (You can see her in the movie Earth Whisperers.)
By the way, I love the concept of herbwifery and herbwives - 'grassroots community herbalism'. More about it here.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
One quick thing!
Tomorrow (Sunday 2 Aug) I'm giving a low key, informal presentation at the Museum of City and Sea on 'Harvesting Without a Garden.' I'll be at a table from 2.30 to 5pm to chat about foraging and fermentation, and blending the two. I think it'll be fun!
Before that, Donna Lee will be presenting on home-made cosmetics (from 11am-12.30) and on natural household cleaners (from 1.30-2.30). I'm really looking forward to seeing her.
Before that, Donna Lee will be presenting on home-made cosmetics (from 11am-12.30) and on natural household cleaners (from 1.30-2.30). I'm really looking forward to seeing her.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
My posting will become even more sporadic ...
Infrequent posting is supposed to be the kiss of death for a blog, but I've got so much going on at the moment that I'm going to have to pretty much stop posting for a month or so.
I do hope to be back to it with a vengeance in September sometime! In the meantime I'll still be reading all my favourite blogs ... (nearly all linked to in the sidebars).
I do hope to be back to it with a vengeance in September sometime! In the meantime I'll still be reading all my favourite blogs ... (nearly all linked to in the sidebars).
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Pedal power
Wellington sustainable food fan David Stuart has started a blog about his and his family's adventures ... Take a look at their new pedal powered blender!
As an aside, David's wife Charity runs the very wonderful Honeychild cloth nappy business.
As an aside, David's wife Charity runs the very wonderful Honeychild cloth nappy business.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Wood Sorrel on National Radio
Today on This Way Up I'm wandering down our street talking to Simon Morton about wood sorrel. It should be on at 1.30pm.
There is nothing so excellent as a plant that's great in savoury AND sweet dishes!
There is nothing so excellent as a plant that's great in savoury AND sweet dishes!
Monday, July 6, 2009
What materials do you have an affinity with? (Or not?)
A few weeks ago, I started thinking about the relationships people have with the materials they work with.
It started when I did a weekend letterpress course with Sydney Shep at Victoria University's Wai-te-ata Press. It was one of the best things I've done in a long time, and I was buzzing for days afterwards.
On the first day, I was talking to one of the other women on the course about why she was doing it. She said she 'loved all things paper'.
I thought a lot about that, and wondered if I loved paper too. I felt like I should love paper. It is an integral part of my life. I live with it and use it in a multitude of ways every day. Sometimes paper threatens to take over every space in my house.
But I don't feel an active adoration for it. No quickening of the heart when I think about it.
The next day on the course I was talking to another woman about how using wood type feels very different from using lead type. Without thinking why it was so, I told her I was enjoying working with the lead type a lot more. She said she was the opposite; she was naturally attracted to working with wood type - and loved its comparative warmth and smoothness.
After the course was over, I wondered more about why I had fallen in love with working with lead type (because that's how it did feel), and why for days afterwards all I wanted to do was hop back into that studio and get my fingers into those lead type cases again.
I began to remember other times when I had enjoyed working with metal in one way or another. For a time, when I was about 19, I even spent several days a week at a metalwork school in Warkworth, before coming back to Wellington and spending a year trying to launch a career as a craft jeweller. For reasons that seem hazy now, I gave it up before I got properly off the ground. I think I got sidetracked by writing.
As I remembered all this I found myself hankering to start metalwork again. My memories of working with metal are powerful and visceral: the gentle roar of the gas torch, the way the solder almost seems to burst before it runs, the satisfying work of filing and sanding away seams.
I realise I simply love metal. And it fascinates me that other people seem to have similar affinities for other materials - paper, wood, clay, fibre, stone, ...
And you don't know until you work with something how you will feel about it. I once thought I would love glass. But then I did a leadlight course and found that I despised it; its cold, brittle nature, and the splinters that invaded my body and life.
If materials were humans, my relationships with them would be along these lines:
Paper would be a familiar old friend that I have grown up with, that I rely on, but probably take for granted too much.
Glass would be the alluring individual who turned out to be a *&%$# when I got to know it.
And metal would be - inexplicably really - my beloved one.
What about you? I'd love to hear what sorts of relationships with materials you have.
It started when I did a weekend letterpress course with Sydney Shep at Victoria University's Wai-te-ata Press. It was one of the best things I've done in a long time, and I was buzzing for days afterwards.
On the first day, I was talking to one of the other women on the course about why she was doing it. She said she 'loved all things paper'.
I thought a lot about that, and wondered if I loved paper too. I felt like I should love paper. It is an integral part of my life. I live with it and use it in a multitude of ways every day. Sometimes paper threatens to take over every space in my house.
But I don't feel an active adoration for it. No quickening of the heart when I think about it.
The next day on the course I was talking to another woman about how using wood type feels very different from using lead type. Without thinking why it was so, I told her I was enjoying working with the lead type a lot more. She said she was the opposite; she was naturally attracted to working with wood type - and loved its comparative warmth and smoothness.
After the course was over, I wondered more about why I had fallen in love with working with lead type (because that's how it did feel), and why for days afterwards all I wanted to do was hop back into that studio and get my fingers into those lead type cases again.
I began to remember other times when I had enjoyed working with metal in one way or another. For a time, when I was about 19, I even spent several days a week at a metalwork school in Warkworth, before coming back to Wellington and spending a year trying to launch a career as a craft jeweller. For reasons that seem hazy now, I gave it up before I got properly off the ground. I think I got sidetracked by writing.
As I remembered all this I found myself hankering to start metalwork again. My memories of working with metal are powerful and visceral: the gentle roar of the gas torch, the way the solder almost seems to burst before it runs, the satisfying work of filing and sanding away seams.
I realise I simply love metal. And it fascinates me that other people seem to have similar affinities for other materials - paper, wood, clay, fibre, stone, ...
And you don't know until you work with something how you will feel about it. I once thought I would love glass. But then I did a leadlight course and found that I despised it; its cold, brittle nature, and the splinters that invaded my body and life.
If materials were humans, my relationships with them would be along these lines:
Paper would be a familiar old friend that I have grown up with, that I rely on, but probably take for granted too much.
Glass would be the alluring individual who turned out to be a *&%$# when I got to know it.
And metal would be - inexplicably really - my beloved one.
What about you? I'd love to hear what sorts of relationships with materials you have.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
If you've come here from 'This Way Up' ...
... you're probably after the info about chickweed, which is on my other blog Wild Picnic. :)
(Or if you're reading this on Sat morning, I'm talking about chickweed to Simon Morton on National Radio's This Way Up - shortly after 1pm today.)
(Or if you're reading this on Sat morning, I'm talking about chickweed to Simon Morton on National Radio's This Way Up - shortly after 1pm today.)
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Independence Days Challenge update 3 (or is it 4?)
I haven't done much towards food independence over the past couple of weeks ...
No planting or harvesting at all. (Although I've done a lot of looking at my garden and pondering which things are coming up and which are not, and why ...)
Preserved: Got together with a friend, Nadine, and while our children played she made a bowl of kimchi and I made a bowl of sauerkraut, then we swapped a jar each.
I think I overdid the salt in the sauerkraut. Sorry Nadine - if you are reading this! Nadine's kimchi is, however, delicious and I have to use all my willpower to not eat it before it is fermented properly.
Eat the food: Does picking at the kimchi count? Maybe not ... Apart from that, I've been working my way through the quince syrup I made. (It was meant to be quince jelly, but I didn't boil it for long enough.) It's delicious on porridge.
I've also been making tea from the oat straw I dried, and it's lovely. Definitely going to plant a lot more oats.
No planting or harvesting at all. (Although I've done a lot of looking at my garden and pondering which things are coming up and which are not, and why ...)
Preserved: Got together with a friend, Nadine, and while our children played she made a bowl of kimchi and I made a bowl of sauerkraut, then we swapped a jar each.
I think I overdid the salt in the sauerkraut. Sorry Nadine - if you are reading this! Nadine's kimchi is, however, delicious and I have to use all my willpower to not eat it before it is fermented properly.
Eat the food: Does picking at the kimchi count? Maybe not ... Apart from that, I've been working my way through the quince syrup I made. (It was meant to be quince jelly, but I didn't boil it for long enough.) It's delicious on porridge.
I've also been making tea from the oat straw I dried, and it's lovely. Definitely going to plant a lot more oats.
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